31 Plays in 31 Days, #1 - “One of the Thieves”

Ah, what the hell. Here we go again.

Lately 31 Plays in 31 Days has been kind of a hit or miss experience when it comes to utility to my current writing work. I’m feeling particularly unprepared this year, especially since I’ve recently come off ANOTHER self-imposed daily writing challenge, my one hundred installments of Texts from Avengers Tower, and I’ve other responsibilities going on right now that mean I’m not relishing starting another one. But every year, even if I struggle during the challenge, I am always glad I did it when I look back at the material I generated. And I get a serious kick out of looking at my long unbroken lists of what I wrote over the past now decade-plus. So… let’s get into things.

Today’s bit is something I’ve been imagining since restaging Mrs. Hawking part III: Base Instruments for film. There’s a question at the end of it of what will become of the client Miss Zakharova, who has a chance to change her life, but is still plagued by grief and addiction. It’s also relevant to Nurse Violet Strallan, the client of part VI: Fallen Women, and her story also ends with the possibility that she could improve her life from there. I found myself thinking that the two women likely ended up very differently given their circumstances and characters, and since I want to bring Violet back as Mrs. Hawking’s cut man, I thought the next Mrs. Hawking story could reference this.

This piece is meant to follow directly after this one from 31P31D 2020, though I had to edit the ending of it a bit in order to flow into today’s scene and address the question I wanted it to. It also makes use of a reference to a Sant Augustine quote I’ve always loved, and has been in my mind for a very long time. I’m not sure I like both Mrs. Hawking and Nathaniel both bringing up Miss Zakharova independently of each other, but… she does seem likely to come to mind when discussing the present subject matter.


Photo by Dan Fox

( Day #1 - One of the Thieves )