"Killers and Other Family" by Lucy Thurber

HI.

IT’S SHANNON.

(You know, recently it’s been only me so maybe I should kill that.)

(... Eh.)

(Another time, maybe.)

This is one of my favorite current playwrights working today. The current League of Theatre Women Playwrights Working in New York Right Now (as I concisely call them) is super strong and interesting and writing super cool stuff. Annie Baker is one of them, as is this amazing woman: Lucy Thurber. Many of Lucy Thurber’s plays kind of work like: “take someone you probably grew up next door to and then imagine if their lives were super fucked.” Her characters are wounded and dynamic and strong and very, very interesting. I highly recommend not just this play but Ashville and Scarcity, as well. Check her out. It’s real.

KILLERS AND OTHER FAMILY

by Lucy Thurber

This play is about a woman who has finally escaped from her past only to have it walk in her front door. Elizabeth is a Ph.D candidate two weeks from finishing her dissertation, living with her girlfriend, Claire. Elizabeth’s brother, Jeff knocks on the door unexpectedly with their childhood friend Danny in tow. Elizabeth is enraged that Jeff has brought Danny into her home, and it’s revealed that Danny continually raped her when she was younger, and that Jeff knew about this. Jeff begs Elizabeth for money -- the two boys are on the run because Danny has killed a woman, and they’re headed to Mexico to escape. He goes into the bedroom to sleep and Danny and Elizabeth have sex -- the consensuality is confused at best. End Act 1. In Act 2, Claire comes home, surprised to find people in her apartment but thrilled to finally meet Elizabeth’s “family and friends.” She and Danny have a conversation in which she’s revealed to be a suburban child of privilege: a sharp contrast to the rural poverty Elizabeth grew up in. The meeting of the four escalates, and Elizabeth reveals both her past with Danny and what transpired that morning. Claire attempts to leave, and Jeff bars the door as Danny jumps her in jealousy over Elizabeth’s love. Elizabeth pulls him off, calms him down, and finally convinces him to leave and turn himself in. Jeff leaves with him, and Elizabeth and Claire huddle on the couch. End of play.

It’s hard to read

Everyone is desperate

The stakes are very, very high.

So we’re looking at our protagonist

ELIZABETH

Elizabeth is in the middle of a crisis -- she’s managed to wrestle her way out of poverty into education and a life she can be proud of, and her past has waltzed its way into her apartment. She knows at this point that Danny has killed someone, and she’s just revealed to Claire that she has slept with Danny again, earlier that day. Everyone (Jeff, Danny, Claire) is in the room, and tensions are high. Elizabeth loves Danny -- like a smoker who has stopped smoking but suddenly has a cigarette -- her relationship to him is like an addiction that she knows is unhealthy but has no power over once he’s in the room, and it all has to do with her past. Claire has just confronted Elizabeth with a clear question: “What’s going on here?” and “What is the shit going on between you and this guy?”

ELIZABETH: I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I’m gonna make them leave, I promise,I will -- you have to give me a chance. There’s something wrong with me. Can you see? I never did change. I just moved pieces of me around. It all depends on what you present first and how hard you believe in it.

CLAIRE: Elizabeth --

ELIZABETH: Danny likes to play games. Danny always hated that I went to college. He just wanted me home. I liked college, though, it was my favorite time. Of course, I’m having trouble remembering right now --

CLAIRE: Elizabeth what are you talking about?

ELIZABETH: Oh, I’m sorry. I always talk to you in my head. I’ve been talking to you all day and I already explained everything but -- now when you’re here I don’t know how -- He likes to be told stories. That’s how it always starts. When I was little they were only fairy tales from school… Sometimes when I was little and he would sit me on his lap, I’d pretend his face was mine. If you look at us the right way we look just the same. Of course all I really wanted was for him just to hold me. That’s why I didn’t mind when he started kissing me, because I wanted to be held so badly.

(... long break of conversation between the four of them, but I really like this final line…)

ELIZABETH: You know how scary it is to wake up and find out you’re just where you left yourself? Years and years pass and it’s all just the same. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to do it. I really believed it was impossible for me to do it.

Oof.

I like this monologue. It’s got a good shape to it, is contemporary, and no one knows this play. So good luck! As always, if you use it please buy/read the whole play and post anything you come up with on our page!

Once again, this has been
SOMEONE MONO-BLOGGING

and

I’M SHANNON.

ENJOY!