ACT 1
A square room, white. A white bar/kitchen area; a white “living” area with a white plastic tub. In front of the bar, a small square mattress typically sized for dogs. Behind the tub there is a window - revealing nothing. The room is bare and empty. It is shone in intensely bright white light. A shadow is cast, it passes across the white light and disappears.
Some white noise begins…very faint and distant…but increasingly louder and more present. It is ugly. The extremely lit room starts to shift as well: the white light begins to flicker gently, and we begin to see, projected onto the white-room, the start of a static-like-texture, like TV static, or like a million starlings flying across the sky.
The noise and the projection gradually begin to dominate, and dominate, and dominate, until all we see is static and all we hear is white noise and this Static Domination continues to increase in intensity, with everything flickering, with crazy noise, getting higher, and higher, and higher, and higher, and ---
Abruptly, the lights go up - all is white again - and the noise stops.
On stage, a tall figure/person wearing gray coveralls, by the bar, where a bunch of carrots have been placed. He is holding a large square knife over his head, aiming at the carrots on the bar. On the tub, a semi-nude figure/person, her gray coveralls neatly on the floor next to the tub. Next to her coveralls, a small, dark-gray rectangular cube - a timer-clock. The two figures remain in stillness, holding their position, for a brief second, then --
‘POW!’ as A strikes the knife onto the carrots - and starts chopping them… and B starts washing herself gently with the water.
A and B continue their activities - cutting carrots and washing with water - for a while…
The timer-clock goes off. ‘Trrrrim!---Trrrrim!---Trrrrim!’. B presses it to stop.
A has finished chopping his carrots. He kneels under the bar, and picks up a large rectangular-cubal blue bar of soap. He places it on top of the bar, and with a second knife, cuts a significant piece off the soap. He puts the mother-soap back under the bar, then grabs the tinier piece, walks to B and hands it to her. B reaches for her piece of soap, arm outstretched, as though transmitting an electrical signal between them.
The timer-clock goes off. B takes the soap, and turns off the alarm. A goes back to his chopped carrots. He grabs from under the bar a see-through bowl, places it on the bar, and drops the carrots into the bowl. B is looking at the soap, weirdly.
A picks up from under the bar a couple of small different-color radishes, and he starts to chop them. B is still looking at the soap, not moving, apparently doing nothing at all.
The timer-clock goes off again. A puts the chopped radishes onto the see-through bowl. He grabs a white towel from under the bar. B does not turn the timer-clock off, it is still going.
A turns with the towel, from the bar, to the tub, to see the strangest of scenes: B, immoble, still looking at the blue square of soap, the timer clock still on. A is shook by this. With gravity, A turns off the timer-clock himself, comes back up, and says:
A
What Happened?
There is no response. An invisible string outstretches and connects them.
A helps lift B from the tub and wraps her in her towel. As she gets out of the tub, B still clutches the soap. A and B help dry B. A helps B put on her coveralls. B still holds the soap. A is disconcerted.
A and B look at each other. The timer-clock goes off. A throws the towel on top of the dog-bed-mattress area. Then, he steps out of his coveralls, into his underwear. He kneels and turns off the timer-clock and places his coveralls next to it.
B goes to the kitchen, placing her piece of soap on the bar.
A enters the tub.
B takes off more carrots from under the bar. She places the carrots on the bar, and raises the knife up high - and --
‘POW!’ as B strikes the carrots.
A washes himself gently with the water.
B chops carrots.
Their activities last a while.
The timer-clock goes off. A turns it off.
B pours the carrots on top of the carrots-radish-mix bowl. Then, B goes under the bar and grabs the large-mother-soap, and with the soap knife, cuts a piece off it - same size, same shape as the piece A cut for her. She puts the mother-soap back down, grabs the smaller piece, and walks to the tub. She hands A’s piece to him. They stay touching through the soap, like before, looking at each other.
The timer-clock goes off. A takes the soap, and turns it off.
B goes back to the bar, grabs some colorful radishes from under it, and starts chopping them.
A starts to wash himself with the soap.
This lasts a while.
The timer-clock goes off.
B pours the radishes onto the bowl.
