One Crack Out

Charlie Evans, a pool shark down on his luck in the bedroom as well as in the pool hall, has two days to pay off a $3,000 debt, or have his legs broken by Bulldog, a psychotic debt collector who also happens to be having an affair with Charlie’s wife, Helen. In his desperation to recover both the money and his self-esteem, Charlie gets involved in a series of hustles, pushing the tension to a breathtaking climax.

The complicated narrative of the play allows French to build a convincing case for Charlie’s humanity—how his actions, devious, frantic and perplexed as they are, spring directly from his need to survive his pathetic circumstance and to maintain his dignity as a survivor. Tired, suspicious, despairing, knowing that the game is no good for him and yet knowing no other game, Charlie plunges into a situation which may mean disaster or salvation, because in Charlie’s world of cliché and stereotype, everything comes down to betting on the right thing at the right time.

Cast of 2 women and 8 men