Off the Rails

by Randy Reinholz

Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show is in town holding auditions, and the regulars at the Stewed Prunes Saloon are hoping for a shot at stardom. But plans change when Momaday, a Pawnee teenager, is sentenced to hang for his forbidden love affair with an Irish-American girl. Captain Angelo, the presiding officer, won’t budge . . . until he lays eyes on Momaday’s sister, Isabel. This irreverent, subversive adaptation of Measure for Measure—described as “Blazing Saddles meets Shakespeare” and OSF’s first play by a Native American writer—uses healthy doses of humor and music to illuminate the painful legacy of Indian boarding schools in the American West.

Genres: Plays

149 pages, Spiral-bound

Published January 1, 2017

Reviews

[Dana Cordelia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had the privilege of seeing this performed at Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 2017, and I loved it. When the opportunity arose to read the OSF show script I was so glad. This is a masterful and meaningful adaptation. Like almost all plays it should be seen rather than read; still, Reinholz deserves recognition for creating something truly stunning.

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this play for my class, and I'm so glad I did! It makes so much sense that it's based off of Measure for Measure by Shakespeare and I think it's so clever that the court procedurals were in Shakespearean and word for word from the original play. Like Shakespeare says- all the world's a stage, and the law is the stage in this case. It shows how performative the law can be and how officials like Angelo are really just actors playing a role and acting off of a pre-determined script.