Free & Proud

Charles Gershman

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781786826039
• eBook ISBN: 9781786826046
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: American Drama
• Index: Social Sciences

Free and Proud dissects the disintegrating relationship between two American men from different backgrounds. Hakeem is an immigrant from Nigeria, a driven, loyal, righteous guy who's worked hard to build a career for himself as a scientist. His husband, Jeremy, is white, privileged, American, lazy, unfaithful, unable to grow up, and wracked with guilt.

The couple seem an odd match, and we see the dishonesty already at the heart of the relationship when they decide to marry. This continues as they begin to grow further apart, showing not only how this couple lose their way, but also how many relationships falter - we can recognise "upsetting and perhaps familiar patterns of partnerships that gradually dissipate over time" (WeeReview).

Free & Proud examines the dynamics of a messy relationship and how sometimes it takes a disaster in order to make sense of the present. It was performed at the Edinburgh Festival in 2018.

1.

The sound of a coach bus on a rural highway.

HAKEEM: We move along the highway

I-81? I am not sure which one –

How to describe this bus to you

It is dark, a little drafty

It’s 8:37 PM

We’re upstate, it’s mid-winter, somewhere around freezing point outside and we’ve been driving through hills though it’s a little better now

The bus is – not full, almost full, there’s at least one passenger in each row and

I’ve been alone in my row

Until about an hour ago

(To new passenger.)

Hello

Would you like the window seat

Are you sure

You’re welcome

It’s no problem

Yeah you can rest your head on my shoulder

No I promise

(To us.)

She’s very sweet

Old black lady

We just stopped in –

(To passenger.)

Where?

(To us.)

Dickson City, wherever that is

The conference was very good, I presented research and You know it goes well when people want to talk to you afterwards. If it goes poorly you’re left alone. It went well.

(To passenger.)

Ithaca

Where Cornell is

I am a professor

Physics

(To us.)

She wants to talk

(To passenger.)

I do think so, yes

Washington Heights. You?

Which part?

Oh I’ve never been there, I will have to go sometime.

2.

JEREMY: Ugh all this shit

Have you ever felt buried – like – buried.

Like under like

Something heavy

So much fucking shit to do

Ugh!

I don’t know where to begin it’s like I’m staring at all these spreadsheets, fucking Excel spreadsheets

We’re just really behind and I don’t deal well when I have too much to do at once. I like to be spoon-fed. Work.

Spoon-fed work not like have it poured down my throat like like like with a, what, a beer bong, or a cement mixer

This is what I’m thinking and then

(Phone rings.)

(Picking up.) Yes

What?

When?

3.

HAKEEM: There is something about the feeling of being in motion, of moving – from one place, say, Point A, to another place, Point B. Of traveling like a line being plotted on a chart – you know, with the X axis and the Y axis – I don’t think this is because I’m a physicist – which I am, yes, thank you, I study theoretical physics, thank you very much, very kind of you – but I am speaking about a sense of inevitability, and – maybe I can articulate this better. If a dot moves at a constant rate in a straight line from Point A to Point B –

There’s no turning back. Because you’re moving forward. And you can’t change that. You are moving in a certain direction at a certain speed away from a certain destination and towards a certain other destination and

Like being on a roller coaster, you get in the car and the car moves and you can’t get out.

Am I being at all clear? It’s been a long conference and I haven’t slept well.

(To passenger.)

Is my shoulder not too hard?

Good, do you mind if I adjust – just –

Thank you

(To us.)

There’s no stopping it

You see the thing grow closer and you find yourself barreling towards it and the inevitability is

(JEREMY hangs up the phone.)

4.

JEREMY: His bus crashed at 8:41 PM

His sister called me at 9:41 PM exactly an hour later, how is that

Abebi is

I used to be jealous because Hakeem

Hakeem and Abebi were so close

She knew any gossip before I did

They spoke on the phone every day and there were many days especially when he was away abroad on sabbatical not around that she spoke to him and I didn’t, she was – um –

We had a will drawn up and she gets everything of his, everything

And like I’ve never been his emergency contact that one I could never he’s dead

He’s dead

He’s dead

He’s dead

He’s dead

He’s dead

He’s dead

He’s dead

He’s dead

He’s dead

They found his body so he must be –

This is what she tells me –

8:41 PM. I-80, wherever that is.

And I stand here in our apartment which we share together.

Which we found together, mind you, despite his i...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Characters
• Contents
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• 2.
• 3.
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