Performance Rights: The Bench

PLAY: The Bench (2020)
PLAYWRIGHT: Lauren Noble
CAST: 3
CHARACTERS: The Woman in the Park, The Woman and the Bench and The Intern
SCRIPT: 6 pages
RUNNING TIME: 9-12 minutes
LICENSE: Full performance rights
 
A young woman sits on a park bench. She is in the midst of a difficult situation. Holding on to a large envelope, as if her life depends on it, it appears that she cannot decide how best to discuss something difficult with someone in her life. A stranger, dressed to impress, joins the young woman on the bench after offering her a tissue. She is a warm individual, finding ways to comfort the young woman without intruding on her privacy. The bench becomes a space for a nostalgic conversation to flow: about life, love, loss and the way that memories can sometimes be cruel. They part ways towards the end of the play, and a young volunteer wearing scrubs enters the playing space. She is carrying a banner which she begins to set up before the young woman bumps into her as she wrestles with a decision. The intern offers the young woman a kind word before she is tasked with delivering a fated envelope carrying the young woman’s news. The final reveal comes in the final 30 seconds of the play when the intern reveals the banner, and we realise where the bench has been located this whole time.