The Starry Messenger

Kenneth Lonergan

• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781848428768
• eBook ISBN: 9781788501897
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: American Drama
• Index: Literature

Mark Williams is tired of his marriage and tired of his job teaching astronomy at the Hayden Planetarium in New York City. Angela Vasquez is a young single mother training to be a nurse. Norman Ketterly is fighting for his life in a cancer ward.

Their intertwining stories unspool under a canopy of stars too vast to imagine and too beautiful to comprehend, especially when the travails of life on Earth threaten to blot it out.

Kenneth Lonergan's play The Starry Messenger is a bittersweet exploration of love, hope and the mysteries of the cosmos. It premiered in New York in 2009, and received its UK premiere at Wyndham's Theatre, London, in May 2019, featuring Matthew Broderick and Elizabeth McGovern.

ACT ONE

Scene One

A classroom in the basement of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City, September of 1996.

A slide appears of the Earth, seen from space. MARK WILLIAMS speaks in the semi-dark. He is in his forties. He has dressed with care for his class.

MARK. This of course, is our own Earth. Rather distinctive. Very easy to recognize. (Pointing.) Here’s my house. Here’s the Planetarium…

The class laughs politely. Another slide: the Earth rising above the surface of the Moon.

And of course, the famous shot of the Earth rising above the lunar surface taken by the rather… fortunate Apollo astronauts. A much more imposing sight than our view of the Moon, the Earth appears four times larger in the lunar sky than the Moon appears in ours…

MRS PYSNER, one of the students, raises her hand.

MRS PYSNER. Question? Question?

MARK. I hear a question from the dark. Yes?

MRS PYSNER. Yes – Yes – Now – Why is that? (Pause)

MARK. Why is…

MRS PYSNER. Why does the Earth appear larger than the Moon?

MARK. Well… Because the Earth is indeed… four times larger.

MRS PYSNER. But – I – Aren’t they the same distance from each other?

MARK. Um, yes – Yes they are.

MRS PYSNER. So why don’t they… I don’t understand.

MARK (not sure what problem is). Well… since the Earth is larger than the Moon, and the distance between them is a relatively constant one, naturally the larger celestial body appears… larger.

MRS PYSNER (unconvinced). I see.

MARK. All right?

MRS PYSNER (unconvinced). Yeah…

A blank slide.

MARK. Just a moment…

He fiddles with the projector trigger.

If I can get this to… we’ll move on to Mars, which is the next planet out from the Sun…

Another blank slide.

…lf we can find it…

A slide of a woman posing in front of a scenic view.

I beg your pardon. This is my wife. Not, of course, the planet Mars.

The class laughs.

Somehow seem to have gotten these… there we are.

A slide of Mars.

The planet Mars. The Red Planet. Ares, God of War:

MRS PYSNER. Question?

MARK. Yes.

MRS PYSNER. Now… Mars is a planet? Or a moon?

MARK. Mars is a planet, like our own Earth. Planets go around, or orbit, stars – such as our own Sun. Moons go around, or orbit, planets.

MRS PYSNER. And Mars… goes around…

MARK. The Sun.

There is a big laugh from the classroom next door to them. IAN, a young man in his early twenties, raises his hand.

IAN. Professor Williams?

MARK. Yes.

IAN. Yeah, can I ask like what determined the actual size of the planets when the Solar System was being formed? I mean, what actually caused the differentiation between the sizes of the Earth and Mars and Jupiter. Was it just totally random? Or was there some kind of relationship between the elements the planets are made of and their eventual size?

MARK. Well, we can – we’ll be getting to that, uh, later on, when we discuss the formation of the Solar System – But let’s not get ahead of ourselves –

IAN. Oh, okay.

MARK. But it’s an excellent question, and we’ll – try to answer it – uh, when we get to that – uh – area.

IAN. Okay.

Another big laugh from next door.

MARK. Ah. That is our intermediate course, taught by my colleague Arnold Stanton, who has a rather unique teaching style. In any case, you will be hearing this periodically. Don’t let it interfere with, uh…

Another big laugh.

…with your enjoyment of my hilarious remarks.

MARK’s class laughs slightly.

Some of you may be familiar with Arnold from his regular contributions to Natural History magazine, and Astronomy magazine, of course… In any case. Now: we have some rather spectacular photographs of the Martian surface, of the actual surface of Mars, courtesy of the Viking mission which as you may know set down an unmanned spacecraft on the surface of the red planet and took these rather incredible color photographs.

Slides of the Martian surface.

Isn’t that wonderful?

He clicks through a few more of the Viking photos. The slide projector goes off, the lights go on.

Well, I see we are out of time for this week. I will see you all next week. We will be covering the fundamentals of astronomy – covering the basics of our present-day knowledge about the nature of our planet, our Solar System, the galaxy, the universe.

There’s no homework required, of course. No exams, no surprise quizzes, no public humiliation –

The class laughs politely.

We assume you are here at the Planetarium for the pleasure of acquiring new knowledge. And we have a pretty good turnout this year, very gratifying… Um, sixteen of you in this section, I think… Um, let’s see. Oh – it’s eighteen, actually. In any case, I hope you find the course enjoyable. And I’ll see you next week.

The students rise. MRS PYSNER and IAN start gathering their belongings as MARK fusses with his slide projector.

MRS PYSNER (loud whisper). I think he’s kind of boring, don’t you?

The students exit. MARK stands there, having overheard this remark. He starts packing his slides. ARNOLD STANTON, forties, sticks his head in the door.

ARNOLD. Hey. Want to get a beer?

MARK. Oh. No. Thanks, Arnold. Anne’s expecting me.

ARNOLD. Okay. Good group?

MARK. Yes. They seem nice.

ARNOLD. Great. Great. Hey, I heard you got pretty close on that thing with Herschel.

MARK. Oh. Well. It was more of an exercise than anything else. But I certainly enjoyed making the rounds.

ARNOLD. You know who they hired?

MARK. I do. His name is, uh, Ben Rothberg. He was a grad student of mine, oh, fifteen years ago it must have been, back in New Haven…

ARNOLD. Yeah, no, I heard. I know Ben.

MARK. He’s a very sharp guy. I think they made a good decision. I didn’t actually expect to be seriously considered.

ARNOLD. Well, sure you don’t want to grab a beer?

MARK. No thanks. I should really get home. Thursday.

ARNOLD. Okay. Hey, how’s your mom holding up, okay?

MARK. She’s fine…

ARNOLD. Yeah. God. I guess we’re gettin’ to that age.

MARK. Yes… I’m afraid so…

ARNOLD. All right. Give my best to Anne.

MARK. I’ll see you later, Arnold.

ARNOLD goes out, past ANGELA VASQUEZ, who stands in the doorway now. She is in her late twenties/early thirties. She wears a raincoat over office clothes.

MARK. Yes. Hello?

ANGELA. Hi, I’m sorry. Is this the six-thirty astronomy class?

MARK. It was. Can I help you?

ANGELA. Yeah, is this where you sign up to take the course?

MARK. Um, no. No it’s not. You have to call the Planetarium in the daytime and they’ll give you all the information.

MARK. But if you like I’d be happy to – That’s all right.

ANGELA. But can I just ask – I’m sorry:

ANGELA. Can I just ask, what level the...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title page
• Contents
• Introduction
• Original Production
• Characters, Setting, Time
• The Starry Messenger
• About the Author
• Copyright and Performing Rights Information