In this episode, we present Rick Regan's one-act audio drama, "I want to taste the melons of the women who sell fruit by the sea" .

Set in a quiet California restaurant, the play captures the first night out for a married couple after months of pandemic lockdown . Pauline, an academic, and Maurice, a travel writer, meet for what seems like a celebratory dinner, but the evening quickly unravels into a bitter confrontation. Maurice reveals he wants a divorce to take a job in London—a plan that Pauline suspects involves another woman .

What follows is a raw and scathing dissection of their marriage, filled with accusations of infidelity, professional resentment, and the deep pain of feeling unseen. It’s an intimate and unflinching look at the moment a long love affair finally comes to its breaking point.

Themes

• Marital Disintegration and Infidelity: The central theme is the complete breakdown of a long-term marriage. Maurice’s serial infidelity is the primary catalyst for the conflict. His desire for a divorce is driven by a new affair disguised as a career opportunity. The dialogue explores the deep wounds and cynicism that years of cheating have inflicted on Pauline.
• Aging, Desire, and Longing: The play's title is echoed in Francesca's metaphor of Maurice wanting a "ripe melon" while describing Pauline as a "dry" fence-post. This highlights Maurice's mid-life crisis and his longing for the passion and adoration of youth, which he seeks in other women because his marriage has grown stale . Francesca points out the bitterness of an aging man who can no longer easily attract the youth he craves .
• The Need for Recognition: Beyond the issue of infidelity, Pauline’s deepest hurt comes from feeling unseen and unvalued by her husband. She explicitly states, "It's not about sex, Mo! It's about recognition. You don't even see me. You don't know what I do" . Her final attack on the intellectual merit of his writing is a desperate attempt to assert her own value and be recognized as his equal .
• Authenticity vs. Artifice: The conflict pits two different ways of life against each other. Maurice is a travel writer whose life is an adventure, but Pauline frames his work as inauthentic, "overheated, purple prose of made-up middle-aged adventures". Conversely, Maurice attacks Pauline’s academic life as sterile and detached, accusing her of being a "dilettante busybody" for studying Arctic peoples from the comfort of Fresno .
• The Aftermath of a Shared Crisis: The story is explicitly set as the couple emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic. The lockdown forced Maurice, the world traveler, to be "chained to your wife," removing his usual escape. This forced proximity did not create their problems but exacerbated them, bringing years of resentment to a breaking point.