Little Footsteps

by Ted Tally

A two act comedy written for a 2 male / 2 female cast. Ben and Joanie, in their mid-thirties and married eight years, are an upwardly mobile “Yuppie” couple about to become parents for the first time. Ben (who is Jewish) works in television, Joanie (a quintessential WASP) is a would-be artist. As the play begins they are redecorating the dining room of their Manhattan apartment for use as a nursery, an activity which both underscores the impending changes in their lives and reinforces Ben’s uneasiness about it. The scene is filled with funny lines as Ben tries to make light of his misgivings, but his fears lead inevitably to dispute and, by the end of Act One, Ben has departed and Joanie suddenly finds herself a single parent-to-be. In Act Two, which takes place several months later, a christening party is in progress attended by Joanie’s parents, Charlotte and Gil, an affluent older couple who are not hesitant to point out that they never much cared for Ben in the first place. As for Ben, having avoided the formal christening, he now sneaks in through the nursery window determined (in a gesture towards his own religious background) to intone a few Jewish prayers over his newborn son—which, when the others suddenly return, leads both to a series of wildly funny misunderstandings, and also, in the end, a tenuous reconciliation and a commitment, by both Ben and Joanie, to try to grow up before their offspring does.

Genres: Plays

83 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1998