Surlethe wrote a play ...
Posted: 2005-10-24 01:24pm
... and has no idea where to take it next. Any ideas? Comments? Suggestions?
---
Kate, Gary, Ethan, Cassie, Pat, Rhea, Sophie, Jose, Fiona
[all except Fiona are sitting silently in a perfectly white room]
CASSIE: … I can see! I can see!
JOSE: What’s it to us?
CASSIE: I couldn’t see before, but now …
ETHAN: That’s nice to know. Shut up and let me think.
KATE: You’re nice today. Weren’t you and Cassie … ?
ETHAN: That’s irrelevant.
GARY: Kate, you’re not one to talk; look at what we did to each other.
SOPHIE: That should be behind us now, but --
JOSE: But it’s not.
PAT: Shut up. I’m trying to think.
[silence for a while; then --]
ETHAN: I’m sorry, Cassie. I shouldn’t have --
CASSIE: That’s all right. I understand. It’s just, I got here, and suddenly, I could see. That overwhelmed me. I shouldn’t have talked --
JOSE: And you shouldn’t be talking now, so be quiet. We’re all trying to assess how we got here.
GARY: [muttering] It’s so hard … so hard …
SOPHIE: Why?
GARY: What were you before you came here?
SOPHIE: I was a nobody, a homeless girl on the street --
JOSE: Then this isn’t that bad of a change for you.
SOPHIE: Yes, it is. Do you have any idea what freedom you have? On the street, I mean?
ETHAN: [interested] No; tell us.
SOPHIE: There are no constraints on you: none at all. Wherever there is food, you can live. The law doesn’t care; you can break minor ones as long as you don’t kill anyone. No fetters to chain you down--
JOSE: As long as you can shoot up heroin every two hours, you mean.
SOPHIE: [flustered, baring her forearm] Clean, see? No marks!
JOSE: Yeah, since you got here.
ETHAN: Be quiet, both of you. What were you, Gary?
GARY: [standing] I was the most powerful creature in the universe --
JOSE: [aside to Pat] He was a basket case, that’s what he was -- sorry; go on.
GARY: I was the most powerful creature in the universe, with fleets at my beck and call that crushed all resistance. [shoulders slump] I owed it to her treachery. [points at KATE]
KATE: What!? It was you who betrayed me first!
GARY: And that justifies a second betrayal? Two wrongs don’t make a right.
KATE: [quietly] That doesn’t make your betrayal any less than it already was --
GARY: And what was that?
KATE: [screaming] THAT OF A TWO-FACED BASTARD! You pledged your love to me -- me alone! -- and even went so far as proposal, and I come back into my room the next night, and I find you fucking her on my bed!
[GARY sits]
[silence for a while]
PAT: We’re obviously not over it yet.
GARY: Shut up. What’s happened to you, to make you an expert?
PAT: I don’t think you would take kindly to my reminding you --
GARY: Shut up!
PAT: -- since it was you who first --
GARY: I said, shut UP!
PAT: -- first brought me here.
GARY: [hiding head in arms]
PAT: Especially since we were friends before that.
GARY: [standing] That meant NOTHING! NOW SHUT THE HELL UP!
[Fiona enters]
FIONA: Gentlemen, are we fighting so soon?
GARY: [shocked] You?!
PAT: You!
FIONA: Me … Patrick, considering what you’ve done to me, I don’t think you are any more justified than Gareth is speaking.
PAT: [coolly] There were reasons for that.
FIONA: [matching his tone] There are no good reasons for torture. Ever. By the way, does your … wife … know you raped me?
RHEA: What?!
PAT: What? You liar!
FIONA: I’ll leave you two to work this out. Meanwhile -- [addressing everyone] -- I’ve brought you all here together. Perhaps my purpose will be better illuminated amongst yourselves. I will visit from time to time to … see … how things are going. [exit]
RHEA: You raped her?
PAT: No, of course not. That wasn’t authorized.
RHEA: Who was in charge, anyway? I know I wasn’t.
ETHAN: I wasn’t. Cassie?
CASSIE: No; not me.
JOSE: Nope; Sophie?
SOPHIE: I wasn’t. Who ordered the torture?
GARY: You ordered her to be tortured?!
ETHAN: Listen, it doesn’t matter now. What we need to do is figure out what to do now.
RHEA: No, but it does matter. Torture is one thing; rape, completely different!
PAT: I told you, I didn’t rape her!
RHEA: How do I know I can trust you?
PAT: Are you questioning my honesty?
RHEA: Yeah, I’m questioning your honesty! What are you going to do about it, rapist darling, hit me?
PAT: [suddenly calm] Don’t provoke me, wife.
RHEA: [matching his tone] I will provoke you when it is necessary. Did you --
PAT: [yelling and raising a fist to strike her. She flinches] BE SILENT!!
[RHEA stares at him for a moment, gets up, and moves to the other side of the room. There is silence for a moment, then --]
JOSE: [muttering] At least he didn’t kill her, like Gary and Kate --
RHEA and PAT: Shut up. [they glare at each other, realizing they spoke simultaneously]
[silence for another moment]
ETHAN: Kate, why are you here?
KATE: Fiona brought me after he killed me. [she indicates GARY]
ETHAN: He killed you?
KATE: [nods; is silent]
GARY: [sullen] I didn’t have a choice.
KATE: [rounds on him] Didn’t have a choice?! DIDN’T HAVE A CHOICE?! You always have a choice!
