Roman à Clef, Part 1

I wish very much that Roman à Clef was itself a roman à clef, but no such luck. It would more appropriately be described as an allegory, a farce — or maybe just one really long, goofy joke.

Conceived during a fit of frustration with television (and all forms of mindless entertainment), Roman à Clef was originally written as a stage play. But after finishing I realized that, given the static setting and the stationary characters, it would make for a fairly dull stage play, at least visually. Adapting it for audio, however, made perfect sense.

Silly as it is, the show attempts to touch on some serious topics, and I hope that attempt comes through; I hope that, unlike the boys at the bar, you will reach the end of the play with some notion of larger issues. If nothing else, the next time you’re sprawled out in front of the TV, I hope you’ll at least ask yourself: “Why the hell am I watching this?”

—Robert Arnold