The Terrorism of Love

by Jeff Whipple © 2001

TWO ACTS, ONE SET, THREE FEMALES, TWO MALES

This play examines love relationships during a time when the world is at war with terrorism and nothing seems stable or predictable. Five young people interact and try to find distractions and meaning in their lives as their relationships fail, grow, interweave and redirect. The terrorism in the world is echoed by a symbolic terrorism in the relationships between the characters.

There is no particular setting. The characters meet each other in pairs and groups in a nondescript place with a couple chairs. Their conversations define who they are, what frustrates them and what (or who) they desire.

Terrorism is both a symbol of their emotional and psychological frustrations as well as a real threat to their lifestyle and belief in the stability of civilization. There is a recurring image of a stereotypical terrorist who enters with a bomb under his overcoat. He doesn’t interact with the others and only exists in their imagination. Each time he enters he proclaims his manifesto in a foreign language and reaches for the bomb trigger just as the scene ends.

Angie falls in love with this imaginary terrorist. But it isn’t him she desires; it’s his passion. Mike is in love with Angie but she finds him too cerebral, too passionless. Angie thinks that an affair with Sue would provide her with the passion she desires but Sue is in love with Cathy. Cathy is simple; she represents all the people who follow the flow of our culture and the passions dictated by our government. And she is in love with Stanley, not Sue. Stanley is handsome, rich and successful but the horrific world events lead him to a reevaluation. He now feels he has no sense of fulfillment.

Stanley doesn’t appear as “Stanley” until after several scenes where he portrayed the terrorist. When he takes off the attire of the terrorist, it’s apparent that his “terrorism” was symbolic. It represented his frustrations and desire for something bigger than himself. Cathy shows her interest in him but he’s not sure what he wants now except that it isn’t the same as before.

When Sue learns of Cathy’s desire for Stanley, she becomes a terrorist and threatens to blow her breasts off. (This is meant to be silly and humorous.) But Angie talks Sue out of that and moves into a relationship with her. Mike is distraught over Angie’s love for Sue and the fact that no one listens to him. He becomes a terrorist and threatens to unleash a terrible germ that makes people’s ears fall off. He is ignored. Stanley expresses his frustrations to Mike and their relationship moves to another level. Cathy is pissed-off by Stanley’s interest in Mike and she creates a batch of homemade rat poison in her blender according to a Martha Stewart recipe. She then threatens to kill all men.

The play ends with all the characters angered and/or frustrated. They are all on stage threatening to use their various forms of symbolic terrorism as the lights fade out.

This play was actually begun two months before September 11.