The Dry Line

by Joe Nelms

A one-act drama that explores the expectations, obligations, and limitations of love. Who defines them? Who enforces them? What are their consequences? What are the bonds we choose to accept even when we no longer have to.

When a tornado warning forces two women, Mimi and Tabitha, to shelter in a suburban basement, they are forced to confront some long-buried issues – they are the first and second wives of the...

A one-act drama that explores the expectations, obligations, and limitations of love. Who defines them? Who enforces them? What are their consequences? What are the bonds we choose to accept even when we no longer have to.

When a tornado warning forces two women, Mimi and Tabitha, to shelter in a suburban basement, they are forced to confront some long-buried issues – they are the first and second wives of the same man – and one very pressing one – that man is upstairs, unprotected from the tornado, and the women are not capable of bringing him downstairs with them.

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The Dry Line

TABITHA, 62
Tabitha has the quiet confidence of someone who has rebuilt themselves by necessity. She knows who she is and is (finally) content and comfortable in her own skin. Tabitha is a slow burn. She’s not mean or overbearing. She’s calculated and when she makes a move she does it decisively.

MIMI, 49
In another life, Mimi was vivacious and outgoing – The personality one might expect of someone who tended to luck into exactly what she wanted whenever she wanted it. Some would call it carefree. This is no longer the case. In recent years, Mimi has become much more pragmatic, more matter-of-fact, and now enjoys an ever-present undercurrent of anxiety.