Three One-Act Plays: Riverside Drive Old Saybrook Central Park West - Softcover

Allen, Woody

 
9780812972443: Three One-Act Plays: Riverside Drive Old Saybrook Central Park West
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0812972449 ISBN 13: 9780812972443
Verlag: Random House Publishing Group, 2004

Inhaltsangabe

Three delightful one-act plays set in and around New York, in which sophisticated characters confound one another in ways only Woody Allen could imagine

Woody Allen’s first dramatic writing published in years, “Riverside Drive,” “Old Saybrook,” and “Central Park West” are humorous, insightful, and unusually readable plays about infidelity. The characters, archetypal New Yorkers all, start out talking innocently enough, but soon the most unexpected things arise—and the reader enjoys every minute of it (though not all the characters do).

These plays (successfully produced on the New York stage and in regional theaters on the East Coast) dramatize Allen’s continuing preoccupation with people who rationalize their actions, hide what they’re doing, and inevitably slip into sexual deception—all of it revealed in Allen’s quintessentially pell-mell dialogue.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Woody Allen writes and directs. He lives in New York.

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Three delightful one-act plays set in and around New York, in which sophisticated characters confound one another in ways only Woody Allen could imagine
Woody Allen's first dramatic writing published in years, "Riverside Drive," "Old Saybrook," and "Central Park West" are humorous, insightful, and unusually readable plays about infidelity. The characters, archetypal New Yorkers all, start out talking innocently enough, but soon the most unexpected things arise--and the reader enjoys every minute of it (though not all the characters do).
These plays (successfully produced on the New York stage and in regional theaters on the East Coast) dramatize Allen's continuing preoccupation with people who rationalize their actions, hide what they're doing, and inevitably slip into sexual deception--all of it revealed in Allen's quintessentially pell-mell dialogue.

Aus dem Klappentext

Three delightful one-act plays set in and around New York, in which sophisticated characters confound one another in ways only Woody Allen could imagine

Woody Allens first dramatic writing published in years, Riverside Drive, Old Saybrook, and Central Park West are humorous, insightful, and unusually readable plays about infidelity. The characters, archetypal New Yorkers all, start out talking innocently enough, but soon the most unexpected things ariseand the reader enjoys every minute of it (though not all the characters do).

These plays (successfully produced on the New York stage and in regional theaters on the East Coast) dramatize Allens continuing preoccupation with people who rationalize their actions, hide what theyre doing, and inevitably slip into sexual deceptionall of it revealed in Allens quintessentially pell-mell dialogue.

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Chapter 1

Curtain rises on a gray day in New York. There might even be some hint of fog. The setting suggests a secluded spot by the embankment of the Hudson River where one can lean over the rail, watch the boats and see the New Jersey shoreline. Probably the West Seventies or Eighties.

Jim Swain, a writer, somewhere between forty and fifty, is waiting nervously, checking his watch, pacing, trying a number on his cellular phone to no response. He’s obviously waiting to meet someone.

He rubs his hands together, checks for some drizzle and perhaps pulls his jacket up a bit as he feels at least a damp mist.

Presently, a large, homeless man, unshaven, a street dweller of approximately Jim’s age, drifts on with a kind of eye on Jim. His name is Fred.

Fred eventually drifts closer to Jim, who has become increasingly aware of his presence and, while not exactly afraid, is wary of being in a desolate area with a large, unsavory type. Add to this that Jim wants his rendezvous with whomever he is waiting for to be very private. Finally, Fred engages him.

fred

Rainy day.

(Jim nods, agreeing but not wanting to encourage conversation.)

A drizzle.

(Jim nods with a wan smile.)

Or should I say mizzle—mist and drizzle.

jim

Um.

fred

(pause)

Look at how fast the current’s moving. You throw your cap into the river it’ll be out in the open sea in twenty minutes.

jim

(begrudging but polite)

Uh-huh . . .

fred

(pause)

The Hudson River travels three hundred and fifteen miles beginning in the Adirondacks and emptying finally into the vast Atlantic Ocean.

jim

Interesting.

fred

No it’s not. Ever wonder what it’d be like if the current ran in the opposite direction?

jim

I haven’t actually.

fred

Chaos—the world would be out of sync. You throw your cap in it’d get carried up to Poughkeepsie rather than out to sea.

jim

Yes . . . well . . .

fred

Ever been to Poughkeepsie?

jim

What?

fred

Ever been to Poughkeepsie?

jim

Me?

fred

(looks around; they’re alone)

Who else?

