SYNOPSIS:

This comedy of manners/romantic comedy concerns the mutual fascination and love/hate bond between England and America. It was produced in 2001 and 2003 in NYC. I have now turned it into a period piece set in 2003 as the US is invading Iraq, bringing Britain in along with it: a moment when many British people really hated us, much more than they do currently. (It would also make a good film.) In Act One, Bernie and Lori Greenfield from New York arrive in London. Bernie’s small film production company is interested in a screenplay by Fiona Thorpe, an Englishwoman. Lori is thrilled to visit England, but Bernie has a chip on his shoulder about American-bashing he encountered as a Rhodes Scholar; he complains to Lori about the British. Fiona, meanwhile, fumes to her quiet banker husband Nick about US cultural imperialism: about having to take American financing and input to get her period piece film about eminent Victorians made. When the two couples meet for dinner, some worst fears and stereotypes are realized, and the two meeker spouses, Lori and Nick, try to ease tensions as Fiona and Bernie clash about the film. Nick and Lori chat upstairs later in the evening, as the screenplay negotiations in the living room break down, all attempts at politeness fail, and Fiona and Bernie are reduced to just wildly bashing each other’s country: British cooking, McDonald’s, George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld, behavior during World War II, cars and culture . . . Their furious sparring devolves into drunken silliness – which leads to a pass. In Act Two, Nick, having flown to New York with Fiona, begs her not to continue her affair with Bernie, which may wreck their marriage. But Fiona remains blithe and breezy; she must meet with Bernie about the film project. Lori and Nick are shunted aside. They find, in their talks and walks around Manhattan, more intelligence, humor and strength between the two of them than either would have thought, and they are able to stand up for themselves in a way that their more colorful, confident spouses do not expect. Ultimately, it may be Bernie and Fiona who have each been most deluded by the mystique of the “Other” country. I lived in Britain for three years, and had friends in the UK Brit-proof my script, to make sure that that the dialogue is truly bi-lingual – in authentic British, as well as American, English.

TRANSATLANTIC (STAGE PLAY)