Scenes for Small Actors: Chapter 1

SCENE OUT OF CONTEXT: Three Of Hearts

A place.
A bench faces the back of the stage.
The YOUNG WOMAN stands downstage, looking forward.
The changing light of several televisions flash on her sad face.
The YOUNG MAN enters and sits on the bench.
Suddenly, the lights stop.


YOUNG MAN
You’ll ruin your eyes.

YOUNG WOMAN
What color are yours?

YOUNG MAN
Eyes?

YOUNG WOMAN
Eyes.

YOUNG MAN
Blue. Green when I cry.

(Pause)

Yours?

YOUNG WOMAN
Green.

(Pause)

What makes you cry?

YOUNG MAN
Elton John. Papercuts. Goya. The Chinese.

(Pause)

I used to cry every time I took a bath. My brother told me that spiders lived in the drain and raised their spider families in the neighborhoods of the pipes.

(Pause)

I was horrified that I would drown the spider and all of her babies when I drained the tub, so I stayed in the bath until the water was cold. I would sit on top of the drain crying and shivering and refusing to leave until my mother made me.

YOUNG WOMAN
Did you repent?

YOUNG MAN
Every Sunday.

YOUNG WOMAN
May God help you to know your sins and trust in his mercy.

YOUNG MAN
In the Name of the Father…

YOUNG WOMAN
…and the Soup Can

YOUNG MAN
…and of the Low Interest Rate Loans

YOUNG WOMAN
Amen.

YOUNG MAN
Amen.

YOUNG WOMAN
And art thou riddeth of thy wickedness?

YOUNG MAN
I developeth an aversion to indoor plumbing.

(Pause)

After a while my mother got tired of me bathing with a garden hose, so she told me that the spiders would be washed to the sea where they would turn into octopuses.

(Pause)

Did you know that an octopus has three hearts?

(Pause)

I dream that spiders are much happier in the sea.

An abbreviated pause.
The YOUNG MAN looks at the Young Woman.
She is thinking about spiders.
She looks to her right.
She stands up and steps downstage.
She is waiting for something.

YOUNG MAN
What makes you cry?

YOUNG WOMAN
Genocide. Rilke. Forgetting things.

(Pause)

Not being an octopus.


The YOUNG WOMAN makes a little frame by putting her hands together.
She holds the little frame up to the sky.
She looks through it.
The YOUNG MAN notices what she is doing.
He smiles.

YOUNG MAN
What are you looking for?

She brings her hands down.
She looks at the Young Man.

YOUNG MAN
You’ll ruin your eyes.

YOUNG WOMAN
I miss you.

The lights go out.