Richard von Ritter

Set in an upscale apartment in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Passions of the Soul a dream play book-ended by two scenes from waking life. In scene one, Crystal tells Ethan about her inability to finish her PhD thesis and her anxieties concerning her sister, Lulu, who just got out of rehab and is coming over to make amends the next day. In scene two, Crystal dreams that Lulu is accompanied with a dwarf, Gerhard, for whom she develops an immediate antipathy which masks a deeper attraction. When Crystal sees Ethan and Lulu making eyes at each other she threatens to get her butcher knife, storms out of the room, but presently reappears with a platter of meatloaf in which the butcher knife is prominently stuck. During dinner Crystal learns that Ethan told Lulu and Gerhard about her inability to finish her PhD thesis. And when Gerhard tells Crystal that she's unable to finish her thesis because she doubts the core of herself, Crystal erupts in hysteria. Ethan tries to calm her but winds up choking her. Gerhard jumps on Ethan and pulls him off Crystal. And while Ethan is being comforted by Lulu, Crystal opens a bottle of champagne and beings a drunken debauch with Gerard. Ethan and Lulu then start making out passionately on the couch. When Lulu balks and starts to leave, Ethan, crazed at the possibility of her loss, chokes her to death. And when Gerard attacks Ethan, Crystal stabs Gerhard in the back with her butcher knife. In scene three, Crystal wakes up screaming and is comforted by Ethan. In relating her dream Crystal realizes that the seemingly evil but somehow holy dwarf, with his reference to Georg Croddeck's The Book of the It, provided the key which will enable her to finish her PhD thesis and weeps uncontrollably as she realizes the depth of her love for Lulu.

Set in a decaying mansion in Detroit on Easter Weekend, Lesson in Darkness concerns the conflict between a cynical Professor Wunderlich, who suffers from complicated mourning after the death of his wife, Lydia, a once famous opera star, and Chloe, his neurotic daughter, burdened with caring for him. Into this mix comes Knight, an ex-neo-Nazi recently released from prison for manslaughter and now a religious fanatic. After a dysfunctional dinner, accompanied by the sounds of the ghost of Lydia walking through the hallway, Wunderlich retires for the night, but, unable to tolerate the presence of Knight, he torments the couple with the terrifyingly loud singing of Lydia as Kundry from Wagner's Parsifal, throws a chest of drawers down the stairs, and then appears with a cane sword and attempts to kill Knight. Knight disarms Wunderlich, pummels him in the face, and ties him to a chair where he attempts to exorcise his evidently demonic sickness by sermonizing about the spiritual world. In the meantime, Chloe sits on the couch and reads Man's Search for Meaning,, bad-mouths her father, and finally brutalizes him with his cane. On Easter Morning, Wunderlich complains about his last night's ordeal but then inexplicably apologizes for his sick behavior. Later that morning, Wunderlich hears Lydia singing Mahler's Wer hat dies Leidel erdacht? and breaks down weeping, having finally made contact with his heart. Lesson in Darkness is an updated version of the legend of the Holy Grail and weaves together the main themes associated with it - Parsifal's Journey through the Wasteland, The Perilous Chapel, and the Fisher King's Redemption.

Set in an house in the country at Christmas,The Exquisite Corpse concerns the misadventures of two highly intellectual couples who lack emotional insight into themselves. Valentine and Andre, her fiance and former therapist, are visiting Andre's sister, Greta, a psychiatrist dying of cancer, and her husband, Tristan, a depressed philosopher. On Christmas Eve, Greta preys upon Valentine's delicately balanced psyche, and Andre excoriates Tristan for his self-centered depression in the face of Greta's imminent demise. After Christmas Eve dinner, they play a game of Exquisite Corpse, and the events depicted in the game become objective occurrences that happen back to the players with horrific consequences. Andre and Valentine stab each other, Tristan is struck dead with lightning, and a grief-stricken Greta confesses her cancer was only a ruse to get Tristan to pay attention to her. On early Christmas Morning, Tristan comes back to life, Andre attacks him mercilessly for claiming to have met a Being of Light, and Greta indelicately urges Valentine to confront her alcoholism. Surprisingly, the play ends on a note of reconciliation, at least, between the woman.

Set in a tower-like room in a decaying mansion in Detroit, Dead When She's Awake concerns the misadventures of Cora, previously an adjunct professor at Wayne State University, now a homeless alcoholic in Cass Corridor. She reluctantly takes a job as a live-in Home Health Aide to Rose, an invalid suffering from the horrific after-effects of sleeping sickness (encephalitis lethargica). After sitting through a demeaning interview with Rose's son, the misogynistic Doctor Weiss, she is left alone with Rose. Completely out of her depth, Cora starts drinking, spins out of control, and begins to think that Rose is her mother who abandoned her when she was three. To try to get Rose to sleep, Cora tells her the tale of The Sandman by E. T. A. Hoffmann and eventually passes out. In the morning, Weiss returns and finds a half-clad Cora sprawled out on the couch and discovers that his mother is dead. He accuses Cora of murder, locks her in the room, and runs downstairs to call the police. Undaunted, Cora escapes out the window, having come to learn the value of herself through her fateful encounter with Rose.

