The Theatre of the Holocaust, Volume 2: Six Plays

THE MODEL APARTMENT

Donald Margulies zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcb THE MODEL APARTMENT CHARACTERS LOLA, and her husband, MAX, both in their 60s, are Holocaust survivors ; they speak with eastern European accents. DEBBY, late 30s, obese, unkempt, mentally disturbed, is their daughter; the actress who plays DEBBY wears a realistic "fat suit'7 which is shed when she appears as DEBORAH, her half-sister who died in infancy during the Holocaust. NEIL, 15, short and skinny, is DEBBY'S black lover; a mildly retarded kid who lives on the streets of Manhattan. PLACE The model apartment in a condominium development in Florida . Its large sunken living room is also used for dining and sleeping ; the kitchen is fully exposed; a corridor leads to the bath and dressing rooms. Floor-to-ceiling windows and sliding doors open onto a small, enclosed sun porch, a patch of foliage, and, at street level, the edge of an asphalt driveway. Lots of glass and chrome. Indoor-outdoor carpeting. Plastic plants. Candlesticks, ashtrays, and bric-a-brac are glued to surfaces. Objects function solely as decoration; the television and appliances are state-of-the-art but hollow. This play is performed without interruption. zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZ 207 THE MODEL APARTMENT zyxwvutsrqpon SCENE 1 zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTS Night. The apartment is dark. We hear a car pull into the driveway and see its headlights through the windows. We hear LOLA and MAX get out of the car and unload luggage. Soon we hear talking and giddy laughter at the front door of the apartment; we can see their movements through the crack of light beneath the door. They set down bags and fumble with keys. We hear them speak; there is a playfulness about them (particularly MAX,), like that of newlyweds. LOLA: NOW which is the key? MAX: Give me. LOLA: He said the gold. They all look gold. MAX: Give me. LOLA: He gave us the wrong keys. MAX: Let me. (LOLA tries another key.) You just did that one. Lola, please... LOLA (over "Lola, please . . . "): So many keys, Max, how do they expect us to know which is which? MAX (over ". . . which is whichl"): Will you let mell LOLA: Take. I have no patience for this, (MAX tries a key; no luck.) Ha! MAX: Shhh. (The next key proves successful.) Uh! What did I tell you? (He opens the door; they're silhouetted in the doorway, LOLA sighs deeply.) MAX: If you gave me . . . LOLA: They could've at least left a light... 209 210 THEATRE OF THE HOLOCAUST MAX: ... we would've been in by now. LOLA: You could kill yourself walking into a strange room. MAX: I'll carry you. LOLAzyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA (pretending she thinks it's a silly idea): Max ... MAX: I'll carry you. Why? You think I'll pull something? LOLA: Max, we have no light. MAX: Across the threshold, no? LOLA: NO fooling around, it's dark, ("MAX, laughing, continues to joke around with LOLAJ It's dark. MAX (groping in the dark for a switch or lamp): I'm afraid I'll knock something over. LOLA: Break something. I don't care. I'm sick from this, Max. What we went through . . . the way they shlep us around . . . (MAX turns on a lamp. A beat; LOLA takes in the room; she's impressed .) Nice. MAX (beaming): See that? LOLA: Oh, Max . . . MAX: See? And you were worried. LOLA: I wasn't worried, I didn't know ... MAX: Would I let you suffer? LOLA: I like the effect with the lamp. MAX: Uh-huh. See? LOLA: Isn't that an unusual effect? MAX: I'm telling you—these furnishings—tops. LOLA (taking inventory): Hi-fi, TV, dishwasher, ice maker . . . MAX: The man said luxury. LOLA: This is like ours? MAX: Ours is bigger, the one bedroom. LOLA: There's no bedroom? MAX: NO. This condo is cheaper with the one room. LOLA: Who wants to live in one room? Not me. Not after what Heft. MAX: Some people ... (Shrugs.) LOLA: YOU don't go from five and a half rooms to one room. MAX: Some people don't care. THE MODEL APARTMENT 211 LOLA: What we left, Max! You'd have to carry me out of here. We'd be on top of each other, no room to breathe. MAX: YOU got all of Florida to breathe! Who stays home in Florida?! LOLA: SO where do you sleep? On the couch? MAX: It opens up.zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCB (He investigates...