by Karen Sunde
burn you.
Joan: (Faltering) No...
Tomas: Put on a woman's clothes again. Submit.
Joan: But I'll be delivered! My voices promised.
Tomas: Where are your voices?!
Joan: (Beat) They're going to burn me? (To Lili) I can't walk into fire!
Tomas: Save yourself. Come back to the church. Submit.
Father Superior: (Gesturing her to approach the pyre) We're ready for you Joan.
Joan: (Stop action horror, slow-motion collapse, drawn out cry) I submit!
Fathers: (Stated, then echoed) She submits. She submits...she submits...
(Then Silence...in which everything and everyone withdraws, pulls back, so that Joan is isolated, center, standing in silence. Only a small pile, her old peasant dress, is left)
Joan: (Quietly) My voices lied to me.
(Joan begins to remove her soldier's clothes, and put on her dress)
(Lili watches Joan, then faces Tomas. A triangle. All three are limp, beaten)
Lili: You're a true Father. You've done their work well.
Tomas: Did you want her to burn? I saved her.
Lili: (Softly) You killed us both.
(Tomas twists away from Lili, finds himself confronted by the celebrating Fathers)
Fathers: (Reaching to embrace him) Tomas!!
Tomas: No...(Shrinking from them, gasps) This Joan is God's child! The more pure she is, the more your own sex burns. So you put her to the fire.
(Fathers fling their arms up as shield against Tomas, who turns back to face Lili)
Joan: (Like stone, dead) Forgive him. You must...forgive them all.
Lili: (Choked) I can't.
Joan: Make peace. Until you do, you'll never be free. (Pause) Go away now.
Lili: No.
Joan: There's nothing I can do for you.
Lili: I can't go. (Pause) Joan? I didn't betray you.
Joan: (Drained, sinking away) No. I saved myself.
Lili: (Exhausted) You aren't safe. They don't want you safe. Joan?
(No response. From Lili's exhaustion comes a quiet memory)
Lili: Funny. You said there's a knowing place inside – inside me, inside you, where God is, where peace and strength come from. Did you lie to me?
(Still no response. Lili's passion rises)
Lili: You denied yourself. Everything you are, what you did. You're erasing me! Who are you?! Are you as much a fake as the rest of them?
(Still no response. Lili turns to leave)
Joan: (Quiet) I was afraid.
(Lili hesitates, then continues to go)
Joan: Do you know what it feels like to burn?
(Lili stops)
Joan: A tiny touch of flame, and I leap away. How will it be when I can't leap? (Pause) Lili...
Lili: Yes, Joan.
Joan: Do you understand.
Lili: (Beat) I think so.
Joan: What was it for. Was it all for nothing?
Lili: (Trying to hide her despair) No. It's fine. (Beat. Saying goodbye) I love you.
(As she leaves Joan, Lili finds herself facing Tomas, the Fathers still behind him)
Tomas: What do you want from me?
Lili: (Quietly) Nothing at all.
(Lili moves to pick up a gasoline can)
Lili: (Raising the can) Here's to you, boys.
Tomas: Lili...
Lili: Here's the answer. What to do with me. (Tips the can, dousing herself) Stand back.
(A torch, readied for Joan, is burning across the stage from Lili)
Tomas: No!
(Lili smiles broadly, a bit drunkenly, and begins to move toward the torch. Joan, still center, watches Lili)
Tomas: No. Lili. Don't give up. Don't let go! (Beat) Please. I love you!
(Lili, hears him, hesitates but doesn't turn, moves on, will be flames in a split second)
Joan: Lili. Look at me.
(Lili stops, turns to Joan. Joan lets the dress drop from her shoulders)
Joan: (Clearly) I am me. La Pucelle.
Fathers: (Roaring) Nooooooo!
Felipe: Take her!
