Dead Air

Synopsis:

SYNOPSIS

The play is told in two major settings.  One is the basement bedroom of SON, a brilliant but shy young man.  The other is the set of the popular daytime talk show starring MOTHER (“Reggie”).  As the play opens, SON and MOTHER are seen explaining themselves, the SON on his computer and the MOTHER to her studio audience.  Something has obviously gone very wrong with the son.  The scenes then flash back to the time when MOTHER’s radio show was just catching on.  Her on-air trademark, along with her warm, folksy voice, was the frequent mention of “my son the genius,” which the SON hates.  As the show goes national, then moved to television, MOTHER becomes a beloved staple of daytime TV while son suffers through her attempts to promote him, from an appearance on the local high school academic competition, to the podium as class valedictorian, all the way to trying to get him on her show.  FATHER is caught between his frustration with a SON who seems to know everything except how to get on with his life and the MOTHER whose on-air advice is in ironic contrast to her cluelessness about her failing marriage and lonely child.  Interwoven with scenes of the family’s personal lives are episodes from MOTHER’s show that point up both her ambition and her growing ignorance about what’s happening at home.

When SON suffers a mysterious collapse after an argument with MOTHER, both parents react.  MOTHER tries to use her influence as a media star, while FATHER sees his family splintering further and further until both the marriage and hopes for the SON’s recovery are destroyed.