ACT ONE
The set is a raised, raked platform surrounded by a ground-level alley that runs along stage right and left and across the front. The backdrop is abstract. Perhaps it suggests an urban skyline. Downstage left on the ground-floor ramp stands a table with a phone on it.
There is music and a dreamy kind of light on DR. ROBERT CHAPMAN as he enters upstage left. Heâs in his forties, tall, and he walks down toward the table and chair. He wears an overcoat, which he unbuttons, then removes. He looks out to the audience, taking them in. He speaks as if making a formal presentation on a supremely important issue.
DR. CHAPMAN: This overcoatâmy overcoat was given to me tenâno. Heâs twenty-three now and he was ⌠so itâs ⌠my overcoat is fifteen years old. It was a Christmas gift from my nephew. Iâm sure it was really my sister who purchased it. But my nephew was the bearer, his little face a bright bulb above the festive package as he raced across the room. (Slightly puzzled, but still grand, he continues.) I donât know why Iâm saying this. But I wear itâthe overcoatâwhen I go out in cold weather. (With the overcoat in one hand, he turns to a pair of pajamas on the chair.) These are my pajamas. (Grabbing them up.) At night, I wear them. They provide a kind of consoling formality. (He holds the pajamas in one hand, the overcoat in the other, both arms outstretched as he weighs the garments, his arms shifting like scales.) The boundary, the demarcation between waking and sleeping, between thought and dreams, benefits, I believe, from such an acknowledgmentâa gesture of respect, of emphasis, I think.
The phone rings. The backdrop holds a projection, narrow and clear: JANUARY 9, 1990.
DR. CHAPMAN picks up a nearby leather-bound appointment book and looks at it. The phone rings again. He looks at it, grabs it up.
DR. CHAPMAN: Hello?
VOICE: Dr. Robert Chapman?
DR. CHAPMAN: Who is this?
VOICE: This is Thomas Ames. We met at theâat the fundraiser forâ
DR. CHAPMAN: Oh, yes, of course.
THOMAS: Do you remember me?
Now on the stage right area, lights find THOMAS AMES, standing alone with a phone in his hand. He is handsome, slim, in his thirties.
DR. CHAPMAN: Yes, yes, at the Levinesâ house. For the Franklin Coalition.
THOMAS: I was wondering if we mightâI hate to intrude, but would you have time for a cup of coffee in the next few days? I wouldnât take much of your time. But thereâs something I need to discuss, and the phone doesnât seem quite appropriate, butâ
DR. CHAPMAN: Well, Iâm actually quite busy.
THOMAS: I mean, I could do it on the phone, butâ
DR. CHAPMAN: What am I saying? Of course. A cup of coffee? Tomorrow morning?
THOMAS: Iâll come to your neighborhood. Just name a place.
DR. CHAPMAN: Well, the Beacon is quite close by.
THOMAS: Oh, yes. Of course. I know it. What time shall we say?
DR. CHAPMAN: Is ten good for you?
THOMAS: Fine. Perfect. Iâll see you then.
DR. CHAPMAN: I look forward to it.
DR. CHAPMAN stands looking at the phone in his hand.
THOMAS (as the lights take him out of view): Good-bye. On the screen above and behind DR. CHAPMAN is projected: JANUARY 10, 1990.
DR. CHAPMAN (leafing through pages in his appointment book): January eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh. They flow by. A haze. A confident haze. A sense of will. Intention. My life. I will do this. I will do that.
As the lights come up on the stage right area, we see THOMAS seated at a table with a flowered tablecloth spread over it. A pot of coffee stands on the table; there are two cups and saucers and some Danish on a plate, awaiting DR. CHAPMAN.
THOMAS (waving toward DR. CHAPMAN): Dr. Chapman! Here! Here I am!
DR. CHAPMAN waves back and heads to the table.
DR. CHAPMAN: Thomas, hello. Sorry Iâm late.
THOMAS: No, no, I arrived a little early, I think.
DR. CHAPMAN: How are you? Busy, I bet.
THOMAS: Oh, yes. (Gesturing toward the coffee, the plate of Danish.) I took the liberty of ordering coffee and some Danish for us. I hope thatâs all right.
DR. CHAPMAN: As long as thereâs blueberry. Have you seen the Levinesâ recently? (He seeks amid the Danish.)
THOMAS: No, noânot for some weeks now.
DR. CHAPMAN: I havenât either. I should call them. For a slight uneasy pause, they look around.
THOMAS: This is awkwardâisnât it. Iâm sorry.
DR. CHAPMAN: And slightly mysterious, I must admit.
THOMAS: Iâm ⌠how shall I put this? Itâs just that I felt in our conversation at the Levinesâ that dayâwe ended up in a small group, do you remember?
DR. CHAPMAN: Yes.
THOMAS: I mean, I donât even remember the subject under discussion, but what I do remember emphatically was that something in your mannerâit could have been something you said, an opinion you expressed. Anyway, what happened is I came away with the impression that you would be sympathetic to the issue about whichâthe issue that prompted my callâand of course I could be wrong, butâgoodness, I donât feel Iâm handling this at all well, but youâre a doctor, right?
DR. CHAPMAN: Well, I was. I donât practice anymore, if youâreâ
THOMAS: But youâre still licensed, arenât you? You are still licensed.
DR. CHAPMAN: So this is a medical matter?
THOMAS: Well, yes.
DR. CHAPMAN: Are you ill?
THOMAS: Itâs not me. Itâs a friend of mine. Though Iâm certainly involved. A dear friend. Itâs AIDS. He has AIDS.
DR. CHAPMAN: I see.
THOMAS: He was HIV for so many years, it all seemedâeverything just seemedâit seemed ⌠! We were lulled into a kind of expectation that this almost normal health would just simply go on and on, but then it all changed. Seven months ago we went from our lives intoâintoâa nightmare.
DR. CHAPMAN: Iâm not a doctor anymore. I donât treat patients.
THOMAS: Well, I mean, treatment is not exactly what we wereâwhat he and I were discussing.
DR. CHAPMAN: Well, treatment is what I administered as a doctor.
THOMAS: He thought you mightâthat you might be willingâhe wanted me to ask if you would be willing to consider helping him.
DR. CHAPMAN: Help him in what way?
THOMAS: Well, if you would be willing to intervene on his behalf.
DR. CHAPMAN: I donât understand, Thomas.
THOMAS: If you would intervene.
DR. CHAPMAN: Iâm not practicing medicine at the moment, Thomas. (Glancing at his watch.) And Iâm afraid I took you quite literally regarding the time weâd need fo...