Florida Man, the new play by Michael Presley Bobbitt
Updated: Mar 27, 2019
A Florida man, racked with guilt, sets out to dig up his dead father and give him the proper Viking funeral he always wanted.
The Florida Man phenomenon has captured the imagination of the nation. A drive-thru employee being assaulted with a live alligator, a scientist kidnapped to help a Florida Man clone his dog, a house burned down to get rid of vampires, a naked Florida Man breaking into a restaurant to play bongo drums-- the Sunshine State has weirdness for everyone. The outrageous headlines are fun to read, but they paint a cartoonish portrait of our great state, one that revels in the surface-weird without digging down into the truly bizarre guts of this wild place. "Florida Man" is a deep dive into the heart of a swampland culture where everyone is more than they appear. Billy Crud lost his father before he could resolve a laundry list of regrets and hurt feelings between the two men. Faced with the certainty of never being able to make things right, the grief and guilt overwhelm him. He never really believed in life that his dim-witted father meant it when he rambled on about "Valhalla" and wanting a "proper Viking funeral" complete with a flaming raft set adrift in the ocean. In death, however, his father's words hang about him like a millstone. In order to purge himself of the grief specter that haunts him, Billy sets out on a Quixotic journey to dig up his dead father and honor his final wishes. A cast of eccentric friends aid him in a devolving comedy of errors set against the backdrop of Florida's rich and rowdy folklore."Florida Man," debuting summer/fall 2019. Stay tuned to this blog for updates, character sketches and bits of scenes as the play races toward its world premier.
