Routed

THE STORY: Having recently been let go after a dispute with his employer, Clark is free to take over his son's newspaper route during the boy's illness. Intending only to fill in for a few days, Clark quickly develops a manic enthusiasm for the job, and is even able to take revenge on his former boss (who is on the route) by tearing the comics page out of his newspaper. Turning aside his wife's pleas that he look for another job, and ignoring his son's readiness to take the route over again, Clark stubbornly plunges on until the supervisor of the newspaper company informs him that his services are no longer required. The crisis reached, Clark turns against his family and, in the disturbing, yet touching denouement of the play, tries to wrest the delivery bag away from his son by force, only, once again, to be done in by circumstances, from within and without, which he cannot control or, sad to say, fully comprehend.Sweet, Jeffrey is the author of 'Routed ', published 1982 under ISBN 9780822209737 and ISBN 082220973X.