31 Plays in 31 Days, #7 - “White Bikini”

I’ve been noodling on future episodes of Dream Machine in various forms. Scribbling out ideas for bits, planning episodes across a season— basically way overthinking this silly little side distraction of mine.

An idea I had for an episode was for Ryan’s ex-wife Veronica to show up. She’s a former model now turned businesswoman with whom he had an acrimonious divorce, and it seems like she’s hell-bent on destroying Ryan, even though he’s started to get his life together. A thing I like to do in my writing is use the audience’s preconceived notions to force them into complicity with a problematic point of view, and then once I’ve led their feelings in this direction, I pull the rug out and show them the error of their ways. I try to do it in Adonis, by getting the audience complicit the objectification that’s destroying him, and in Mrs. Hawking IV: Gilded Cages, where the audience’s sympathy for the Colonel is checked by her suffering over his romantic attention. It’s a tricky thing to do— I hope I accomplish it in these pieces —so it’ll likely take some work to make it happen in this piece too. Especially since Ryan’s deficiencies as a husband may be... stark.

I’ll admit, this section below doesn’t even try to do that. It’s mostly just a joke on Ryan.

If you'd like to check out episodes of Dream Machine so far, you can find them as follows:
1.01 - "The Show Must Go Off"
1.02 - "Requiem For a Dreamer"
1.03 - "Change or Die"



( Day #7 - White Bikini )