(As the Fathers close in slow-motion to beat Joan, viciously, lustfully, Joan speaks calmly, warmly, to Lili, as though drifting up on a soft cloud)
Joan: If I yield who I am, I give you nothing but defeat. Yes, I save myself – a little breath, another glimpse of sky, but by their power, and in their power I have no truth, no strength, no soul.
Fathers: (Coarse, guttural) Burn her, burn her!
Joan: It's this God wants from me. To say "I am." And that's what you want too. Take this power from me. I have to burn this time. And it may be you'll fly free.
(Joan is carried toward the stake-- her original niche)
Fathers: Burn her. Burn her!!
Joan: (Gasping) Lili, believe. The pain is gone. I'm in God's light. I regret nothing.
Lili: Joan...!
(Joan is bound to the stake, all forces snap into place. It is like a whirlwind)
Joan: Did you forget this part? Did you think you were me?
Lili: Stop it!
Joan: So you can kill yourself?
Lili: I won't! I won't! Joan, I need you.
Joan: What do you need me for?
Lili: You give me hope.
(The fire is lit. It roars up)
Lili: Joan...I didn't want you to burn!
Joan: But you knew. They'll kill me as long as they can.
Lili: No...
Joan: (Simply) Dear God...I give my soul to you.
(Joan's head rolls to one side. Tomas jerks upward as though he's been shot. Lili screams, and falls. Then, quiet, as Joan, becoming the statue, lifts her sword)
Joan: (Quiet, from her niche) Make me your beginning.
(Lili opens her eyes, hearing something. She holds the pill bottle again. Confused, she shakes out the last pill, lifts it to her mouth)
Joan: Give me hope.
(Stopped by the voice, Lili slowly turns to see Joan. Tomas is standing at the side)
Tomas: Use her, Lili. We need her light.
(Lili smiles, her fist closes over the pill)
Joan: I live...in you.
(As Joan's sword is thrust toward heaven, Lili's fist flies up and suddenly open, in a salute to heaven, to Joan, to winning)
END OF PLAY
Karen Sunde, a playwright and screenwriter, lives in New York
ASTERISKS in play list below indicate published plays available for purchase at:
www.broadwayplaypubl.com/alphlist.htm * www.dramaticpublishing.com **
PLAYS BY KAREN SUNDE
LIBERTY
BALLOON *
DARK LADY **
TO MOSCOW **
SWEET LAND OF FIRE
HAITI: A DREAM (in Facing Forward) *
NATIVE LAND
OH WILD WEST WIND (in Rowing to America) **
ANTON, HIMSELF
MASHA, TOO
PLEASE GOD, NO WEDDING OR SHOOTING AT THE END
IN A KINGDOM BY THE SEA (in Plays by Karen Sunde) *
HOW HIS BRIDE CAME TO ABRAHAM *
TRUTH TAKES A HOLIDAY (in Plays by Karen Sunde) *
GENTLEMAN JOHNNY
ME & JOAN (of Arc)
WHEN REAL LIFE BEGINS
TRACKING BLOOD WHITE
DEBORAH: THE ADVENTURES OF A SOLDIER
2020 SEXCARE
THE FASTEST WOMAN ALIVE **
KABUKI OTHELLO **
KABUKI MACBETH
KABUKI KING RICHARD
ACHILLES
KABUKI LADY MACBETH **
QUASIMODO (a musical)
SPA (an opera)
THE SOUND OF SAND
SCREENPLAYS BY KAREN SUNDE
UNDERCOVER PATRIOT
COUNTDOWN
OVER THE RAINBOW
BOULE DE SUIF
SECRET SHIP
HOW HIS BRIDE CAME TO ABRAHAM
IN A KINGDOM BY THE SEA
THE LINE
PARALLEL LOVES
DREAM HOUSE
FINAL QUEST: THE MOUNTAIN OF THE GODS
TRIPPING TAMMY
THE FASTEST WOMAN ALIVE
LOVE HITS EARTH (& Other Disasters)
NEXT!