PAPA'S BED

ABOUT THE PLAY

 

Never once. Never once in the 56-page script do the father and the daughter truly meet each other. They only make phone calls, where both talk, discuss, argue, or resort to silence. Sometimes it’s just a voice message.  Sometimes just don’t want to pick the phone up.

 

The conversation always wanders around one theme that both seem to know. Often times, when they don’t want to and cannot touch that theme, weather will become the only topic left.

 

A husband who lost his wife. A daughter who lost her mother. Yet grief and sorrow could never reach the other side of the telephone wire. The way they deal with sadness diverges into different paths despite a shared loss. The father remarried three months after the mother’s death. He is to put away old furniture and photos, because his partner wants new air in the space. On the contrary, the daughter’s memories linger in the house. She is determined to save everything, tables, chairs, utensils — everything, everything except the bed. She must throw the bed away. In the first few days after mother passed away, when endless longing pervaded the dark nights, she company her father through the most difficult times. All other items should remain in the home. It is only the bed that must be thrown away. It was the mother’s half-life bed, the softest memory of her childhood. However, the father holds a different point of view.