Play 1: Interview
CHARACTERS
BEN, male, 16
MAN, male, middle-aged
(they sit on chairs facing each other on an otherwise empty stage, a small round table resting between them with two cups on it)
MAN
So why are you doing this?
BEN
A few reasons.
MAN
What are they?
BEN
I guess I just feel guilty for not having written much lately, and knowing myself unless I do something like this that forces me to do it whether I want to or not I probably won’t ever.
MAN
And why is that you think?
BEN
Well, pretty much cause I’m lazy as hell.
(he picks up one of the cups and takes a sip)
(Beat.)
MAN
Interesting.
BEN
That and, who knows, maybe I’m trying to recreate come aspect of CSSSA, maybe I’m just thinking subconsciously that if I start writing again then suddenly everything else will be like it was there.
MAN
Well, I must say, those are quite good reason for doing—
BEN
That and boredom.
(Beat.)
MAN
So, what do you think you’re trying to accomplish with it?
BEN
I guess trying to improve my writing, make myself a little less bored and a little happier, get through my hatred of everything I write by forcing myself to just post everything. That and hearing the people who read it shower me with praise to contradict my own hatred of all of the pieces I’ll write.
MAN
Isn’t that kind of narcissistic?
BEN
Well, Freud says we’re all narcissists, just different kinds
MAN
What the hell does that have to do with anything?
(Beat.)
BEN
Well, I, uh
MAN
And why am I suddenly just talking like you instead of a different person like I was originally intended to be?
BEN
Well, funny you should say that, its an artistic choice I, well, chose so that I may—
MAN
You realize this play, or scene (I mean, come on, isn’t it a little grandiose to call this a play?), sucks, right?
(Beat.)
BEN
Yeah.
MAN
And you realize this is the first play out of 365-- o yeah, real likely you’ll actually write all three hundred sixty five of them—and you’ve already fallen back on the you making fun of your own work gimmick.
BEN
Well, yeah, I--
MAN
Are you gonna answer me or are you just gonna sit there and mutter incoherently?
(Beat.)
(BEN opens his mouth as if to speak, then starts to glance around rapidly)
BEN
I, uh
(he suddenly leaps out of his chair, and stabs MAN with the sharpened end of a tooth brush that had been in his pocket)
(MAN lies on the floor motionless)
(BEN pulls the toothbrush out, glances all around nervously, and then runs off the stage to the side.)
(Blackout)
posted by Ben Rosbrow @ 9:31 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
OMG! Toothbrush death! DX
I found it amusing. =D
That was beautifully post-modern. So damn self-concious it burned. It also kind of felt like you in a nutshell, or at least the inside of your head in a nutshell (Wouldn't it be weird to have the entire contents of your skull crammed into the empty shell of, say, a walnut?)
Anyway, it made me laugh, and I think it's quite a fitting start. I'd advise you not to be so cynical and down on yourself, but that's what the scene seemed to be about, and it worked. So fuck that.
Keep it up, man. I'm impressed that you're doing this.
Interesting.
I once read a story about roommates in an insane asylum, where one roommate committed suicide by sharpening his toothbrush, and then shoving it so far up his nose that it penetrated his brain.
I prefer your method of death-by-toothbrush.
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