An Angel with Flowers; Broadway Bound in 2017 BC [Before Covid-19]
is a two-act play entering into workshop (end of February 2022), and Mr. Dailey looks forward to this developmental process under the auspices of the Lewes Public Library’s “Spoken Word Society and Shakespeare Festival (Lewes, Delaware).”
Inspiration for a play.
An Angel with Flowers is a play inspired by two quite ordinary occurrences. First, the playwright found himself looking down on a magazine cover emblazoned with words citing a mystery ongoing — unresolved to this very day some may argue. Captivated, a question popped into Jeff’s head, the question repeating over and over again — ‘what if they knew, what if they knew’? Yes, this was the first bit of inspiration.
Next came an inspiring painting titled “Pilottown Road into Lewes.” In the painting, the road itself seems to be hiding someone on the far side of the horizon line, and who might that someone be?
It was these two occurrences that sparked what is now Mr. Dailey’s challenging play set in the environs of Lewes, Milton and Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
The play itself.
An aging couple, a couple enjoying retirement in their lovely home located in the noted beach environs, contend with pervasive loneliness and, yes, the suppressed consideration of losing life, one before the other. In other words, whose death will then end their longstanding relationship?
It is such loneliness that stirs Donald Angel and John Flowers to seemingly pluck a nice young fellow – an artist, to boot — out of life’s hustle and bustle and into by contrast, their provincial lives — never mind the young gent having appeared to them in a dream – a ruse, perhaps?
The play’s prevailing winds so to speak, include mention of lightships and their protection of sailors at sea, as Art and Nature and the creative process are pitted against lies and concealments both small and ‘huge’ and certainly, all is consequential, consequential indeed. Such untidiness (so many lies!) propels the play beyond its local geography, taking us into realms of national and international security concerns.
Making a judgment.
The play contains but one judgment, an indictment of young people now grown old, who missed their generational opportunity to do good in this world benefitting those who inevitably follow.
A tragicomedy.
The play is a many-layered tragicomedy delivering ‘perennial sensibilities on Life and relationship’ — advice one can easily place in her or his pocket for future consult.