The Unemployed
A couple's loyalty is put to the test when they both face unemployment.
Financial woes can really run a couple’s relationship through the ringer. Sure, every marriage has it’s ups and downs: but pile on the stress of not knowing when your next mortgage payment or dinner tab is coming from, and…
Well, let’s just say concerns of the “green” kind can put even the most dedicated lovebirds to the test.
Take Bev and Bill, in the comedy short The Unemployed:
Bill’s in his fifties – a common guy with some generic middle-age woes. There’s that beer belly, for instance. And getting wife Bev up in the morning’s a pain in the butt, too. Darling Bev’s no early riser. Even after the alarm clock shrieks, Bev insistently tries to snooze.
Which isn’t a wise move. Because – sadly - Bev’s currently the only one in the household with a 9-5 at all. As the title hints, Bill’s been out of work for awhile. At age 50, job offers simply aren’t ringing off the hook.
Cue the tension. A ton.
After yet another morning of kicking a reluctant Bev out of bed and into her corporate suit, Bill tries to go back to sleep. And their personal crisis comes to a head:
She hops on one her way out the door.
BEV
(under her breath)
Stupid, lazy, son-of-a...
BILL
I heard that.
BEV
Good. Why don’t you get a friggin’ job then?
BILL
Love you too, honey. Have a great day.
Bev slams the bedroom door behind her.
Sounds like trouble in romantic “paradise”, no?
But harsh words are nothing compared to what comes next. They say money is the root of all evil. Maybe it is, or maybe not. But in Christine Locker & Lee Ann Riddle’s The Unemployed…
Money concerns DEFINITELY help expose what other relationship problems lie under the surface in tragic-comic Bev and Bill’s lives!
Directors: this comedy cutie is just five pages long. It’s an easy shoot with an oh-so-relatable focus. Perhaps Bev and Bill can’t get what they want. But you can, if you snatch this marital comedy riff up!