Play 161: Enjoy

CHARACTERS
BEN, 17

(There is a board with a giant pad of paper—i.e., the type used for presentations and such—on it in the middle of the stage. The first page is blank.)

(Ben enters and walks up to the board. He turns the page, revealing a graph on the next sheet. The graph has axis, and numbers along them, but the actual graph is blank.)

BEN
So what we have here…

(He points to the graph.)

Is the amount of ideas I have.

(Beat.)

And this…

(He turns the page, there is a graph, on the bottom it has the days of the week, and on the left numbers ranging from 0 to 14. The graph is an almost straight line hanging just barely above 6 on average.)

Is the amount of sleep I’ve had per night.

(Beat.)

And perhaps most importantly, this…

(He turns the page, revealing yet another graph. This one has no labels, and just has a line that is steadily around the middle for the first part, then rapidly plunges and hits zero, and then continues to decline below the axis.)

Is the level of my mental stability, sanity (beat.) whatever you want to call it.

(Beat.)

You may notice that the current moment, or any for that matter, is not actually marked on the graph. I think that says it all in itself.

(He flips the pages back, until it is once again back to the original blank page.)

By now, you’re probably curious what all these graphs are trying to say, or what point I’m trying to make with all of this.

(Beat.)

Well, what I mean to say is…

(Beat.)

Enjoy the cop out.

(He picks up the giant pad of paper, and walks offstage.)

(Blackout.)