SEEDS OF DOUBT
A play in two acts by Michael Buss

TIME: The present 

PLACE: The Eastern seaboard of the United States 

STAGE SETTING: A sparsely furnished set representing three living rooms, a church office, and a park. 

CHARACTERS:
(A cast of 4 men and 4 women with one actor playing Vince and the Nurse)
TIM FORSTER,  an evangelical pastor in his mid forties     
JEAN FOSTER, his wife - a little younger
BECKY FOSTER, their seventeen year old daughter
VINCE THOMAS, a young man of nineteen or twenty - Becky’s boy friend
DAVE HARMAN, a new deacon
MARJORIE HARMAN, his wife
KATHY MARTIN, an attractive young church member
AARON STEINBERG, Kathy’s father - an atheist Jew
NURSE, (Doubles with Vince)

PLOT SYNOPSIS: Pastor Tim Foster is on the edge of the biggest crisis of his life; he no longer believes what he is expected to preach and his marriage is stretched to breaking point. Then the unbelieving father of pretty church member Kathy Martin dies and all final pretence gets blown away. The deceased father returns in Tim’s mind as his antagonist. Tim is tormented both by his growing unbelief in Hell. His apparently stable marriage proves to be a sham and he is drawn into a wild affair with Kathy, finding a quality of love he had never previously known. The discovery of  the affair leads to his final breakdown and the horrors of church discipline – presented in scenes with the ardent deacon Dave Harman. With his recovery new horizons open up but the ex-pastor cannot face this future with his wife.

In an ironic sub-plot pastor’s kid, Becky, rebels against her upbringing and begins to mix with a set of ‘undesirable’ young people. Vince, her new boyfriend ends up being converted by her father’s preaching leading the Becky’s re-commitment of faith. Father and daughter cross in opposite directions in their journeys. 

THEMATIC SYNOPSIS: The play tracks the internal conflict of this pastor by turning the other characters in the play into the taunting voices of his nightmares until he breaks – all portrayed on stage. Traversing scenes of love and infidelity, family reversals, church discipline and theological debate, this play brings crucial insights into the world of ministry and faith. It in a deliberate challenge to the evangelical belief in Hell.

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All enquiries about this play should be emailed to Michael Buss at busstop9@adelphia.net