Plot
In the refreshment room of "Milford Junction" railway station, in the spring, Laura Jesson, a housewife, is waiting for her train home after shopping. She is in pain from a piece of grit that has got into her eye. Alec Harvey, a married physician, who is in the refreshment room removes it for her. The next summer, Alec and Laura have met each other a second time by chance and have enjoyed each other's company to the extent of arranging to lunch together and go to the cinema. In October, they are forced to admit that they are in love with each other, and they make arrangements to meet at the flat of a friend of Alec. By December, they are both agonized by guilt and agree that their affair must stop. The following spring, Alec is leaving to work abroad, and Laura comes to see him off but is prevented from giving him the passionate farewell they both yearn for when a talkative friend of hers intrudes into their last moments together, and their final goodbye is cruelly limited to a formal handshake.
Meanwhile, Myrtle and Albert, two of the station staff, carry on a boisterous, uncomplicated relationship.
Read more about this topic: Still Life (play)
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—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
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Plots, true or false, are necessary things,
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