⚫ In memoriam — Joshua Baer, founder of Capital Factory (1975–2026). Read the tribute →
Play Three of a Trilogy
A World of Possibility

The Legacy

A two-act play. The Hunts Point years, the 2012 autobiography, the last marriage, April 9, and the Christie's hammer that closed the whole life at ninety-one point nine million dollars.

Working draft · Act II Scene 5 written
Setting Hunts Point, Washington / New York auction floor · Years 1999–2018 · Running time ∼2h15m with one intermission

Dramatis personae

Scene structure

Act One · The House Built for the Art

Hunts Point, 1999–2012
  • I.1 — The Kuoni Signing. September 14, 1999. Barney's sixty-fifth birthday. The ten-year plan, executed on schedule.
  • I.2 — Jim Olson. Meeting the architect. Designing a house for the collection. A shower with a window.
  • I.3 — Pam Leaves. 2003. Six words: I don't know if I'm in love, and I have to leave to find out.
  • I.4 — Ebsworth Park. 2001. A million dollars. A Frank Lloyd Wright house saved. Named for Alec and Bernice.
  • I.5 — Bucky Bush. A pew at St. Mark's. The Episcopal Church finds Barney at the worst moment.
  • I.6 — Writing the Book. 2011. Barney at a desk. I've always had a mind like a steel trap — and I still do, except it's rusting.

Intermission

Act Two · The Last Dance

2017–2018
  • II.1 — The Smithsonian. May 2017. The oral history session. A life in a recorder.
  • II.2 — Rebecca. Two weeks after the recording. A courthouse wedding.
  • II.3 — The Winter. 2017–2018. The illness. Eleven months.
  • II.4 — The Last Conversation. April 8, 2018. Barney and Christiane, in the living room with the paintings.
  • II.5 — April 9. The morning. (Written in full below.)
  • II.6 — Christie's. November 13, 2018. The hammer. Ninety-one point nine.
  • II.7 — Curtain. The Hunts Point living room, empty. One painting turned to the audience. Blackout.
Act Two · Scene 5 · April 9

The morning

Hunts Point, Washington. The bedroom of Barney and Rebecca's house. Early morning, gray April light through a window that looks onto Lake Washington. BARNEY, 83, is in bed. REBECCA sits on one side, CHRISTIANE on the other. The paintings from the living room are, for this scene, projected faintly on the walls — the collection witnessing.

Int. Bedroom — Hunts Point — April 9, 2018 — 7:12 a.m.
A small, spare room. A reading lamp, its bulb warm and low. A window open a crack. The sound of a single gull. The paintings on the walls — Hopper, O'Keeffe, Hartley, Pollock — appear as if remembered rather than hung, slightly transparent. BARNEY is propped on pillows. He is thinner than we have seen him. The hands are still the hands that signed the Kuoni agreement. REBECCA holds one. CHRISTIANE holds the other.
BARNEY
his voice steady, unhurried
Rebecca.
REBECCA
I'm here.
BARNEY
Christiane.
CHRISTIANE
I'm here, Dad.
BARNEY
turning his head slightly, toward the window
What time is it.
REBECCA
A little after seven.
BARNEY
Ninety-six days.
CHRISTIANE
What, Dad?
BARNEY
Ninety-six days until my birthday.
BARNEY (cont'd)
a small, dry smile
I always liked to meet a deadline.
REBECCA lifts BARNEY's hand and rests it against her cheek. CHRISTIANE closes her eyes.
BARNEY
Tell Muriel I said I picked her over most boys.
CHRISTIANE
a laugh inside a sob
I'll tell her.
BARNEY
Tell Alec I finally understood about the King.
CHRISTIANE
Yes, Daddy.
BARNEY
Tell the paintings they were the best part.
A beat. The paintings on the walls seem to intensify for a moment and then dim. BARNEY's eyes move toward the window.
BARNEY
very quietly
It was a wonderful life.
BARNEY (cont'd)
I regretted none of it.
He closes his eyes. REBECCA does not move. CHRISTIANE does not move. The gull calls again offstage. The projected paintings on the walls fade slowly. The lamp at the bedside dims. After a long silence, CHRISTIANE lets out a breath she did not know she was holding.
REBECCA
barely audible
He's gone.
CHRISTIANE stands. She crosses to the window. She opens it the rest of the way. A breath of lake air moves through the room.
CHRISTIANE
to no one, to the lake, to the paintings
It's a nice morning.
Lights slowly down. A spot holds on the empty bed. The projected paintings, one by one, begin to turn themselves toward the audience. Hopper's CHOP SUEY is the last to turn. The two women in the Chinese restaurant. The angled afternoon light. They are looking at us now. Blackout.
End of Act Two, Scene 5
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