during

from seascape by edward albee:

“NANCY: . . .But I thought: well, if he can turn his back on me like this (Rises.) – nice, isn't it, when the real and the figurative come together – I can turn, too, if not my back, then . . . back.

. . .

NANCY: Hm? (Matter-of-fact.) Knowing how lonely he is . . .substituting . . . using a person, a body, and wishing it was someone else – almost anyone. That void. La petite morte, the French call the moment of climax? And that lovely writer? Who talks of the sadness after love? After intimate intercourse, I think he says? But what of during? What of the loneliness and death then? During. They don't talk of that: the sad fantasies; the substitutions. The thoughts we have. (Tiny pause.) One has.”