What I Meant Was by Lucas Craig

Author:Lucas, Craig [Lucas, Craig]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Theatre Communications Group
Published: 2014-09-30T16:00:00+00:00

END OF PLAY

BAD DREAM

To Sarah Schulman

The first performance of Bad Dream was produced by the Atlantic Theater Company as part of their From Love to Sex and Back Again series. It was produced by Hillary Hinckle and broadcast on WBAI radio, May 11, 1992. It was directed by Scott Ziegler and Gordon Hunt. The cast was as follows:

FRANK

Steven Goldstein

MICHAEL

Ray Anthony Thomas

CHARACTERS

FRANK

MICHAEL

TIME AND PLACE

In bed. Early 1990s.

Darkness. Emergency horns blaring: a ship in trouble on the sea; water rushing through vents, shouts. Fade to sound of someone breathing. The breaths comes faster, then a quick expulsion of air and a relaxing of breath: the end of a nightmare.

FRANK : Are you awake? (Pause) Honey? . . .

MICHAEL (From a deep sleep, inaudible) : What’s wrong?

FRANK : I’m having heebie-jeebies.

MICHAEL : Ohhhh . . . it’s okay. (Pause) Tell me . . . (Pause) It’s gonna be great, you’ll see.

FRANK : It won’t.

MICHAEL : You have a bad dream?

FRANK : It was horrible.

MICHAEL : What?

FRANK : No, go to sleep.

MICHAEL : It’s okay . . . What happened?

FRANK : It was all . . . There was like this . . . It was like this horrible engine room . . . It was filling up with water . . . Every time I tried to turn one of these gears or open one of these portals, they were all too small and there was all this, like, grease . . . It was getting hotter and hotter . . . And you had left me these messages which I had written on my stomach or on my chest—how to get out—and I forgot they were there and I wiped my hands, trying to get this goop off and . . . smeared your words.

MICHAEL : Awww. (Pause) Do you . . . ? What do you think the ship represents?

FRANK : I don’t know.

MICHAEL : What are your associations?

FRANK : I don’t know . . . Just tell me.

MICHAEL : Well . . . It’s something large and important . . . You’re trapped inside . . . and it’s sinking . . . What—?

FRANK : The two-party system?

MICHAEL : De doctor thinks dat maybe what you want is for me to write your report for you . . . save your ship from sinking . . .

FRANK : Uh-huh.

MICHAEL : And that you feel bad maybe because you’ve been jerking off . . .

FRANK : Where do you get that?

MICHAEL : Well, Freud feels strongly that in a dream . . . sticky goopy stuff . . .

FRANK : I see.

MICHAEL : —almost always represents sticky goopy stuff. And in light of the fact that we have not been having maybe the amount of necessary activity which . . .

(Good-sized silence.)

FRANK : I left the tape in the VCR. Right?

MICHAEL : . . . Yeah, you did, but—

FRANK : I’m sorry.

MICHAEL : It’s okay, I don’t care.

FRANK : I’m just out of my mind. Nothing makes me feel like . .

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