Play 65: The Stages of Exhaustion

CHARACTERS
DANIEL, 20
MATT, 20

(They’re sitting at a table in a café drinking coffee.)

MATT
You look surprisingly awake.

DANIEL
Really?

MATT
Yeah.

DANIEL
That is a little surprising. That I look awake I mean.

MATT
So you’re not?

DANIEL
I’m exhausted.

MATT
Really?

DANIEL
Yeah.

MATT
Funny.

DANIEL
Guess I’m just in that auto-pilot stage of exhaustion.

MATT
What do you mean?

DANIEL
Like, when you’re really tired but you don’t act to differently, you do everything the same and function but are just kind of not there.

MATT
Yeah.

DANIEL
Like, something’s just off, it’s like you’re watching everything happen to you not actually going through it.

MATT
Yeah.

DANIEL
It’s fucking weird.

(He picks up his coffee and takes a sip, in the process he spills on himself.)

MATT
So you’re actions are all completely normal?

DANIEL
I guess I miscalculated. Apparently I’m in the “so tired I act and look like an idiot” stage of exhaustion.

MATT
Yup.

(beat.)

and I take back that “you looking awake” comment from earlier.

DANIEL
Well played.

(he take sip of his coffee.)

See, didn’t spill it that time.

(He puts the cup down, it falls over, spilling over the table.)

(He looks down at the spill.)

MATT
Well played.

DANIEL
Goddamn it.

(He picks up a napkin and starts cleaning the mess up.)

(Fade out.)