Another Life
Cast: 2M, 2F, 2 any
Run time: 50 minutes
Three people regularly visit Jon Ellis, a badly injured man in a Bristol hospital, each believing they are the only person who truly knows and loves him. Barbara is his devoted wife, Steven his long-term partner, and Ellie his young, pregnant fiancée.
Unaware of one another, they separately share memories, hopes and intimate details with the unconscious patient.
I'm a paragraph. Click here to add your own text and edit me. It's easy.
But Adrian is listening - a lonely stranger who accidentally becomes the recipient of three people's love, and discovering that being loved as someone else is almost as intoxicating as being loved for yourself.
As the nurses begin to suspect that something is not quite right, Adrian deliberately keeps his secret, enjoying the affection and different versions of himself that each visitor brings. What begins as a comic situation gradually becomes a darker exploration of deception, loneliness, love and the need to belong.
CHARACTERS
JON / ADRIAN 40s. A charming, intelligent, apparently unconscious man in an ICU bed. He is also heard as a narrator. His real name is deliberately uncertain for much of the play. Played by the same actor.
STEVEN – early 30s. A decorator. Funny, practical and deeply in love with the patient. He believes he is the man's partner and is convinced their relationship is exclusive.
BARBARA – 40s. The patient's wife. Organised, capable and emotionally controlled. She has spent years believing she knows her husband completely, and nags him incessantly.
ELLIE – late 20s. Pregnant. Romantic, impulsive and completely devoted to the man she believes is her fiancé.
NURSE – any gender/ age.
DOCTOR – any gender/age.