Furnace

Daniel is a man of 62, living alone after the death of his wife. The furnace motor dies, and the new one makes a different sound. Soon he becomes convinced that he can hear voices when the furnace runs, but he can't quite make out what they're saying. Is it a communication from aliens? Is it ghosts? His obsession with the voices causes him to re-examine his unhappy relationship with his wife and the suspicious circumstances of her death. He thinks he finds clues to the truth in her Bible, in the story of Daniel's three friends in the fiery furnace. His wife has always found mystical messages in the scribbled margins of the old books she buys. Maybe she's trying to communicate with him from the dead, through the voices in the furnace. But what is she trying to tell him? Dark, chilling, eerie and hypnotic. A powerful monologue for a strong actor in his prime. Published in Machiavelli and Other Plays.