Apple Pie
by Terrence Mcnally

THE STORIES: In Tour , we encounter an American couple being chauffeured through Italy, imagining themselves to be ambassadors of goodwill despite their fatuous, patronizing chatter.

Mixed in with their inane comments, to their driver and others, are references to their son in Vietnam and to the carnage there; but somehow they remain unable to comprehend the reality of the world they live in—and to be comfortable with the sense of privilege their money and freedom provide.

(2 men, 1 woman, 2 bits.) Next is set in an Army Induction Center, where an overweight, overage, and overwrought draftee has reluctantly reported for his physical.

Confronted by an Amazon-like female sergeant, he tries every evasion he can think of to disqualify himself, but is ultimately shattered by the realization that nothing will stave off the inevitable.

His final monologue, a harrowing exposure of bitterness and confusion, reveals the dilemma of a man to whom the meaning and purpose of his country have become unclear.

(1 man, 1 woman, 3 bits.) Botticelli finds two American soldiers in the wilds of Vietnam (or any battle area) playing an intellectual guessing game while waiting for a trapped enemy soldier to show himself.

They smoke, reminisce, play their game and wait.

When the enemy soldier appears they coolly shoot him down and then go on reciting the great names of literature, philosophy and music; their total lack of reverence and concern for the man they have killed, the life they have taken, contrasting starkly with the humanistic concepts and erudition to which they have been exposed.

(2 men, 1 bit.) The plays can be produced separately as one acts, or all together on a single bill.

This latter basis is the only one on which the omnibus title APPLE PIE may be used.