Stephen Metcalfe - Writer & Director

A one act, Half A Lifetime premiered at The Manhattan Club in 1984. It was directed by Dann Florek and featured J.T. Walsh, John Goodman, Peter Zapp and Jim Rebhorn. The play was subsequently produced by HBO.

J.J.
Ellie left me, Tab. Early last week.
(SILENCE.)

TOBY
Jay, I... listen... I’m sorry, I...

J.J.
No. No. Shush. Shush? Thank you. You always try to make
sense out of senseless situations. Not this time. Sign of
the times, huh? All the women today, they want something
else. Something. Hey! We’ll see how much longer they keep
outlivin’ us, they keep up that chit, huh? She doesn’t love
me anymore. Fuck me, I can’t take a joke, right? She’s not
happy. You’re not happy, you pack your bags, you go.
Talking doesn’t do squat, talking doesn’t. So what you’re
in the middle of the stream. Change horses. Charige’m and
walk. Yeah. The bitch. Doesn’t she know when you abandon
a horse you put a bullet in it’s brain so it won’t suffer?

(SILENCE. )~

J.J.
So what is it would make you happy, Tob? What is it you
want?

TOBY
I... I don’t know.

J.J.
We deserve to be happy, man. We deserve our small, simple
dreams comin’ true.

TOBY
Jay, I... I ‘m happy.

J.J.
You’re not, Tobias! You are not! We’re not. We’ve lived
half our lives and what do we have? Nothing. The people we
love leave us. Day to day, we live, hand to mouth, get paid
by Peter so you can pay Paul if there’s enough left over
after friendly Uncle Sam has taken his fair share. Get
drunk on Friday night. Watch college ball on Saturday and
wonder, what the fuck happened? I’m older than those guys.
Two weeks vacation a year and you can’t afford to go
anyplace. Dinner out on Saturday night and you wind up at
McDonald’s and still it breaks you. Medical bills, car
payments, insurance, college loans. It never stops. And
it’s not going to change. None of us are going to invent
anything or start our own business or fall into an
inheritance or get chosen off the street to be movie stars.
Hand to mouth. That’s all. NO! I don’t want that. I
want... a place. Somewhere. I want to catch my breath. I
want to figure out what’s going on.
(pause)
What do you want, Toby?