HOME aka Future Soap (1968) – This science fiction drama set hundreds of years in the future first aired on January 19th, 1968 on American Public Broadcasting’s N.E.T. Playhouse. Home is a 90-minute piece about the threat of overpopulation – and the excuses that threat gives the government to impose authoritarian conditions on the populace – set among a honeycomb of claustrophobic rooms in which citizens of the future must spend their lives due to the dictates of the government.
They are born in, live in and work in these small chambers, own nothing and are forbidden to travel.
Food is in pill form, rituals praising the government are required and “happy drugs” must be consumed daily in order to keep the populace in line. When a couple is able to obtain permission to have a child they must wait until someone in their communal room dies.
The work was written by Megan Terry (at right), a founding member of the Open Theater in 1963, who was also noted for her 1966 anti-war musical Viet Rock. That production is by many considered to be the first true rock musical made for the stage. Continue reading
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