Good as New
Good as New follows the disintegration of an educated, affluent Chicago family – parents and teenage daughter – following Mom’s face-lift. Devastated by what she views as a violation of who her mother is – an enlightened feminist – the daughter confronts Mom. Mom in turn blurts out that she took the nip-and-tuck route because she’s losing Dad and suspects he is having an affair. Further shattered, the girl now engages in a face-off with her father, who defends himself by saying Mom has also “wandered.” The first act, three two-person scenes in the family car, plants the seeds of upheaval; the second act, a single long scene for all three in the parents’ bedroom, lets it explode.
Author’s Note
At one performance of Good as New, I sat between two women who were old friends. Apparently unaware that someone was sitting between them, they spoke intimately about their lives. I tried to interrupt to offer them my seat so they could sit together, but I couldn’t get a work in. As the house lights began to dim, one said to the other in a near panic, “Hey, what’s this play about?” The other woman hissed back, “I don’t know. Something about a dysfunctional family.”
I wanted to explain: “No, it’s not about a dysfunctional family.”
So what is Good as New about?
Two of the great evils in the world: Lying and excessive truth telling. This play attempts to examine the consequences of both, and what happens when three astonishing and vital people who leave each other have stopped living a life of honesty.