The Impossibility of Now

Synopsis

What do you do when your spouse is conked on the head and wakes up with a terrifying new personality: optimistic happy person?“… Y York’s THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF NOW is all about words: the way they work, they way they don’t.

The way they delight us and sicken us and confound us and please us.

The premise is straight out of an Oliver Sacks book: a bestselling science writer named Carl suffers a brain injury that renders him amnesiac.

Carl’s wife, Miranda, a poet, learns that Carl has a different relationship with words than he used to.

Where once he ghostwrote biographies for astronauts and wrote scathing critiques of anthropologists, now he simply delights in the miracle of words: their sounds, their meanings, the way they look — which he envisions as a flurry of snowflakes drifting through the air.

As Carl wanders around his Las Vegas home, trying to remember his past life, Miranda has to deal with the shambles of their marriage from before Carl’s accident.

She’s having a complicated affair with a dentist named Anthony, but suddenly Carl doesn’t at all resemble the Carl who made her so miserable.

Where before he was withholding and unhappy, now Carl is joyful and content.

He’s eager to see his wife, and desperate to please her.

Is it too late to turn the marriage around?

Is it possible to find new meaning in the words they’ve been using our whole lives?

THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF NOW is … funny and touching and endearingly sweet — a thoughtful study of the way different people interact with language, and each other.”

—Paul Constant, Seattle Review of Books“… Rich dialog and characters … this sweet … romantic comedy is a delight.”

—Jay Irwin, Broadway World“… Utilizing a highly original plot, outstandingly witty dialogue … interesting recognizable stereotypes, who go through profound character development … this romantic comedy … delivers the goods.

And how!” —Marie Bonfils, Drama In The Hood“A new play can make me giddy, especially if I can’t guess where it’s headed and its subject area is ‘about’ the human condition in a new and interesting way … Y York’s THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF NOW is an unexpected delight … delicious and magical.”

—Miryam Gordon, Seattle Gay News