Adam Thomas
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BORDERS

by Tom Simmons · Directed by Adam Thomas

Everyone walks into Borders thinking they need to start a business. By the end they're taking what they can get.

Long Island, summer 2009. The crash already happened. People whose jobs and livelihoods felt secure are working out how to make it in a new world after layoffs.

Mike is 57 and just got laid off. He's figured out everything and nothing at the same time, and he's driven by entitlement. James is 22 with a degree, driven by approval, and he can't say what he wants because he doesn't want to be a burden. A boomer and a millennial trying to work together, failing on flaws neither of them has looked at yet.

It's a comedy of errors. The feeling I wanted in the room: frustration, desperation, people who've been lied to, scared, ridiculous.

Mike builds a crew that mimics the crew he had at Xerox, then finds out he isn't the leader he thought he was. It climaxes on him apologizing.

Five actors, a table, two chairs, a Borders apron. It's set in a coffee shop because everyone in it has nowhere else to be during the day.

Four characters around a cafe table in the bookstore, mid-argument.
The whole cast at the cafe table.
A man in a red polo leans down, pointing, at a seated woman.
Mike, making a point.
A man perches on the edge of a table beside a seated woman, both laughing.
Mike and Mary Jane.
The barista in a Borders t-shirt faces off with a customer in a yellow polo.
The barista, who has a job.
A young man in a yellow polo sits alone at the cafe table with a cup.
James, waiting.