The Resting Place: A Play

By Frank Catalano

Joey Fanellii a successful Beverly hills real estate agent is thinking about killing himself. His once prosperous and happy life is falling a part. His wife Calcutta is cheating on him, his oversized house is in foreclosure and he's about to be forced out of his job. He's about to end it all when he gets a phone call that his widowed mother, whom he hasn't spoken to in thirteen years, is in the hospital with a stroke. He has no choice but to go back home to Long Island and see her. A trip that will change his life forever. 6 characters (3 adult male, one child, 2 adult females) Simple setting.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lexington Avenue Press
• Release date: May 14, 2011
• ISBN: 9781625172273

Book preview

PLACE

ACT I

ACT ONE

JOEY

I had a dream that I killed myself last night. I climbed up to a place high above on top of the world and just jumped. No note or last words… I just flew with my arms open wide, then BANG… and it was all black. I was dead. What a dream eh? If you ask me now that I’m awake, I’d say, an overdose of pills would be a better choice… no blood and no mess to clean up. I’d just put a handful of those tiny pills in my mouth and wash them down with a glass of Chivas on the rocks. Now, that’s the way to go. You get sleepy and you die! No pain. No blood. Who needs all that shit? You just float away in your mind… to a place high above the clouds and that’s that. It would be a very beautiful thing. Then I woke up and I found myself still wading knee deep in this pile of shit that’s called my life. Everything I touch turns to shit. I can’t stand it anymore. But it wasn’t always this way. I was happy when I was a kid. Life was so simple then… and I believed that anything was possible.

(Beat.)

And now? I’m just tired. At least when you’re dead everyone says nice things about you. They talk about what a great person you were… how giving… how loving… how you will be missed. Then, they say May he Rest in Peace. What a load of crap! What peace? You’re dead! And when you’re alive these same bastards… suck the marrow out of your bones… they hate you and try to destroy you with every fiber of their being. It’s always the same day after fucking day! I can’t take it anymore! I just can’t.

Every morning when I get up, no matter how good the day starts… it always winds up the same. Shit! My mother used to say in Italian: Quande anaive esuale tutte stroonzes se vede… which means when the snow melts… you can see all the shit. But I’ll save all that for later… I’m Joseph Fanelli… but you can call me Joey.

(Beat)

(BLACK OUT.)

JOEY

Bless me father for I have sinned.

DONOVAN

Go ahead my son.

JOEY

Father Donovan, I want to be straight with you, I don’t even know why I’m here. I never really believed in God. When I was a kid my mother made me go to church on Sunday. The mass in Latin thing never appealed to me. I never understood anything they said… seemed like a lot of bullshit.

DONOVAN

Mr. Fanelli, do you feel the least bit talking this way in the house of God?

JOEY

I am supposed to tell you the truth right?

DONOVAN

Yes, but aren’t you worried that God might punish you?

JOEY

Like strike me with lightening?

DONOVAN

Something like that…

JOEY

I’m not afraid of God.

DONOVAN

I see. So you’re not afraid of anything?

JOEY

Well, not exactly. When I was a kid, there was this one nun… at Sunday school. Her name was Sister Mary Catherine… she beat the crap out of me a few times. Have you heard of her?

DONOVAN

No, I haven’t. You were afraid of her but not God?

JOEY

She used to hit hard, but God had no control over my universe then or now. It’s always been the monsters that run the earth.

DONOVAN

Monsters? What sort of monsters?

JOEY

Well, when I was a kid, it was the ones that came out when it got dark. Ya’know, the ones that could bite you like the Wolf Man and Dracula. They ruled the night… and if you rule the night, you rule the world.

DONOVAN

So, you were afraid of them?

JOEY

You bet your ass… They were the ones that you had to keep happy.

DONOVAN

How did you keep them happy?

JOEY

By fearing them.

DONOVAN

What about heaven?

JOEY

What about it?

DONOVAN

Did you ever think that you might want to be there someday?

JOEY

Not really. I thought it was a lot like Miami Beach? Not what it’s cracked up to be.

DONOVAN

As a place of eternal happiness?

JOEY

Father, I was just a kid. Eternal happiness to me was a hot dog and mustard.

DONOVAN

Did you ever think about what Heaven might be like?

(Joey thinks long and hard, then.)

JOEY

Heaven? Well, high… definitely high up there… in the clouds. Something like that.

DONOVAN

You ever thought about going there?

JOEY

When I was a kid, there was a water tower near my house. I always wondered what it would be like to climb to the top… but I never did… because I was afraid of heights and my mother wouldn’t let me near it. It isn’t like I still didn’t think about it though but I was just too scared to do it. I climbed the metal stairway in my mind counting each step like a notch in a belt. I could only see up part of the way up to 98 steps. I always wondered how many steps it would be to the top? I closed my eyes and would dream about being on the top one day so I could be high above the world where I could see all there was to see… the sun, the moon, the stars all at once. Free and on top of the world so I could yell up at the sky I’m on top of the world Ma! That would’ve been heaven.

DONOVAN

On top of the world, Ma? That’s an interesting thing to say. Isn’t that a James Cagney line from an old Warner Bros. gangster movie called White Heat?

JOEY

Ya’know, now that I think of it, you’re right Father.