Synopsis
The Harry and Sam Dialogues
Published by Dramatists Play Service
2 Male 0 Female
Harry and Sam are old friends who like to pass the time posing outlandish questions to one another ...
"If ya' had the choice would ya' rather love a woman whose top half was a fish and whose bottom half was a woman or a woman whose top half was a woman and whose bottom half was a fish?"
The questions are off the wall, but they slowly reveal the two men's characters, and allow them to take stock of each other while avoiding mundane, but important, life matters
These life matters are woven into their interchanges-hints about their lives apart from one another
Harry and his wife, Marge, are having troubles
In the first scene, Harry mentions he's sleeping on the couch; in the next, he is sleeping in his car; later he asks Sam if he can stay at his house; and after that, he jokes that he is sleeping in another state
Sam is wrapped up in New Age books, and tries to dispense their philosophy to enhance the dialogues
But when Harry finds one of Sam's books in Marge's possession, he realizes Sam is having an affair with Marge
Sam apologizes and tries to explain, but the event drives them apart and they do not speak for a time
The two are incomplete without each other
however, and the incident forces Harry to reconsider his chosen form of
communication (or lack thereof) and to work on his marriage and salvage it
In the final scene, Harry and Sam meet by chance in their favorite bar and reconcile, with Harry using an analogy of dunking Ding-Dong's, in what you thought was milk but which turns out to be orange juice, to say that you don't throw away years of friendship or marriage because of one mistake, which is as much his fault as theirs