by Eric Lane
ISMENE: There will be a riot.
BRIAN: Just don't go outside. Stay in the room.
ISMENE: Antigone is out there.
BRIAN: She'll run straight into her own doom.
ISMENE: She is my sister.
BRIAN: Unfortunately.
ISMENE: What do you know about it?
BRIAN: You know she is dangerous. Stay out of her way, Ismene. Your sympathy for her will harm you in the end.
ISMENE: You don't know what you're talking about. You don't know anything about her.
BRIAN: If you go out there tonight and join her, I will leave tomorrow and never visit you again.
ISMENE: That's a toss-up.
BRIAN: I know you are upset. These are not normal times. You'll be all right once the war is over. You can come back and live with me, and no one will harm you.
ISMENE: Because you, my husband, my knight, are white.
BRIAN: Do you think I enjoy visiting my wife in a little room that you share with two other families separated by hanging sheets? Fair or not, this is not my fate. This is yours. I'm willing to share it because I love you.
ISMENE: Thank you.
BRIAN: I'm really sorry this is happening, but I'm not the enemy.
ISMENE: Who is the enemy?
BRIAN: The war.
ISMENE: Oh, I thought I was in this predicament because of the Civilian Exclusion Order 33 that stripped my constitutional rights and made it possible to detain me indefinitely against my will, without charge, without representation, in a bleak condition in this dump. I guess I was wrong. The war is the enemy.
BRIAN: They had to do something.
ISMENE: They?
BRIAN: There are close to one hundred thousand aliens and non-aliens who could possibly threaten the safety of the country. My heart is torn. I hate my country for what it has done to you. But the second attack must be prevented.
ISMENE: What's a non-alien?
BRIAN: You are, Ismene. You're not an alien. You are my wife.
ISMENE: Brian, who else is non-alien? Citizens! It means citizen if your last name is not Japanese. I am a citizen because I was born in this country. Not because I married you.
BRIAN: Ismene, I'm sorry for all the injustices of the world. I'd fix them for you if I could.
ISMENE: But you can't, can you?
BRIAN: What do you want me to do?
ISMENE: Be brave.
BRIAN: How can I show you my bravery other than by continuing to love you? Life is about the happiness that you and I will find when this is all over. You'll come home and we'll have children and forget about these difficult times. We'll go back to our life and try to live it the best we can. That's my bravery.
ISMENE: That's not good enough anymore. (Pause.) I'm going out there.
BRIAN: I'm warning you.
SMENE: What are you warning me? That you will leave and take your white privilege with you?
BRIAN: What have I done to you?
ISMENE: You pampered, arrogant man. You have done exactly nothing, yet you expect everything. You did nothing to prevent my demise, but you expect me to recover and serve your concept of happiness. Nothing will ever be the same. Don't you understand that? I have been disgraced and deprived. We cannot go back to the life we had before I was broken.
BRIAN: Ismene, I can't believe you really think that. That is something Antigone might say. Don't let her poison you. Please. I can't imagine a life without you.
ISMENE: Brian, try this. When you walk out of here, see if you can take me with you. See if your wife wouldn't be ordered to stop at gunpoint. (Pause.) Antigone is out there. Fearless. Stupid. The color of her blood is the same as mine.
(ISMENE exits. BRIAN remains motionless.)
EPILOGUE
(Lights up on the GUARD.)
GUARD: These people don't understand the difference between good and evil. It's not in their culture. I had no choice. She was howling over the dead body like a witch, and on her hands and knees, she was throwing dirt over him. She looked like some wild animal with her black hair whirling in the dust storm. It was an ugly sight, this yellow creature spitting and crying, snot hanging from her nose. I have to admit that I was scared. She looked so crazy I thought she could attack me if I tried to stop her illegal act. Anyway, it was my job, so I called out a warning. She turned around and looked at me with red eyes, and stood up with all the threats of murder. I didn't have a choice.
(Enormous sound of explosion. Black. A moment of silence and stillness. Lights up on ANTIGONE: alone.)
ANTIGONE: With my bare hands I dug the dry earth and covered my lover's corpse with dirt and tears. The desert land is cruel to those who want to bury loved ones. My nails ripped from my fingers. I made an offering of my blood. Tadashi's grave is red. That was my last red. Shortly after two enormous explosions over Japan killed 200,000 people who shared my ancestors, Japanese Americans were released from their imprisonment in America—nowhere to go, nothing to return to, their freedom owed to the bloody results of those two bombs. But I was already gone by then. I died without seeing the other red. It belonged to a young girl in Hiroshima. Her skin was hanging from her skinny body in strips of red ribbons. She was trying to hold onto her red.
