Overview

A woman is found wandering in Chicago, her feet blistered and bloodied. Doctors at the hospital where she is taken immediately recognize this as a symptom of the "fugue" state of amnesia, where the victim is literally running away from an intolerable memory. A young psychiatrist is assigned to her case. Clinic's rules allow him twenty-one days ("three lousy weeks") to work with her. If there is no improvement, she will be sent to a long term care facility. He is running away from his own demons - a mistake he made with a patient early in his practice which had a devastating effect on his life. Because the woman has no past and no future, she is in remarkably good spirits, chipper and carefree except when the young doctor starts to jog her memory. The closer he gets to piecing together the puzzle of her life and the terrible thing that made her want to forget everything, the stronger is her urge to run. But his fear is that if she remembers -- will he be repeating the mistake he made? To muddle the waters, he is falling in love with his patient. This play is about loss.