Short Synopsis

In this gently satirical, moving ensemble dramedy, five grad student roommates are all secretly in love with the wrong person, until a professor’s theft lights the fire that ignites their contained passions.  Their betrayals force them to confront their own internal deceptions and so begin an actual journey into adulthood.

Longer Synopsis

**** SPOILERS ****

In  this ensemble dramedy about a group of university graduate students, Thomas has felt a connection to Amandine – his best friend Marcus’ girlfriend – since the moment he met her.  “E” (Eileen) has yearned for Thomas likewise.  Adam has the distorted notion the more “E” is mean to him, the more she cares for him.  Though they all live together in an off-campus house, they keep these romantic yearnings in check, until Thomas discovers that the professor whom he TA’s for, has plageurized a portion of his doctorate for his own new book.

Thomas gets drunk and like a sodden Romeo goes to the professor’s house and loses both his job and his advisor’s approval for his doctorate.  Amandine hatches a “filmnoir” plan to blackmail the professor but it goes ridiculously awry – and worse instead of pursuing Amandine, the professor instead aggressively responds to “E”, but his attempted molestation ends up with her beating the crap out of him.

With everything hopelessly worse and all of their emotions exposed, each now tries to act on their hidden desires and end up betraying their friendships.  An unusual fourth act coda shows them all, no longer all living together, but on new paths to actual maturity.

Within the main romantic plot are a key subplots, including Thomas’ relationship with his mother and his deceased father and, especially, deceased sister.   Essentially, Thomas may want Amandine but he needs to deal with his grief.  The mother becomes involved in the main plot after Thomas loses his job and she comes to town.