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PLAYS
The German Lesson
A Comedy of Manners in Two Acts by William Fowkes
Why worry when life is spectacular?
Runner-up for the 2008 Robert J. Pickering Award for Playwrighting Excellence, Coldwater, Michigan
A Reading of The German Lesson was presented at the Dramatists Guild, April 18, as part of their Friday Night Footlights series.
The reading was directed by Wendy Peace and included the following cast:
Trevor Hudson (age 48)…………………………………...………..NIC TYLER*
Jerry Hobart (50)/Ira Klopnick (’30s)………….………….…..GREG HORTON*
Chuck Blazer (19)/Louie Allemano (’40s)………………..…AARON HEISLER
Margaret Allen (’50s)/Dr. Vivian Sedler (74)……………...ELOWYN CASTLE*
Sarah Schwalbe (’40s)/German instructor (voiceover)…..ROXANN KRAEMER*
Beth Hudson (’40s)…………………………………….…...DONNA NIEMANN
Stage directions read by ASHTON CROSBY*
*Member of Actors Equity Association
Available for performance or publication.
For an excerpt, click here.
Description: Trevor Hudson is a PR man with a special talent for putting the best face on things. Now his life is spinning out of control, but his German lesson is part of a plan to free him from his past.
Synopsis:
Wanting nothing more than to be left in peace with his German lesson, PR man Trevor Hudson is vexed when people keep interrupting him with their problems. Like Jerry Hobart, his next-door-neighbor and best friend, who thinks his wife is having an affair and is planning to leave him. Or Chuck Blazer, former boyfriend of Trevor’s college-age daughter, Caroline, who is upset that she won’t return his calls or e-mails. They each become infuriated when he tries to put the best possible face on things. When his therapy group arrives for their first session since their therapist’s death, we see him once again putting the best spin on everything and minimizing other people’s dilemmas—until he realizes that one of them is the man having the affair with Jerry’s wife. When the topic turns to the doctor’s will, Trevor confesses that she left him some money. When pressed, all he will say is that the money was given to him so that he would have no excuse not to go to Germany now.
When Trevor’s wife, Beth, stops by for a visit, we discover that things aren’t as rosy as he pretends—that they’re getting divorced, that Beth moved out of the house months ago, that their split-up was triggered by Trevor’s affair with a man, and that Caroline is in isolation at a rehab center recovering from the latest in a string of drug overdoses. Trevor reluctantly agrees when Beth pleads with him to keep up the front a little bit longer.
In one of Trevor’s private therapy sessions two months earlier, the doctor pushes him to explain why he never opens up to his fellow group members. As they discuss his compulsion to lie, he suddenly remembers an episode in second grade when he pretended that his family was going to spend the summer in Germany, impressing his classmates with details about the impending trip and his attempt to learn how to speak German. By the time he returned to school and had to make up another lie to explain why he didn’t go to Germany after all, he was well on his way to lying habitually to everyone around him. Dr. Sedler challenges him about his behavior when he married Beth—was his marriage going to be like the trip to Germany? Getting her point, he protests that he can’t possibly go back and undo all his lies.
Jumping back to the present, we watch as Beth returns to take over the house and Trevor prepares to depart for Germany. They argue over the cause of Caroline’s problems and the collapse of their marriage, until Beth admits that she’s actually looking forward to her new life. When Jerry and Chuck stop by, Trevor and Beth gradually reveal the truth about their marriage, his sexual orientation, and Caroline’s predicament. After everyone leaves, Trevor confesses that he is a compulsive liar, that he actually enjoyed their news moratorium—because it provided a new opportunity to lie to people—and that he married Beth under false pretenses, because he already knew what he was at the time, not only recently as he had claimed. Beth deflates him by revealing that she had long since figured that all out. They argue about how to reveal their news to Caroline when he returns from Germany until the car service arrives to take him to the airport.
CAST BREAKDOWN: A Cast of 6
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Actor # 1
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Trevor Hudson (6 scenes)
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Actor # 2
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Jerry Hobart (2 scenes), Louie Allemano (1 scene)
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Actor # 3
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Chuck Blazer (2 scenes), Ira Klopnick (1 scene)
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Actor # 4
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Margaret Allen (1 scene), Dr. Vivian Sedler (1 scene)
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Actor # 5
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Sarah Schwalbe (1 scene)
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Actor # 6
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Beth Hudson (2 scenes)
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CHARACTERS
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Trevor Hudson
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Age 48. Works in PR. Likeable and easy to please, but secretive.
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Jerry Hobart
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Age 50. Jerry’s neighbor and best friend. A friendly guy.
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Chuck Blazer
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Age 19. College student. Athletic. A bit goofy.
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Sarah Schwalbe
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In her ’40s. Married. Articulate. Well-mannered.
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Ira Klopnick
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In his ’30s. Struggling songwriter. Single. Frustrated and insecure.
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Louie Allemano
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In his ’40s. Married. Cocky. Funny. A ladies’ man.
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Margaret Allen
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In her ’50s. Single. Shy.
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Beth Hudson
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In her ’40s. Trevor’s wife. Smart. Angry, but rightly so.
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Vivian Sedler
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Age 75. Therapist. Speaks with an accent.
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SETTING: The Hudson living room in New Rochelle, New York.
TIME: February 2003
SCENES
Act One
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Scene 1
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A Saturday afternoon. Trevor Hudson, Jerry Hobart.
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Scene 2
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Later that afternoon. Trevor, Chuck Blazer.
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Scene 3
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Evening, 3 days later. Trevor, Sarah, Ira, Louie, Margaret.
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Act Two
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Scene 1
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The next Saturday afternoon. Trevor, Beth Hudson.
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Scene 2
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Two months earlier. Trevor, Dr. Vivian Sedler.
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Scene 3
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10 weeks later (that is, two weeks after the beginning of the play). Trevor, Beth, Jerry, Chuck.
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For an excerpt, click here.
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