In drama scene from eplay, “When The Cooking Is Done”, Marza tries to make her sister understand that she is in need of a new life.

MARZA: It isn’t as simple as that, Chelli. I want nothing more out of this mundane existence. I am different from what I was a few years ago; something happened to me, and I changed. Perhaps it was during that terrible vacation we all went on together, watching everyone fool around in their own insanities. When I returned home, I felt different, like an outsider. I want to do new things. Different things. Anything, anything, but this!

CHELLI: Backpacking! Mindless adventures! Jumping out of planes!

MARZA: Yes!

CHELLI: You are not well.

MARZA: No! It is you and everyone else around me who aren’t well! I am alive!

CHELLI: You will be placed in a mental home.

MARZA: Don’t talk nonsense.

CHELLI: You can still look after your family and be there for your husband, who works all day, trudging away at his miserable job. You can make some sort of contribution and stop having such selfish thoughts. Then you will only be considered half crazy!

MARZA: What you decide to do with your life, Chelli, is your decision. I, on the other hand, will not continue to live my life for other people only. If everyone treated me first, more often, then maybe I would make the same sacrifices for them, but even then, I don’t want to forget who I am. Perhaps they desire to lose themselves in the arms of others. I want to exist. I want to enjoy myself, I want to spend time with myself.

CHELLI: Are you making the pudding pie?

MARZA: No.

CHELLI: Want me to make it?

MARZA: You could make it.

CHELLI: What are you going to eat?

MARZA: What do you mean?

CHELLI: If you’re not cooking anymore, what will you eat?

MARZA: I’ll eat what everyone else eats…at my own pace, in my own time, whenever I so desire.

CHELLI: I – I

(Pause.) Chelli’s voice breaks, and she takes a seat.

Henry and I are getting a divorce.

MARZA: Since when?

CHELLI: Since earlier this year. He told me he despises the fact that I have no ambition. “No life,” is what he said; he called me lifeless, and that all I do is tend to our children, and spoil them! I thought that is what a good wife and mother is supposed to do, and now he despises me for it!…

MARZA: I’m sorry, Chelli. Maybe it is just a rough time in your marriage; I mean, all marriages go through these patches. Just find a way to realign things.

CHELLI: I was going to. I was going to leave and visit our cousin Tina for a while, she kept inviting me to her new place by the lake. But, I believe it is too late now. I think he has met someone new.

MARZA: How?

CHELLI: I don’t know. He’s not the same anymore; he’s very quiet, secretive, and is always taking phone calls in the yard. I don’t want to know; I’d rather not know anything. I should have left. I should have taken her invitation.

• To read the full one-act ePlay, find purchase link below:

In this one-act ePlay, Marza is having a middle-age crises about her desires and happiness, despite being a responsible parent and loving wife.

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