A Kurt Vonnegut short story, published in Welcome to the Monkey House, about a man who seems to have little personality of his own but who throws himself with gusto and dazzling performances into the plays produced by his local amateur dramatics society. A similarly colourless and lonely woman who moves into the area ends up playing opposite him in Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, and finds herself falling in love with him in character. A powerful story.

Made into a low-budget film in 1982, starring Christopher Walken and Susan Sarandon, and directed by Jonathan Demme.

The film version of this story was made in 1982 for PBS (part of the Hallmark Hall of Fame series). It is only an hour in length, but is remarkable in that it captures what I think is the essence of Vonnegut: The way certain individuals can appear so extraordinary in ordinary situations.

Both of these actors play against type. Walken is a shy good guy and Sarandon is a timid young woman. Neither have been mistaken for these later on in their careers.

It might be also be said that this story (and the film) are about method acting.

Demme, the director, focuses on both the dramatic changes that the characters make on and off stage and also the difficulty most people have in communicating in real life. Much of the dialogue is directly from the short story.

thanks to factgirl

some info from amazon.com

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