The Dead Woman
by Chelsea Sutton
April and Zoe have been estranged since college, and have only just agreed to meet up to go to dinner, when they stumble across a dead woman lying in the garbage outside a convenience store. Zoe, April and the store clerk Quinn are stuck in a waiting game, listening to the 911 busy signal, unsure what to do about the body when authorities can’t be reached. They pass the time guessing who the woman might be, if...
April and Zoe have been estranged since college, and have only just agreed to meet up to go to dinner, when they stumble across a dead woman lying in the garbage outside a convenience store. Zoe, April and the store clerk Quinn are stuck in a waiting game, listening to the 911 busy signal, unsure what to do about the body when authorities can’t be reached. They pass the time guessing who the woman might be, if she’s homeless, and how she got there in the first place. In fantastical interludes, the dead woman plays out scenarios with the trio, the trash in the alley transforming into odd set pieces of their lives. But when Zoe starts seeing the dead woman talking to her for real, things spin out of control, and nothing seems quite right. The dead woman’s story begins to merge with Zoe’s, the dark past between Zoe and April unravels, and a romantic relationship between Quinn and Zoe bubbles to the surface. As the stories twist deeper, it's revealed that April is also dead, having killed herself in the wake of the loneliness and isolation created in the wake of Zoe’s behavior toward April and April’s future husband, and April’s long term disappointment in her ability to not become a mother. Zoe suddenly remembers how she got to this alley in the first place - she is on her way back from April’s funeral, going to visit Quinn to tell him that she is pregnant. Before Zoe could talk to Quinn, however, Zoe is hurt - and as Quinn finds her bleeding on the sidewalk, and calls 911, Zoe must finally make a choice to see if she lives or dies. The play explores questions around women’s relationships, our relationships to poverty and motherhood and sexuality, the ways we disappoint each other and ourselves when we are too scared to make a choice.
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