The Final Version of The Scene
With Subtext Under The Dialogue

THE PLAYWRITING SEMINARS > CONTENT > SUBTEXT > EXAMPLE > DEMO 1-A > DEMO 1-B > DEMO 1-C

'Well, what I really wanted to do [in THE DYING GAUL] was to write a tragedy. There have been many critical discussions about whether it's possible to write a tragedy within our culture since we don't believe in fate the way the Greeks did nor in tragic heroes the way the Elizabethans did. So I tailored the idea of a tragedy to my own sensibility, creating a character who is potentially noble -- in my view, not Shakespeare's or Arthur Miller's view -- and then I constructed a sequence of events that lead to this character losing his soul, which is my idea of a tragedy.'

-- Craig Lucas

				SCENE 1

				(The two of them in the Family
				Room. 2:00 a.m. and the smoke
				still curls in the aftermath.)

				NIKKI
	So? 

				STU
	What? 
			(Pause)
	They're just not people you like. Nobody's people
	you like.
 
				NIKKI
	Is that all you can say? 
			(Pause)
	After this . . .

				STU
			(Interrupting)
	Nik . . .

				NIKKI
	Don't call me that.

				STU
	It's just a nickname.

				NIKKI
			(Exploding)
	You make me sound like a man! Is that what you want?
				
			(Blackout.)