Sabbath's Theater

Sabbath ventures out into New York City and feels pursued by “the-desire-to-not-be-alive-any-longer” (191). As he rides the subway, he and this desire write his obituary. In his obituary, he mentions his obscenity trial and even hints that he killed Nikki. He descends into unstructured thoughts, letting his mind wander and imagining different versions of Nikki. He gets coffee and remembers a happy summer he spent on the Jersey Shore as a child before Morty went to war. Once, when a poor man came up to ask him for money, Sabbath thought that he was holding a knife and stomped on his foot, discovering that it was an erection. Someone drops a quarter in Sabbath’s cup of coffee and though he is at first angered, he eventually becomes a street performer again, reciting King Lear on the subway. As he does so, he thinks back to how he lost his job.

In the fall of 1989, Kathy Goolsbee, a student Sabbath was sexually involved with, left a tape of their sexual phone call in the university library bathroom. Kathy’s tape was discovered, and before it landed on the dean’s desk, a copy was made and a group called Women Against Sexual Abuse, Belittlement, Battering, and Telephone Harassment (SABBATH) played the recording continuously on a new phone line. In the aftermath of the scandal, Sabbath picked Kathy up in his car and she sobbed, telling him it was an accident and that she still wanted to be with him. Sabbath was exhausted, having just driven Roseanna—who was crushed by the scandal—to rehab.

Kathy continued to push, and Sabbath, thinking of how she was pursuing her father through him, threatened to kill her. He told Kathy that he had killed his first wife, Nikki, while rehearsing for Othello: During the strangling scene, Sabbath had been so wrapped up in her acting that he’d killed her. He asked Kathy if she would turn him in, expecting that she was taping him, and she got out of the car and walked away. As he watched her, he wondered if he’d let go of his last chance to sleep with a young woman.

Two weeks into her rehab program, Sabbath went to see Roseanna and deliver the binder she’d requested. On the way to the facility, he stopped at a diner and read through it. It was filled with letters her father had written her from when she left him until he died by suicide. At the rehab center, Roseanna looked and sounded happier and healthier, though she still fervently despised him. In her room, Roseanna told Sabbath of her anxiety over sharing her story about her father with her group, which she had written in the notebook at her desk. While Roseanna attended AA with the binder, Sabbath sat in her room and read her story, learning that she blamed her father, not him, for her drinking. Roseanna lamented that she’d had to take care of him and heavily implied that he had sexually abused her. Before Roseanna returned, Sabbath wrote a letter, pretending to be her father in hell, blaming her for her own life. When Roseanna did not return after AA, Sabbath went looking for her and was sent from one building to another. At a nurse’s station, he spoke with a patient and began betting on other patients’ vital signs as the nurses checked them.

The last patient to come in was Madeline, a fragile young woman who caught Sabbath’s eye. Sabbath convinced Madeline to walk him to the next building even though she wasn’t supposed to. She explained that she had recently attempted to die by suicide because she’d lost faith in there being a purpose in life. Sabbath convinced her to do sexual favors in exchange for a quart of vodka. He drove into town for the vodka but couldn’t find her when he returned and was soon escorted off the premises by guards. His actions endangered Roseanna’s status, as they believed she’d asked him to bring her alcohol. Sabbath drove home, taking a detour to Drenka’s, though it was late and she would not come with him.

Back on the train in New York, Sabbath loses the trail of King Lear and stops reciting. He thinks back to the kindness and helpful nature of Morty and reflects on how his death broke his mother and his strong father, and made Sabbath feel as though he’d lost a part of himself. The pain was so severe that even after the notice of death came, Sabbath didn’t tell anyone for a while. On the train, a young girl feeds him the next line. Sabbath continues to recite the play, and looking at her, he thinks of Nikki, becoming convinced that this girl must be Nikki’s daughter. He asks her who her mother is, begging to know where Nikki is hiding and even grabbing her face before being pulled off. They arrive in Grand Central and she flees, with Sabbath realizing that his collapse may be very real.