Play 30: Ain’t It a Bitch
CHARACTERS
VINCENT, 18
JAMES, 18
(They sit on a couch facing a television set. The closing music to Homicide is playing on the tv.)
(The sit for a few seconds looking at the screen in silence.)
VINCENT
Fuck that line was good.
JAMES
What line?
VINCENT
That one Gee said. Man, I always feel so, I dunno, stereotypical when I find like every line from a show I watch seems to fit my life exactly.
JAMES
Whatever, it’s cool. Happens to me a lot too.
(Beat.)
So which thing Gee said?
VINCENT
“I’m folding in” or whatever it was, something like that.
(Beat.)
JAMES
Yeah, that is good.
VINCENT
Yeah. It just sums that feeling up perfectly.
JAMES
Yeah.
VINCENT
Like how his character feels. How I feel too really.
JAMES
Yeah, it’s a good line.
VINCENT
It’s amazing. It just sums so much up in just three words. It can mean folding in like being introverted and folding up away from everything and everyone. It can mean folding like collapsing, like buckling.
JAMES
Yeah. Or like folding in until there’s nothing left.
VINCENT
Exactly!
(Pause.)
JAMES
Shit, that is good.
VINCENT
I know. It’s so good cause it’s so simple. Just three words, and thousands of meanings. And they’re all so close and related and all say the same thing and just perfectly represent that feeling.
JAMES
Definetely.
(Pause.)
So you feel like you’re folding in?
VINCENT
Yeah. Sometimes. (Beat.) A lot of the time I guess.
JAMES
That sucks.
VINCENT
Yeah.
(Pause.)
JAMES
Any idea why? I mean for Gee it’s not having anything outside of the job. What about you?
VINCENT
I dunno, nothing really.
JAMES
Well, his wife died, anyone close to you died?
(They laugh.)
VINCENT
No one died. Just (beat.) just life I guess.
JAMES
Yeah. Ain’t it a bitch.
VINCENT
Yeah.
(Pause.)
Why does everything in my life remind me of an episode of homicide?
JAMES
T’sall in the game yo.
VINCENT
Oh, you had to bring The Wire into this.
JAMES
Couldn’t resist.
VINCENT
Goddamn it, now you’ve reminded me of another line from The Wire that sums up my life too perfectly.
JAMES
What?
VINCENT
“A life, Jimmy, you know what that is? It’s the shit that happens while you’re waiting for moments that never come.”
(Pause.)
JAMES
Fuck. That’s good.
VINCENT
Yeah.
(Pause.)
JAMES
Fuck.
(Blackout.)
posted by Ben Rosbrow @ 10:34 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
I have to admit that this scene comes off as melodramatic and self-indulgent by itself as a stand-alone piece, which of course it really isn't. I know that what you're showing here is really just hinting at much more complicated emotion and so there's no way you could have really done it justice. What I mean is I don't find you or the sentiment you suggest here melodramatic or self-indulgent, but that's the vibe I get from the scene. On the other hand, The Wire is awesome. There's no getting around that. And I do like the idea of identifying unexpectedly with something that doesn't really have to do with you.
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