OUTLINE When Oscar Wilde traveled through the lawless Arizona Territory in 1882, he found himself in a land devoid of heroism and compassion — a moral vacuum not often seen in a conventional Western. DOWNCAST is a nightmarish parable about the abuse of power in a dark, sinister world.  The story spans four winter days in and around a small frontier village plagued by violence, racism, child abuse, religion, and judicial murder.  The snow and cold seem more like a curse than a winter season. Seen through the eyes of each main character, the events follow a non-linear time line, showing how differently those individuals experience the very same circumstances, each one trying to survive in a desolate hellhole where, as Wilde writes, "some grow mad and all grow bad." HISTORIC FACTS Although Downcast is a fictitious story, it contains historic events and references: The Gadsden Purchase, 1853, was one of the most curious real estate deals in U.S. history; a sort of no man's land deal with the Mexican Government.  The Pacific Railroad Act of 1862 specified a rate of $16,000 per mile of laid rails, and "shall be treble the number per mile" over the mountains — well above $1 million per mile in today's currency.  For years to come, many communities in the old West benefitted greatly from the railroads' injection of capital into the region. In 1863, French chemist Angelo Mariani started marketing a wine called Vin Mariani which was made from Bordeaux wine treated with coca leaves.  The ethanol in the wine acted as a solvent and extracted the cocaine from the coca leaves, making a powerful psychoactive agent called cocathylene — which is a far more potent and dangerous component than cocaine itself.  The Mariani wine was quite popular in the late 1800's, and at the time even Thomas Edison endorsed the wine, claiming it helped him stay awake longer.  By the spring of 1869, the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific railroads were converging in the Territory of Utah where Leland Stanford of the Central Pacific hammered the final spike.  The tariff for the Butterfield Stage Lines (the so-called Jerk Line) was 15 cents per mile. Reese Durham, the local manager of the Butterfield Stage Station in Yankee Hill, Colorado, was one of many who could not accept a black man as town marshal.  On the afternoon of September 2nd, 1874, emboldened by several glasses of whiskey, Durham challenged the new black sheriff, Willie Kennard, to a gunfight but only earned himself an early trip to the cemetery.  The town of Valentine was founded in the 1880s territory of Arizona; at the time Prescott was the territorial capital.  The 20th President of the U.S., James A. Garfield, was shot and killed in September 1881.  In 1882 the Irish writer Oscar Wilde was on a year-long lecture tour in the U.S. for which he received substantial lecturer's fees (ranging from $200 to $1,000).  He was very generous with his money while he passed through this area, returning from San Francisco where he had given two less-than-successful lectures.  Receipts for his travels totaled more than $11,000, ($250,000 in today's currency).  In this screenplay, the dialogue of the character Oscar is built entirely from Oscar Wilde's writings and from actual quotes. (See APPENDIX for Vernacular and Technical Premise) Peer Landa   ©