Who Am I This Time?

"Who Am I This Time?" is a short story first published with the title "My Name is Everyone" in The Saturday Evening Post on December 16, 1961 and reprinted in the collections Welcome to the Monkey House in 1968 and Complete Stories in 2017.

Plot Summary

Tennessee Williams, 1953

The North Crawford Mask and Wig Club, an amateur theatrical society, has decided to perform Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire and the normal director, Doris Sawyer, must bow out. The job instead falls to a local storm window installer who will only do it if Harry Nash plays the role of Stanley. Harry is well-known as the best and most versatile actor in town, although when not performing, he is shy and isolated. On his way to ask Harry if he'll participate, the director stops by the phone company offices to remove the charge for a call to Honolulu he didn't make. While there he meets Helene Shaw, who is temporarily in town to help set up a new billing machine. Thinking she'd be well suited to the role of Stella, Stanley's wife, he asks her to audition.

However, Helene is found to be flat and emotionless, in contrast to the passionate Stella. She says this is because she's never been in love, since even as a child she moved frequently and the only people she could love were movie stars who could be found on the screens of every new movie house. In an attempt to introduce some life into her performance, Harry is brought in and instantly becomes Stanley—cruel, handsome, even seeming physically larger. Treating Helene as if she were Stella from the start, the two immediately spark and she is enamored. While the production itself is going extremely well, Lydia Miller, the wife of Harry's boss Verne at Miller's Hardware Store and who is playing Blanche, points out that Helene is falling in love with Harry without realizing his persona is only a performance. She attempts to tell this to Helene but is rebuked and word begins to spread that she has asked the phone company not to transfer her anymore so she can stay in town.

The production is set to run at the Consolidated Junior-Senior High School. Thursday's performance is a sensation and during curtain call Helene is handed a bouquet of roses from her co-workers. She turns to give one to Harry only to find him already gone and is told that's how he always acts. Friday's performance is rather less spirited, but Saturday's is the best yet, particular Helene's performance. At curtain call, Helene won't let go of Harry's hand, forcing him to stay there while the audience congratulates them. She asks him to take her to the cast party, but he refuses, saying he doesn't like parties. She allows him to leave only if he'll take her present—a copy of Romeo and Juliet with a bookmark at Act II, Scene 2, the balcony scene. The two wander off reading to each other and never make it to the cast party. A week later the two are married, happily and still performing in community theater, although they can act a little strange from time to time depending on what they're reading to each other at the moment.

Adaptations

Vonnegut himself first adapted the work for the stage in 1962, retitling it "Who Am I This Time?" It was presented by the Barnstable Comedy Club, of which he'd been a member since 1953. It was staged again two years later by the Cape Playhouse in Dennis, Massachusetts. It was later adapted as a one act play in 1970 by Christopher Sergel. It was again adapted as a 53-minute episode of PBS' American Playhouse, season 1, episode 4 which aired February 2, 1982. Starring Christopher Walken as Harry Nash, Susan Sarandon as Helene Shaw, and Robert Ridgely as the director, given the name George Johnson, it was directed by Jonathan Demme, written by Neal Miller, and featured music by John Cale.