Love is a Time of Day

by John Patrick

As is necessary for a pretty girl with her own student apartment, April McGregor has learned to fend off wolves although she is hard pressed to cope with Skipper Allen, a particularly persuasive graduate student who is convinced that her secret wish is to have him move in with her. Thanks to a bad back, which suddenly acts up and leaves him temporarily immobile, Skipper unexpectedly achieves his goals, although not with the pliant acceptance he has hoped for. But then his challenge is to win April over to his amorous point of view which results in a series of uproarious happenings, plus near expulsion for both of them. What finally almost thaws our steadfastly proper heroine is jealously managed through the unlikely, and silent, assistance of a department-store dummy. But the ruse is discovered in time to preserve honor, and even the indomitable Skipper ultimately concedes defeat. However, true love (which was always there for the finding) comes to the fore when the two, at last, share a real and genuine moment of loss, which tells them how mature and meaningful their relationship could and should (and most certainly will) be.

Genres: Theatre

72 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

John Patrick Goggin was an American playwright and screenwriter.
Abandoned by his parents, he had a delinquent youth that he spend in foster homes and boarding schools. He married at 19 and got a job as an announcer at KPO Radio in San Francisco, California. After being a scriptwriter for the radio program Cecil and Sally he began writing screenplays, and later he turned to writing screenplays.
On November 7, 1995 he committed suicide.

Reviews

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

An adorable, if dated (see: many of the references that are clearly appropriate to the 1960s), play that reads as if it could be rather interesting to see staged. It definitely reads as if it would need a very capable director to make the balance between moving and madcap that the playwright seems to straddle convincing to an audience. Still I found myself pulling for Mac and Skipper from the start, even if it is an imperfect- and sometimes absurd- text.