Status Updates From Switzerland (NHB Modern Plays)

PATRICIA. Francis Bacon. I would have liked to have met him. Here's a postcard of his Study No. 6. One of the screaming popes. He had a nanny that locked him in a cupboard for hours. That's why he painted in a little tiny room. Now someone your generation would be lying on the shrink's couch complaining of post-traumatic stress but Bacon said: 'That cupboard was the making of me.' That's an artist.

PATRICIA. I can't stand people who see the best. People are actually at their best when they are at their worst. Nice people are simply excellent narrators. They're fakes. And if you've ever met a nice writer, be warned!
EDWARD. They're not nice?
PATRICIA. They're not a writer!

Characters
PATRICIA HIGHSMITH, an older woman, distinct vestiges of beauty
EDWARD, twenties, handsome, sexually ambiguous, a New Yorker

Setting
It's 1995. We are in the spacious study of Patricia Highsmith, in her minimalist modern house in Tegna, Switzerland. By contrast to the bunker-like architecture, the study is a brilliant archive of a life.