A commedia dell'arte flavor adds charm to this drama about life. A real-life husband and wife play out a tragic scene against a background of fantasy. "Winner" and "Loser," a Harlequin-Columbine team, watch to see who will get to celebrate with the young couple...will they be winners in the game of life, or losers? Of Winners, Losers, and Games is absurd, realistic, comical, dramatic, philosophical, and touching. It provides a company of fourteen players with interesting characterizations and opportunities for imaginative blocking. A popular contest piece.

The play utilizes unit set pieces—two platforms and three screens. The set can be simplified by using two stools and the existing backdrop found on most stages. All characters with the exception of the children should be played as standard stage characters. The "children" may be grown men and women or little children or any age in between. The parents, Winner and Loser, are compatible because it is their nature to accept victory or loss. However, Mr. White and Mr. Redd are definitely on opposite sides of the fence of life, one representing the white purity of good and the other displaying the fire and glare of evil. The contestants or players in the game, Bob and Susan, anticipate a complicated test of endurance but instead find themselves plunged back in time to the moment they were summoned for the game. The actual game is a contest between good and evil with Bob and Susan as the pawns; the children are points, Mr. White and Mr. Redd are the scorekeepers, with Winner and Loser celebrating the outcome.

Actors and actresses will find the characters a delight and a challenge. The costumes can be as simple or as colorful as the imagination dictates; for example, Winner may be dressed in a gold robe and crown; Loser in a rumpled black tunic with a torn hat. The children might wear leotards and tights, with patience in Pink, Peace in white, Compassion in pastel blue, Love in Valentine red, Anger in deep violet, Greed in dark green, Hate in deep purple, and War in olive brown. Mr. White and Mr. Redd would be appropriately dressed in suits or tunics in keeping with their names. Bob and Susan might wear the casual clothes of a modern young married couple. Susan may or may not wear a nightgown and robe.

Imaginative make-up in keeping with the costumes would be appropriate for the allegorical characters: red and yellow lightning bolts for War, hearts for Love, stars for Winner, tears for Loser (Winner and Loser may symbolize the Comedy and Tragedy masks traditional in the theatre, and their make-up can emphasize this symbolism.) The counterpoint of colorful commedia-like costumes and make-up add pathos to the dramatic conflict of the real-life couple.

Other Rozell plays: The Freeway, Nathan the Nervous, Searching, Sharing

Other plays with Commedia Dell'Arte flavor: The Comedy of Errors, The Divine Commedia, Fables, Happily Ever After, Pinocchio Commedia, Professor Zuccini's Traveling Tales

See also: Personal Relationships