A turns the timer-clock off.
B goes under the bar, grabs A’s towel, goes to A, helps him get up, get dry, and get dressed.
B tosses the towel on top of the other towel.
A finishes getting dressed.
A and B are both dressed now. They stand for a second. They look at each other. The timer-clock goes off. Neither move. They look at each other. Then, they start to kneel down, slowly, so slowly, together, at the same time, in the same, continuous movement, down, to the timer-clock on the ground, and, together, they reach for it, and, together, turn it off.
They stay kneeled on the floor, looking at each other for a little bit.
Then they go up, together.
A grabs his small-square-fashion-appropriate bag.
B grabs her small-square-fashion-appropriate bag.
They open their square bags together, taking out, from each bag, appropriate gloves, glasses, and boots. They both start adding these on to their outfits.
A and B finish getting prepped, and they put their empty bags on their backs.
A and B grab the timer-clock on the floor, and press it together. A ‘blip’ sound comes off it and it starts to go ‘tick, tack, tick, tack, tick, tack, tick, tack, tick, tack’, like a metronome. Then, A helps attach the timer-clock to B’s bag. Once it is securely fastened there, A and B share a quick look, and --
A and B exit their shack to the outside world.
The world is foggy, gray, cold and empty- empty except for an enormous sound, a noise. The noise is loud, unpleasant, incorrigible, and mystifying. A and B seem unfazed by the noise, it’s unknown still, but familiar.
A and B walk on this long bare field, with some rare trees here and there….
….‘tick, tack, tick, tack’.....
….. A and B walk….and they walk….until….
…..they arrive at this simple, small garden. A starts plucking some carrots from the ground on one end; B starts plucking some radishes from the ground on the other. A puts the carrots in Bs bag, and B puts the radishes in As bag. Once this is done, they look at each other, then --
They walk further out, slowly, carefully, walking past the plantation, into this strange square area - where rectangular concrete blocks create this eerie shrine of some kind. On top of these blocks, there lie smaller crystal-like rectangular blocks.
A and B arrive at this place, and stop. They both look at the shrine and touch it gently, and contemplate it. They kneel down next to the shrine. Then they look up, and out, into the beyond-land, and what may lie ahead…..‘tick, tack, tick, tack, tick, tack’.....
B, still looking up and out, stands up without A.
A is a bit confused about what B is doing. And then, all of a sudden --
B begins to walk past the shrine!
A sees this, shocked, and immediately stands up and tries to stop B, grabbing her by the arm -- but B disentangles her arm from A’s grab, and ventures further into the prohibited land of beyond-the-shrine.
A, desperate, does not know what to do.
B walks very slowly, her palms slightly raised up, her face up to the sky.
A decides to go after B -- he walks past the shrine, and after only four steps, he steps onto a trap B had managed to avoid -- ‘CRACK!!’ goes this crazy trap as it closes its jaws onto As foot --
A yells in pain, and falls to the ground.
B turns, realizing that shit’s hit the fan. She goes back to help A, trying urgently to get the trap off his foot.
They both try to get the trap loose, but cannot do it. Then ---
‘BLIIIIIP’ comes out of the timer-clock, and the ‘tick, tack’ gets significantly faster-paced.
As they both know what this change of sound means, they go for the foot-trap with even more urgency and panic and intensity, while still failing to let it loose --
-- ‘tick, tack, tick, tick, tack, tick, tack, tick, tack’ super fast, and --
A
Go!
B is still trying to open the trap and save A --
‘PAAAEEEH! PAAAEEEH! PAAAEEEH!’ the timer clock starts going like never before ---
A
GO!
B grabs the timer-clock from her bag, and throws it with all her strength and force on to the ground, then steps on it in rage, crashing and breaking it --
A looks up at B incredulously.
White noise and crazy static begin….
B looks down at A --
The white noise and static grow, and grow --
B goes down to A, and they hold each other --
And the Static Noise swells, and swells --
And A and B look over and out, together, as they are completely engulfed by the noise and the static --
END OF ACT 1
ACT 2
A and B walk back to the hut. They walk one in line, A holding the baby timer, mourning the lost clock.
