Linked is a live performance of my first play, Directed by Dustin Troyer, with performances from Eleanor Jenkins and Donovan Reynolds.
It is a ten-minute show in which a recently-split couple outline the reasons they broke up to the audience, under the guise of a list of facts. It was written and produced over the course of two weeks for Lee University’s “Fringe Fest.”
Below is an excerpt, or you can download the full script here: “Some Things That Are True (and a Few That Aren’t).”
LIGHTS UP on an empty stage. Save, that is, for
SAMANTHA and ROGER. They stand facing
the audience, with a few feet between them.
They’re allegedly talking to the audience, but
this is clearly only a thinly veiled way of talking
to each other. They constantly have to shift
away from each other and back towards the
audience, as they find themselves facing each
other and just talking time and time again.
ROGER
Thank you all for coming out tonight. Just so you know, Samantha and I are really just here to tell you a list.
SAMANTHA
A list of things that are true. We’re just gonna be talking to you all, if that’s alright, because, true: I really don’t even want to look at Roger right now. Roger sighs.
ROGER
I guess we’re starting now. Okay, then. True: Samantha and I broke up last night.
SAMANTHA
True: I broke up with Roger last night.
ROGER
True: I didn’t know it was going to happen.
SAMANTHA
True: I guess I kind of saw it coming.
ROGER
True: we probably should have broken up a long time ago.
SAMANTHA
True: we haven’t been much good for each other for a long time.
ROGER
True: she was always “too busy” for me.
SAMANTHA
True: he was always there. I could never have a moment alone.
ROGER
True: she constantly nagged me about things that didn’t even matter.
SAMANTHA
True: he never cared about putting effort in when I wanted him to.
ROGER
True: whenever she told me she loved me, I was never quite sure it was true.
SAMANTHA
True: whenever I told him I loved him, I was scared by how true it was.
ROGER
True: I was always the first to say “I love you.”
SAMANTHA
True: his “I love yous” came so easy that I still don’t know if he ever life-partner-loved me or if he just great-ice-cream-loved me.
ROGER
True: Samantha was always antagonizing me.
SAMANTHA
True: Roger never complained when I teased him–he only ever laughed, until he didn’t.
Roger takes a step towards her.
ROGER
I don’t understand how you could’ve missed my obvious hurt when you said that I was “frighteningly overbearing.”
SAMANTHA
We’re only supposed to be talking to the audience.
ROGER
Yeah, that’s true.
He steps back into place. (beat)
True: during the breakup, Samantha said that I “doused her fire,” and I still haven’t figured out what that was supposed to mean.
SAMANTHA
No, that’s false. You know exactly what I meant.
ROGER
“We’re only supposed to be talking to the audience.”
SAMANTHA
(beat)
True: Roger knew exactly what I was talking about because right before I said that, he told me that I just “didn’t have the same fire I used to have when we were young and in love.” He said “when we were in love.” Past tense.
ROGER
(beat)
True: that didn’t come out the way I meant it.
SAMANTHA
True: it’s a little late for clarification, isn’t it?