Five Plays. Samuel D. Hunter

looks away from Eddie. Pause.)

      EDDIE: It’s not your fault, Mom, it’s no one’s fault, it’s just . . . (Pause) I never knew you felt that way.

      DORIS: Well. You’ve always just seemed so unhappy.

       (Pause.)

      EDDIE: I am unhappy, Mom. But it doesn’t have anything to do with—.

       (Silence.)

       You remember Great-Grandpa’s old place?

       (Pause. Doris looks at him.)

      DORIS: Well, of course I remember it—

      EDDIE: I still go there sometimes. And I sit there for a while, and I think about Great-Grandpa. Coming up here from Utah, homesteading, farming the land for the first time, and it’s so— . . . For a second or two, I feel like I’m—here. Here.

       (Pause.)

       But then I have to leave because it’s not our land anymore, and I get back in my car and I drive back to my apartment complex, and all I can think is—there’s the Starbucks. The Walmart. The Burger King. The Wendy’s. The Staples. The Kmart. The Best Buy. The McDonalds. The Safeway. The Home Depot. The Olive Garden.

       (Silence.)

       I don’t know where I live anymore, Mom.

       (Long silence. Doris looks at him. Finally:)

      DORIS: Is the Alfredo lumpy?

       (Pause.)

      EDDIE: No, I—I just made it.

       (Doris slowly moves her chair to the table. Eddie serves her some fettuccine Alfredo. Doris and Eddie begin to eat together.)

      DORIS: You know Dorothy and Hugh’s son, Donald? He’s—like you. Maybe you should meet him.

      EDDIE: He is?

      DORIS: Yes. I think so. Maybe he just seems it, he’s always wearing these pants.

      EDDIE: Oh. I haven’t seen him for years.

      DORIS: Well. Maybe you should— . . . (Pause) I ran into them a couple days ago. Dorothy and Hugh, I mean.

      EDDIE: Oh yeah?

      DORIS: Yes. (Pause) They just went to Egypt or something, it’s—. (Pause) The places they travel to. They showed me pictures. It looks so hot.

      EDDIE: Sure.

       (Pause.)

      DORIS: Their daughter. You remember her?

      EDDIE: I think so.

      DORIS: What’s her name?

      EDDIE: Um. Ellen?

      DORIS: No that’s not it. Anyway, she’s doing well. She lives in Montana, I guess she got married last year.

      EDDIE: Oh.

       (Eddie begins break down a bit, but continues eating.)

      DORIS: It sounds like the whole family is doing very well. You know who else moved to Montana, that boy Greg from your class.

      EDDIE: What—what was his last name?

      DORIS: Oh I knew you’d ask me that, I’m not sure. I think he was in your class. Blonde, sort of skinny?

      EDDIE: I’m not sure.

      DORIS: I think you’d recognize him. Can you pass me that water?

       (Eddie passes her a pitcher of water. She fills her glass.)

       He married another girl from your class, but I don’t remember her name at all. Anyway they moved to Billings, I think it was. They’re both accountants, I guess. Do you want some?

      EDDIE: No, thanks.

       (Eddie is desperately holding back tears at this point. Doris notices but doesn’t say anything.)

      DORIS: His parents go to our church now, they’re very nice. They helped me with the bakesale last week.

      EDDIE: Oh.

      DORIS: It was nice of them. I swear we didn’t sell more than two brownies, though, felt sort of like a waste of time. Waste of food, at the least. We ended up giving it to the Meals on Wheels people, I have no idea if they’re going to be able to use it. But, you know, it’s—. It was nice to . . .

       (Eddie is now silently crying. He looks down at his plate. Doris stops eating, looks at him. Silence.)

       I’m here, Eddie. All right?

       (Pause.)

       I’m here.

       (Eddie looks up at her. Black.)

      END OF PLAY

       The Few

      PRODUCTION HISTORY

      The Few received its world premiere at The Old Globe (Barry Edelstein, Artistic Director; Michael Murphy, Managing Director) in San Diego, on October 3, 2013. It was directed by Davis McCallum. The set design was by Dane Laffrey, the costume design was by Jessica Pabst, the lighting design was by Matt Frey, the original music and sound design were by Daniel Kluger, and the dramaturgy was by John M. Baker; the production stage manager was Annette Yé. The cast was:

BRYAN	Michael Laurence
QZ	Eva Kaminsky
MATTHEW	Gideon Glick

      The Few received its New York premiere at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater (David Van Asselt, Artistic Director; Brian Long, Managing Director) on May 8, 2014. It was directed by Davis McCallum. The set design was by Dane Laffrey, the costume design was by Jessica Pabst, the lighting design was by Eric Southern, the original music and sound design were by Daniel Kluger, and the dramaturgy was by John M. Baker; the production stage manager was Katharine Whitney. The cast was:

BRYAN	Michael Laurence
QZ	Tasha Lawrence
MATTHEW	Gideon Glick

      The Few was developed with support of the Playwrights’ Center (Jeremy B. Cohen, Producing Artistic Director), South Coast Repertory (Marc Masterson, Artistic Director), Perry-Mansfield New Works Festival (Andrew Leynse, Artistic Director), Williamstown Theatre Festival (Jenny Gersten, Artistic Director), and JAW West at Portland Center Stage (Rose Riordan, Festival Director).

      CHARACTERS

BRYAN	Male, late thirties to mid-forties
QZ	Female, late thirties to mid-forties
MATTHEW	Male, nineteen
TEN MALE VOICES
FIVE FEMALE VOICES

      SETTING

      August 1999.

      The inside of a weathered, paper-littered, unkempt office space off some random exit of I-90 in northern Idaho. The whole room should feel like a manufactured home—maybe even a converted double-wide. There are a few desks with aging desktop computers on top, piles of newspapers, and a sad, dying fern here and there. There are an unseen back room and a bathroom offstage.

      NOTES

      Dialogue written in italics is emphatic, deliberate; dialogue in ALL CAPS is impulsive, explosive.

      A “/” indicates an overlap in dialogue. Whenever a “/” appears, the following line of dialogue should begin.

      Ellipses (. . .) indicate when a character is trailing off, dashes (—) indicate where a character is being cut off, either by another character or themselves.

      There is no intermission.