Gina Barnett's Play 'Alone At Last !'

In 1985, Gina Barnett wrote a play entitled Alone at Last! that conveys the story of a teenaged male and female engaging in sexual relations. However, far from being lewd in its account of the events, Barnett’s play features seven other characters that appear on the set as they impose their thoughts through comments on the teenager’s choices. Alone at Last! is a robust play that advocates the message of an average teenage couple engaging in sex and presents seven characters that embody the multiplicity of opinions that plague the partakers and their very private decision.

Before Alone at Last! even begins, Barnett establishes the idea that the characters and setting are almost universal. She does so by listing characters with a minimal amount

is The Girl’s Therapist. The Girl’s Therapist personifies the idea that “sex is for you to experience yourself with another person” and that an individual should “find [their] own passion” (Barnett 1630). Throughout the play, Barnett integrates The Girl’s Therapist by illustrating her character as encouraging the girl to be open to her emotions, while also asserting herself and her desires. Moreover, The Therapist is the only character that has a positive reaction in respect to the sexual engagements between The Boy and The Girl, she even goes so far as to display her preeminence over the other six opinions by advising the teens not to “follow their rules” (Barnett 1630). In Alone at Last! Barnett establishes The Therapist as a character to bring light through the cloud of opinions on teenage intercourse, she uses this character to establish that sex should be void of outside opinions. This is proven in the conclusion of Alone at Last! when The Boy and The Girl decide to “try again … for US this time” as they expel all the external characters (Barnett 1630-1631). However, The Therapist is the last to leave— signifying the importance of her message and its lingering effect upon the play’s