Love Prisoner

"Love Prisoner" is the name of a program Joe Frank produced as part of the series The Other Side (series).

Synopsis

• Joe fantasizes about a life with a woman he passes.
• Monologue on love: love is likened to various exotic tortuous experiences. Love compared to precious things. Love as a fine wine, as becoming Edward Teller. A clown commits harry carry after being dumped by a harlequin.
• A relationship breakup as fission. Love as heroin. Description of a Love Anonymous support group. Why love? Joe chooses to be a bachelor for the rest of his life, join a mens club, build a latrine.
• Joe addresses a woman who returns his umbrella at a Lars Von Trier film. He imagines a life with her. He addresses a woman seen in a museum, at a pet store (while contemplating the invention of cat liter).
• Monologue: Love is an old man fishing off a bridge. He remembers an explosion that kills his father and leaves him mute.
• Joe wonders through a retirement home, second person address to Darlene, remembrance of a spectacular public breakup, his ex seduces the elevator man as she's leaving. Joe thanks Darlene for vengeful gifts.
• Everyone needs love. Disconnected nonsense verse. He imagines dismembering Darlene and displaying parts of her, asks for his things back.
• A man explodes on stage at the beach. Socrates' last words. Finding eternity within ourselves. Joe's father ground to a fine past in a machine accident. A failed suicide pact.
• Joe is a cab driver: he overhears an argument in a foreign language. The woman stops to pray, the man sprinkles rose water from a flask, they drive to Atlantic city only to return.
• A man urinates from a tall building.

Interesting Facts

This is a remix of monologues from earlier shows. Shares material with Windows, Lover Man. Includes loops of the Lomax Parchman Farm recordings.

Commentary

Please see guidelines on commentary and share your personal thoughts in this section. Joe reworked and used some material from this show at his live show at the Chicago Art Institute in 2003