Stage Kiss

Sarah Ruhl

• Publisher: Theatre Communications Group
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781559364133
• eBook ISBN: 9781559364294
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: American Drama
• Index: Literature

"Wickedly clever . . . Ruhl's unique, breezily elegant dialogue is fully present, as is her pleasingly loopy logic."—Variety

"In the smart, rollicking Stage Kiss . . . passion and fidelity engage in a kind of elegant pas de deux. . . . The play manages to be both wholly original and instantly recognizable . . . with its combination of hilarity and trenchancy."—The New Yorker

Award-winning playwright Sarah Ruhl brings her unique mix of lyricism, sparkling humor, and fierce intelligence to her new romantic comedy, Stage Kiss. When estranged lovers He and She are thrown together as romantic leads in a long-forgotten 1930s melodrama, the line between off-stage and on-stage begins to blur. A "knockabout farce that channels Noël Coward and Michael Frayn" (Chicago Tribune), Stage Kiss is a thoughtful and clever examination of the difference between youthful lust and respectful love. Ruhl, one of America's most frequently produced playwrights, proves that a kiss is not just a kiss in this whirlwind romantic comedy, which will receive its New York premiere at Playwrights Horizons in winter 2014.

Sarah Ruhl's other plays include the Pulitzer Prize finalists In the Next Room (or the vibrator play) and The Clean House, as well as Passion Play, Dead Man's Cell Phone, Demeter in the City, Eurydice, Melancholy Play, and Late: a cowboy song. She is the recipient of a Whiting Writers' Award, a PEN/Laura Pels Award, and a MacArthur Fellowship. Her plays have premiered on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and have been produced in many theaters around the world.

Act One

Scene 1—Audition

Lights up on a raw, empty theater space.

Chairs.

A piano.

SHE

Sorry the train was—I’m so late—I’m so sorry—Do you still want me to—?

DIRECTOR

No problem.

SHE

Great. Okay. Is this—?

DIRECTOR

Yes, Kevin will be reading with you.

SHE

Nice to meet you, Kevin. Do you want me to actually kiss Kevin, or Kevin do you mind if we kiss; you look young, I don’t want to traumatize you.

KEVIN

No—please, go ahead.

SHE

Could you position your chair this way then? Sorry, is that weird? I had sort of pictured your chair this way. Should I start?

DIRECTOR

Whenever you’re ready.

SHE

Okay. I’ll start then. Wait, I’ll just move my chair. Is that all right?

DIRECTOR

Great.

A pause.

SHE

Sorry—can I ask one thing?

DIRECTOR

Of course.

SHE

I just got the sides because my agent blah blah blah and I didn’t have time to read the whole thing, so do you mind just telling me the plot a little bit because I only have these four pages—

During the following, She vocalizes some responses—ums and ohs—that register her narrative empathy and interest.

DIRECTOR

Sure. You’re told in the first scene that you have a month to live. You have a rare degenerative disorder. And you say to yourself: I need to see my old love before I die. And you cable him and he comes for a visit, he lives in Sweden, so he stays with you for a month, in your penthouse in Manhattan. It’s a very nice apartment as your husband is a very wealthy train mogul. You and your first love pick up right where you left off, but your husband is so noble that he doesn’t object. And seeing your old love has reversed your disease and you are becoming healthier and healthier. In the third act your daughter comes home from Paris and your first love falls in love with your daughter, and takes her to Sweden. So you are left alone, to pick up the pieces.

And there are some really...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Production History
• Characters
• Act One
• Act Two
• Acknowledgments