(She takes a long red ribbon out of her pocket. She holds the ribbon up vertically, and with a pair of scissors, cuts the ribbon in half. The bottom half falls to the floor. Lights down.)
ARABIAN NIGHTS
David Ives
Arabian Nights was commissioned by and premiered in the 2000 Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville (Jon Jory, Artistic Director). It was directed by Jon Jory; the set design was by Paul Owen; the lighting design was by Paul Werner; the sound design was by Martin R. Desjardins; and the costume design was by Kevin McLeod. The cast was as follows:
NORMAN: Will Bond
INTERPRETER: Ellen Lauren
FLORA: Gretchen Lee Krich
(Up right, a freestanding open doorway with a multicolored bead curtain. Center, a small, plain wooden table with a white cloth. On it: an ornament, a stone, a gold ring, and a figure of a frog.)
(At lights up, FLORA:—very ordinary—is at the table, dusting the objects with a feather duster.)
(Through the bead curtain comes the INTERPRETER:, in loose colorful robes and sandals. The INTERPRETER: may be played by a woman wearing a dark beard.)
(Bowing deeply and repeatedly, the INTERPRETER: leads in NORMAN:—utterly normal—who carries a suitcase.)
INTERPRETER: Right this way, sir, this way. The most beautiful shop in the world. All the wonders of the kingdom. For nothing! Nothing!
NORMAN: (to FLORA:) Hello.
INTERPRETER: Hail, fair maid! says he.
FLORA: (to NORMAN:, putting the feather duster away) Good morning.
INTERPRETER: All praise to the highest, says she.
NORMAN: DO you …speak any English?
INTERPRETER: Do you …speak any English?
FLORA: (She speaks perfect, unaccented English.) Yes, I speak some English.
INTERPRETER: Indeed, sir, I can stammer out a broken song of pitiful, insufficient words.
NORMAN: Ah-ha.
INTERPRETER: Ah-ha.
NORMAN: Well…
INTERPRETER: A deep hole in the ground.
NORMAN: I…
INTERPRETER: (Points to his eye.) The organ of vision.
NORMAN: Ummm …
INTERPRETER: Ummm …
NORMAN: Listen.
INTERPRETER: Do you hear something?
(INTERPRETER: and FLORA: listen for something.)
NORMAN: I'm sorry to rush in so late like this.
INTERPRETER: I'm sorry to rush in so late like this.
FLORA: No, please.
INTERPRETER: No, please.
NORMAN: But you see …
INTERPRETER: (Points to his butt.) But—(Points to FLORA:.)—you—(Does binoculars with his hands.)—see …
NORMAN:: (Looks at his watch.)
Damn …
INTERPRETER: (Produces an hourglass from among his robes.) How swiftly flow the sands of time!
NORMAN: I know this sounds crazy—
INTERPRETER: I know this sounds crazy—
NORMAN: I only have about ten minutes.
INTERPRETER: Soon the golden orb of heaven will cleave the house of the hedgehog.
NORMAN: I have a plane to catch.
INTERPRETER: I must clamber upon the flying corporate carpet and flap away from your kingdom.
NORMAN: Anyway, I want to find …
INTERPRETER: Anyway, I want to find …
FLORA: Yes?
INTERPRETER: Yes?
NORMAN: I guess you'd call it…
INTERPRETER: Something unparalleled! Something sublime!
NORMAN: A souvenir.
INTERPRETER: (You're kidding.) A souvenir…?!
NORMAN: Something to take with me.
INTERPRETER: A treasure!
FLORA: Any particular kind of thing?
INTERPRETER: Can the funicular hide the spring?
NORMAN: Excuse me?
INTERPRETER: Accuse me?
FLORA: How much did you want to spend?
INTERPRETER: How much did you want to spend?
NORMAN: It doesn't matter.
INTERPRETER: Let's haggle. I'm loaded!
FLORA: Is this for yourself?
INTERPRETER: Have you a mistress, a wife, a hareem?
NORMAN: No, this is for me.
INTERPRETER: Alas, a lad alone in all the world am I.
FLORA: Well…
INTERPRETER: A deep hole in the ground.
