7:40 AM
I would like to write a play called THE HOMESTRETCH. And I would like for it to have baseball in it. Not necessarily the center, but out on the edge, the background, casting the shadow of the real onto the story. So the metaphor of the title is grounded in a connection to the literal.
It would be a story about a man and a woman who have been married almost forty years. They have no children. When the play begins they are discussing ways they might celebrate their fortieth anniversary. A cruise to the Greek islands, a big party.
George and Angel explore the idea of splitting up. Because they think they can have more interesting lives individually. They discuss different possibilities of how they might do this, with varying degrees of connection left between them. In the end, they decide they’d rather have none. No contact, no communication, no news of each other.
They contemplate the shocking idea:
G. Like we never existed? As a couple?
A. Like it was a long time ago. Like something in college. A long time ago.
G. Just forget each other.
A. We've both done it with affairs.
G. Something like that.
A. It will be as though you died.
G. Well I will, at some point. So will you.
A. I might as well be a widow. Like all the widows we know.
G. But Angel, without the awful grieving of loss. Think of it.
A. I would be a widow in every practical sense.
G. Except for the mourning.
A. Except for the life insurance.
G. You’ll have plenty.
A. How much?
NICE. any idea how baseball will fit in? Any idea if they go thru with it in the end? Seems like they must; although I got a very brief glimpse of a final scene where they part, and it was so gut-wrenching that it made me tear up. I guess that's why they have to go thru with it. :-)
ReplyDeleteI hope I'll be able to accomplish what you describe here. Yes, I think they must go through with it.
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