Bylaws, or Bye Laws

The Fourth Wall
Iris beyond the screen, reflections on theater’s fourth wall

(a play.)

C: I’m not doing it! Why is this really necessary?

R: Um, well.

C: After all the effort, you know it will just get filed away.

R: Until it’s needed, to… to deal with the crazy stuff.

C: If this is just to control crazy, I say let crazy flourish.

R: Hmm. Well, they have shown that legalizing drugs does not make the drug problem worse. Perhaps you Anarchists have a point.

C: Touché!

(pause)

R: Maybe I’ll just find a template somewhere and copy that. Copy that.


(Gertrude Stein wrote many short plays, often within the context of a longer prose piece. The formats she explored open up the potential to explore dialogue within tightly bounded scenarios.)

What are your thoughts?