In 1999, I wrote a one-act play based on a real life event. At the time I started writing it, I had no idea it would lead to a completed script, let alone a full production in Boston. None of the characters in the play are based on real people, nor is the plot based on what actually happened. Thus, The Jubjub Birds — a treatise on personal censorship and the thought police — was born. This play followed on the heels of The Gull's Lament.

The Jubjub Birds in the title of the show are never explained in the script, except by reference to Lewis Carol's poem. In the poem, the birds are mentioned once, as a curious but dangerous thing to be avoided, never described but only whispered about. The women in the play are intended to be analogues of that unnamed something to be avoided, a danger never fully described, until it's too late. Implicit in this interpretation is that no one has ever survived the encounter to describe the danger that awaits.

The setting is a backyard garden. Four ladies, Doris, Irene, Marsha, and Helen, invite a famous local author, Nathan, to thier garden for a little tea and a roundtable. But Nathan has no idea what's in store for him. While the four appear innocent enough, each uses thier unique skills as a member of thier elite club to tear the author down. He is roasted and, through a series of twisted literary games, is forced to give the ladies access to his latest manuscript, which is thn litterally torn apart in front of his eyes. But they get ther comeuppances in a surprise ending.

The script of The Jubjub Birds can be found here in its entirety.

Olivia, Katherine, Marion, and Rebecca as the Ladies.