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A Humorous Play
“The first patient” written by C.V. Burgess is a humorous play, revealing amusing situation in a dentist’s clinic. A few patients are sitting in the waiting room of a dentist’s clinic, while some are joining.
Some of them are reading magazines or newspapers. Man -4 has a bandage tied round his jaw and he is holding the bandage and howling. Man 3, woman 5 and woman 6 are just entering the waiting room.
The dentist arrives and calls the first patient, Joe into his room. As Joe goes inside the room, people see a nurse, who comes outside in order to bring a hammer with herself. For a long period of time, all the waiting men, women and children hear loud groaning noise from the dentist’s room, where Joe is being treated.
Joe’s Wife is Frightened
The loud and disturbing noise makes Joe’s wife frightened and as a result she tries to figure out what is actually happening to her husband, Joe. All the patients are able to listen the noise of hammering inside the surgical room. After that, the patients hear the noise of sawing and cutting, so they decide to leave the waiting room because they think that the dentist is using hammers to pull out the tooth of Joe.
This is the funniest situation as the loud sound of sawing and screeching from inside the room makes everyone leave the waiting room with their humorous excuses. Joe’s wife even starts crying while other patients are all scared and move out in haste.
The Boy Who Lied
A girl named Dorothea, cry out so loudly, that some patients leave the clinic in fear, while, a little boy apologises and admits that he has lied to his mother for having a tooth ache, so that he could avoid his classes.
His mother takes him back to school by scolding and threatening that she is going to inform his teacher about his false drama and he is definitely going to get punished. But interestingly, the boy has no fear of the punishment as he expresses his preference of punishment over the surgery at the dentist’s room. Menfolks leaves the clinic one by one.
The Only Patient Left
Among the chaos going on inside the room, there is woman-5, who was spending her time by showing her holiday photographs to woman-6. She goes on describing her photos, the elements and the persons present in it, the place where the photo was clicked etc. Surprisingly, Women 5 is called in as the second patient because the crowd of patients has almost vanished and she is the only one left to be treated.
Joe Comes Out Safe
Finally Joe comes out and he explains that nothing has been done to him and the doctor has actually forgotten and misplaced cabin key. So, he was trying to open it using the hammers and other tools of carpentry like Pliers, and Hacksaw without any gain for a long time. Joe even explains that the groans were actually made by the Dentist himself as he was trying to break and open the tool cabinet due to the absence of key.
The patients actually misunderstood that the dentist was using hammers and pliers to pull out the teeth. After Joe comes out and the crowd of frightened patients vanishes Women 5 moved ahead inside the room for treatment.
About the Author
Christopher Victor Burgess:
He is known as C.V Burgess. His play usually accommodate a number of characters. He is a humorous playwright and his situational humour intensifies the emotions of the characters in his play. His famous works includes “Short Plays for large classes”, “Teach yourself speech training” and “Classroom Playhouse Verse in Action”
Further Reading
The First Patient (play): Questions and Answers
