The Play that we have been working on (“The Countess of Budapest”) will be shelved for the time being. After numerous playwriting classes and workshops, we have found that the story, when based strictly on the facts, is simply not as interesting as we thought. There is not enough weight to the material. The characters are insufficiently engaging, and the plot not propulsive enough, if at all. Also, the story of a domineering narcissistic mother and her abused family has already been done by masters such as Tennessee Williams and Eugene O’Neill.
Instead, we shall have to see how good we are at inventing material. This, of course, will change the nature of the play, no doubt for the better. But we are not optimistic. We have renamed the play “The Countess of Bucharest,” as befits the new Transylvanian motif of the reworked story, a satire.
In addition, a disgruntled reader (D.G.) has vehemently claimed authorship and copyright. As far as authorship goes, the play is based on the Jester’s own life and the characters in it. We dismiss the first claim out-of-hand: this anonymous reader can write his/her own play. As for copyright, the objecting reader has published nothing about this family that is a play, or a memoir, or even a memo. The original title had become the standard jokey reference among the kids to our mother, The Countess, in our irreverent conversations. It is not clear to us what the origin of the sobriquet was. It is our view that claiming copyright for a title is a frivolous exercise. If this D. G. publishes a play with his/her own story and this title, he/she is welcome to it. We would write our own play with a different title, and let the market decide which one it prefers. We wish him/her luck, having learned how hard playwrighting really is.
Similar titles come mind in this context:
The Duchess of Malfi
The Duchess of Alba
The Duchess of Windsor
The Duchess of Sussex
and the lower ranked:
The Countess of Castiglione
La Comtesse de Hong Kong
La Comtesse du Barry
La Comtesse de Cagliostro
The Countess de Winter
Hmm, sounds better in French. Take your pick.
Follow the link below to see the various versions of the play.
