Ryan Clarke

Facing eviction from a city park, a schizophrenic former stage legend rallies a troupe of homeless
misfits to stage a production of King Lear, hoping an obscure legal loophole will classify their
encampment as a protected "Cultural Heritage Site" before the bulldozers arrive.

RALPH HUNTINGTON (70s) was once a titan of the stage. Now, he is the self-proclaimed King of
Cibola Park, a homeless encampment in Albuquerque, where he battles schizophrenia by
reimagining his gritty reality as a Shakespearean drama. But his kingdom is under siege.
COUNCILMAN HALLOWAY has launched a ruthless "sanitation initiative" giving the camp seven
days to vacate.

Desperate to save his community, Ralph unearths an old legal precedent: "established artistic
entities" in public spaces are protected as cultural landmarks. He hatches a wild plan: transform his
ragtag group of addicts and runaways into a legitimate theatre company. They will perform King
Lear—a play about a mad king losing his home—to prove their worth to the city.

With the help of KIT (19), a sharp-witted runaway serving as his stage manager, and PROPS, a
neurodivergent scavenger who builds sets from trash, Ralph begins rehearsals. But as opening night
approaches, the line between the play and reality blurs. The pressure triggers Ralph’s hallucinations,
turning a simple permit dispute into a battle against ghosts, betrayal, and the elements. When
tragedy strikes the cast, Ralph must decide whether to retreat into his delusions or face the
bulldozers as the man he truly is.

Summer, 1978. The American Southwest. Leo is an uptight public defender drowning in debt; Sam is a rugged, chain-smoking dispatcher who hasn’t spoken to him in years. Following the death of their absentee father, the estranged brothers are forced into the front seat of "The Beast"—a rusted Ford Country Squire—to transport his ashes from Texas to California.

As the temperature rises and the miles blur, the car becomes a pressure cooker for old grievances, revealing the scars of a mother’s suicide and a father’s neglect. But just when they reach their destination and discover a hidden inheritance that could change their lives, they are hit with one final, mechanical punchline. A dark comedy about the lies we tell to survive and the vehicles that—literally and metaphorically—fail to get us where we’re going.