G. Michael Blahnik

Dead Cowboys: a Play in 28 Scenes G. Michael Blahnik

Dead Cowboys is a dark comedy about the transformational powers of the American middle-class nuclear family. Maureen Kleckner and her neighbor, Melinda Russell, attempt to poison their husbands when they find out that they have been having sex with young, possibly under-aged cheerleaders. Maureen?s husband, Larry, has been out of work for months, but he covers up his unemployed status by pretending to go to work every day and, generally, carrying on like he still has a job. Maureen?s daughter, Amy, is in her middle twenties, living at home, and is pregnant by a man who feigns love for her and expresses righteous indignation over her not wanting to marry him, all the while having an agenda of his own. Maureen?s son, Robert, is in his middle to late twenties, living at home, sleeping on the couch, and owing a gambling debt to the mob. He is friends with Missy McKinley, the mayor?s daughter, who has had a brief sexual encounter with Larry?s neighbor, Eldon Russell. Eldon and Larry discover their wives' plan to eliminate them and undertake plans of their own to beat them to the punch. Can anyone survive this mess? Dead Cowboys is a satire and a farce wrapped into one, allowing some hope for humanity to seep in between the cracks in the lunacy.