Raymond Keen

The Private and Public Life of King Able Raymond Keen

"The Private and Public Life of King Able" is character-driven. I had a vision of an old king, almost beyond time, abandoned in his palace, and utterly clueless about his predicament, as he is being watched throughout the play by anonymous men in masks. These men are dressed exactly alike, their white coats and masks projecting an insidious and possibly malevolent clinical detachment. No poem could contain the depth of my vision of such a foolish old king, helpless against the evil/impersonal forces covertly marshalled against him. The action of the play proceeds ineluctably, as the words of King Able fly up in seeming irrelevance to all that transpires. King Able, the only actor in the play who speaks, cannot say anything to help or ameliorate his situation. The silent men who watch King Able move and work efficiently and effectively to get what they want. So the drama uses language as a counterpoint to meaningful and effective action. The only character who speaks seems to be caught in his own "fog of language." King Able uses language to distract, deny, distort, and obfuscate his real situation, about which he remains clueless. His language of "self-comfort" is his mortal but unacknowledged enemy, an enemy of the truth.