Cafe

By David Davis

Full length drama

6 Males, 3 Females

Single set

Stage version of teleplay produced by WSIU-TV, Carbondale, IL, 1979, unproduced on stage.

An ordinary day in the life of a small cafe in downtown Baltimore, except a bomber has threatened to blow up part of downtown at midnight.  The “regulars,” a couple of construction workers and a law clerk, along with Rosie, the waitress, hear about the threat on the radio.  Will the bombing affect them?  Will they leave town for the night?  Will Rosie get a date?  Will anybody care?

By evening, the area is quiet, except for a policeman who stops in for coffee while looking for bombs.  A customer enters, claiming to be a former college professor who is now parking cars for a living.  And he=s just been fired because he is overeducated for his job.  So he says.

By midnight the cafe is empty except for Jimmy, the night cook.  A young woman comes in, nervous, alone, claiming to be wanting company while waiting for the bomb to go off.  Have all her friends really gone to Delaware?  Does she really work for the power company?  Does she really live alone?

Then the bomb goes off.

In the morning, the cafe is still there.  Some of the staff come in to see if everything is all right.  Nothing has changed.  Or has it?