HOW TO ORDER A READING COPY OF COLLISIONS IN AIR AND SPACE

Collisions in Air and Space is currently unavailable until its rewrite is done. Look for developments to be posted here.


ABOUT THE PLAY

Tragicomedy. 2 males, 2 females. 75-80 minutes. Unit set.


SYNOPSIS

ALEX, seventeen years old, comes home from school to find MERC, a thirtysomething waiter and Alex's guardian since the teenager's mother died several years ago, crouching behind a couch with a rifle. Merc suggests that Alex think about getting his own place after high school, and admits that he's been seeing a strange person hanging around the urban apartment complex in which they live. Further, Merc hears the voice of the AVON LADY, whom he believes may be connected to the stranger.

That night, Alex barely avoids getting caught looking at Glamorous Woman magazine and wearing his mother's scarf by Merc. Alex invents the story of a pair of DISTURBANCES—more of a night club act—who have broken into the apartment while he slept and announced an art contest in Glamorous Woman: draw the Glamour Mutt and win a hundred thousand dollar college scholarship. Merc fails to see Alex's cover-up for what it is, hears the voice of the Avon Lady, who he hears plotting to move into the apartment, and screams for the landlord.

JOAN, the landlord, arrives. There's not much she can do about the Avon Lady—only Merc seems to be able to hear her—but Joan tells them the building is going condo and gives them notice.

After Joan leaves, Merc sees the stranger beneath the window and drops a brick on he/she. When he doesn't hear an impact, Merc goes out to look. Alex, thinking Merc has killed someone, falls into a narcoleptic sleep. The First Disturbance—a woman and the stranger in question—comes in through the window, holding the brick. She speaks to Alex as his mother, then confronts Merc and tells him the Avon Lady will arrive soon—on the day of the contest deadline.

With the contest deadline looming, Alex churns out drawing after drawing. Meanwhile, Merc looks for an alternative living space and has another confrontation with the First Disturbance.

Joan, accompanied by the Avon Lady (at least in Merc's mind), drops off a mysterious package and tells Merc that she might be able to come up with a studio apartment—smaller than what they have now and not really big enough for Merc and Alex.

Merc makes an "appointment" with the Avon Lady; he's going to confront her. He thinks he tells Alex about it and warns him to stay away, but it's really the First Disturbance playing Alex.

On the day of the contest deadline, Alex sees his "mother" again and decides not to turn in his entry, dropping it out the window instead; he's afraid of striking out on his own if he wins. Disconsolate, he puts on some of his mother's old clothing. Merc, waiting for the Avon Lady and thinking that Alex knows not to be in the apartment, mistakes Alex for the Avon Lady and shoots him.

A FEW COLLISIONS FROM THE NEW OPENING

You look like some kinda’ rat. I don't know what the super told you, but you musta' got her confused. She likes to get confused. It's kind of a pastime with her.

LOOK FOR COLLISIONS SOMETIME IN 2005