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Sunday, December 13, 2015

Good New Yorker story that would make a great play: Jelly and Jack

Good story this week in the New Yorker, from Dana Spiotta, Jelly and Jack, set in the 1970s, about a woman (Jelly) who makes anonymous calls to people in the film industry (most of them anyway, I think) and engages them in conversation and over time builds a set of fairly intimate, though never sexual, relationships with all communication being by phone. This story focuses on one such relationship, all seen from her POV, and we understand the power she feels in guiding these phone relationships and what role they play in her life - and in the life of the person on the line, Jack, in this case. As you might well expect - and this is even more apparent in today's world of social media and online dating sites - w/out actually lying she leads the men she talks to into believing she's young and attractive, which is for her a way to feel younger and more attractive, but a way that also imposes a burden, makes her question her worth rather than recognize her worth and her strengths. Inevitably, her phone contacts ask for a picture, and that's where she's pushed to the limit and at one point sends a photo of someone else - younger and prettier. And that kind of puts her in a box - even when the phone-friend asks to meet her (she lives in Syracuse, as it happens) she now feels she can't do it and cuts off the relationship altogether. Very sad - and I think this would make a great two-person play (probably with only she on stage; or maybe there could be different versions played on alternative nights, one with Jelly on stage and the next night with Jack?). There's a one-act opera, can't recall the title, entirely based on one woman and a telephone. This could have the same power. (Today, obviously, the relationship would play out on line - where disguise is easier of course but on the other hand it's much easier to track someone down based on a few basic facts.)


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