by Sam Heyman

(SETTING: Two separate scenes – a therapist’s office and a living room – represented by two chairs a short distance apart at upstage center, facing the audience (GEORGE and HAL’s seats) and two chairs placed at DSR and DSL (MELODY and SHEENA’s seats), angled diagonally toward their upstage counterparts.)

(AT RISE: GEORGE and HAL are unpacking their recent breakup, each talking to their chosen confidant. MELODY, GEORGE’s therapist, sits diagonally across from him with a legal pad in her lap. SHEENA, a friend of HAL’s, sits across from him, attentive, but casually dressed.)

GEORGE: So I broke up with Hal.

HAL: George dumped me.

SHEENA and MELODY: When?

GEORGE: Yesterday.

HAL: Last night.

SHEENA: Oh, no. How are you holding up today?

MELODY: Are you ready to talk about it?

GEORGE and HAL: It’s still fresh.

HAL: I’m kind of shell-shocked.

GEORGE: He didn’t take it well.

SHEENA: I can imagine.

MELODY: I’m sorry to hear that.

GEORGE: It just felt like we were going in different directions.

HAL: He and I just want different things, I guess.

GEORGE: It’s better this way.

HAL: I want what’s best for him.

SHEENA: You’re taking this well. You were together for what? Two years?

GEORGE and HAL: Three years last month.

MELODY: I know this wasn’t your first disagreement in all that time.

MELODY and SHEENA: Can I ask…?

GEORGE and HAL: Go ahead.

MELODY: What made you decide to end it?

SHEENA: What did he say his reasons were? For ending things.

HAL: Well…

GEORGE: I mean…

HAL: You know George.

GEORGE: Hal is…

HAL: He’s super passionate about self-improvement.

GEORGE: He doesn’t know what he wants to do with his life.

HAL: He’s got direction, drive…

GEORGE: He’s cute, and young, sure, but… I decided–

HAL: He decided–

GEORGE and HAL: –we’re not right for each other long term.

HAL: I mean, I thought we were before, but…

GEORGE: Eventually you just have to make the call.

GEORGE and HAL: Honestly, he…

GEORGE: He just isn’t on my level.

HAL: He’s actually kind of an asshole.

SHEENA and MELODY: Elaborate on that.

GEORGE and HAL: Sorry, I know that sounds bad.

SHEENA and MELODY: It is what it is.

GEORGE: I just want to get the most I can out of life, you know?

HAL: He’s always seeking self-actualization, what he calls (finger quotes.) “enlightenment!”

GEORGE: I want to be with someone with real ambitions! Not with someone who wants to… pour beer for a living.

SHEENA: Jeez… He said that?

HAL: Yeah. I told him I wanted to be a bartender, and he said that. Like I said before. Asshole.

MELODY: I mean, it’s good that you know what you want.

SHEENA: It sucks to hear what someone really thinks of you.

MELODY and SHEENA: Sounds like things just ran their course. How are you feeling about it?

GEORGE: I was probably a bit harsh.

HAL: He didn’t have to go for my throat like that.

GEORGE: I mean, for a while…

GEORGE and HAL: I really loved him, you know?

GEORGE: I used to love that we were different. He was someone I could teach, guide…

HAL: He supported me, made me feel looked after, you know?

GEORGE and HAL: It was what attracted me to him in the first place.

GEORGE: But when you’re like me…

HAL: He’s always trying to improve, always striving to learn more…

GEORGE: You can’t let someone else’s limits get in the way of your bliss, you know?

MELODY: …Right.

HAL: I can’t believe he was ready to end things, over a simple change in career. You’d think I had cheated on him!

SHEENA: Do you think…?

MELODY: Are you sure…?

MELODY and SHEENA: Was that really the dealbreaker?

GEORGE and HAL: I mean…

GEORGE: “Dealbreaker” makes it sound like we were negotiating a contract. I just decided I was done waiting for him to figure himself out.

MELODY: This is just my perspective, you can totally take it or leave it, but… It sounds like Hal was figuring himself out. Or trying to.

GEORGE: What do you mean?

HAL: I knew he was losing patience with me. I was stuck for so long, honestly, I… I’m surprised this didn’t happen sooner.

MELODY: You said before that he didn’t have much direction in life. Maybe becoming a bartender was his way of choosing a direction, of choosing a path forward.

GEORGE: And I… just didn’t like the direction he chose.

HAL: Honestly, it doesn’t feel good to speculate. Maybe there was another guy… Maybe he was bored. Or maybe… Maybe George never loved me at all.

SHEENA: Speculating after a breakup is usually a trap. All the maybes and what-ifs… It’s a rabbit hole full of rabbit holes. Neither of us have all the answers, but maybe we can try something.

