tumbledry

A Play in Two Acts

Act I.

Scene 1. Saturday. The curtain rises to reveal Alex hunkered down over an organic chemistry book, solution manual, notecards and notes. He sighs and pushes his hair back from his forehead. He needs a haircut. The modification of the Wittig recation makes sense, but he wonders if he’ll be able to keep it straight from the 20 other reaction/reagent combinations he has to keep straight.

Scene 2. Sunday. Early morning light streams across the stage, illuminating Alex intently staring at his notes. Hours pass. In the evening, Alex’s glasses pop open, leaving only one lens. Inches from the desk, he reviews and reviews his summaries of the sections, trying to get it all straight.

Act II.

Scene 1. An alarm rings in a darkened room. Alex grabs it and mashes the buttons until it finally ceases its ringing. After some time, he crawls out of bed and gets ready for the day.

Scene 2. Alex shovels food in, checking his watch so he is not late for his first class. Two guys sit close by, talking about all the snow that fell last night and the big drifts that have accumulated.
Guy 1: “You know class is cancelled today.”
Alex: [mishearing] “No, I don’t think so, class is never cancelled around here.”
Guy 1: “No, really - I saw you rushing but … there’s no class today.”
Alex: !!!!!!!

Scene 3. An acoustic, hopeful, inspiring song (I am thinking Damien Rice’s “Older Chests” off of the album O) slowly increases volume on the stage as Alex walks along a snowy street, smiling at all the extra time he has to study with. Exit all, with snow continuing to fall as the lights fade out.

Like time, there’s always time
On my mind
So pass me by, I’ll be fine
Just give me time

8 comments left

Comments

John

In which act does Alex perish after a brutal battle with an annoying snowflake?

Nils

Norway never has snow days. I am Jack's bitter jealousy.

Nils

That was a reference to Fight Club by the way. It's one of my favorite movies of all time. Just wanted to put that out there.

Alexander Micek

I caught the Fight Club reference! Good reference.

Dan McKeown

hmm, I dont think you needed to say reference a second time there Alex. It seemed a bit redundant.

Alexander Micek

Referentially, it was a bit self-referential. But all things referred, it really could be referring to other references, referentially speaking.

Nils

The point Alex makes really points to some good points about referentially refering to points that have been referred to already

Dan McKeown

well, that certainly illustrates the diversity of the word

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