A new play by Garrett Anderson

The Last Slice

Thanksgiving Day, 1978 · Denver, Colorado

It's a holiday like every one this family has ever had. It's also the last one.

Follow the readings Back the play
The play

Dinner is at four.

On Thanksgiving morning, 1978, in a kitchen in Denver, Margaret Hanson is giving her mother a perm at the sink, and her son Miles is right there helping, fetching towels, hunting for coffee that isn't there. He's the child who got stuck holding down the family when his sister, Nina, left this house at thirteen and never regretted it. She's come back today mostly for him. His boyfriend, Eli, is coming to dinner as a “friend.” By the time the pie is cut, everyone at the table will know who Miles really is. What they do with it is the play.

The Hansons sit down to dinner in a precise sliver of American history. Sixteen days earlier, California voted down the Briggs Initiative. Four days from now, Harvey Milk will be assassinated. Nobody at this table knows that yet. The audience does, and it changes everything about watching a young man say the words “San Francisco.”

The Last Slice is a two-act play for seven actors on a single set. It is funny the way families are funny, mid-argument and by accident, and it hurts the way families hurt: politely, while someone asks about the chips. It is the first play of a planned trilogy. The script is available on request.

“You've spent your whole life trying to fix something that was never broken.”
Nina Hanson-Jones, Act I
From the script

Page fifty

Act One. Mums has a gift for Miles. She didn't mean anything by it.

ACT ONE · THE KITCHEN TABLE

Mums

I know what will make you happy, Miles. A present.

She pulls out a gift bag. MILES smiles quietly at her.

Mums

Lay your head upon my pillow, lay your head upon my pillow.

He resists as she pulls him to her breast and they gently rock.

Miles

I think I'm a little old for this.

MUMS releases her grasp.

Mums

I got you a present. Just something I thought you had to have.

MUMS hands him the bag, he sits up and his demeanor changes to "Happy Kid at Christmas". He struggles to open it because there is so much tape. It's wrapped in recycled paper from last Christmas.

Miles

What is it?

Margaret

I recognize that paper.

Pop-Pop

Waste not...

Nina

Rip it!

He rips it open, and everyone looks on in anticipation.

Miles

So much tape!

He gets to the heart of the package and it's a Christmas sock full of coal.

Miles

Um.

Nina

Someone's on someone's naughty list.

Margaret

What is it?

Miles

Coal? You got me coal?

Mums

You could call more.

MILES retreats.

Pop-Pop

She didn't mean anything by it.

Nina

Under her breath.

That's a lie.

Mums

I thought you'd think it was funny.

Miles

It's not.

He gets up and walks to the living room. ELI quickly follows him. MILES lets him put his hand on his shoulder for comfort and doesn't resist.

Margaret

Mother.

Mums

Well...

Margaret

He's always been so tall and sensitive.

Mums

It doesn't hurt if it's not true.

Cast of characters

Seven places at the table

Miles HansonEarly 20s

Margaret and Bob's adopted son. Closeted, thoughtful, observant.“I am someone.”

Margaret HansonMid 50s

Miles and Nina's mother. Controlling and self-justifying, certain she has always been a good mother.“Miles, you're making it hard for me to even be nice to you.”

Bob HansonMid 50s

Miles and Nina's father. Quiet, watchful, checked out. When he finally speaks, he means it.(Watches the game. Says nothing.)

Nina Hanson-JonesMid 20s

Miles's older sister, also adopted; a woman of color raised in a white family. Direct, funny, unsentimental. She left home at thirteen and never regretted it.“She's more tolerable at a distance.”

Eli WeissLate 20s

Miles's boyfriend. Teaches high school civics in San Francisco. Jewish, warm, and unwilling to be invisible.“I always play to win. Take no prisoners.”

MumsMid-to-late 70s

Margaret's mother. Charming, imperious, and cruel with a smile.“You don't know how the world works, buddy boy.”

Pop-PopMid-to-late 70s

Margaret's father. Nearly silent and easily overlooked, but always in the room.“This game will grow hair on your chest.”

What happens next

First, people have to hear it.

1

Reading: Middlebury College

Middlebury, Vermont · Tuesday, July 28

A full cast, music stands, no set. Just the words. Open to the Middlebury community and invited guests.

Confirmed
2

Backer Readings: Los Angeles & New York

Dates to be announced

Small rooms, invited guests: the producers, investors, and industry people who decide what gets carried the rest of the way. If you want to be in one of those rooms, say so. There's a seat.

In planning
★

A Full Production

The goal

One open set: kitchen, dining room, and living room in a single frame, in the tradition of the great 1970s sitcom sets, so the audience can see the whole family at once: who's talking, who's pretending not to listen. Seven actors. A story most audiences have already lived some version of. It belongs in a room where a thousand people can sit at the table together.

Backing the play

A note from the playwright

Thank you for reading this far! The play is finished, and now comes the part I can't do alone: getting it heard. The first reading happens at Middlebury College on Tuesday, July 28, with Los Angeles and New York to follow.

If you'd like a seat at one of those readings, or you'd just like to read the play, write to me. I answer my own email. The script and the pitch are yours for the asking.

Garrett Anderson

Download the one-sheet

Investment materials are provided on request and nothing on this page is an offer to sell securities.

Playwright garrett@garrettanderson.com
Telephone (212) 658-1839
Kindly reply

R.S.V.P.

Dinner is at four. The readings are sooner. Tell us where to save your seat.

Which table

Replies go straight to Garrett. He answers his own email.

THE LAST SLICE

a play by Garrett Anderson

Script request

The full script, as a PDF, from Garrett himself.

Garrett reads every request and answers his own email.