Set in a middle-class home in Detroit on Thanksgiving, The Secret of Redemption is a portrait, viewed mainly from the perspective of the children, of three generations of a spiritually and morally handicapped family. Lillian, a professional organist, truly wants everything to be alright but really only wants to escape into her music. Bruno, Lillian's second husband, a professor of Humanities and end-stage alcoholic, has just received news of his tenure, celebrates by drinking, and molests his wife's demonic little granddaughter, Fran. Missy, Lillian's daughter, who, years ago dumped her son Johnny at her mother's, now dumps her twelve-year-old twins, Fran and Frank, so she can go into treatment for alcoholism. Johnny, who is visiting from a mental hospital and once possessed the most beautiful voice in the church choir, has been mute ever since his best friend died in a fire Johnny started. Finally, Fran and Frank, the displaced twins, are thoroughly bonded demons and the most powerful yet impotent characters in this world. Although they cannot help being cruel to Johnny, Fran secretly admires him for not speaking. In a way, he reminds her of Jonah and the whale and tells him that "one of these days the whale will spit you out and you will sing. The Secret of Redemption is a memory play that takes place in the mind of Johnny.

Set in an old church in the country, The Silver Dawn is a dark comedy concerning the conflict between an anxious young bride and her sinister older groom. As they sit in the dark anteroom of the chapel waiting for their wedding ceremony to begin, the bride compulsively disgorges her unseemly past onto the head of the unsuspecting groom. The groom, in turn, has some unsavory tales of his own to impart to his unsuspecting bride. In the end, however, all is harmony, faith, and resolve. The Silver Dawn is loosely based on the ancient Greek myth of Hades's abduction of Persephone into the underworld.

Set in The Deconstructionist Cafe, Dread is a dark comedy concerning the conflict between Angel, a dancer, and Christopher, a cynical performance artist. Vaguely reminding him of a girl he knew briefly in High School and wondering why they are the only ones in the Cafe, Christopher begins to feel a sense of unease in in Angel's presence. Their conflict escalates and becomes physical, and Christopher is no match for Angel. Humiliated but ever cynical, Christopher continues to taunt Angel until she reveals who she really is. Shocked, the dark aura of cynicism and self-contempt enveloping Christopher cracks a bit to reveal a trace of wonder.

Set in a castle in Switzerland, A Life of One's Own is a dark comedy concerning the plight of an an American couple touring Europe who have been inexplicably imprisoned in a dungeon. Tied back to back in wooden chairs, Tracy, a dancer, and Leo, a professor travelling to the Nietzsche Conference in Basel, alternatively blame, encourage, and console each other for what they believe to be an inconvenient , unjust, and incomprehensible incarceration - although Tracy did spit in the face of the proprietor after being manhandled by his thugs as they inadvertently trespassed on his estate. Just as they are about to give up hope, their salvation appears in the form of Heidi, the baron's thirteen year-old daughter. Heidi tells them how her mother once locked herself in the dungeon, went mad, ran out screaming, and lept into the gorge, whereupon her father turned his back on the world and secluded himself in the castle. But now he sees the error of his ways, extends his apology, and invites them to join him for dinner before continuing on their journey.

Set in an old house on a cliff overlooking the sea on Easter Eve, The Cage, is a dark comedy concerning the conflict between two sisters living in isolation after the death of their father, a defrocked minister. Samantha, a concert pianist, has descended into alcoholism. Martha, a Zen student, has become her unwilling caretaker and victim. The sisters are trapped in a vicious circle, or game without end, where every attempt to solve the problem only serves to exacerbate it. It is only when Martha walks out on Samantha, and Samantha experiences a terrifyng, life-threatening event, that she is suddenly rendered stark, staring, stone-cold sober. becomes suddenly

Set in a dilapidated shack in the scorching heat of the Nevada desert, The Awakening is a dark comedy concerning the conflict between Esmeralda and the Crone. The object of this conflict is the Crone's son, Bernard, a crippled giant and former seminary student turned outlaw. Bernard has somehow managed to secure a nuclear warhead in an attache case and is planning a bank job to finance "Operation Thunderbolt," which involves the sudden appearance of a mushroom cloud in northern Nevada, the purpose being to shock America into a Golden Age of peace and harmony based upon the right to keep and bear arms. In the meantime, constantly pestered by the Crone to get ride of Esmeralda and incessantly goaded by Esmeralda to get rid of the Crone, Bernard finally kills his mother, whereupon an eerie atmosphere descends. Bernard becomes depressed, prays to God, and falls asleep. Esmeralda listens to the sublime music of Bach, sips her wine, and pops her pills in peace. The Awakening is a homage to film noir, a satire on contemporary American gun culture, and an ironic portrait of the dark side of the American spirit.

Set in an old house in the country, Labyrinth is a dark comedy concerning the misadventures of Christine, the new maid, who seems to be walking in the footsteps of the previous maid, Clementine, who disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Feeling unjustly persecuted by the inhabitants of the house, Christine begins to feel like she is in some kind of alternate universe. Her only ally is thirteen-year-old Adrienne, who tells her that Clementine was eaten by a monster who lurks in the shadows of the house. Adrienne gives Christine a piece of thread to tie around her finger so she can remember who she is and survive her ordeal.