Aurora Leigh – Love and Revolution - 2cyberwhelm.org

Act Two
Scene 1 Revelation
(Players)
Players enter to change the set, packing up the study, in
the style of Kanin and Gordon (Adam’s Rib): ribald, witty
gender revelatory.
PLAYER TWO
I asked my students to make a list of all the roles they play in life. And this one woman
said, "I’m a mother, a writer, a dancer, a student, a lover, a democrat; I'm jewish. I live in
a brick house; a grocery shopper, a highway driver…" And she went on and on like that.
She must have listed thirty roles she played in her life. Her husband was sitting there,
getting smaller and smaller. Finally, when she was done, he asked her, in a trembling,
defeated voice, "Wife." She heard him but she didn't understand. She said, "What?" He
said, "Aren't you my wife?" I don't mean to be cliché or anything, but you coulda heard a
pin drop. Then she says, "It's not a role I play. It is who I am. It is the core, central fact of
my existence, as close to who I am as who I am to myself in here," and she touches her
heart.
And everyone was crying.
Oh yeah, everyone.
PLAYER ONE
PLAYER TWO
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