You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water's Running

THE STORIES: As the New York Daily News briefly outlines: THE SHOCK OF RECOGNITION breaks in on a difference of opinion between...an earnest young dramatist and...his matter-of-fact producer who doesn't like the opening moment of the play. A wife is having breakfast in bed and she says something to her husband, who is in the bathroom. So he comes out, jaybird naked, and yells to her. 'You know I can't hear you when the water's running.' The producer doesn't think this confrontation is quite nice or necessary. The author insists that the scene is quite important-and, after all, it lasts only an instant. So a quarrel over taste develops, and a job-hunting actor...becomes involved. He eagerly begins to strip, demonstrating how he would handle the role. Also involved is...the producer's secretary...THE FOOTSTEPS OF DOVES shows us a couple who, wed twenty-five years, come to a store to pick out a new bed or beds. Should they buy twin beds or a double? They don't get much sales effort from the salesman...for the salesman is gay. Into the discussion, uninvited, comes a blonde young thing...who wants a big bed because she is all alone.I'LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS maintains the light humor of the first two, but at base it is serious and touching as it shows [parents] discussing the sex education of their almost-adult children, a girl and boy. [The father] is quite moving when he learns in a letter that his son is cutting adrift from the parental harbor. For a windup there is I'M HERBERT about two old, old people sitting on a porch in a pair of rocking chairs and talking. Just talking-and of course they don't know how funny they are. Each has had one or more previous marriages and perhaps a few flings, but they are hazy as to details. In fact, they don't always know which one the other one is. THE SHOCK OF RECOGNITION calls for 3 men, 1 woman, INTERIOR; THE FOOTSTEPS OF DOVES for 2 men, 2 women, INTERIOR; I'LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS for 1 man, 2 women, INTERIOR; and I'M HERBERT for 1 man, 1 woman.Robert Anderson is the author of 'You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water's Running' with ISBN 9780822212881 and ISBN 0822212889.