Wes Payton

WAY STATION and WHAT DOES A QUESTION WEIGH? Wes Payton

Way Station explores themes of regret with both pathos and humor. The play tells the story of a down-and-out novelist looking back on his life as he contemplates suicide. The action takes place in a shabby barroom that was a haunt of the writer and his friends twenty years before. To his surprise, he discovers that several of the key figures from his former life as an up-and-coming novelist still frequent the bar, but the homecoming is bittersweet as fond memories give way to old grievances. This three-act play features a nonlinear narrative, with the first scene of each act taking place today and the third scenes occurring twenty years ago; the second scenes take place in the mind of the writer. As Jean-Luc Godard said: a beginning, a middle, and an end, but not necessarily in that order. What Does a Question Weigh? tells the story of Tralf, a self-described time-traveling anthropologist who is studying the people of our time in hopes of finding a cure for the lethal ennui that plagues his time. Of course few believe his claims, but his amusing observations about the disparity between his culture and ours cause him to become something of an Internet celebrity. The largesse of Chicago luminaries allows him the means to pursue his "studies." However, when the wife of a wealthy industrialist is abducted, Tralf becomes embroiled in the investigation, and CPD officers are less than amused by his involvement. The inspiration for the play's title comes from Hamlet's soliloquy.