GARY: [fighting fire with fire] What do you know?
---
Kate, Gary, Ethan, Cassie, Pat, Rhea, Sophie, Jose, Fiona
[all except Fiona are sitting silently in a perfectly white room]
CASSIE: … I can see! I can see!
JOSE: What’s it to us?
CASSIE: I couldn’t see before, but now …
ETHAN: That’s nice to know. Shut up and let me think.
KATE: You’re nice today. Weren’t you and Cassie … ?
ETHAN: That’s irrelevant.
GARY: Kate, you’re not one to talk; look at what we did to each other.
SOPHIE: That should be behind us now, but --
JOSE: But it’s not.
PAT: Shut up. I’m trying to think.
[silence for a while; then --]
ETHAN: I’m sorry, Cassie. I shouldn’t have --
CASSIE: That’s all right. I understand. It’s just, I got here, and suddenly, I could see. That overwhelmed me. I shouldn’t have talked --
JOSE: And you shouldn’t be talking now, so be quiet. We’re all trying to assess how we got here.
GARY: [muttering] It’s so hard … so hard …
SOPHIE: Why?
GARY: What were you before you came here?
SOPHIE: I was a nobody, a homeless girl on the street --
JOSE: Then this isn’t that bad of a change for you.
SOPHIE: Yes, it is. Do you have any idea what freedom you have? On the street, I mean?
ETHAN: [interested] No; tell us.
SOPHIE: There are no constraints on you: none at all. Wherever there is food, you can live. The law doesn’t care; you can break minor ones as long as you don’t kill anyone. No fetters to chain you down--
JOSE: As long as you can shoot up heroin every two hours, you mean.
SOPHIE: [flustered, baring her forearm] Clean, see? No marks!
JOSE: Yeah, since you got here.
ETHAN: Be quiet, both of you. What were you, Gary?
GARY: [standing] I was the most powerful creature in the universe --
JOSE: [aside to Pat] He was a basket case, that’s what he was -- sorry; go on.
GARY: I was the most powerful creature in the universe, with fleets at my beck and call that crushed all resistance. [shoulders slump] I owed it to her treachery. [points at KATE]
KATE: What!? It was you who betrayed me first!
GARY: And that justifies a second betrayal? Two wrongs don’t make a right.
KATE: [quietly] That doesn’t make your betrayal any less than it already was --
GARY: And what was that?
KATE: [screaming] THAT OF A TWO-FACED BASTARD! You pledged your love to me -- me alone! -- and even went so far as proposal, and I come back into my room the next night, and I find you fucking her on my bed!
[GARY sits]
[silence for a while]
PAT: We’re obviously not over it yet.
GARY: Shut up. What’s happened to you, to make you an expert?
PAT: I don’t think you would take kindly to my reminding you --
GARY: Shut up!
PAT: -- since it was you who first --
GARY: I said, shut UP!
PAT: -- first brought me here.
GARY: [hiding head in arms]
PAT: Especially since we were friends before that.
GARY: [standing] That meant NOTHING! NOW SHUT THE HELL UP!
[Fiona enters]
FIONA: Gentlemen, are we fighting so soon?
GARY: [shocked] You?!
PAT: You!
FIONA: Me … Patrick, considering what you’ve done to me, I don’t think you are any more justified than Gareth is speaking.
PAT: [coolly] There were reasons for that.
FIONA: [matching his tone] There are no good reasons for torture. Ever. By the way, does your … wife … know you raped me?
RHEA: What?!
PAT: What? You liar!
FIONA: I’ll leave you two to work this out. Meanwhile -- [addressing everyone] -- I’ve brought you all here together. Perhaps my purpose will be better illuminated amongst yourselves. I will visit from time to time to … see … how things are going. [exit]
RHEA: You raped her?
PAT: No, of course not. That wasn’t authorized.
RHEA: Who was in charge, anyway? I know I wasn’t.
ETHAN: I wasn’t. Cassie?
CASSIE: No; not me.
JOSE: Nope; Sophie?
SOPHIE: I wasn’t. Who ordered the torture?
GARY: You ordered her to be tortured?!
ETHAN: Listen, it doesn’t matter now. What we need to do is figure out what to do now.
RHEA: No, but it does matter. Torture is one thing; rape, completely different!
PAT: I told you, I didn’t rape her!
RHEA: How do I know I can trust you?
PAT: Are you questioning my honesty?
RHEA: Yeah, I’m questioning your honesty! What are you going to do about it, rapist darling, hit me?
PAT: [suddenly calm] Don’t provoke me, wife.
RHEA: [matching his tone] I will provoke you when it is necessary. Did you --
PAT: [yelling and raising a fist to strike her. She flinches] BE SILENT!!
[RHEA stares at him for a moment, gets up, and moves to the other side of the room. There is silence for a moment, then --]
JOSE: [muttering] At least he didn’t kill her, like Gary and Kate --
RHEA and PAT: Shut up. [they glare at each other, realizing they spoke simultaneously]
[silence for another moment]
ETHAN: Kate, why are you here?
KATE: Fiona brought me after he killed me. [she indicates GARY]
ETHAN: He killed you?
KATE: [nods; is silent]
GARY: [sullen] I didn’t have a choice.
KATE: [rounds on him] Didn’t have a choice?! DIDN’T HAVE A CHOICE?! You always have a choice!
GARY: [fighting fire with fire] What do you know?