The Mystery of Attraction

The Mystery of Attraction was originally commissioned and developed by A.S.K. Theater Projects. A.S.K. presented the first reading in 1997 directed by Lisa Peterson. In 1998 the play received a staged reading at London’s Royal Court Theatre, directed by Max Stafford-Clarke. And in 1999 South Coast Repertory presented a workshop production in its Pacific Playwrights Festival directed by Jody McAuliffe.

Characters

RAY, a lawyer in his midforties

WARREN, Ray’s brother, a policeman, late thirties

DENISE, Ray’s wife

ROGER, a businessman in his fifties

LARRY, a businessman in his early forties

VICKY, a beautiful young girl in her late teens

The time is the present.

Eleven o’clock at night. A sparsely furnished living room; couch, two chairs, coffee table, lamps. An exterior door can be seen down right. Two interior doors can be seen at either side of the stage. A bottle and an ice bucket are on the table down center. The entire upstage wall is glass doors, behind which can be seen a beautiful tropical garden. It is lit for night viewing. VICKY stands staring out the window. RAY and ROGER stand downstage, left and right, at either side, watching her.

ROGER She’s like a daughter to me, but she’s not my daughter, she’s my fourth wife’s daughter. I raised her after the wife was killed in an avalanche. She is nothing like the mother, the mother was a monster. But the girl is sweet, docile. For years such an idyllic relationship exists between us that I’m on the verge of taking her as my bride when suddenly she is always in trouble. Escalating calamity as she matures. Disappearing every other weekend, lowlifes shaking me down, shoplifting, drug abuse, and a string of accidental homicides.

RAY looks at ROGER.

ROGER She says accidental and I believe her.

RAY Who did she kill?

ROGER Let’s talk about who she killed this time.

RAY Okay.

ROGER Let me first say this. I’ve spent a lot of money keeping her out of jail. But does she appreciate it? No. She sees life as an experiment. A series of adventures. So this time, she confesses. She wanted to see, from the inside, how the justice system works. So, she confessed. The cops have the knife. Her prints are on the knife.

RAY Who did she kill?

ROGER I think she’s doing it to spite me. That’s right, isn’t it?

VICKY ignores him.

ROGER She’s in a rebellious phase . . . Who did she kill? This guy named Vince, ex-fighter, stuntman, loser, doper . . . They came to the house in Palos Verdes one time, and when they left so did the silver. I’m talking sterling, at least twenty thousand dollars worth of sterling, and you know what they did with it? They sold it at a swap meet out of the trunk of their car. A dollar a spoon, a dollar a fork. For sterling. What are you gonna do with a kid like that?

RAY How about lock her up?

ROGER For stealing silverware?

RAY For murder. I’m saying that maybe it’s right that your daughter do time. Time is not the worst thing that can happen to a person who is testing the limits of morality.

ROGER For one thing, I no longer think of her as my daughter, I think of her as my fiancée, and the second thing is the penal system is a whorehouse. Guards sexually abuse the females under their protection on a regular basis. Don’t you read the newspaper?

RAY No.

ROGER You don’t read a paper.

RAY Why should I? The news is always bad. Even when it’s good, it’s bullshit. It’s supposed to make people feel better but it doesn’t because the world is a chaos and everyone cooperates to keep it that way so they have...