Jumping Puddles

by Scott Carter Cooper

Vince is desperate to save his marriage and family home. With the hundred-year lease about to expire, his only hope is to strike a deal with a teenage Marine with whom he’s had a relationship. As tensions mount between the two, Vince’s mother, Puddles, arrives carrying a bouquet of dead rats to prepare for her fourth wedding. The confrontations with Puddles and the Marine force Vince to become increasingly...

Vince is desperate to save his marriage and family home. With the hundred-year lease about to expire, his only hope is to strike a deal with a teenage Marine with whom he’s had a relationship. As tensions mount between the two, Vince’s mother, Puddles, arrives carrying a bouquet of dead rats to prepare for her fourth wedding. The confrontations with Puddles and the Marine force Vince to become increasingly frantic with his offers. Everything is disrupted by a call from Vince’s husband.

With Vince despondent, Puddles and the Marine joke to raise Vince’s spirits, but tensions reveal Vince has destroyed Puddles’ engagement. Appearing to rise above the emotion, Puddles continues to needle Vince until a car suddenly appears to take her back to her own home, leaving Vince and the Marine to resolve issues.

As bulldozers are approaching and the Marine magically vanishes, Vince chooses to save two letters before the house is demolished: the first is from the US Marine Corps written in 2004 informing him of the Marine’s death, the contents of his will, and an unopened letter. The second is Puddles’ note, written just before she jumped from a balcony. As the house is demolished around him, Vince exits to start his new life.

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Jumping Puddles

Recommended by

  • Dakota Pariset: Jumping Puddles by Scott Carter Cooper
    “

    Holy s**t! Buckle up and settle in for a wildly raucous and epic multi-layered piece, reminiscent of the dysfunction and scope of Chekhovian theatre. Cooper gives us so many juicy morsels to chew on throughout, supported by biting, desperately loving(albeit doomed)relationships and the beautiful imagery and placement of a time and a place deep in all of us(and our world) that eats away at the core when attention isn't paid, all built into this broken home we get to spend(gleefully) 90 minutes in.

    Holy s**t! Buckle up and settle in for a wildly raucous and epic multi-layered piece, reminiscent of the dysfunction and scope of Chekhovian theatre. Cooper gives us so many juicy morsels to chew on throughout, supported by biting, desperately loving(albeit doomed)relationships and the beautiful imagery and placement of a time and a place deep in all of us(and our world) that eats away at the core when attention isn't paid, all built into this broken home we get to spend(gleefully) 90 minutes in.

    ”

Development History

  • Reading, Chicago Dramatists, 2021