L’Amour à Trois

The curtain opens on Lucy’s apartment. Her boyfriend Ben has just given her a gift box, which she opens to reveal an abstract sculpture. “Oh! Just what I wanted!” Ben moves on to a more pressing matter--he has a very important question to ask her. He begins to launch into a speech about how much he loves her, but before he can finish, Lucy’s telephone rings, and she excuses herself to take the call. It is her friend, Margaret, with whom she has a long, gossipy, and laughter-filled conversation while Ben waits.

When she finally hangs up, Ben can barely get a word in before the telephone rings again. It’s a wrong number. Ben reminds Lucy that he needs to leave soon, and she responds by excitedly dialing a number that tells the exact time. Ben finally gets a chance to speak, and just as he is about to ask the big question, Lucy picks up the phone again. This time, it is her friend George, but he is very upset and hurls invective at her. She bursts into tears; when she goes to fetch a