Loving Longing Leaving

Three Plays

Michael Weller

• Publisher: Theatre Communications Group
• Year: 2011
• ISBN:
  9781559366519
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: American Drama
• Index: Literature

" Fifty Words has a gimlet eye, providing meticulously chosen, artfully integrated details that let us understand why its characters so love and loathe each other. Like Mr. Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? it understands how closely hate and love can be linked in marriage."— The New York Times

In Fifty Words, a Brooklyn brownstone becomes a marital battleground for Adam and Jan; Do Not Disturb dramatizes Adam's infidelity at a hotel with former lover Melinda; and in Side Effects, Melinda and her husband Hugh come to terms with their broken relationship.

Michael Weller has written over forty dramatic works, including the plays Moonchildren, Fishing, Loose Ends, and Beast, and the screenplays for Hair and Ragtime.

DO NOT DISTURB

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PRODUCTION HISTORY

Do Not Disturb (originally titled What the Night Is For) was first presented in 1999–2000, in a reading directed by Izzy Mant at the Criterion Theatre as one of a series of workshops produced by Theatre Machine and supported by Act.

Do Not Disturb (originally titled What the Night Is For) received its world premiere on November 27, 2002, at the Comedy Theatre in London’s West End. It was directed by John Caird; the design was by Tim Hatley, the lighting design was by Paul Pyant, the sound design was by Rich Walsh. The cast was:

LINDY METZ	Gillian Anderson
ADAM PENZIUS	Roger Allam

Do Not Disturb (originally titled What the Night Is For) received its American premiere on April 3, 2004, at the Laguna Playhouse (Andrew Barnicle, Artistic Director; Richard Stein, Executive Director) in Laguna Beach, CA. It was directed by Richard Stein; the scenic and costume design were by Dwight Richard Odle, the lighting design was by Tom Ruzika, the sound design was by David Edwards; the production stage manager was Rebecca Green. The cast was:

LINDY METZ	Claudia Christian
ADAM PENZIUS	Kip Gilman

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CHARACTERS

MELINDA (LINDY) METZ, a teacher of Special Education, late thirties to early forties

ADAM PENZIUS, an architect, late thirties to early forties

PLACE

A hotel in a Midwestern town.

TIME

Recently.

NOTE

A “ / ” in dialogue indicates when one thought is dropped suddenly and another intercrossing thought, or alternate formulation of the idea, continues without transition.

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SCENE 1

Darkness. Pop—a champagne cork! Laughter.

Lights up on a hotel room decorated in a bland, traditional style. We could be in any of the better chain hotels in a midsized Midwestern city.

Lindy and Adam sit at a table eating a meal off a trolley with silver domes. A hanging fixture over the table closes them in a tight embrace of light. Another lamp on one side of the double bed is on low beside a digital alarm-radio.

Lindy is full-figured with soft features. Her voice is quietly cadenced but she has sudden bursts of infectious mirth. She wears a tastefully stylish suit. Adam has thinning hair and an easy but, at times, brisk efficient manner; a man used to giving orders. He’s in tie and shirtsleeves, jacket flung on the bed.

The mood is upbeat but a little shrill, each trying too hard to act relaxed.

LINDY (Guessing): Millman? Hillman? Spillman? Spellman?

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ADAM: No.

LINDY: Don’t tell me, don’t—Gellman. It was Gellman, right?

ADAM (Enjoying this): Nope.

LINDY: He was an ear-nose-and-throat man—

ADAM: Yes—

LINDY: With a hideous wife—

ADAM: Yes—

LINDY: Isn’t she the one who got drunk once and said we should skip the book discussion and try group sex for a change?

ADAM: That’s the one.

LINDY: His name was Gellman, I’m sure it was. That week was Bonfire of the Vanities.

ADAM: Right book, wrong doctor. Gasarch. Dr. Gasarch.

LINDY: You know, I think you’re right. He tried to grope me in the hallway my first night in the Book Circle. Well, doctors tend to be pretty biological on the whole. Don’t you find?

ADAM (Absurdly): On the whole, absolutely.

LINDY (Giggles) : Do you still see any of that bunch—

ADAM: The Get-a-Life Culture Club?

LINDY: Were they that pathetic?

ADAM: Present company excepted.

LINDY: Thank you.

ADAM: Actually, I did run into—was that obstetrics guy before your time, Dr. Nicklaus?—vacation in Bora Bora at one of those, what are they, along the beach, open-side-thatched-roof-bar-type things. He introduced me to a little dark-haired cutie-pie young enough to be someone he just delivered. His wife, he called her. The only good joke he ever told.

(Lindy raises her champagne glass.)

LINDY: A toast: To the Book Circle.

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ADAM: And all that came of it! (They click glasses) Tattinger. You remembered.

LINDY: I did? Oh . . . (Then) Remembered what?

ADAM: My favorite champagne.

LINDY: It’s the little touches that do a perfect hostess make.

ADAM: You didn’t remember?

LINDY: I’m sure I did. Sub-thing-a-mally. You’ve barely touched your fish.

ADAM: Ditto your meat.

(They take bites with awkward movements.)

LINDY: How is it?

ADAM: My fish is fine. How’s your meat?

LINDY: Good, actually. Quite succulent and, um—tender—(Hearing innuendo) Oh dear, oh dear, Adam Penzius!

ADAM: Your nose still turns red when you blush.

LINDY (Busying herself with food): So tell me all about yourself. How’s your—you know, everything, life. You talk while I eat, then we’ll switch ’round and I’ll provide the ambient sound while you tackle your fish. How’s that for a plan?

ADAM: You haven’t changed, Lindy.

LINDY: It’s a little warm though, isn’t it? The hotel said they’re testing a new air-conditioning system . . . I’ll open a window, why don’t I do that, I’ll just—Aren’t you warm? Aren’t I babbling?

ADAM: I guess we’re nervous.

LINDY: A little.

ADAM: Understandably.

LINDY: I’ll just / It is warm . . .

(She goes to the window. Adam rises.)

—A boy was it? How old?

(Adam almost calls her on this, testing her memory, but then takes his jacket from the bed and removes some photos. She turns. They’re awkwardly close together.)

ADAM (Showing her a photo): Roo.

LINDY: Roo? For Rudolf ?

ADAM: For Roo. As in “Kanga and—” From Winnie the Pooh. He curls up in my lap at breakfast, snuggles under my bathrobe like a baby kangaroo.

LINDY: He’s ten?

ADAM: Clinging to his youth. Greg’s his name; Gregory.

(They are inches apart, Lindy feels a wave of something and moves back to the table.)

What were yours again?

LINDY: Same as before: Doug and Willy.

ADAM (Manly voice): That’s right: “The Guys.”

(He returns to the table with h...

Table of contents

• OTHER BOOKS BY MICHAEL WELLER PUBLISHED BY TCG
• Title Page
• Dedication
• DO NOT DISTURB
• FIFTY WORDS
• SIDE EFFECTS
• AFTERWORD
• Copyright Page