FLORA: I think I can help you.
INTERPRETER: Solitary sir, the maiden says, I look in your eyes and I see your soul shining there like a golden carp in an azure pool.
NORMAN: Really …?
INTERPRETER: Really Now, in this brief moment, in the midst of this mirage called life, here on this tiny square of soil on the whirling earth, I feel the two of us joined by a crystal thread, your soul to my soul to yours.
NORMAN: You do?
INTERPRETER: You do?
FLORA: I do.
INTERPRETER: She does.
NORMAN: You know, I've been up and down this street every day….
INTERPRETER: Day and night I have walked the bazaar….
NORMAN: I sure wish I'd seen this place sooner.
INTERPRETER: Only so that I might see you.
FLORA: I've noticed you walking by.
INTERPRETER: How I pined for you to enter as you passed.
NORMAN: You did?
INTERPRETER: She did. She asks your name.
NORMAN: My name is Norman.
INTERPRETER: My name is Sinbad!
NORMAN: I'm here on some business.
INTERPRETER: I am the merchant son of a great prince, exiled from my land.
FLORA: Is that so.
INTERPRETER: Her name is Izthatso.
FLORA: People call me Flora.
INTERPRETER: But people call me Flora.
FLORA: With an “F.”
INTERPRETER: With an “F.”
NORMAN: I…
INTERPRETER: The organ of vision.
NORMAN: (Looks at watch.) Damn it…
INTERPRETER: (Produces hourglass.) Damn it…
NORMAN: Y'know, Flora …
INTERPRETER: Y'know, Flora …
NORMAN: YOU shop and you shop …
INTERPRETER: We live our brief lives…
NORMAN: You never seem to find that special thing you're shopping for.
INTERPRETER: …each day awaiting the dawn that will give us purpose, bring us happiness.
FLORA: That's so true.
INTERPRETER: That's so true.
NORMAN: Maybe what I'm looking for is right here.
INTERPRETER: Perhaps my dawn has come.
FLORA: Shhh!
INTERPRETER: Shhh!
FLORA: I thought I heard my father.
INTERPRETER: My father may be listening!
FLORA: It's almost time for his tea.
INTERPRETER: If he sees me talking to you, he'll cut your throat!
NORMAN& INTERPRETER: (Simultaneous—as they pick up the suit case together.) Maybe I should be going …
FLORA: No—
INTERPRETER: No—
FLORA: He won't bother us.
INTERPRETER: Have mercy, good sir!
NORMAN: (Hefts suitcase.) I do have a plane to catch.
INTERPRETER: Take my suitcase.
(FLORA: takes the suitcase from him and sets it down.)
FLORA: There's plenty of time.
INTERPRETER: Keep your voice low.
FLORA: Shhh!
INTERPRETER: Shhh!
FLORA: I thought I heard him calling.
INTERPRETER: He's sharpening the blade.
(We hear the sound of a blade being sharpened.)
NORMAN: (cry of surprise)
INTERPRETER: (cry of surprise)
FLORA: He's watching old movies.
INTERPRETER: The old man is mad.
FLORA: Anyway, I'm sure I'll have something you'll like.
INTERPRETER: Act as if you're buying something.
NORMAN: What about these things right here?
INTERPRETER: What about these things right here?
FLORA: Maybe an ornament?
INTERPRETER: Can you conceive, prince, how lonely my life is?
FLORA: Or a stone?
INTERPRETER: It's as hard—and as cheap—as this stone.
FLORA: (Gestures left.) I have more in the back.
INTERPRETER: (Gestures left.) He keeps me locked in a tiny cell.
NORMAN: No. No.
INTERPRETER: Stay with me.
FLORA: Maybe …
INTERPRETER: What I long for …
FLORA: …a golden ring?
INTERPRETER: …is love.
FLORA: A figurine?
INTERPRETER: But my father has betrothed me to a man as ugly as this frog.
FLORA: Interested?
INTERPRETER: Would you marry this?
NORMAN: Not really.
INTERPRETER: Not really.
FLORA: I don't know what else I can show you.
INTERPRETER: I have nothing, sir. Nothing! Zip zero nada zilch!
NORMAN: My God, you're beautiful.
INTERPRETER: My God, you're beautiful.
FLORA: Excuse me?
INTERPRETER: Excuse me?
NORMAN: I'm sorry.
INTERPRETER: I'm sorry.
