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The Bench

Rom-com, eight months of silence

  • Romantic comedy
  • Two-hander
  • 2 min
  • Female role
  • Adult
  • Beginner
PDF Word Free, no sign-up

Casting

7 lines
  • SAMI Male role, Adult
  • NORA Female role, Adult your role

Full text

(A park bench, noon. Two people unpack their lunch, at each end, like every day.)

SAMI

We’ve eaten on this bench every day for eight months. I think we can stop pretending not to see each other.

NORA

We’re not pretending. We’re honouring a tacit agreement. You on the right, me on the left, world peace in the middle.

SAMI

Except today, you took my spot. On the right.

NORA

I was testing a theory. To see if you’d dare say anything. Eight months was getting a bit long.

(A beat. They really look at each other, for the first time.)

SAMI

…You always have the same sandwich. Tuna and cucumber. On Mondays, you sigh before biting into it.

NORA

And you give half of yours to the pigeons. A man who shares his lunch with pigeons can’t be all bad.

SAMI

So tomorrow, same bench. But we drop the metre in the middle. World peace will hold without it.

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Original text written for Acto. Read it, print it, work on it in class, perform it at an audition or on a self-tape: that is what it is for, and you need no permission. For a public performance or any commercial use, write to us at contact@acto.re.

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