Viable

A chest cold tests Olive and Jack’s relationship; Jack thinks about his time with Mary.

JACK is half awake, laying face down, in bed. Olive, across the room, is pulling on a wrap dress over a leotard.

JACK
Why are you here?

OLIVE
I’ve been thinking of taking a ballet class. I’m getting a bit rusty. But I enjoy our mornings in the studio much more. So imagine my surprise when I get there this morning and you aren’t there-

JACK
But why are you here?

OLIVE
God forbid I see my husband in the morning. Just wanted to make sure you’re alive.

JACK
I’d never kill myself without telling you.

OLIVE
Gentleman. I wanted this dress and I wanted my shoes that match. I have a bag that goes with it at my place, I’m not sure why this dress never made it over.

JACK
Why are they here?

OLIVE
I spend too much time with you.

JACK
A woman’s place is in her apartment.

OLIVE
Yet another thing we agree on.

She looks at him with genuine affection. Disgusting (and she knows it.) She sits next to him and messes with his hair. He half rolls over and swats her away.

OLIVE
(Thoroughly entertained)
Do you want me to pick you up a bottle of NyQuil? You look like shit.

JACK
No. That garbage isn’t good for you.

OLIVE picks up a bottle of pills off the nightstand, she reads the label.

OLIVE
You’re right. Secobarbital is all you ever need.

She opens the drawer and puts the pill bottle in it. Among others.

OLIVE
Okay, my lord. Whose kneecaps do I have to break for getting you sick? Was it Maurice?

JACK
I think it was the kid’s brat. Children are disgusting.

OLIVE
Well that’s unfortunate. I have a “no killing children” rule. Guess avenging you will have to wait 12 more years. See you at the studio tomorrow morning?

JACK gives a thumbs up. OLIVE leaves.

JACK’S MIND. Or maybe the past.

A huge stage. People around him. Jack is 18 years old.

Bright lights. The ensemble is singing.

He is dancing, and has been for at this point, 7 minutes straight.

The number changes into a waltz. He waltzes with Mary. Her eyes are serious.

She is whisked off stage.

The number changes again, into the culmination of the show, something big and serious that makes the audience want to stay. JACK keeps dancing, now doing tap.

It’s so aggressive.

He continues, and continues, and continues, then, in one final moment, sticks the landing to thunderous applause. Lights go down, the curtain falls. He cannot breathe. One of the ensemble members helps him off stage.

MARY
(quiet)
I need you not to look like you’re trying so hard. It’s distracting.

JACK nods. He loosens his collar.

JACK
I’m trying.

MARY furrows her brow.

MARY
Get some fresh air. You’re turning purple.

Back to now.

JACK is taking a cold shower because he’s a freak. His eyes are closed.

The living room. JACK enters.

OLIVE is on the sofa. She’s reading a book. Her ankle is wrapped in an bandage and resting up on the arm of the sofa.

JACK
What happened?

OLIVE looks up.

OLIVE
I fucked the landing right before intermission. Greg dropped me a half moment too early and my ankle rolled and I fell flat on my face.

JACK
Why didn’t you call? I would’ve gone down there and yelled at you.

OLIVE
I did. You didn’t answer. But I managed the second act. I’ll probably be fine tomorrow, if I rest it tonight, which I’m doing and that’s why I’m here instead of going all the way out to my place. Sorry if you had a flu-orgy planned tonight.

JACK shrugs and goes into the other room.

BACK in Jack’s mind.

Another day from the same show as before. Something has changed, a costume or an orchestration, it’s been a few days.

We are at the beginning of the tap segment. Jack is working so hard and everyone can tell it. He looks younger than he is.

Suddenly, he stumbles, he stops dancing. He steps back.

The ensemble doesn’t know what’s going on, but they keep working.

JACK gets back to it, but he’s all messed up. He keeps trying.

MARY, watching him from off stage, is confused.

He can’t do it.

He can’t do any of it. He stops dancing again, he stumbles back. He falls over. The audience laughs.

MARY gestures for someone to grab him, then zips out and finishes the number herself, so casually.

A few moments later. JACK sits. Behind him is one of the ensemble members, who is sorta propping him up. So nice.

MARY enters. Everyone speaks in whispers.

MARY
Extra long intermission, I got us 10 more minutes.

She kneels in front of Jack. She barely looks real. She looks like she’s going to say something. Mary is not the type of person who can obscure frustration on her face.

MARY
We need to give him something to– does anyone have some- shoot what’s it- dexedrine? Get him some of those, he’ll be good to go.

Everyone looks at her like she’s insane.

Back to now!

Olive is way too close to Jack. She is sitting on his chest, staring into his soul. Jack shoves her away as he snaps back into the real world. They’re in the bedroom.

OLIVE
You weren’t breathing.

JACK
Yes I was.

OLIVE
I came in here and you weren’t breathing. What’d you take?

JACK
Liv, I have a chest cold. I’m not shooting up heroin.

OLIVE
Heroin no. Mixing barbiturates with whatever the fuck your dealer is calling coke–

JACK
Jesus Christ. Fuck off.

