William Borden

Axel and Maggie

Axel and Maggie's husband in a different quantum world

MANY WORLDS

MANY WORLDS in NYC

(A moderately upscale motel room. We hear the door unlock. AXEL pushes the door open, holds it for MAGGIE as she enters, follows her in. They move casually, as if they've done this many times, as, in fact, they have. AXEL looks about the room. As he talks, he takes off his hat and overcoat, loosens his tie, takes off his suit coat. MAGGIE, however, sits in a chair without taking her coat off. Her mind seems to be elsewhere.)

AXEL
This room looks familiar. Have we been in this room before? Maggie?

MAGGIE
What?

AXEL
Have we been in this room before?

MAGGIE
It's a chain. All the rooms look the same.
(AXEL looks out over the audience. The "picture" is on the "fourth wall.")

AXEL
I've seen that picture before. Does Vincent Price still buy paintings for motels?

MAGGIE
Vincent Price is dead.

AXEL
When did that happen?

MAGGIE
Where have you been?

AXEL
When?

MAGGIE
He's been dead for years.

AXEL
I don't like to read about death. It's too personal.
MAGGIE
You need to live in the world.

AXEL
I don't see the point.

MAGGIE
It's where we are.

AXEL
I'm not so sure. There might be a million motel rooms, a million paintings just like that one. It's the many worlds theory of quantum physics. New stockings?

MAGGIE
You bought me these.

AXEL
I thought so.

MAGGIE
I bought these.

AXEL
That's what I thought.

MAGGIE
You bought me the blue stockings.

AXEL
I bought you red stockings.

MAGGIE
We're getting too old for this.

AXEL
I know. This bickering…

MAGGIE
What bickering?

AXEL
I thought we were bickering.

Selected Works

FULL-LENGTH PLAYS

DON'T DANCE ME OUTSIDE
Butch, a novelist, and Ardis, an architect, begin an affair. They reveal their pasts, fantasize their future, call their spouses, fight, risk, and love.

MANY WORLDS
Maggie has to tell Axel that she has terminal cancer, as Axel explains the "Many Worlds" theory of quantum physics, and from time to time "other worlds" open up, some involving Maggie's husband.

TAP DANCING ACROSS THE UNIVERSE
A college professor who wants to run away from home gets his chance when he and his wife are visited by a would-be shaman, a runaway mother, and a hippy.

MEET AGAIN
A romantic comedy that takes a playful, sexy look at reincarnation. "Insightful and delightfully wacky," Jason Fogelson, New York Shakespeare Festival.

GOURMET LOVE
How long can Sally and Arnie keep their affair from their spouses, who are having an affair of their own?

BLUEST REASON
Lewis and Clark air their conflicts and hire a pregnant guide.

TEN-MINUTE PLAYS

GUNNING FOR LIFE
An old man's lust for life confronts his terminal cancer in an unusual comedy with a poignant ending.

DUET FOR VIRTUAL PARTICLES
A man wonders if he's an alien. A woman wonders if she's too tall.

DIRTY LAUNDRY
A woman wearing only a raincoat gives a would-be writer something to write about.

QUARKS
A man and a woman meet at a singles bar. His "Take off your panties," gets unexpected results.

SOMETHING LIGHTER
A couple finalize their divorce. Or do they?

THE BLUES STREET JAZZ CLUB REHEARSES
The loves of five would-be musicians intertwine like strands of music, improvised and unpredictable.

LUNCH
Should Bob and Bella tell their spouses they know their spouses are having an affair?

RECOGNITION
Two high school sweethearts, with their spouses, meet for lunch after 25 years.

HANGMAN
A condemned man must build his own gallows. He helps his executioner write a poem.

ONE EVENING IN PRAGUE
Albert Einstein, an up-and-coming physicist, meets Franz Kafka, a little-known author, .

FALLING
The thoughts of a Jew and a Muslim who fell from the World Trade Center the morning of September 11, 2001.

MUSE
Cal, plagued by writer's block, calls for a muse. He gets Ron.

THAT GUY FROM THE BERGMAN FILM
It may be Cassy's last day, but she hasn't lost her sense of humor as her family gathers around.

THE ALIEN HYPOTHESIS
If Larry is an alien, as he suspects, why haven't the aliens told him?

JUMPING
A man and a woman rejected by love fall in love before one jumps into the ice-covered Mississippi and the other jumps into the praxis of politics.

LEDGE
Mary could jump and end it all if Tom, who also wants to jump, would get out of her way.

ONE-ACT PLAYS

GARAGE SALE
Warren's starting over. He's selling everything.

PATRIOTS
Two men talking--terrorists or undercover agents?

I WANT TO BE AN INDIAN
A white liberal who wants to be an Indian gets his chance.

APPLES
A deconstructed Garden of Eden where Adam finds Lilith, and Eve and Satan reach an understanding.

COCKTAILS, DINNER
Should Sally and Arnie tell their spouses about their affair? Or will it spoil dinner?

IT'S SO WOWOO
Larry wonders if he's an alien. If he is an alien, why haven't the other aliens told him?

HERE TODAY, GONE TOMORROW
A teenager wonders if a homeless man is really Jesus.

AFFAIRS OF RECKLESS HONOR
Six women re-enact the duels of an earlier age

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