Imagining Brad and the Valerie of Now

THE STORIES: IMAGINING BRAD. The action takes place in Nashville, where two women meet after church and strike up a conversation. One is Dana Sue Kaye, a brassy, voluble bleach-blonde, who chatters on about her wonderful, perfect husband-her high-school sweetheart and the best looking man in Tennessee. The other is Brad's wife (Valerie grown), a shy, soft-spoken newlywed who has just moved down from Philadelphia and is as close-mouthed about her husband as Dana Sue is forthcoming about hers. In time, however, it is revealed that Brad is a grotesque freak: armless, legless, blind and bedridden; while Dana Sue's husband is unmasked as a depraved, brutal wife abuser who, in truth, has made her life a hell. Ironically it is actually Brad, the helpless bag of flesh, who can feel but not inflict hurt, who is really the perfect man and, as the play ends, Dana Sue is sorely tempted to accept Brad's wife's invitation to move in with them and share his protection. (2 women.) THE VALERIE OF NOW. A monologue in which a precocious teenager, Valerie, faces the twin crises of a birthday party and her first menstrual period. Chatting on the telephone, or to herself, Valerie contemplates the injustice of having to deal with the fears and excitement of momentous physical change even though, outwardly, she is still very much a little girl. And, in addition, a darker note is sounded with the suggestion that Valerie has also been subjected to molestation by her father. (1 woman.)Hedges, Peter is the author of 'Imagining Brad and the Valerie of Now ', published 1991 under ISBN 9780822205548 and ISBN 0822205548.