OLIVE
You’re freaking me out, Jack.

JACK sits up, he’s disoriented for a moment. He looks for a pack of cigarettes.

JACK
Fucking hysterical.

Jack finds his cigarettes. Yippee. He lights one.

OLIVE
I’m calling them and telling them to send the understudy– Don’t smoke. Don’t smoke, Jack, come on.

JACK
Make me.

She grabs the cigarette. She puts it out.

OLIVE
Let’s go sit outside.

They sit on the balcony. It’s mid morning. Jack has his hands over his eyes. Olive is stretching.

JACK
How’s your ankle?

OLIVE
I didn’t know you had the capability to remember something from two whole days ago. Impressive. It’s fine, thank you. You’re so kind and considerate.

JACK
City air is making me feel worse.

OLIVE
Do I need to bring you to the seaside for your delicate constitution? Are you wasting away from consumption?

Jack doesn’t get it.

JACK
I don’t think so.

OLIVE
You look like a corpse.

JACK
When you were sitting on my chest, my first thought was, “I can’t breathe.” My second thought was, “this bitch needs to lose 10 pounds.” No wonder Greg dropped you.

OLIVE
I cannot wait to take everything from you in the divorce.

Jack stands up. Woozy, a bit, he goes back inside. Olive follows.

JACK
Go do the show, Liv. I’ll be mad if you don’t…

Jack’s mind again. Somewhere, Jack isn’t focused on where, he is sitting. Mary is sitting up close to him. She’s all he notices.

MARY
Jack. Look at me. I’m not saying this to hurt you. I’m not mad at you. I want you to understand that this show needs to go forward.

JACK
I can do it.

MARY
Buddy, kiddo, you can’t. You’ve made it clear that you can’t pull it off. Not for 8 shows a week. I can’t have you nearly dying every intermission.

JACK
I can do it. I have the skills–

MARY
And you have the talent and you have the chutzpah, I know. But Jack, I built that number around how you can move, just because you can move that way doesn’t mean you should.

JACK
(As hurt as humanly possible)
You don’t think I can do it.

MARY
You can’t. You tried and you couldn’t pull it off. You’re not meant to do it.

JACK
But I’m ruining your show.

MARY
Bert and I already found someone to replace you. Nothing is ruined. You just can’t do it. There are all sorts of things in life that you just have to fail at. And you failed at it, Jack. Okay? Everyone fails all the time. It’s a part of life.

JACK
Mary, let me try again. Please. Mary.

MARY
It’s been 4 days, Jack. The- the show has to go on. Okay? You know that.

JACK
You asked me to do this show and I have to do it for you, Mary.

Mary looks so overwhelmed by this pathetic loser.

MARY
You’re gonna break my heart, Jack. You’re going to make me cry. Don’t do that. Just tell me it’s okay. I know you know that it’s for the best if I fire you.

JACK
I don’t want you to fire me because I can do it. This show is important, Mary, I can’t ruin it.

MARY
Jack, you’re going to ruin it if you keep trying to play this role. You can’t do it. You don’t have the tenacity, you don’t have the endurance, you have asthma. You need to be the one who decides that this is not the best option for you as a person.

JACK
I don’t care if it is. I can do it and I’m going to do it, until I can’t.

MARY
Jack. You are at the can’t. Now, you can either let me fire you or force me to. And you force me to, it’s going to hurt me a lot. I don’t want to send you back to New York upset with you. I need you to tell me you’ll be okay if I replace you.

Ouch. Mary touches his face and looks him in the eyes. Maybe there’s love, or maybe it’s just frustration.

MARY
Say it, please.

JACK
Okay.

Mary hugs him.

MARY
You’re fired.

She pulls away. She looks at him. She’s very serious but she’s not honest.

MARY
This show means less to me than your life, Jack. You understand that?

Jack nods.

MARY
Okay. So you’re going to go back to New York, you’re going to my place, you’re going to recover, and then when we’re in New York, you’re going to come back and help me finish up the choreography, you understand that? There’s always room for you, Jack. There’s always going to be a place. It’s just not opposite me.

Back to now.

Jack and Olive sit in the living room. It’s a few hours later. Olive is reading a book, half resting on him. How embarrassing, enjoying being with a person. Cringe.

Olive adjusts and looks at him. He is a bit startled to see her.

OLIVE
What?

JACK
I forgot you were still here.

OLIVE
You were mumbling in your sleep.

JACK
I was thinking about Mary.

OLIVE
You know I saw her at the the ballet once. As a little girl. I thought she was so beautiful.

JACK
She was. Did I tell you that she fired me?

OLIVE
You have. And to that, I say that, when you and I did the Sunshine number the first time you kept adjusting my legs so I’d stop overextending even though it looked better.

JACK
Mary didn’t believe in limitations. She wanted more of everything.

OLIVE
Viability, Jack. The perfect dancer only exists in science fiction. The viable dancer is in the room.

Olive adjusts again, this time sitting closer to him. He puts his arms around her and closes his eyes.