Internal Revenue Service vs. Menaechmi Will Owen comedy * Introductory Information Internal Revenue Service vs. Menaechmi is a comedy. It reprises what is for sure the oldest living playplot out there -- that of Plautus' Menaechmi and Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors. As in The Comedy of Errors, this re-use of that old plotstory also hinges on the confusion generated by two sets of identical twins. Concept: On the one hand, this is a straightforward, full-length play -- the script for the playing of straight-on theater-show that is very full-length, focused on sustained, bravura acting -- and funny. On the other hand, this script is also an experiment in a hybrid form: fusing television mini-series and performance video- documentary. That is, this script can be divided and tailored for presentation as a handful of episodes for serial viewing, produced as theater before a live audience but for video documentation aimed at synching with the ever-growing way (particularly true in the world of opera and ballet) that more and more people are experiencing, albeit at no-longer-live second-hand, theaterworks through screen devices. Somewhat counter-intuitively, the technology that is most transforming nearly all the traditional performance arts is that of those ever more high-performance pixelscreens, their equally high- performance sound systems, and the global, digital distribution capability of the many different kinds of streaming platforms. Indeed, recent decades have seen the development of new sub-genre of filmmaking, that of videoworks aimed at ever- more-effectively recording stage performances for presentation on digitally-driven screens of one kind or another -- from the tennis- court size HD-projection screens of large movie theaters to the playing-card size lightboxes that our tele...phones are now. One of the best things about this relatively new artform of performance video-documentation is that it is necessarily focused -- at times close-up -- on the performers and their artistry. That is, the best of these videoworks shiningly-brilliantly record the acting (and whether that acting is primarily grounded in speech, song or dance etc. is immaterial to my point here about what this new form of videoart does so well). Incidentally (and obviously) this is all very revealing of my own outlook as a theater-maker: the whole point is the acting, all that other stuff -- the plot, the characters, the dialogue, the lights-and-set spectacle etc. etc. -- is just a pretext for putting on acting, the greater, and more humanly communicative, the better. Production Requirements: This play can be played across the spectrum of production logistics: from day lighting with everyday wear for costumes and no sets, to deep-pockets tech-palace lighting and costume and set design etc. As a theme of the play is wealth inequality in America today and some of the characters download charts etc. on that subject to their phones to show to each other, a way of sharing those visuals with the members of the audience is required. Plot Synopsis: In his office high in the Manhattan skyline Bill Menaechmi (NYB -- New York Bill) fends off the IRS as he pursues his global, mega-money deal-spinning. After chewing out his lawyers for not taking care of his tax problems, NYB takes off for a week-long business trip to the Caymans and Monte Carlo. Meanwhile, at offices of the IRS, three compliance enforcement officials -- Molly Pistol, Clifton Mayfield, and Dan Darling -- are working on how to track down the elusive financier. Their investigative efforts turn up a web profile in California they believe could well be that of their quarry in hideout -- but it's that of the other of the two long-lost, identical-twin Menaechmi brothers. The IRS officers send a stern e-mail, requiring that Bill Menaechmi to be at his apartment in New York in one week's time, or else... Bill Menaechmi (CAB -- California Bill) returns to his pad after a morning of surfing, and, as he makes coffee and talks to his dog, CAB gets the message, is mystified by it, but decides he'd better head 'cross country and show up at the appointed place and time. A week later, at NYB's apartment overlooking Central Park, NYB's homemaker wife, Alice, is getting a visit from her identical twin sister, Amanda, a glamorous fashion industry executive. Alice confesses her estrangement from her husband. Amanda, who has never had much liking nor respect for Alice's Bill, encourages Alice in her inclination to take some time to take stock, away from her neglectful, workaholic husband. To prevent his sure-to-follow divorce lawyers from dispossessing Alice of her home on the grounds