Mel is a middle aged man in the high finance world of advertising. He has lost his job and is having a breakdown. His identity was his work. Edna isw his fretful wife, watching the breakdown of Mel.br From the play PRISONER OF SECOND AVENUEbr Was performed by Jack Lemmon and Anne Bancroft, a middle-class, middle-aged, middle-happy couple living in a Manhattan high rise apartment building. Mel loses his job, the apartment is robbed, Edna gets a job, Mel loses his mind, Edna loses her job . . . to say nothing of the more minor tribulations of nosy neighbors, helpful relatives and exact bus fares. The couple suffers indignity after indignity (some self-inflicted) and when they seem on the verge of surrender, they thumb their noses defiantly and dig the trenches for battle.