Prose in the form of a play

Prompted by the line
“The dance, in a black leotard, did not much improve her robust figure, only her appetite”

The scene opens in a living/dining room of an ordinary semi-detached suburban home.
Bob is sitting on a sofa watching TV.
Jane enters, carrying a large plastic carrier bag.

Jane: Do you have the table set ?
Bob: Mm ? Oh, hello dear.
Jane: The table ? Oh never mind, they’ve put in chop sticks. I don’t know what you do when I’m out. I think you just waste your time, while I’m improving myself.

Jane sets the carrier bag down on the table and unloads a prodigious quantity of take away food.

Bob: We expecting company?
Jane: I’m starving. All this exercise makes me quite giddy if I don’t eat. Anyway, I need to keep my strength up if I’m going to master all these steps and leaps. Do you think the exercise is helping ?
Bob: Mmm. You do look a bit slimmer.

Jane takes off her jacket and twirls round clumsily.

Jane: Do you really think so? Sometimes I feel like an elephant, but this black leotard makes me feel like a swan.
Bob: Mmm. Yes.

Bob sits at the table

Bob: Better get tucked in before this gets cold, eh.



Notes: The main difference is this almost all show and no tell. Even more so than in a play, character is inferred by the reader rather than stated or acted out and setting is sketchy at best.