she abandoned it when leaving him, Amanda proposes to stay in the apartment to stand in for Alice's continued occupancy and ownership of it. Alice packs a bag and moves out, leaving Amanda in the apartment alone. Meanwhile, at a nearby airport, at the general aviation terminal used by private jets, NYB, returning from his trip, is lured into a limo he was led to believe was the one that had been arranged, as usual, to pick him up. By the time he realizes that he's the victim of a gang of criminal consters, he's well on his way to being hustled to their safe house, stripped of the digital keys to his accounts, knocked out with knock-out fluid, and left to sleep it off in the back seat of an abandoned car. CAB arrives for the tax audit appointment at NYB's apartment. Amanda takes him for her sister's husband and he takes her for an IRS agent. Unsure what to make of the situation he's walked into, but staying true to his go-with-the-flow hipster ways, CAB -- since Amanda makes no move to make him leave -- ends up settling in to spend the night. Meanwhile, NYB has come to, penniless and documentless, and suffering the memory loss induced by the knock-out fluid. He's mugged for his coat and shoes. Back at the apartment, over dinner, CAB sets in against the sarcasm and disdain he's getting from Amanda -- to no avail. And he falls for her, hard. Back on the street, NYB finds his way to a homeless shelter to get issued other shoes and a coat. He falls in with other destitutes, is asked about himself, and pieces of his lost memory start coming back to him. That night at the apartment, CAB comes to Amanda's room. Though tempted by him despite her conviction that he's her sister's rebarbative husband, she rejects him. Out on the street, NYB's hallucinatory state promts his newfound sidekicks to take him down into the tunnels beneath the city to try a spiritual cure. NYB samples the renegade devotions practicing in hiding underground, but doesn't go for any. In the morning in the apartment, over breakfast, CAB's ardor for her turns Amanda to give in to him, and their love affair begins. At the offices of the IRS, the three lawyers/special agents arrive at work lamenting how the government shutdown then just ending prevented them from getting to NYB's as planned. They gripe about the system, and they decide to just show up at NYB's apartment that very day. Meanwhile, NYB runs into his wife, Alice, in Central Park. She catalyzes the full return of his memory, and agrees to go back home with him. Back at the apartment, Amanda's guilty remorse has frozen her intimacy with CAB -- just as NYB and her sister walk in on them. And then, the arrival of the IRS brings the long-lost identical twin Menaechmi brothers face-to-face again. How CAB and NYB wound up with the same name and separated at birth is discovered, and the long-lost identical twin brothers are, at long last, joyfully reunited -- only to have to face the IRS. And all live happily ever after, including the IRS ☺. Casting Breakdown: Five actress roles (Amanda, Alice, Molly, Effie, Nancy); seven actor roles (New York Bill, California Bill, Dan, Clifton, Cashman, Crewfer, Big Jim); and a chorus, the members of which play hierarchs and devotees in underground ceremonials. The roles of Molly/Effie, Dan/Crewfer and Clifton/Cashman can be doubled. The chorus can be replaced by pre-recorded voice-overs. Nearly all this play's characters are older rather than younger. One notional age line-up might be: late middle age/early senior -- New York Bill, California Bill, Alice, Amanda late thirties/early forties -- Molly, Effie, Dan, Crewfer within sight of retirement age -- Clifton, Cashman old before their time -- Big Jim, Nancy Scene Breakdown: The action takes place in ten backgrounds: the power-office of NYB, the lowrent surferpad of CAB, an IRS office, the palatial apartment of NYB, a general aviation terminal, a limo, a rundown hideout apartment, a street, tunnels under the city, a bench in Central Park. SETTINGS AND TIMELINE THE ACTION TAKES PLACE IN NEW YORK CITY AND SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA NOW I -- Start Day-- NYB's office; IRS office; CAB's surfer pad II -- Day a Week Later -- NYB's apartment; airport, limo and safehouse; city street III -- That Night -- NYB's apartment; tunnels underground IV -- The Morning After -- IRS office; Central Park; NYB's apartment CHARACTERS BILL MENAECHMI Global Financier and Compulsive Tax Evader (New York Bill) BILL MENAECHMI Senior Surfer and Temp Worker (California Bill) NYB and CAB are long-lost, identical twin brothers. ALICE wife of NYB AMANDA fashion industry executive Alice and Amanda are identical twin sisters.