Love in E-Flat.

by Norman Krasna

Being a young intern, Howard is overworked and underpaid, but fortunately his girlfriend, Amy, has both a job teaching school and an apartment directly under his, which solves the problems of entertainment and transportation (not to mention romance) very handily. Mutual openness and trust are the keystones of their relationship, at least until Amy stumbles onto the fact that Howard has planted a "bug," or electronic listening device, in her apartment, and has been monitoring her comings and goings for months. Feeling betrayed by this evidence of calculated eavesdropping, Amy, in league with her married sister Bea, decides to manufacture some really choice bits of "conversation" for Howard to listen in on, suggesting for one thing that she is probably pregnant and for another that she has decided to take up again with a former, and very wealthy, boyfriend. Needless to say, Howard is rocked by this "news," although he can't let on to Amy, and mayhem ensues as each of them tries to deceive the other while keeping a multitude of their own secrets.

72 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1967

Reviews

[William Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Odd, slightly odd premise (surveillance as romantic, and not a deal killer?) but effective comic writing and characterization. Farce with classic tropes, well drawn characters, with a somewhat heavy handed, if nonetheless funnily played, plot device. Highly entertaining comedy of the 1960s.

[Bt · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a pretty good play. I’m not going to jump up and down about it, but of the romantic comedies I’ve read, it was one of the better ones. Probably like 3.5/5 stars. But for me to really give a play 4 or 5 stars, it usually has to mean something and have a purpose, which is hard to come by in a romantic comedy. (My criteria for a good play that I really like is joy and a purpose. This did have joy.) Anyway, the characters and story were cute, and I could really feel Amy and Howard’s relationship through the text (sometimes there is no particular chemistry in the text and the actors have to add it all). The ending seemed very odd to me, but it relied heavily on the action/stage directions, so maybe if I saw it performed, it would all make sense and be great and funny.

Practical Stuff:

4 men, 2 women (Howard, Amy, Bea, Stanley, Mr. Cooper, Mitchell)

Summary: Amy finds out that her seemingly-over-confident lover has bugged her apartment and has been monitoring her conversations for months. She determines to get revenge on him by scripting conversations that will hurt him – making him think she’s going out with another man, pregnant, engaged to someone else, etc.

Scenes/monologues: When Amy tells Howard she’s marrying Jeff (p. 48-51 – Pretty short and Amy is acting the whole time); when Bea confronts Amy about the relationship (first scene – but you would have to cut out a scene in the middle with Howard or it would be too short, and that might not be a good cut) … For the most part, the scenes are just too short (there’s sort of a frantic, hopping around pace in general)

There really aren't any great monologues (there’s one where Amy complains to Bea about being deceived, but I don’t think it would be that useful)