Savage in Limbo

by John Patrick Shanley

The setting is a slightly seedy neighborhood bar in the Bronx, where a group of regulars (who all happen to be the same age thirty-two) seek relief from the disappointments and tedium of the outside world. The first to arrive is Denise Savage, a perennial loner who announces that she is still a virgin, but would like to remedy the situation. She is joined by an old school friend, Linda Rotunda, whose problem has been the opposite too many lovers (and illegitimate children) but who is now fearful that her current boyfriend, Tony Aronica, is losing interest in her. And when the macho Tony comes bursting in shortly thereafter and announces that he is leaving her to pursue "ugly girls," girls who have read books and can teach him something, Linda is desolate. Denise, sensing an advantage, makes a play for Tony, and the action quickens, moving swiftly from zany comedy to tense confrontation which requires the muscle and mediating skills of the taciturn bartender, Murk, who, heretofore, had been content to keep the glasses filled, including that of his mixed-up girlfriend, April, a failed nun who is also a classmate of the others. In the end, tensions subside, Linda recaptures Tony, Murk proposes to April, and only Denise remains as she was still in the limbo of loneliness from which she so desperately wants to escape.

Genres: Plays, Theatre, Fiction, Drama, Read For School

72 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

John Patrick Shanley was born in The Bronx, New York City, to a telephone operator mother and a meat-packer father. He is a graduate of New York University, and is a member of the Ensemble Studio Theatre.

For his script for the 1987 film, Moonstruck, Shanley won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen.

In 1990, Shanley directed his script of Joe Versus the Volcano. Shanley also wrote two songs for the movie: "Marooned Without You" and "The Cowboy Song."

In 2004 Shanley was inducted into the Bronx Walk of Fame.

In 2005, Shanley's play Doubt: A Parable was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Drama Desk Award and Tony Award for Best Play. Doubt: A Parable, is featured in The Fourth Wall, a book of photographs by Amy Arbus in which Shanley also wrote the foreword.

In 2008, Shanley directed a film version of Doubt starring Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams.

Reviews

[Krista · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just could not get interested in the characters in this play. Didn't finish it.

[Abigail · Rating 4 out of 5]

This play is worth reading just for Savage’s character alone. One of my favorite characters in the world of theatre. She pushes boundaries and challenges your mind and how you think. The play as a whole is not incredibly memorable as I cannot remember the movement of the plot or what happens in the end, but I remember Savage like she is an actual person I used to know. Perhaps that is because I see myself in her, but isn’t that the fun of theatre? Worth the read.

This is my favorite of Savage’s monologues. Incredible. She delivers it after she is asked what it feels like to be a virgin. Powerful.

“I feel strong. Like I'm wearing chains and I could snap 'em any time. I feel ready. I go to work and I feel like I could take over the company, but I just type. I go home and I see my mother in her chair and I feel like I could pick her up with one hand and chuck her out the window and roll up the rug and throw a big party. Everybody's invited. I go to the library and I wanna take the books down off the shelves and open all the books on the tables and argue with everybody about ideas. I wanna think out loud. I wanna think out loud with other people. You know what's wrong with everybody? Too smart. I know it sounds crazy. I know. But it's true. Everybody's too smart. It's like everybody knows everything and everybody argued everything and everything got hashed out and settled the day before I was born. It's not fair. They know about gravity so nobody ever talks about gravity. It's a dead issue! Look at me. My feet are stuck to the f*cking floor. Fantastic. But no. That's gravity. Forget it. It's been done it's been said it's been thought so f*ck it. It's not fair. I've been shut outta everything that mighta been good by a smartness around that won't let me think not one new thing. And it's been like that with love too. You're a little kid and you see the movies and you talk to your parents and you definitely talk to your friends and then you know, right? So you go ahead and you do love. And something a what somebody told you in a movie or in your ear is what love is. And where the f*ck are you then, that's what I wanna know? Where the f*ck are you when you've done love, and you can point to love, and you can name it, and love is the same as gravity the same as everything else and everything else is a totally dead f*cking issue?”

[Brandon Judell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Only a great director with a superb cast can make this work fly. Otherwise, the extremely lengthy monologues will wear you out. While capturing the plight of lower-class, semi-educated, former classmates who are now 32 and who happen to run into each other in a bar, the characters' constant kvetching about how their lives are going nowhere loses its charm about half way through. If I want to get bored, I can read my own diaries.

[shinji · Rating 2 out of 5]

not a fan. didnt really like any of the characters

[Gaby Perdomo · Rating 5 out of 5]

The dedication of this play reads "To those assasins who helped killed my former selves" which should already indicate the greatness of this play

[David Jay · Rating 5 out of 5]

I saw the original production of this back in 1985 and it was thrilling. Still packs quite a punch. Heartbreaking, beautiful, with lots of humor along the way.

[Danny Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

I. AM. ALONE.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

"This play is dedicated to all those good assassins who contributed to the death of my former self."

The playwright's dedication does a good job encapsulating the play, or in this case, self-subtitled "Concert Play." While it did not have a plot, really, this managed to be one of the most engaging plays I have had the pleasure to read simply because all the emotion and character relationships were so tangible. I would love to see a production of this to see how music really fits into all of this.

A testament to taking life into your own hands, I suppose. I am trying to describe this play briefly and I am failing so I will stop.

[Rhiannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. Although the ending left me feeling drained, that's not always a bad thing for a play. Cathartic is the name of the game with this one. Shanley so often expresses what I'm feeling, I find it frustrating. Why, if I had been born fifteen years earlier, I could have written this! Or, at least, I'd like to think I could have.

[Letitia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like it ALMOST as much as "Dreamer!" The monologue about how everything has already been done and thought, who hasn't felt that way? Hysterical too because whenever I feel myself doing this rant, I get pissed off b/c this monologue has already been written, and better than I ever could!

[Leah Coffin · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's interesting - the first time I read this play - I related a lot more to Denise, but this time around it's more Linda. Perhaps because she's the only halfway sane person in the entire play. Denise's self-pity gets really old, though.

[Blake Ellis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved the dialogue. Loved the yearning. Disappointed that the ladies began yowling for Tony Aronica. Became tiresome. Liked Murk becoming Santa.

[georgia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have developed a huge deal of respect for this play as a whole after having to yell its lines for hours and hours at my group members. So witty and often ironic in a fantastic way.

[Aleigha]

Absolutely hilarious and hits you right in the gut with Savage's final monologue. Incredibly easy to relate to.

[Raymond · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic "concert play" with great monologues as well as dialog.