NORMAN: I don't usually say things like that.
INTERPRETER: I know I sound like a jerk.
NORMAN: Sometimes it's something so simple.
INTERPRETER: So complicated are the ways of kismet.
NORMAN: You walk into a shop….
INTERPRETER: I look at you….
NORMAN: …and everything's suddenly different, somehow.
INTERPRETER: …and my heart flutters inside me like a leaf of the perfumed gum tree at the scented bounce of bedspring.
FLORA: Really?
INTERPRETER: Really
NORMAN: Now in this brief moment …
INTERPRETER: Now in this brief moment …
NORMAN: On this tiny patch of ground on the whirling earth …
INTERPRETER: In the midst of this mirage called life …
NORMAN: I feel us joined by a crystal thread, your soul to my soul to yours.
INTERPRETER: Etcetera.
FLORA: You do?
INTERPRETER: You do?
NORMAN: I …
INTERPRETER: The organ of vision.
NORMAN: …do.
INTERPRETER: He does.
NORMAN: How can I leave, now that I've seen you, met you, heard you?
INTERPRETER: How can I get on a plane?
NORMAN: Now that fate has brought me to this bazaar?
INTERPRETER: It's so bizarre. But fate has decreed that we must part.
NORMAN: (Takes out an hourglass.) O cruel fate! How swiftly flow the sands of time!
INTERPRETER: (Looks at a watch.) Shit…!
NORMAN: The stars have decreed we must part.
INTERPRETER: Look, I really gotta go.
NORMAN: (Kisses FLORA:'s hand.) But I will return, O my florid queen!
INTERPRETER: Maybe I'll get back here sometime.
FLORA: I will wait for you, my Norman prince!
NORMAN: Izthatso.
FLORA: It is so. I will be yours and you will be mine and we will be each other's.
INTERPRETER: Maybe I'll have something you like.
NORMAN: Well…
INTERPRETER: A deep hole in the ground.
FLORA: Well…
INTERPRETER: With purest water at the bottom.
NORMAN: Salaam!
INTERPRETER: So long!
FLORA: Salaam!
INTERPRETER: So long! So long! So long!
NORMAN: Open, sesame!
(NORMAN: whirls out, followed by the INTERPRETER:.)
FLORA: (Sighs.) Oh, well. (She takes out the feather duster—and it's been changed into a large red rose.) Shazam!
(She starts to dust the objects with it. Blackout.)
CLASSYASS
Caleen Sinnette Jennings
Classyass premiered in Actors Theatre of Louisville's 26th Annual Humana Festival of New American Plays, March 3-April 7, 2002.
Timothy Douglas was dramaturg. Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj directed the following cast:
AMA: Jason Cornwell
BIGB: Nikki E. Walker
MILES: Robert Beitzel
CHARACTERS
AMA: Or Amadeus. Black college freshman.
BIGB: Or Belinda. Black woman, twenty, dressed like a street person.
MILES: White college senior and radio station manager.
SETTING: A small room that serves as a modest campus radio studio at Bellmore College. Ama speaks into the mic with a suave broadcaster's voice.
AMA: Okay you Bellmore boneheads, that was Tchaikovsky's “1812 Overture.”Bet those cannons busted a couple of you dozers. Perfect for 3:47 A.M. on a cold, rainy Thursday in finals week. It's the end of time at the end of the line. Study on, people. Bang out papers. Cram the facts. Justify that exorbitant tuition and make Bellmore College proud. I'M FEELING Y'ALL! Especially those of you studying for Calc 801 with Professor Cobb. Call me if you have a clue about question #3 on page 551. You're listening to Casual Classics, because you don't have to be uptight and white to love classical music. This is WBMR, the radio station of Bellmore College. Miles Morgan is your station manager. I'm Ama—Amadeus Waddlington, with you til 6 A.M. Guzzle that warm Red Bull and cold Maxwell House. Here's music to squeeze your brains by. It's Dvořák's “New World Symphony”comin'atcha. (He puts on the CD, grabs a beer and a huge textbook, and sprawls out on the floor. A bold knock interrupts him. He shouts.) Go to hell, Miles. I like “New World”! (Another knock.) Okay, okay. I'll play Beethoven's Symphony #1 next. Lots of strings, okay? (Persistent knocking.) Damn! (AMA strides to the door and opens it. BIGB strides in, carrying shopping bags and waving several faxes.)