MELODY: I want you to try an exercise for me.

GEORGE and HAL: I’m listening.

MELODY: Try talking to Hal–

SHEENA: To George–

MELODY and SHEENA: Like he’s really here.

SHEENA: If you had the chance to get it all out there…

MELODY: What would you say to him?

(GEORGE and HAL rise from their seats and step into the foreground. The lights dim behind them, obscuring MELODY and SHEENA. They deliver their lines facing the audience.)

GEORGE: I’d say… or try to say, I’m sorry.

HAL: He’d try to apologize, and I’d say, I don’t want to hear it.

GEORGE: I’d try to explain what I really meant to say last night. Becoming a bartender might not be the career move I’d make for myself at his age, but if that’s what he wants–

HAL: This is what I want. George has known who he’s wanted to be all his life. It’s about time I make my own choices. Not for him, not for anyone else’s approval… but for me.

HAL and GEORGE: If he was really here…

GEORGE: If he was willing to listen–

HAL: I’d say–

GEORGE and HAL: After the three years we had together…

HAL: Three years of cheering him on from the sidelines as he took life by the horns…

GEORGE: Three years of trying to help him find his niche, to find his own voice…

HAL: He really had the nerve to end things right when I was finally making progress. To think, it took me finally choosing my own path for him to realize… he didn’t want me anymore.

GEORGE: For him to take all my guidance and just cast it aside… I wanted more for him. I wanted more for us! I realized that he was never going to listen.

HAL: I realized that it was never about me finding direction in life. It was about me taking direction from him.

GEORGE: I mean, come on, Hal. If you’re gonna be a bartender, be the best damn bartender you can be! Don’t languish in some dive somewhere, rise to the top of the whole profession!

HAL: George thinks that nothing is worth doing if there isn’t some grand insight, some grand epiphany waiting for you at the top. Well, some people aren’t shooting for enlightenment! Some people just want to pay their share of the bills, or have a job doing something they’re good at, something they like, something that helps them to live the life they want to live.

(GEORGE and HAL meet eyes again.)

HAL: But that’s not enough, is it? I’m not enough.

GEORGE: I never said you weren’t good enough, or smart enough to go after what you want.

HAL: It’s not about what you didn’t say. It’s about what you did say.

(A silence. HAL and GEORGE turn away from each other.)

GEORGE: I don’t want to be the only one who’s… driven. I want to be with someone I can push, and who’s going to push me, too. I’m so used to being the ambitious one, the ladder climber. Hal never had to be like me, that was never the point. I think…

HAL: I think that when I finally decided what I wanted… it scared him.

GEORGE: I realized that the person I loved… the person I love is blind to their own potential. And for me to keep trying to show them the way…

HAL: For him to see that I wanted something different than what he was pushing me to want…

GEORGE and HAL: It felt like a waste…

GEORGE: Of my effort.

HAL: Of his time. George hates to waste time. So he panicked. He panicked because he realized, after three years, that no matter how hard I work, no matter what dream I strive for… I’ll never be the person he wanted me to be. He’ll never be able to see me as his equal.

GEORGE and HAL: From the moment we met…

GEORGE: I could see his potential.

HAL: I looked up to him.

GEORGE: I wanted to be the one to guide him wherever he was destined to go. I just wanted him to…

(Darkness. A moment and then… A spotlight warms over HAL.)

HAL: I just wanted him to be proud of me. You know? It’s funny. I don’t think I ever told him that. That’s what I wanted. But if I told him now… it wouldn’t be the truth.

(GEORGE becomes illuminated again. He turns and sees HAL, perhaps for the first time. He attempts to place a hand on HAL’s shoulder, but HAL rebuffs him. The two meet eyes.)

HAL: The truth is, George… You want someone who’s better than you, who can push you to be better. Or you want someone small that you can push around. Someone you can influence in some way. But someone who’s chosen a path you didn’t choose for them? They don’t have a place in your life. I don’t have a place in your life. And you don’t have a place in mine. Not anymore.

(HAL walks back to his seat. GEORGE watches HAL disappear into the darkness, and, defeated, returns to his seat. A sobering silence as lights rise.)

MELODY: Is there anything else you’d like to say?

SHEENA: I’m here to listen.

HAL: There’s nothing else to say.

GEORGE: …I think I’ve said enough.

(Blackout. End of play.)

Sam Heyman (he/they) is a queer, Jewish playwright, fiction writer, and educator based in Nashville, TN. He is active in his writing community, both locally as an instructor for The Porch Writers Collective, and virtually as producer of the Playwrights Thriving Reading Series. Their prose and playwriting has been published by Hashtag Queer, Ordinary Space, Typehouse, Smith & Kraus’ Best Men and Women’s Stage Monologues 2024, and Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival.