Cost of Living

All the characters endure isolation due to the ways that they are marginalized and made invisible in society. Each guards the parts of themselves that are personal and sensitive, unwilling to burden others with their pain, even as they long desperately for someone to see them. The play starts with Eddie, who has come out to Brooklyn from New Jersey on the off-chance that he might make a connection with the stranger who texted him. He ends up talking to another stranger, who is invisible, creating the effect that Eddie is visibly alone.

As a long-distance truck driver, Eddie had been accustomed to isolation, but Ani was there to remind him that he wasn’t truly alone. During his separation from Ani, Eddie had a girlfriend who moved into his apartment quickly, presumably, at least in part, to stave off loneliness. With both Ani and the unnamed girlfriend gone, Eddie is alone. He leaves the lights on in his apartment at all times to announce that he still exists. Even if no one sees him, Eddie won’t simply fade away in the dark.

John lives on the margins; his disability has othered him.