jim

Why do you ask?

fred

It’s a simple question.

jim

If I was in Poughkeepsie?

fred

Were you?

jim

(considers the question, decides he’ll answer)

No, I haven’t. OK?

fred

So if you haven’t, why are you so guilty?

jim

Look, I’m a little preoccupied.

fred

You don’t come here often, do you?

jim

Why?

fred

Interesting.

jim

What do you want? Are you going to hit me up for a touch? Here, here’s a buck.

fred

Hey—I only asked if you came here often.

jim

(getting impatient)

No. I’m meeting someone. I have a lot on my mind.

fred

What a day you picked.

jim

I didn’t know it would be this nasty.

fred

Don’t you watch the weather on TV? Christ, it seems that all they talk about is the goddamn weather. You really care on Riverside Drive if there are gusty winds in the Appalachian Valley? I mean, Jesus, gimme a break.

jim

Well, it was nice talking to you.

fred

Look—you can hardly see Jersey—there’s such a fog.

jim

It’s OK. It’s a blessing . . .

fred

Right. I don’t like it any better than you do.

jim

Actually I’m joking—I’m being

fred

Frivolous? . . . Flippant?

jim

Mildly sarcastic.

fred

It’s understandable.

jim

It is?

fred

Knowing how I feel about Montclair.

jim

How would I know how you feel about Montclair?

fred

I won’t even bother to comment on that.

jim

Er—yeah—well—I’d like to get back to my thoughts.

(Looks at watch.)

fred

What time you expect her?

jim

What are you talking about? Please leave me alone.

fred

It’s a free country. I can stay here and stare at New Jersey if I want.

jim

Fine. But don’t talk to me.

fred

Don’t answer.

jim

(takes out cell phone)

Hey look, do you want me to call the police?

fred

And tell them what?

jim

That you’re harassing me—aggressive panhandling.

fred

Suppose I took that cell phone and tossed it right into the river. Twenty minutes it’d be carried off into the Atlantic. Of course, if the current ran the other way it’d wind up in Poughkeepsie. Do I mean Poughkeepsie or Tarrytown?

jim

(a bit scared and angry)

I’ve been to Tarrytown in case you were going to ask me that next.

fred

Where’d you stay there?

jim

Pocantico Hills. I used to live there. Is that OK with you?

fred

Now they call it Sleepy Hollow—sounds better for the tourists.

jim

Uh-huh.

fred

Cash in on all that Ichabod Crane crap. Rip Van Winkle. It’s all packaging.

jim

Look—I was deep in thought

fred

Hey—we’re talking literature. You’re a writer.

jim

How do you know that?

fred

C’mon—it’s me.

jim

Are you going to tell me you can tell because of my costume?

fred

You’re in costume?

jim

It’s the tweed jacket and the corduroys, right?

fred

Jean-Paul Sartre said that after the age of thirty a man is responsible for his own face.

jim

Camus said that.

fred

Sartre.

jim

Camus. Sartre said a man assumes the traits of his occupation—a waiter will gradually walk like a waiter—a bank clerk gestures like one—because they want to become things.

fred

But you’re not a thing.

jim

I try not to be.

fred

Because it’s safe to be a thing—because things don’t perish. Like The Wall—the men being executed want to become one with the wall they’re put up in front of—to lose themselves in the stone—to become solid, permanent, to endure, in other words, to live, to be alive.

jim

(considers him—then)

I’d love to discuss this with you another time.

fred

Good, when?

jim

Right now I’m a little busy . . .

fred

Well, when? You want to have lunch, I’m free all week.

jim

I don’t really know.

fred

I wrote a funny thing based on Irving.

jim

Irving who?

fred

Washington Irving—remember? We had talked about Ichabod Crane.

jim

I didn’t know we were back on that.

fred

The headless horseman is doomed to ride the countryside, holding his head under his arm. He was a German soldier killed in the war.

jim

A Hessian.

fred

So he rides right into an all-night drugstore and the head says—I have a terrible headache—and the druggist says, here, take these two Extra Strength Excedrin—and the body pays for them and helps the head take two. And then we cut to them later in the night, riding over a bridge, and the head says, I feel great—the headache is gone—I’m a new man—and then the body begins to get sad and thinks how unlucky he is because if he gets a backache, he can’t find relief, not being attached to...

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Verlag
Random House Publishing Group
Erscheinungsdatum
2004
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0812972449
ISBN 13 
9780812972443
Einband
Taschenbuch
Auflage
1
Anzahl der Seiten
224
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