World-famous monologist Spalding Gray is mentoring aspiring-performer Brad Sommers who’s developing a new monologue about depression and suicide. Spalding, however, is barely functional, both on stage and in life, due to his own overwhelming depression. Brad’s interaction with Gray at this artist colony takes a strange turn when he puts Spalding into his story as a leading character.

The other performers at the month-long retreat are furious over his using Spalding as a subject while in this compromised state. Ironically, Spalding’s briefly shaken out of his malaise through the interaction. Stranger still, he finds himself not only intrigued by being portrayed in someone else’s monologue for once, but he becomes the only person defending Brad’s choice to include him in this hall of mirrors. Spalding also takes stock, seemingly for the first time, on the impact that including loved ones in his stories must have had on them for the last thirty years.

In the end, Spalding helps Brad pare away the youthful multi-media trickery of his usual presentations and what remains is simple, powerful storytelling. When the audience finally shows up, Brad lights up the stage, but it’s Spalding, as master, who rediscovers himself and glows brighter - if only for a moment more.

© 2005 David Rodwin