THE STORY: Comfortably ensconced in his private room awaiting minor surgery, Steven is unexpectedly visited by Oswald, a terminal patient who appears to have the run of the hospital. Skittish about medical matters, Steven grows increasingly restive as Oswald catalogues his gruesome ailments and operations—all of which somehow seems to engender in Steven a sense of guilt as well: about his sureness of full recovery versus Oswald’s sad fate; and also about his being well off, while Oswald has become a charity patient. As Oswald piles horror on horror Steven presses on him his cashmere robes, his expensive fountain pen, chocolates, scotch and, finally his bed-anything to shut him up and persuade him that someone does care about him (but if only he would go away).
Presented by New York’s prestigious Circle Repertory Company, on a double bill with
Night Thoughts, this clever, highly original comedy finds zany humor in the unexpected meeting of two hospital patients.
