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Billy Nobody

Characters

Billy:
Male, early 40's, an agoraphobic, a charmer, highly eccentric
Aurora:
Female, early 40's, maybe older, an artist's model, a traveler, flashy and wild, unruly hair, unruly mind
Emily:
Female, Billy's ex-wife
Emily's lawyer:
Male
Billy's landlord:
Male
Mrs. Sagerson:
Elderly female, Billy's clairvoyant piano teacher, quite demented

Set

All scenes take place in Billy's apartment, lower Westside Manhattan

Production history

Produced by the Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Washington D.C., fall 1992, directed by Howard Shalwitz.

Nominated for a Helen Hayes award for "Best New Play."

The Story

As the action opens Billy and Aurora, whom Billy has just met, return to Billy's apartment after Aurora has "rescued" him from the streets (Billy is an agoraphobic and has serious panic attacks whenever he has to leave his apartment). Aurora, a reformed "party-girl" (she invented the hors d'oeuvre), is attracted to Billy (the last man in the world with innocent eyes), who is her emotional opposite. She travels endlessly and compulsively (London, Paris, Madrid); he stays at home. He is a profound introvert; she is an extravagant extrovert. He is a virgin; she is experienced (she invented the fuck).

During the play Billy is besieged by visits from his landlord, his ex-wife, and her lawyer, all of whom make endless demands for money and his attention. He is also besieged by his piano teacher who threatens to cut off his fingers because Billy can't find his piano.

This is a play in an absurdist mode. It is about the search for intimacy in a world fraught with hostility. It is about the search for "freedom" by characters (Billy and Aurora) who are "trapped" by their past, their habits, their personalities, and their language. The texture of the dialogue is the play's best synopsis: the characters seem to be talking to themselves even though they are trying their best to communicate, and, perhaps, in the end, Aurora and Billy actually do.

Download full play here

The Dialogue

Aurora:
Honey, look. [indicating] This is where Kenny Lombardi stabbed me one night when he was drunk and I was drunk...
Billy:
I think you're really nice.
Aurora:
...and here is where Jimmy Hillyer slashed me with a broken bottle the night he found out I'd been sleeping with his brother...
Billy:
I think you're the nicest person I've ever met.
Aurora:
...and this arm was broken by a guy named Pete whose last name I never knew...
Billy:
Would you like to see my birth certificate? [He stands and crosses to his bureau to get his birth certificate] My mother was in labor for three days.
Aurora:
I don't want to disappoint you.
Billy:
My mother was screaming, I was screaming...
Aurora:
I don't want to hurt you.
Billy:
[Showing her the birth certificate] See, they made a print of my little foot right after I was born.
Aurora:
[Taking the birth certificate] Honey, this is your whole problem, right here, this piece of paper...
Billy:
They thought that if I died at least there'd be a print of my little foot...
Aurora:
...because they stuck you with the piece of paper thing and the name thing and the identity thing.... And then they put you through the agony of developing a personality, and then you've got the personality, and then you're stuck with the personality, and, honey, that's the beginning of despair.
Billy:
I'm a nobody.
Aurora:
Honey, everybody's a nobody.
Billy:
You don't like my little foot.
Aurora:
It's the Age of the Nobody.
Billy:
You don't like my little foot.
Aurora:
It's a beautiful little foot.
Billy:
I wanted to show it to you.
Aurora:
[Starts to cry] It's a beautiful little foot.
I really like you.
It's a beautiful little foot. [She starts sobbing]