Poverty and Facade

Here’s a possibility brought to the front by Anne. This time Trip leaves. Poor Anne. All she wanted was some good drink and to catch up on old times.

TRIP
I’m — I’m just… af — afraid of… of being poor.

GRACE
Poor? Trip, we have so much! What do you —

ANNE
why

TRIP
It never feels like enough!

TRIP
As a kid… it — it was… My family was always on the edge.

GRACE
So you weren’t rich, but —

TRIP
We even spent six months in a shelter once.

GRACE
Oh my God…!

ANNE
wow

TRIP
All of this stuff…

TRIP
Is a kind of protection from that ever happening again.

TRIP
uhh…

GRACE
uhh…

GRACE
Oh my God…!

TRIP
Wait, Anne, Grace, there’s more…

(ANNE comforts trip.)

GRACE
More?

ANNE
more

TRIP
Grace…

TRIP
uhh…

TRIP
See… I’m… ashamed of my parents.

GRACE
What!? Your parents are great.

ANNE
ashamed

GRACE
I love seeing them…

TRIP
I know, I know. But compared to yours… they’re so … ignorant.

ANNE
why

GRACE
But they’re real. I hate how my parents are pretending to be something —

ANNE
why

TRIP
I’ve tried hard to be like your family —

GRACE
Trip… really? … I don’t —

TRIP
But I feel like a phony. I feel like I can never get rid of my past.

ANNE
why

TRIP
It’s kind of like I don’t know who I am anymore.

TRIP
uhh…

GRACE
uhh…

GRACE
Oh my God…!

GRACE
Anne, I, uhh…

GRACE
This changes everything…

TRIP
Yes, it does change everything.

ANNE
you love each other

TRIP
I think it’s over.

GRACE
Trip, what —

TRIP
No!!

ANNE
why

TRIP
It’s over, Grace, can’t you see that?

GRACE
Wha… You just told me —

ANNE
no

TRIP
I just told you something about us I should have said a long time ago:

TRIP
You think I’m phony for hating my parents, and wishing they were like yours.

1 thought on “Poverty and Facade

  1. susan

    Well, you helped that marriage, didn’t you. But this is a direction I hadn’t seen before, makes you curious as to how many resolutions are available. We now know the basic problems–Grace’s parents, her desire to be an artist, and now this surfaces as another. The interior decorating, Trip’s infidelity, the trip to Italy and the wine and material things are the signs that these other deeper insecurities and resentments exist. While it seemed that Trip and Grace were all too willing to spill their guts, there’s more to be said. Good work, Dr. Freud.

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