POW! (Play Of the Week)

Public Property
by Sam Peter Jackson

Popular news anchor Geoffrey Hammond has been caught by the paparazzi in his car in a compromising situation with Jamie. Jamie is not Geoff's boyfriend, or his newly ex-wife, but a teenage boy. This happens in the middle of the night while on a publicity tour for his new book, and Geoff had fired his publicist Larry one scene prior. Now, in the middle of the night, Geoff has only one person he can turn to for help: Larry.

Sam Peter Jackson’s Public Property is a tense and hilarious tale of celebrity stupidity, sabotage and misplaced trust. With the press at the door surging for a break, ready to crucify Geoff for child molestation and moral corruption, you can still empathize with him, a credit to Mr. Jackson’s writing for not making the overt bad guy totally unlikable; clueless, yes, but not unlikable.

Larry, although much abused in the first few scenes, takes over with a huge power shift when Geoff arrives and although you side with Larry in the first scene, power does corrupt. There is another kind of power that only the innocent can handle, and although it's up to you to decide how pure Jamie's intentions are, he's the only one who can get off sans public derision.

With twists and turns, sacrifices and secrets withheld, Public Property will surprise you even to the end in a wild unexpected finale that only celebrities, the media and the adoring never-satiated gossip crazed public can relate to. Public Property played the West End in 2010, and would be a great selection for regional theatres and small professional theatres across the US.

3M: Geoff 40’s - 50’s; Larry 30’s - 40’s; Jamie 16;

Monologues / Scenes: Fantastic scenes for two or three, several good monologues for each role.

Reviewed by Adam