The Breakdown
Rom-com, the stopped train
- Romantic comedy
- Two-hander
- 3 min
- Female role
- Young adult
- Beginner
Casting
7 lines- SACHA Male role, Young adult
- JUNE Female role, Young adult your role
Full text
(A stationary carriage, in open countryside. Two travellers, alone in the compartment.)
SACHA
“Technical incident.” It’s been an incident for forty minutes. At what point does it become a life?
JUNE
I’ve missed my connection. And the wedding at the end of it. I was a bridesmaid.
SACHA
Ah. So tonight, somewhere, someone’s improvising a speech without you.
JUNE
Exactly. And mine was funny. Really. I had a joke about the groom’s socks.
SACHA
…Want to test it? We’ve got time. We’ve got too much time. We’ve got time for an entire friendship.
(She smiles despite herself. The train, for its part, does not restart.)
JUNE
Fine. But if you don’t laugh, you get off at the next field.
SACHA
If I laugh too much, though, you have to tell me how the story ends. After the wedding. After tonight. After the next field.
What you can do with it
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.