They arrive at the hut, and A places the timer down. A falls to the ground. B goes under the bar, and retrieves a magical future-bandage and wraps it around A’s hurt leg. B is kneeled down next to A. A avoids eye contact with B. There’s some light panting and heavy thinking.
Then;
B
The day today like?
A
Chillio.
B
Schoolio?
A
Work.
B
Good.
A
No good.
B
Bad?
A
Worst.
B
How worst?
A looks at B.
A
DM me…..Contorted and ill. You been diffy. Who axed it? Who is she?
B
And what else today for you?
A
Who is she?
B
She’s in and out.
A
Her face?
B
Out.
He slaps her.
A
Now?
B
Out.
He slaps her.
A
Now?
B
Out
A
Other parts is she displaying?
B
What else did the day do to you?
A
Does she hear? The bang of the non-clock? To what bell does she follow or she doesn’t need one, and why?
B
I have an inner clock.
A
Where?
B
In. Can tell the time. Before and after.
A
Yours or hers?
B
All of it.
A
What?
B
It’s scary. But it tells me.
Then, with queue-precision, B goes to the back of A and gets the supplies in A’s backpack. A turns back; B turns away, and the same motion of supplies-from-backpacks occurs.
B goes to the kitchen; puts the supplies under the bar.
A goes to the kitchen; puts the supplies under the bar.
B
And what else did you?
A
Market.
B
Market...
A
Products. Imagine. In the tiles, in the lights, in the aisles, even in the products there were products.
B
What dream….
A
I tried dips even, cracks, and dough.
B
And what?
A
I sniffed, ated, felt and saw all the colors of the world.
B
How long this venture?
A
The time got weirded-like cause of the happiness.
B
Foreways or backways?
A
Right in the middle.
B
How did it tended?
A
I was running, and I runtil I stop.
B
Sickgood. Isn’t it? To live the normal life?
A
Yeah. Your time?
B
I waited for your arrival.
B takes the two bowls they were in front of this whole time with the carrots and radishes.
B hands A his bowl and she keeps her bowl to her.
B
And cooked you dinner.
A takes his bowl.
They both start eating.
They eat.
A finishes eating. He places his bowl on the counter
Then B finishes eating. B finishes at the correct time. She notices this.
A doesn’t.
B gets a tape player. Set it up. B presses play. There’s no tape, it rolls silently.
B
Dyou think machine life is foreways or backways in the middle?
A watches the tape spin
A
Roundabouts.
B
The tape wraps round around. Where is the change recorded?
A
On the tape.
A
Very good the food.
B
Yea.
A
I heard it’s slipping back to 40’s.
B
Yea.
A
Needsu find ways of warmup
B
In or out but yea
A
Bothus in-out
B
Green or Buzz?
A
What about a hot one?
B
the bodies?
A
Right
They get out the fucking appliances.
A holds his fake vagina.
B holds her fake penis.
As B fucks A’s fake vagina with her fake penis;
B
Do love me?
A
Hard so.
B
Do love me?
A
Hard so.
B
What offit?
A
Your cooking and women-wear.
B
You love it?
A
How it fit, and the food.
B’s arm gets tired.
B
Gonna come.
A
I’m finished.
They put the appliances away.
A
Great.
B
Like to have the good day.
A
Nothing to top it-like with a Show, yea?
B
Which show?
A
I think…of all the shows.
B
How about car crash show?
B leads the way, A accepts.
They both put on their magical night outfits.
They change the light and the setup for the Shows.
They have a bright lamp, which A points at B, from the side. It casts enormous shadows.
A sits to watch B -
B goes up, and begins.
B
The Car Crash show - by me. Time: Half Decade. Characters: 2; me, my girl.
B
Did you ever crash the car?
A
No.
