Love Is Real Here

The Play That Broke Me in Two (and Mended Me Back Together Again)

Apr 25, 2026

Writing a play and watching actors perform their version of your work is beyond comprehension. This was me on opening night. It was one of the highlights of my writing journey a few years ago. After rehearsal one evening, the actress who played VERNA chased me down backstage and shared something profound, leaving an indelible impression on my heart forever.

She said, “I love speaking your words.”

Backstory: I wrote this while sobbing uncontrollably on my phone in our tiny cabin sailboat. My husband encouraged me to go sailing that day, knowing I needed to get outside, on the water, where I could find myself again.

I gave my grief permission to burst forth while transmitting words onto the tiny screen. The result was this ten-minute play.

Trigger warning: narcissism topic, touches upon violence, no cursing, some harsh emotions.

Note: My intention is always to heal with my words. It is my deepest desire that, by reading this, you feel a sense of peace and freedom at the end for yourself. Enjoy.

ARE YOU…REALLY HERE?

CHARACTERS

LISA

VERNA

(Lights up. In an empty waiting room, two characters, daughter, LISA, age 62, and mother, VERNA, age 87, are sitting in chairs, partially facing one another, appearing to be in a trance. LISA awakens. There is a box of tissues on a side table next to LISA)

LISA: (Scans the strange environment, sees VERNA, and the tissues. She’s confused) Mom?

VERNA: (Glances up peacefully from her trance and smiles) Oh, it’s you.
LISA: Do you recognize me?
VERNA: Why, yes. You’re my daughter, Lisa.

LISA: (Looks around the room again) What is this? Where are we?
VERNA: In a dream.
LISA: A dream…why does this feel so real? Are you …really here?
VERNA: Yes.
LISA: (Emotional beat) I’ve been waiting so long to talk with you.
VERNA: Well, here I am.
LISA: This is really hard. You’ve been…so mean to me. Everyone, even your sisters growing up, knew you were a…(LISA choking up)

VERNA: …Narcissist. (Gently) It’s okay to say it.

LISA: I never wanted to say it…it’s the most horrible revelation of my life!

VERNA: Well, now you can tell me all about it.

LISA: Everyone knew—except Dad and me. He was your number-one devoted fan. It took me sixty-two years to finally believe it was true.
VERNA: I tried to show you.
LISA: What daughter wants to believe it? (Pause) How did you try to show me?
VERNA: I pushed you away.
LISA: Yes, you did! Why?
VERNA: Because you needed to break free from me. There was never anything in here (taps head with finger). Just a hollow torture chamber.
LISA: Mom…
VERNA: Don’t feel sorry for me. I chose this experiment to experience what it was like to be a narcissist.
LISA: Why? Narcissists hurt a lot of people!
VERNA: Yes, indeed. They challenge humans in their decisions, whether to go in the direction of more hate, bigotry, evil—or love.
LISA: (Pauses to absorb this) I weirdly see your point. Like, when narcissists show us what humans are capable of doing to each other? So we can learn the lesson and say “never again”? And not destroy ourselves?

VERNA: Exactly.

LISA: But why did you have to bring a child into your experiment?
VERNA: You chose me.
LISA: Why the hell would I do that? You screwed me up!
VERNA: Did I? Is that the definition of your life?
LISA: (Shifts in her seat) I came here for a resolution. You’re making it worse.
VERNA: My daughter…
LISA: Don’t! (Turns away, re-engages, turns back towards VERNA with intense emotion) You took my dad away from me!

(VERNA remains quiet.)

LISA: Oh…you have nothing to say about that?

VERNA: I’m waiting to hear the rest.

LISA: (Sniffles) I’m not used to you listening….hearing me out. God, how I wanted that kind of mother!

VERNA: Go on.

LISA: (Regaining composure) You know. You were jealous and kept us apart. End of story. No, worse—you brainwashed him into believing you were the omnipotent one, the queen, the one he would blindly devote himself to for his entire life, regardless of how it would hurt others. Well, Mom, it cut me to the core!

VERNA: I’m sorry.

LISA: I don’t want to hear that!

VERNA: What else can I say?

LISA: Do you know what I secretly called Dad?

VERNA: Yes. ‘The Henchman’.

LISA: Yes! He threw me across the room whenever you decreed I had done something wrong! (Pause) And it was his choice to alienate his only child.

VERNA: Yes, it was.

LISA: I don’t understand any of it. How can I hate and love you at the same time?

VERNA: It feels good to vilify someone else, to focus on their atrocities. We can get lost in it. (Reflective) Lost forever if we don’t pull ourselves out of it. (Gazes lovingly at her daughter) Lisa, let go of your hatred.

LISA: (Tearful) I can’t. I don’t know how.

VERNA: I’ve loved you for an eternity. We all agreed to come into this life, in these roles, and every person you’ve ever encountered has created an important impact that you wanted to experience.
LISA: I can’t imagine wanting to experience a mother who treated me like a commodity, a transaction, and then just threw me away!

