Excerpt from JUST ANOTHER ROBOT play

TAROKUN I'm...bored and lonely.

EGO What?

TAROKUN

Bored! There's nothing to do, no one to do it with and no time with which to do it. I need a change of pace. Maybe I should get a new apartment.

EGO

What good is that going to do you? I don't know, it would be newer, cleaner than this place.

EGO

This place was once newer and cleaner.

TAROKUN

I just want to start over though, get a new perspective on life or something, make some new friends.

EGO

What's wrong with the friends you have now?

TAROKUN

They don't have time for me. Or maybe I don't have time for them. They work like I do. I feel like just another robot. I go to work at 8 o'clock and I get off at 6. I'm too tired or hung over to do anything on the weekends. Besides, Yuki got married, Haruo got moved by his company to Yokohama and Kyoshi has a new girlfriend. There's no one left.

EGO

But don't you have a few drinks afterwards with the guys at work sometimes?

TAROKUN

They are not my friends though. They are my co-workers and my boss. I have to go. That's not friendship, that's networking, that's "nomunication," part of my job. I'll never get a promotion if I don't go out with them.

EGO

What about that young lady you went on a date with last month? You haven't called her in a while. Why not?

TAROKUN

Hmmm. Could that be because she looks like a horse and laughs like a seal? Besides, she's boring.

EGO

What do you mean by boring?

TAROKUN She never does anything interesting.

EGO Oh, you mean kind of like--

TAROKUN

Don't say it!

EGO YOU?

TAROKUN

(just looks and Ego for a beat or two and then hangs his head in his hands)

EGO

What do you want?

TAROKUN

(standing) I want...I don't know what I want exactly. I just feel lonely that's all.

EGO

What would your life look like if you weren't lonely? Appearing not to listen,

[Taro picks up the remote control and turns on the TV and sits down again.]

TAROKUN

It might look like that. See how happy they are? They have a new apartment with new appliances. (switches station) These guys are happy about pizza. (switches station) There, that man, now he looks happy.

EGO

(reads like an announcer from a commercial) Maybe if you drove the car he's driving, drank the tea he's drinking, you'd have the girl he's having and you'd be happy, too.

TAROKUN

But that's not real! I know that's not real!

EGO

What is real?

THE END