Hidden Monologue Revealed
'Sometimes I'm not able to find the trajectory of an idea and carry it through to the end. [My director] is a truffle pig to an idea. He just ruts it out.'
-- Jon Robin Baitz
The Monologue pulled out of the dialogue that was concealing it . . .
JOAN
Snow White in Brooks Brothers. And you missed it.
LARKIN
I didn't!
JOAN
Oh, yes you did. You always do.
(Pause.)
LARKIN
We'd come out of the clinic that morning. Biting cold. I'd
forgotten the sound of cold like that. Burgess was oblivious,
as always. We could've been in the West Indies for all it
mattered. Theory and strategy. The Gobi, Hudson's Bay. He
was doing it again with White Alice.
(Pause)
I'm hearing my breath freeze as it comes out. Sun driving
off the snow. I could barely see where he was. After all
those weeks inside. No warmup. "Got back your clearance," he
says. Just ... Bam. Like it was doing laundry. Which for him
I suppose it was. I knew he wasn't doing it for old times,
no matter what you think. "This is my ticket to the Home
Office." That's how he put it. Like everybody gets one.
Above a certain level. Beyond a certain point. So I asked
him, What's my ticket? He stops and he looks at me. I know
that look. And he says, "You don't need one. You've got me."
JOAN
(Gently)
Do you get it now?
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