Lodestar Quarterly

Issue 7 • Fall 2003 • Featured Writer • Drama

My Unknown Son

Daniel Curzon

Scene 5

Scene 5

SON enters, casually dressed in contemporary clothes, looking very ordinary, dressed like FATHER. He's a little nervous, tentative, like FATHER. The scene is realistic.

SON
Well, hello there.

FATHER
Hello.

SON
(ironically) Long time no see.

FATHER
Right...

SON
How goes it?

FATHER
Pretty good. And you?

SON
Pretty good.

Awkward pause between them.

SON
How about this weather we've been having! Something, huh?

FATHER
...I'm sorry it's taken us so long to get to meet. I tried once when you were a baby.

SON
(smiling) Did you? I guess I was too young to remember.

FATHER
Didn't work out.

SON
We're meeting now. Finally.

FATHER
Do you resent me?

SON
Resent you?... I'm working on it. A lot of fathers and sons spend all their lives together, and they still find it hard to talk.

FATHER
It's a real problem. Would you like a cup of --

SON
-- There's a little coffee shop down the street. I don't have to get back for -- for a while.

FATHER
Let's go then.

SON
I must say I've been pretty curious about you.

FATHER
(smiles) Me too, about you. Boy, have I been curious.

SON
You seem nice.

FATHER
So do you. Are you?

SON
I guess I'm reasonably together. As much as anybody. (He shrugs, grins.)

FATHER
I've worried about you. I've wanted... But never mind what I wanted. Tell me about yourself, the way you are.

SON
Have a job. Like to sail. Nothing too creepy about me -- I think. Except that I want to be a writer.

FATHER
Being a writer isn't that easy a profession.

SON
But Mom told me you're a writer!

FATHER
(quietly so that MIDWIFE won't hear) Now I know I said I wouldn't try to influence you, but this is different! Do you really want it? The rejection slips, the bad reviews after all your work?

SON
Yeah, I want it. Really want it.

FATHER
It doesn't pay. It -- (secretly pleased) A writer, huh? Well. Maybe I can give you a few tips. But only if you want it.

SON
(excited) Would you like to start with a seven-hundred-page novel I'm working on?

FATHER
(jokingly) Now I can't really encourage you in this...

They start to leave, take a few steps. Each gestures for the other to go first, like "After you, Alphonse." Then both stop, half-turn toward each other, uncertain.

FATHER
How about that hug I never got to give you?

SON hesitates. Then they hug. It's a strong, full hug.

SON
(fighting back tears) Dad!

FATHER
(also fighting tears, sincerely) My boy! My baby!

They hug, both happy and sad. It should be done realistically and touchingly.

SON
(looking at himself and FATHER as he pulls away, tears in his eyes) Dad, this is schmaltz. We've got to work on it.

MIDWIFE enters, looks at them, smiles.

MIDWIFE
(calling to FATHER) Hey, you!

FATHER
(a bit afraid) What? What now?

MIDWIFE
Here's your book on the history of theater for Random House. You finished it!

FATHER
I did? When?

MIDWIFE
(teasing) I ghostwrote it.

FATHER
No, you didn't!

MIDWIFE
Show it to your kid. (She throws it to FATHER; he catches it) I think he'll like it.

FATHER
Okay, I will! (Shows it to SON)

MIDWIFE and SON
(waving goodbye to FATHER as they start to exit) See how easy art is!

FATHER
Thanks, Art! (TO MIDWIFE) Thank you! (then waving to SON) See ya later, kid! (wipes sweat from his brow, smiles) Whew!

MIDWIFE and SON exit.

FATHER holds up the finished book in triumph, now back in real time. FATHER relaxes.

Lights out.

END OF PLAY

All Pages:   See the entire play on one page

Table of Contents:   My Unknown Son

Daniel Curzon's works include the landmark gay protest novel Something You Do in the Dark (1971), The World Can Break Your Heart (1984), Superfag (1996), Only the Good Parts (1998), and Not Necessarily Nice: Stories (1999) as well as the play Godot Arrives (winner of the 1999 National New Play Contest). He has also written and published non-gay fiction and plays.

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