Fallout

I heard about Major Eatherly from Carl Mitcham at a Penn State conference in November 2018.

It was a great story, so the play was easy to write, and it had a public reading directed by Richard Biever at the end of 2019. One audience member generously donated half the money for a full production and others added the rest, so we arranged to hold auditions in NYC just as theaters were shut down for the Covid pandemic.

As soon as they re-opened, Fallout had its first run (four performances from March 30-31 2022) at The State Theatre, State College, PA, directed by Elaine Meder-Wilgus. Lead actors came from NYC and London, supported by an excellent local cast and the play played to packed houses, more than covering its production cost. It now seeks a full professional production.

Synopsis

Major Eatherly is an ace pilot who goes crazy after Hiroshima, when he realizes that 100,000 people died. In an effort to persuade people he is not a hero, he robs banks, forges checks and tries to send the money to the children of Hiroshima. He becomes world-famous, but his wife leaves him, and he ends up in jail and then mental hospital, where a German philosopher, Gunther Anders, reassures him that madness is the only sane reaction. Eatherly escapes and managed to travel through time to a present-day missile silo in Montana. Fallout examines every reaction to The Bomb from Anders, the nuclear activist, to Hideko. the innocent Japanese girl, to Colonel Tibbets, the dutiful US military officer. It challenges its audiences to decide where they stand on the issue of nuclear war.

Development of Fallout

The first reading took place at Fuse Productions' studio in the Fall of 2019.

By an amazing coincidence, Shigeko Sasamori visited Penn State. Her story inspired me to add a Japanese voice to the military voices in the play and I added Hideko, a young girl who witnessed and survived the bombing of Hiroshima.

During the Covid shutdown, I read many books about the Bomb and how it changed US military policy; so I let Major Eatherly time-travel to a launch capsule in Montana. When he returns and describes our present-day nuclear policy to the judge, he is pronounced insane.

Fallout Videos

Sajay Samuel, a Penn State professor, generously promoted the State College production by recording 3 discussions on topics related to Fallout.

with Greg Eghigian, a Penn State professor with special interest in the history of mental illness: Madness in the Nuclear Age w/ Sajay Samuel and Greg Eghigian - YouTube
with Jerry Brown, the ex-governor of California and Director of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists about the dangers of nuclear war: Politics in the Nuclear Age: Jerry Brown and Sajay Samuel in Conversation - YouTube
with Carl Mitcham about whether man is obsolete in the nuclear age: Is "Man" Obsolete in the Nuclear Age? - YouTube

Elaine Meder-Wilgus talks to me about the play's development and production:

Fallout , a new play by Mary Gage, March 30-31 at The State Theatre - YouTube

A video of the State College production is available for any producers or directors interested in staging Fallout . Please contact gagehmj@gmail.com