B
We were Volvoing back from Old Memphis we got lended. Me and my girl had went to visit her famly. Her leaving this time was like the second time. It had stranged, but how it is, or how it was, with her famly. So had wanted to make it better-like so decided we should hike, should state park in the middle of the volvoing back. So went to Shawnee, what they call Little Grand Canyon -- is beautiful-like forest nests inside a great hole in the land in the land -- you begin the hike climbing down into the canyon, past the ancient beautiful grotesque-like rock forms, you finish climbing back up out and end on the beautiful hill looking the canyon. But I got us lost on the way there, we got there, realize we didn’t bring food we’re running out of water. We shouldn’t not have gone down into the canyon, but we wanted to, we did it, but we’re climbing down these slipperylike wet rocks, my girl goes BAM! with her head down below, hard, yea? Like hard like BAM! I’m scared she’s scared, concussion-potential-like-scared; we can’t get backup through the wet rocks, not without risking same possible rock-bam, and at this point the only way out is through.
B
I accept, she accepts: so have to do the whole hike back again. We walk through the canyon, now dark, now mysterious, andstrange, with new angles and POV’s and sounds -- so we stop for a rest-blunt, and then climb back out of it, the smoke, the grass, and it’s beautiful-like
I’m holding her all quiet. But the creeping feeling,
like I know something has gone wrongready, it creeps up me, it creeps up me good. The Dread Pirate Roberts. We got the car, hours long in the hike after, we circle ‘round, it’s now like dark, there’s no way out, way out of the Shawnee, we were ‘ready imposed to be back home we’re hours like hours behind. So find a way out; it’s dark. so drive, we stop for food, the food is trash, like trash like the worst food fucking ever like and Southern Illinois bad is putrid is the worst shit -- least was -- it was bad, so and
we stop at this middle of the nowhere and you can hear the pins dropping we walking in two trannies to this restaurant, so eat some garbage, and we’re driving down, we’re listening to Enya, the one about who can say where the road goes through cornfields, My Girl is crying, and something wrong, so wrong, something wrong in our lives, and trying to calm her down we’re running out of oil, and so do station to station, all of them closed, the "pay inside”, is nighttime, scared, so we start throwing up, like something is happening,
and we find a station with gas. I fill up the tank, last money I had, I drain it out
so we’re back in the car, we’re almost there, almost home, I’m falling, no food from my belly, I ask her to turn at the wheel, drifting in and out in the passenger seat, my girl is crying her face out, contorted and ill,
and me
or someone else
in the mirror
so see a flash of someone i forgot to forget
God have mercy
and back to her face
God have mercy
so who is she or who am I, and it’s so dark ---
i pass out
--- so tunes playing in the dream
so scared, and suddenly there’s this great horrible light, and I feel a presence, an ormous, terrifying presence, and I hear a scream and I open my eyes and I think
God have mercy
we’re going to die
and I accept that we’re going to die and our car crashes into the side of the concrete wall thing next to the freeway we’re driving on we’re going 70 miles per hour, and I see this light like a demon, like the dread pirate of the most horrible form, and then we BANG! and there’s a horrible smell and the bags have gone off and there’s smoke and I can’t make out what’s happening and my first thought is if my girl is dead I’m gonna kill myself I’m gonna jump in front of the 18 Wheelers driving and kill myself. But I look and she is alive she’s screaming but she’s alive despite all the horrible things happening suddenly I know who she is, and I know exactly where I am and then I do the math and realize, it’s not our car, it’s not tags, my girl was driving without ID then fell asleep. We grab run to grab the bags and take off across the multi-lane, not getting runned over and run-up the hill, and back down the cops arriving at the wreck, and we throw the bags over the fence, and we keep running, and we run until we stop, and then we call another car.
B takes a longer pause.
A applauds in silence.
B
So don’t look at it until we’re home. When we’re home, we’re falling in bed, and running the whole day, so all the mistakes we made -- so the little things that went wrong that warned us to not leave, so the little tragedies that became the medium tragedies, the big one, crashing. so membering allofit and chewing allifit, but that keeps popping back into my head, rerunning in my head, flashing back again, like the face i forgot to forget, is the light I saw so we crashed. The dread light.
B breathes in.
B
And I don’t know what it was- dread pirate or holy ghost. But I need you to listen to me, that when today after you stuck your leg and I crashed the clock, and when the sky and noise came down; I saw that light again.
B looks down at A directly.
B
And I know what it means.
A stands up.
A
YOU CRAZY!
