Melodrama

The action takes plays on a Paper Mill in some out-post of the universe. This is a Melodrama in one act, complete with all the requirements: a pure and innocent heroine, a dastardly villain, a pathetic hero and a glamorous villainess. Unbeknown to the heroine, Verity Lovegood, she inherits a fortune. The villain, Horace Hucklebank, is an unscrupulous tracing agent who plans to marry her to inherit her millions. However the maiden spurns his advances and falls instead, for the insipid hero, Percival Peasporridge. Outraged, Horace conspires with an equally unscrupulous young woman, Cassandra Beenabout, to do away with Verity and lay their hands on her fortune. They plot a dire fate for her and lure her out to the repulper in the dead of night. The play demands a moustached and sleazy villain, gross overacting, peanuts to throw at the villain, and plenty of boos and hisses.