SYNOPSIS OF THE SCREENPLAY
“DARKENED ROOM” is Lorenzo
DeStefano’s film adaptation of “THE INMAN DIARY”, the epic
journal of longtime
Boston
resident and hypochondriac Arthur
Crew Inman (1895-1963). Based on the 155 volume / 17
million word original journals, on 40 hours of uncovered Inman audio
tapes from the 1950s and 60s, on the published versions of the diary
from Harvard University Press (1985 & 1996), and on the
exclusive notes of Diary editor DANIEL AARON,
“DARKENED ROOM” gives the concept of “room service” a
whole new meaning.
Inspired
by that gargantuan diary of that highly
eccentric son-of-the-South, ARTHUR CREW INMAN (1895-1963).
Atlanta-born and Boston-bred, Inman created the longest diary ever
written by an American, a sprawling memory piece of over 17
million words poured into 155 handwritten volumes. One of the
great literary curiosities of our age, this tightly-wound epic of
the mind covers the entire 68 years of Inman's life and a good
deal of human history in between.
Holed
up in GARRISON HALL, the turn of the century Back Bay hotel where
he's rented multiple rooms since 1919, Arthur Inman chronicles the
flow of history through his fractured but highly intuitive lens.
Insulated from the real world by a long-running sideshow of
housekeepers and nurses and handymen who meet his every need, he
fills his long hours in the intricately woven pages of his diary
world. He places ads in the Boston papers for paid
"talkers" and "readers".
If sufficiently young, engaging and female they are invited by
Arthur's wife of forty years, EVELYN YATES INMAN, to spend
the night in Arthur's once-grand bedroom. Lingering occasionally
in the shadow of her husband's doorway, Evelyn assumes a major
role as their oddly tender and complex forty-year marriage ritual
plays itself out. Spanning nearly seven decades, the Diary
chronicles the life movements of literally hundreds of anonymous
tradesmen and secretaries, students and charlatans who come to sit
in the dark with "Mr. Inman". Their everyday lives
become a fascinating and integral part of Arthur's rapidly
expanding diary. Set primarily in Boston in December of
1963, "INMAN" covers the entire span of Arthur's diary
in a single day, what turns out to be the final 24 hours of his
long unquiet life. Arthur's obsession with capturing these final
fleeting moments drives the play's narrative.
Highly
attuned to his own strengths and numerous shortcomings, he
explores with painful honesty his own view of world history, his
weakness for young girls, his corrosive hatred of his long-dead
parents and the perilous terrain of his marriage to Evelyn. A
world-class hypochondriac, Arthur's unending medical complaints
(from photophobia [the fear of light] to chronic osteopathic
disasters) comprise a major theme in the play, as does his
love/hate addiction to the legions of doctors who descend on him
over the years. He reserves his special admiration and scorn for
the noted osteopath DR. CYRUS RUMFORD PIKE, his wife's openly
ardent lover.
Scanning back and forth through time, Arthur navigates the
hazardous terrain of his diary with an increasing level of
anxiety. Long dead people in his life, great and small, come alive
again in the confines of the apartment he's barely left in fifty
years. The tension and dread brought on by his swelling
memories and virtuoso self-loathing conspires with the very real
turmoil going on outside Arthur's windows to drive him completely
over the edge.
An oddly sympathetic creature despite his often harsh and
controversial views, Arthur Inman is a man at the end of his moral
rope. His world has become a curious admixture of KRAPP'S
LAST TAPE and ALL IN THE FAMILY. His early dreams of poetic
immortality seem dubious at best.
By
December 5, 1963 Garrison Hall has become a fortress against the
ravages of time and urban renewal. Arthur is more terrified than
ever of leaving his room, relates to life via television and the
hours of audio recordings he's become obsessed with making.
In the end, his diary is the only compass he possesses to navigate
within this twilight zone of his own making. Haunted by the
scourge of the ever-rising PRUDENTIAL CENTER directly across the
street, the threat of nuclear oblivion, his own folly, this highly
compelling and oddly sympathetic creature sinks ever deeper into
the parallel universe of his diary while the modern world explodes
around him.
Lorenzo
DeStefano
lorenzo@lorenzodestefano.com
(323) 466-8376
© 2005 Lorenzo DeStefano
back
to the top
|
|
to hear an AUDIO
EXCERPT from
"The Inman
Diary" by Arthur Crew Inman
click on the
photo
|
|
