SELF-PORTRAIT

Tom Murphy has decided on suicide. He has chosen his thirty-third birthday as the occasion, and, as a final gesture premeditation, he is completing a portrait of himself. While methodically continuing at his work, he is beset by the memory images of his mother and deceased father and his ex-wife and her parents, all of whom he ignores. As each of these individuals adds to an opening fugue of inter-related monologues, Tom’s father, a former carpenter who had suffered a mental breakdown, emerges as dominated presence within the mix of voices until Alena, Tom’s ex-lover, enters in an attempt to surprise him for his birthday.

Alena’s presence disperses the memories and serves as a focal point for Tom’s survival. Through an effort at reestablishing his relationship with her, Tom gains an external purpose which he feels to be life giving even while being haunted by the past. Throughout the afternoon, he drifts into reliving a series of interactions from the past which have served to characterize his previous relationships. During the series of confrontations, the portrait of Tom’s character is dramatically represented, the deepest secrets of his self image, as it has been imposed upon him becoming clearly represented.

While succeeding in his seduction of Alena, following the disclosure that it was a result of exposure to one of Tom’s childhood illness that the circumstances which led to his father’s breakdown had begun, Ruth, Tom’s ex-wife accompanies a choreographic scene of love making, playing the piano and explaining how Tom’s apparent strength of character had led to the disillusion of their marriage. Then, being forced to allow Alena to leave in order to return to her home with the older man whose support she has accepted, Tom is overwhelmed by an onslaught of all the persons with whom he has had important relationships. To put a stop to this relentless assault, he struggles to take hold of the gun he had hidden upon Alena’s arrival, then, making a self-assertive, self-affirming decision, destroys the painting. Tom then approaches the audience as a free self-defined individual.

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