The PlayFinder™

THE STORY: Janice and Alex Krieger, an apparently congenial couple, live in a comfortable (if rather messy) Manhattan apartment. One afternoon, however, when Janice is trying to clean up the place a bit, their domestic tranquillity is disrupted by the arrival of Alex’s long lost brother, Max, who suddenly appears, complete with full beard and carrying a canary in a cage. Max’s behavior is frantic and decidedly odd: He smashes a window with a frying pan in order to air out the apartment, and he abruptly disappears, only to resurface when Alex arrives home from work. Happy to be united with his brother after so many years, Max regales the impressionable Alex with tales of his wild escapades as a drifter, convincing Alex that marriage is stifling and that a man must get out on his own to experience life at its fullest. Alex, drawing himself together, then confronts Janice, announces that their marriage is over, and departs defiantly with Max. Six months later, however, we discover that Alex and Max, now both seedy drifters and distressingly dependent on each other, are the ones who have sunk into a tiresome rut; while Janice, contentedly living by herself, has been promoted to a managerial position in the department store where Alex once worked.