THE STORY: In the emergency room of a Providence, Rhode Island hospital, Debbie waits for her husband. Their daughter, Jess, has fallen down the basement steps. That, at least, is what she tells the nurses, and this is the story she’s sticking to. When Freddie arrives, he angrily confronts Debbie about the telltale signs of child abuse that mark their daughter. Debbie refuses to admit the truth and desperately talks about their simple life together before they were married and how she wants things back the way they were. Freddie warns Debbie that they’ll lose their daughter, but Debbie won’t cooperate. In the end, Freddie goes along with her story, all the while knowing that the state will do what it has to do, and that Debbie will go on living in a dream world.
“Edward Allan Baker’s A DEAD MAN’S APARTMENT is a hilarious farce about a Providence couple having a noon-time affair. They seem dimwitted and crude but in fact both have rather shrewd instincts, which Baker delineates with great storytelling skill.” —New York Daily News.
Included in the collection
A Dead Man’s Apartment, Rosemary with Ginger, Face Divided.
