The cast of Busted.

Penning anything about writers block is usually a doomed proposition from the start. Can’t think of something to write? Then write about not knowing what to write! I wrote a poem on the subject in 4th grade and thought the idea was brilliant. It wasn’t. Such work can rarely be. It is difficult to make interesting a plot predicated on the fact that the main character doesn’t have an interesting story to tell.

Busted, a play about a woman’s inability to write a play, fails to elevate its tired premise. Joan (Rachel Duda), just laid-off and searching the Internet for job leads, lands a freelance gig to churn out a script, with no guidelines other than that it should be 100 pages long and is needed in a month. Um, okay. She asks herself where the writing is going to lead. “I’m just spitting out events as they happen. Who’s gonna want to watch this stuff?” Excellent question. It doesn’t go so well for Joan until a muse (Jessie Dulaney), who may be a figment of her own imagination or may be a real life daughter of Zeus, arrives to motivate her. The muse tries to steer her client away from distractions such as Facebook and towards some trivial components — such us choosing a genre and inserting dialogue. It still doesn’t go well.

The play surely mirrors the experience of playwright and director Betsy Delaney, a Prince George’s County woman who lost her job mid-career, then decided to write a play.

Through their back and forth, as Joan and the muse discuss how Joan is boring the audience, how she’s writing just to fill pages and how her work is pointless, the play seems to understand — and even awkwardly telegraph — its own holes. And I quote:

Muse: C’mon, ask the audience if they like this.
Joan: You really think they’ll like this?
Muse: Trust me.

Um.

Busted has showings at the Warehouse Theater on July 14th, 17th, 20th, and 21st. Check the Capital Fringe website for showtimes.