Lucky
Drama - 90 minutes - 2m/1f
Scheduled completion date: Spring 2007
Lucky is a play-in-progress, the third play in the Wesley-Anna trilogy that began with Midnight Madness (1988) and Two Ships Passing (1997). As Lucky opens, another decade has passed; Anna and Wesley are married now and living fairly happily after.
Wesley is a liberal clergyman with a large and struggling downtown parish. His congregation has decided to convert some of its crumbling facility to a soup kitchen and homeless shelter, both as the “right” thing to do, and as a way of embarking on a project that will excite and grow the congregation.
Meanwhile, Wesley’s wife Anna, a judge, is awaiting a phone call – she is about to be promoted to a higher level of the judiciary. All the signs are favourable for the promotion – she’s had a good record on the lower court bench and has passed the necessary security and criminal checks.
There’s just one glitch on the horizon: Anna’s son Jason. Since moving back to his hometown after getting a business degree, Jason has built a thriving investment business and become active in the community, even so far as becoming the treasurer for Wesley’s church. But Jason also has a terrible addiction, which is rapidly ruining the young man’s life. He’s a compulsive gambler who began his habit as a college boy reveling in the glitz of Las Vegas, and now, ten years later, has descended to pathetic night-long binges at the local slots and video gaming terminals.
And to pay for it, he’s stolen money from his step-father’s church – the same funds that Wesley was going to use to renovate the place. Funds which, ironically, come from the charity arm of the government’s gambling commission.
As Lucky opens, Wesley and Anna are learning that their virtuous world is about to crash – Jason has been caught and his crime enmeshes them all. The shelter’s construction is in jeopardy and Anna’s own promotion is threatened. Bound together by their love for each other and for their son, Anna and Wesley begin to search for a way out of the mess that Jason’s government-sponsored addiction has placed them. But first they must also find Jason…
Lucky is a drama with heart and humour that addresses the growing problem of gambling addiction in our society, and the role that governments play in its promotion. The play requires two male actors, ages 50 and 30, and one female, age 50. It uses a single, flexible set and runs about ninety minutes.