Fiasco: Bad Timing

02/21/2015
Bad Timing

Fiasco

I wrote up this playkit inspired by the romantic comedy script I penned some years back, which was also called Bad Timing.  The idea of the original material was to come up with a convoluted romantic comedy story which had elements of science fiction.  The result was very different but definitely Fiasco-eque in feel.

The cast included:
John Michael, played by me.
Mistaken to be the family twin of Michael John, but in truth they the same person with one being the future self of the other.

Michael John, played by Jonas
He is one of Stella's current roommates and they are curious about the guy living next door to them.

Stella, played by Che
She has a relationship with Diego Pavlon, the hot south american idiot who is the horny next door neighbor.  She is dying to know who he is sleeping with, and they used to be roommates.

Diego Pavlon, played by Jose
Diego is the great friends/great rivals with Sofia over a watch they had to buy during Black Friday.

Sofia, played by Maanne
She had her first heart break at Greece, at one of the islands there.
She is currently in a relationship with Bert.

Bert, played by Paolo

He is Sofia's first ex-flame and is currently the best friend of John Michael/Michael John.
We used to hang out by an old fountain, but grew apart in time.

It all began in some island in Greece.

What started out as the story of a guy who wanted to have a second chance with a woman he fell in love with, transformed into a tale of tragedy and woe as the tampering with time began to unravel things and complicate the main time stream.  John Michael tries to convince his past self to stay at the five star hotel room he rented out in order to handle something in the past.  However, Michael John admits he can't.  This throws an initial wrench to John Michael's plans of trying to see Stella again.

Bert and Sofia found themselves dealing with the feelings of uncertainty when Bert discovers Sofia's gift to him, a special watch, might have been gained under false pretenses.  The accusation of Sofia lying about its history was raised by Diego, whose actions were an attempt to gain the watch for himself and his own plans.  

Stella unknowingly finds herself caught in the hilarity of it all when Michael John's future self, John Michael, ends up falling for her and wanting to somehow start a life with her.  But his proposal towards Stella goes awry when the ring turns out to be a fake one and Diego's act of sabotage turns out to be because he likes her too.  Stella's curiosity towards Diego's sexual adventures was misunderstood by Diego as a mutual interest in each other.  But learning he has some sex doll in her likeness freaks her out even more!   Soon, Diego reveals he too is aware of the ability to time travel and he almost traps Stella in the time stream.   She eventually breaks away when he let's her leave.

When Stella encounters Micheal John, she learns from him that he doesn't think he can handle what's going on and wants to stop being friends.  But that's when Stella reveals she actually did like him... but now isn't sure what to do.  She ends up at the old fountain, crying in frustration over what happened.  Bert emerges, seeing Stella there, and the two talk about everything that has happened.  He tries to talk to her about not giving up on her friends, but she only feels they're pressuring her to be okay with everything.

John Michael and Diego now confront each other in the time stream and Diego shows him he is fading away.  He disappears.  John Michael smiles, and realizes Stella's actions have caused them to cease to be.  The future that created them will now never happen.  "But one has to wonder, who build the time machine we used? Someone must have..."

And he's gone.

Sofia finally admits to Bert the truth, that she stole the watch she gave him.  She tries to explain why she did that and but Bert admits everything that happened started because she lied.  He admits they will need to work on things because he wants to make things right.  

Years pass, Bert and Sofia pay back the watch issue, and grow old together.  Sofia, however, is overwhelmed still by the guilt of what had happened, and at some point builds a time machine in the future to travel back in time to reserve the watch for the younger her.   But the act of seeing them young again is too much for her and she dies in the mall, the same old woman who died in the mall the day Sofia stole the watch.  The time machine, left in the alleyway, is found by both Michael John in the future, and Diego in the past.

In the end, Diego is reincarnated, as light pours from above.  He sees the anxious faces of people as they declare, "It's a boy."  Diego's memories quickly fade away.  

Stella stands by the old fountain, smoking a cigarette. She is friendless and alone.  Then she looks at the guy standing nearby and asks, "Hey stranger.  Got a light?"  The two smile.

Michael John, haunted by the break-up, realizes he does have feelings for her.  But he is overwhelmed with the need to make things right... and some how, he finds a time machine in an alleyway.

Bert is old now and sees the people visit with their grandkids.  They play with him.  And he smiles.

Sofia is old as well, taking care of the grand children, and she gives the young child a knowing look.  She recognizes Diego's rebirth but decides to keep it a secret.