NTN Dan Audition

(Start of Extract 1) Doctor Madden: ECT is indicated.

Dan: Wow. I mean – they still do that?

Doctor Madden: We do, yes. It’s the standard in cases like this. She’s got a long history of drug therapy and resistance, she’s acutely suicidal – it’s really our best option.

Dan: That’s kind of terrifying.

Doctor Madden: It’s not. The electricity

involved is barely enough to light a

hundred-watt bulb.

Dan: (wry) Oh, if it’s just a hundred-watt bulb.

Doctor Madden: It’s safer than crossing the street, and the short-term success rate is over eighty percent.

Dan: I thought she was better...

Doctor Madden: Sometimes patients recover just enough strength to follow through on suicidal impulses, but not enough strength to resist them.

Dan: Well, that seems very ...fucked.

Doctor Madden: Yes. (He hands Dan a clipboard.)

Doctor Madden: Legally, we need her consent. Hospital policy is we need yours, too.

Dan: I don’t think she’s gonna go for this.

Doctor Madden: Mister Goodman, we can administer the ECT and you can bring her home in ten days. Or we can sedate her for forty-eight hours, then discharge her and wait for her to try again. Look – go home. Take the night.

(END OF EXTRACT 1)

(Start of Extract 2)

Dan: Diana. Honey?

Natalie: Dad?

Dan: Don’t worry about it. Go on ahead. You’ll miss the bus.

Gabe: Mom?

Diana: Everything’s fine! I’m just making sandwiches. On the floor. You go on ahead. You’ll miss the bus.

Dan: (to Natalie) Go (Natalie goes, and after a half beat,

Gabe follows.)

Dan: Sweetie? Everything okay?

Diana: I wanted to get ahead on lunches.

Dan: Sure. Let me help you up.

Diana: I guess I got carried away.

Dan: Maybe a little (he helps her up)

Dan: Let’s go see Doctor Fine. This is just a blip. Okay? Nothing to worry about. I’ll wrap up the, um, sandwiches, and then we’ll go.