Play 164: My Dreams Are Psychotic

CHARACTERS
VINCENT, 17
THERAPIST , early 60s

(Vincent is lying on a couch, the therapist is sitting in a chair to the side, there is a pad of paper on his lap and he has a pen in his hand. The therapist has a desk that is off to the side in the room.)

THERAPIST
Have you had any dreams you remember recently?

VINCNET
Some.

THERAPIST
Why don’t you tell me what happened in one of them.

VINCENT
I could try, but they don’t make any sense.

THERAPIST
A lot of people’s dreams don’t.

VINCENT
I mean, I don’t even know what the hell happened in most of them.

THERAPIST
Well try to describe them.

VINCENT
I don’t know if I can put them into words.

THERAPIST
Try.

VINCENT
Okay.

(Beat.)

I guess one of them I can barely describe.

THERAPIST
Go ahead.

VINCENT
So, I was in this building, I don’t remember what it looked like, it was kind of fuzzy. So, there was a pool kind of, or something like it, and there were these stepping stones or something in it, you know, like in a Japanese tea garden or something?

THERAPIST
Yeah, and?

VINCENT
So, there was a race going on.

(Beat.)

Well, not really, there wasn’t really a race happening, like no one was running or anything like that, but for some reason I just knew that there was a race going on.

THERAPIST
Okay.

VINCENT
And, I think my old Spanish teacher was there, I don’t really remember anything that he did or said, or if he did do anything, I just remember he was there.

(Beat.)

And then I was suddenly outside, and it was like the back of my old school. And there were random characters from Six Feet Under sitting on the playground, and I talked to them and it was as if we were friends or something, but I don’t remember any of the conversation.

THERAPIST
Hmm, interesting.

(He scribbles something on a piece of paper.)

And is this particularly strange for one of your dreams?

VINCENT
Not at all.

(Beat.)

That’s one of the most normal ones, I mean, the fact that I actually understood even that much alone means it’s one of my more normal dreams.

(The therapist scribbles more.)

VINCENT
What are you writing?

THERAPIST
Oh, nothing.

(Beat.)

Well, that’s the end of the session for today.

VINCENT
Oh, okay.

(He sits up.)

THERAPIST
I’ll see you next week.

VINCENT
Yeah.

(He leaves.)

(The phone on the therapists desk rings. He walks over to the desk and picks up the phone.)

THERAPIST
Hello?

(He puts the pad of paper he had been writing on down. The writing on it is visible—he has written the words “bat-shit insane” on it.)

(Beat.)

Oh yes, well…

(Fade out.)