B
MY TURN TO WATCH A SHOW!
A
FUCK YOU!
B
YOU DO CAR SHOW!
A
FUCK YOU BITCH!
B
YOU DO CAR SHOW! YOUR TURN!
A
YOU CRAZY FUCKING CRAZE BITCH CRAZY!
B
FUCK YOU ANDY ! FUCK YOU ANDY! YOU SHITMEAL! You ruin the movie!
A
YOU CALLED ME! YOU BITCH! YOU CALLED ME!
B
I did the show, I did the show-whole for you, and you ruin the movie. Shitmeal. Shit-fuck!
A
To bed. To bed-tobed.
A long silence
A
To bed.
In quiet but intense agreement, the lights are turned out. They lay, dispassionately, a distance away from each other.
A hum begins, a light enters into the room. It passes above the beds and then over A and B. The shadow is cast over the light, disappears.
A gets up and pour a glass of water. In the middle of doing so, he stops, and looks at the glass of water, wondering….
B sits up, watches A.
A puts the glass down, after some time.
He looks at B.
A
We’re running out of it. Trying to calm her down. Find a station with gas, last money, fill up the tank. Something wrong in our lives. And oil… station to station, throwing it up, like something is happening and we, we! Volvoing back, almost almost. Her leaving was like the second thrifting. I had wanted to maim. And it’s so dark, the tune is playing in the state park, in the middle of volvoing back, we, we- The great light. I feel this presence, the horrible light, and it’s beautiful, like the forest nest inside this great hole - irm- and I open my eyes and I think Oh my God. And Andy, Andy, our car crashes into the side of the concrete wall. 70 miles an hour like a demon, water trickling out, running out. We-Shh-And then we-Bang! And we wanted it - we wanted to - we did it. And we’re on Mount St. Make Out. And my first thought was heading down below, hard. And I’m in front of the 18 wheelers, I’m the son, it’s through the canyon now, now dark, now steep, mysterious, strange, asleep. And there’s no way out, out of the shast aches we did made - the little things went wrong, like hours behind. Tragedies that developed into trash like the worst food fucking ever like suffering, and chewing, but that was the least that it was.
Who is she? Who am I? And who is He? And Who can tell where the road goes? Better-like-so-decided we should dream, like rock forms.
In the middle of the monologue, A had put a reel on the tape machine.
A presses play on the tape machine, and music begins.
A
I jump. She’s dead, and then she’s a live-out. And Then - then - then - then nowhere.
The shadow reappears.
A sings.
A group of dancers begins to appear, across from the apartment, watching A and B.
The music swells again, it reaches an enormous climax. The music hangs in the air.
End of Act 2
ACT 3
Suddenly, music from outside the apartment joins in with the sounds emerging out of the little speakers in the apartment.
A 4 on the floor beat comes in, the choir enters into the apartment and begins dancing. Bodies melt away into a trance. They dance for half an hour, 20 minutes at a minimum. At a maximum, they dance until dawn.
As the music winds down A and B step out, and the 4 on the floor beat continues under a horrific wash of noise. Everyone keeps dancing but a way is made as A and B walk to their garden. The noise grows, the space around A and B grows too, the beat and the choir of dancers fade away.
Covered in sweat, surrounded by a wash of static and noise, A and B look up into a great light. An enormous melody builds and pushes away the noise.
They shout into the light:
B
The rock form glistened like the fur of the wildebeest, ripped from all of its seams like a supernova. Snapped as I was, at that moment, He looked on me from every POV. None could not see me, and the searing gaze penetrated me.
A
Something had to give.
A shadow passes over the light, the light breaks into a strobe, A and B move. They fall into silence and darkness, and begin, in this silence and darkness, a dance:
They touch lightly at the fingers on three occasions: beginning, middle, end.
They copy each other, and then respond
There is a hunt- a rifle, a beast, a shot, a retribution
They play games: sometimes simple, sometimes elaborate
They chase each other
They scare each other at turns
They fall over laughing
They dance rhythmically, and arhythmically
There is an exorcism, of sorts.
At the end they unite, and then part,
From across, they look at each other and then a candle is lit.
Everyone claps, like this:
