Life Under Water

by Richard Greenberg

Character Breakdown: 2 M, 3 F

• Amy-Joy: Early twenties. Best friends with Amy-Beth. Occupied with looking after her cousins but looking for distractions.
• Amy-Beth: Early twenties. Best friends with Amy-Joy. Recently out of a mental asylum for being vitaphobic, with the weight of impending adulthood on her shoulders.
• Kip: Twenty-one or two. Ashamed of his rich father and overbearing mother, searching for a purpose in life and romantically.
• Jinx: Forty-five. A doting single mother too Kip whilst looking for new love.
• Hank: Forty-eight. A married business man searching for a new purpose in life and romantically.

Plot Summary:

A drama.

Various Locations on Long Island's southern fork. Summer.

Set near the sea front, in the Hampton’s, Kip leaves his mothers clutch and his Daddies money in order to try and make it on his own. On the way too making it on his own, by drunkenly trying to walk too New York, he stumbles upon Amy-Beth and Amy-Joy. Amy-Joy accepts Kip into her arms, literally, whilst reluctant best friend, Amy-Beth, looks on. Amy-Joy lets him stay at her Uncle's apartment, whilst he is away on business and she is looking after his scampering children, her cousins, Tristan and Isolde. Whilst Kip earns his keep by completing simple house chores, his Mother, Jinx, is busy in the arms of Hank, a married man, who amusingly recounts that an old college friend is now a gigolo. Meanwhile, Kip, the apple in Amy-Joy's eye, is busy trying to seduce the vitaphobic, unconfident and recently discharged from a mental asylum, Amy-Beth, into bed. It is whilst all three of them are supposed to be looking for Amy-Joy's devilish young cousins that Kip is able to get Amy-Beth on her own and kiss her, in the darkness, next to the water. Whilst in the meantime, Hank begins to feel 'uninnocent' for all the people that they are both hurting, including Kip, who had earlier returned to the house to collect more clothes, only to denounce the relationship as unromantic. Hank then affirms this by speaking of his detest towards tea roses, the flower that he had been constantly describing his new lovers hair as smelling like. After speaking wishfully with Amy-Beth of the future but realising that his may not be so bright, Kip turns to the warm bosom of Amy-Joy, who gladly indulges him, even making the first move. However, even when naked after having just been with Amy-Joy, Kip looks for the comfort of Amy-Beth and does so by kneeling at her side like an obedient dog. Nevertheless, Kip returns to his Mother's, now single again, bosom instead of dealing with the fall out due to his actions, leaving the girls to wave a frosty good-bye into the future at one another. It is eluded that Hank is now a gigolo by Jinx, who goes on to quiz Kip on his adventure down by the sea. Kip speaks of being involved with only Amy-Beth, not the 'pretty one', whilst the lights fade slowly on Amy-Beth, alone.