VERNA: Oh, but you did.
LISA: (Gets up from the chair and walks a few steps) Stop it. Stop it! I wanted a fun life. My life. Do what I wanted. All you ever trained me to do was to make sure you were happy. (Walks back to her chair) I did everything I could to not embarrass you, but I did anyway. Like when you pulled me out of dance class because I was “too klutzy”. Mom, I was five! (Sits down)
VERNA: You were five and didn’t like your dance teacher. I pulled you out because she made fun of you.
LISA: I don’t remember that.
VERNA: Memories are fluid. (Amusing herself) Ask a family of five at Thanksgiving.
LISA: (Pause) I can’t believe we’re talking.
VERNA: It’s nice, isn’t it?
LISA: (Very emotional) I’ve waited so long for this conversation. (Pulls a tissue from the box)
VERNA: I know, I know.

LISA: I tried to be the best daughter.
VERNA: Of course you did. Now, what will you do?
LISA: What? (Finishes wiping her nose)
VERNA: What are your plans? You’re sixty-two. You still have quite a life ahead of you.
LISA: Well, you’re still alive, shunning me, and worse, oh, I’ve been waiting to say this to you—you bypassed me and embraced my daughter as if she were yours. And poor Dad. He doesn’t have a clue! He doesn’t know you’re a narcissist and will never change. He keeps saying you’ll come around. Well, I know you won’t. Oh, sure, you’ll keep me on a string, just in case my daughter double-crosses you, or you feel like she’s done something wrong and then want me back. Well, I’m not coming back so you might as well hang onto her. (Turns away in the chair) This is a sick discussion, and I don’t wanna do this anymore.
VERNA: I’m slowly dying, you know.
LISA: (Turns back) I don’t care! We’re all slowly dying! Stop hurting people.
VERNA: Then let me go.
LISA: (Pause) I don’t…want to.
VERNA: Free yourself from me. I’m a ghost, a shell of a person. I’m not really there anymore. Just a crabby, old lady who says mean things.
LISA: I would have killed to have a daughter like me.
VERNA: You are a wonderful daughter.
LISA: Stop love-bombing! I won’t fall for it.

VERNA: I’m in the ether, Lisa. Love is real here.
LISA: Oh, yeah. And this is just a dream.
VERNA: It’s very real.
LISA: What do you mean?
VERNA: Our connection right now. Everything we say is from…another dimension where there is only love. You manifested this moment where you could talk with me. You get to say and ask anything you want because I am different here.
LISA: (Pause) What I want to tell you is…I want the mother I thought I had back. I loved her. I loved you so much.

VERNA: You clearly still do.

LISA: I know you tried hard to be a wonderful mom despite—what did you say? Having a torture chamber in your head?
VERNA: Yes. It is a maddening sort of existence.
LISA: You never felt like you were living?
VERNA: No, not in this lifetime. I was so consumed by insecurity and jealousy that I never enjoyed my moment-to-moment reality.
LISA: That’s sad, Mom.
VERNA: Yet, I desired to experience it.

LISA: (Sniffs) Friends tell me not to take this personally, but I do. It’s so hard not to.

VERNA: Then you have put yourself in your own torture chamber. (Long pause, a revelation for LISA) It’s okay to let me go. Even while I’m alive down there.
LISA: Mom…
VERNA: What have I been doing on this Earthly plane? Pushing you away. Every chance I get. Each time, I offer you the key to unlock your own prison, and you refuse to take it and free yourself.
LISA: That’s not fair! You made me dependent on you, and now you expect me to just walk away? Like you and I didn’t matter?
VERNA: (Sweetly) We did matter. You loved me more than I loved myself. That was your greatest gift to me.

(LISA remains quiet)

VERNA: When you sent me flowers for my birthday and Mother’s Day, I felt elation for a brief moment. And then, it was gone.

LISA: (Sadly) I wanted you to feel it.

VERNA: Why do you have such a hard time letting me go? (Ponders) Maybe I was a lover in a previous life you couldn't bear to part with?

LISA: (Stunned) Oh my GOD. Mom! (smiles, changes tone) I’ve missed our conversations like this. Goofy, creative, fun…the way you encouraged me to write music. You showed me how to be brave, to try new things.
VERNA: We had some good times, didn’t we?

LISA: Yeah. We had a good run.

VERNA: (Quietly, sweetly) Let go of all that was me in this lifetime. Be you. You’re amazing.

LISA: (Big sigh and nods at VERNA) Okay…I think I’m ready now. (pause) I love you, Mom.

VERNA: I know. I love you too.

LISA: Mom?

VERNA: Yes?

LISA: Will I ever see you again, in another life?

VERNA: Yes.

LISA: How will I find you?

VERNA: (Reaching her hand out to LISA) We will find each other.

(LISA and VERNA hold hands, lights fade)

------The End------