doing it right.
JANE: He’s sitting right there. (Seeing she is hurt) I’m sorry. You’re a saint. You really are.
BARBARA: I don’t want to be a saint. (To Tim) He keeps forgetting, and so each time—it’s like he learns it again for the first time. Over and over . . .
(Short pause. Benjamin looks down, upset.)
JANE (To Barbara): He had Oliver for—how many years?
BARBARA: Sixteen.
JANE (To Tim): He’d take him to rehearsal. Travel with him.
(Pause) Should I bring in Toby?
RICHARD: No.
(Pause.)
BARBARA (Going to Benjamin): You have his collar next to your bed.
(She rubs his back, kisses the top of his head.)
(Quietly explaining) And Richard came up to bring us a new dog. That’s what today’s all about. And Jane happened to be in the area, so . . .
JANE: And Tim.
BENJAMIN: Who’s Tim?
(Barbara points him out.)
RICHARD: And it worked out to be a good day to—Hardly anyone’s going to be in the office today. I don’t want to be there today.
JANE: His boss is going to win an election today.
RICHARD: So nothing’s going to get done there . . .
(A bark from the kitchen.)
I’ll see what Toby needs. (Stops) He’s never been out of the Upper West Side. So—another New Yorker in Rhinebeck. (Laughs; to Barbara) Just what you need.
(Richard goes off to the kitchen.)
JANE (Quietly to Barbara): Boy, you really have your hands full.
(The lights fade.)
Acting and Forgetting
A short time later. Benjamin, Barbara, Jane and Tim.
Richard has yet to return.
TIM: Mr. Apple . . .? Could I ask you something?
BARBARA: What?
JANE (To Barbara): It’s all right, Barbara.
BARBARA: What’s he going to—?
TIM: About your reading, sir. At the Y. A few months ago? Friends of mine had seen you the night before, and they told me it was a must-see. Especially for actors.
JANE (Answering a much earlier question, to Barbara): I didn’t even know he was there, until after.
TIM: Of course we all knew about your illness. The heart attack. And—the memory. I think that was one of the first things we all said to ourselves, when we heard . . . (He turns to Barbara) He knows he’s had the heart attack?
BENJAMIN: Yes.
TIM: We said . . . what’s an actor—if he can’t remember? (Smiles) But—then to see you at the Y, reading the Oscar Wilde—it was—you were—incredible . . . You weren’t just reading, you were—reading it fresh, for the first time. And so it had the sense that you couldn’t make a mistake—if you made one, it wasn’t really a mistake. If you fumbled . . . That was part of the performance.
(Then:)
I’ve wanted to say that, sir. After all, that’s every actor’s dream, isn’t it?
BENJAMIN: What is?
TIM: I suppose—to forget.
(Benjamin looks at him.)
To forget that you’ve learned lines, forget that you’ve rehearsed, forget that you’re performing a play. My actor friends and I came up with a whole new definition—just from watching you—for what we’ve been attempting to do all of our lives. Do you want to hear it?
(Benjamin nods.)
Great acting—is simply willed amnesia.
BENJAMIN: Mmmmmmm.
(He looks off in thought and smiles. All look at him.)
Yes, I think that’s very important.
(Richard returns.)
RICHARD: I took Toby outside—
JANE: Sh-sh.
RICHARD (To Barbara): Where do you keep little plastic bags?
JANE: Be quiet.
RICHARD: What’s going on?
TIM (To the others, continuing): To forget that you are civilized. Scripted. So something true perhaps, something real is seen.
RICHARD: What?
JANE: I don’t understand.
BENJAMIN: Yes. To be without judgment. And so without inhibitions. Is that what you mean?
(The others are very interested now, as Benjamin has been engaged.)
TIM (After a look at the others): I think so.
BENJAMIN: “Why am I saying this?” “Why did I do that?” “Why do they laugh or don’t laugh?” We only limit ourselves—by remembering.
JANE: As actors you mean?
(No response.)
As actors?
BENJAMIN: It’s a complete contradiction of course.
RICHARD: What is?
TIM (Explaining): Acting.
BENJAMIN: You have to in fact be aware of what you’re doing, very consciously and not consciously. But I think that is the experience of freedom. When you are really doing it all without self-judgment, without inhibitions. It’s how you discover things.
TIM: So your acting has— (To the others) Sorry, but I’ve been so curious about this—
BARBARA: No, no—
RICHARD (Over
