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Walls of Glass

Characters

Alexa:
Female, early fifties. An extravagant extrovert, who wears stylish black clothing (very Donna Karan) and black high-heeled shoes with ankle-straps and peek-a-boo openings at the toes.
Raul:
Male, late fifties, Alexa’s husband. A more cautious, gentle introvert, who wears stylish black clothing (very Giorgio Armani), and has partially graying black wavy hair and dark liquid eyes.
Serena:
Female, twenties/early thirties, very attractive. A design consultant, who wears stylish black clothing (very Dolce & Gabbana) and black high-heeled shoes with ankle-straps and peek-a-boo openings at the toes.
Mario:
Male, mid-thirties, very attractive. A design consultant, who wear sstylish black clothing (very Hugo Boss).
Dr. Bentwood
Female, sixties/seventies, an "environmental therapist," who wears serviceable black clothing and sensible shoes (very Soviet Union).

Setting

A full-floor condominium on the 29th floor of a new 50 story, glass-sided high-rise. The space has not been built out: it’s clean, open, expansive, beautiful. Although unstated, Manhattan is the play’s obvious location.

Production history

  • Finalist, Eugene O'Neill Playwrights Festival, 2004
  • Staged reading, Magic Theatre, San Francisco, April 2007.

The Story

Having unexpectedly come into substantial money, Alexa and Raul buy a floor-through condo on the 29th floor of a newly-built glass-sided high-rise. Choosing not to build out the space immediately, but rather to "camp out" in it and explore the possibilities, they engage the services of Serena and Mario, attractive young design consultants, and Dr. Bentwood, a mysterious "environmental therapist." With a comically-stylized, absurdist edge, the play follows Alexa and Raul's efforts to create within their glass walls the spirit of Pompeii's House of the Tragic Poet. The action follows the emotional convolutions of Raul and Alexa's relationship, the marriage-threatening anxiety of creating their "dream space," their sexually-charged tango with Serena and Mario, and the stresses and spiritual confusion of a voyeuristic, exhibitionistic life behind the walls of glass of a post-9/11 world.

Download full play here

The Dialogue

Raul
It was an awful day, darling, an awful night, and then an awful day…Meetings from nine, with numbers, an entire day of numbers, rows and columns of numbers, footnotes of numbers, five-year projections, cost-modeling scenarios, budget analyses…. I hate numbers, I can’t bear numbers, and I needed to go to the bathroom and you can’t go to the bathroom because everybody would know you were going to the bathroom and none of them has to go to the bathroom… In the corporate world today you are not allowed to pee…no one pees…you’re not supposed to take the time to pee, you’re not even supposed to have a bladder.
Alexa
I really think you should try Celexa, I like Celexa… no distortion, no dry mouth…Prozac was awful, Zoloft was worse, Paxil made me gain weight…
Raul
Do you think we’ve taken on too much?
Alexa
Welbutrin gave me lockjaw, Effexor made me nauseous
Raul
I worry that maybe we’ve taken on too much…
Alexa
We were miserable, darling, we don’t have to be miserable any more…
Raul
Numbers all day long, footsteps at night.
Alexa
Come here, darling, let me hold you.
Raul
What if I get laid off?
Alexa
You’re not going to get laid off…let me hold you.
Raul
Robertson got laid off, Miss Chang got laid off, and they were numbers people, I’m not a numbers person and the whole world now is numbers that’s the only thing that matters, this binary business, codes, programs, applications… I’m too old, Alexa, too too old.
Alexa
Darling, it doesn’t make any difference if you get laid off, we have money now.
Raul
It’s your money, darling, it’s not my money.
Alexa
It’s our money.
Raul
I’m getting a gut.
Alexa
Darling, let me hold you.
Raul
I don’t want a gut.
Alexa
Come here. [She opens her arms to him]
Raul
I don’t want a double chin.