Threnody

A Stage Play by Kimberlee

A One Act Play

Threnody

Characters: Two androgynous people. P1 can be male or female. P2 must be a female with short hair. Both are dressed in jeans and plain red or white tee-shirts. Both characters are between the ages of 20-50 and close in age. P1 wears makeup with dark lipstick while P2 is plain faced. P2 has a cigarette.

Setting: A kitchen table with two cups of steaming coffee and a plate of half eaten cookies in-between. There are bites taken out of each cookie. Lighting is set to be as natural as possible, reflecting mid-day.

Note: can be read as a dialogue or monologue

P1: I think I’m going to kill myself.

P2: I don’t understand why.

P1: Its simple, I’m depressed. My life is just one syllable after another. I am in utter loneliness and emptiness.

P2: That’s not fair. You have me and friends. How do you think they would feel if you were to just off yourself? How would your parents feel?

P1: My parents would relish in my death.

P2: Don’t say that.

P1: But it’s true. The other night I had the strangest dream. I was back at my childhood home, in the back yard precisely, but I had the oddest feeling. It was if the place was recognizable but unfamiliar. Do you know what I mean?

P2: Eh, sort of, but go on.

P1: Well, there was this very tall tree that stretched into the sky, taller than the house or any other tree in the surrounding area. And the whole sky was grey as if it was a very cloudy night-

P2: - I don’t see how this translates to your parents wanting you dead.

P1: Don’t interrupt. There wasn’t a star in the sky. Just this thin, long twisted tree. And on the top point there was a perched owl.

P2: An owl?

P1: Yes, that’s what I just said didn’t I? It was this dark brown owl. He was looking at me with a violent intensity as if he could read my soul. And my parents were there. My father gave me a spear and said, “get rid of it”. And so I went to aim this large spear and I shot it straight up! It almost reached the owl when it darted away, and right towards me as a matter of fact. The last thing I remember before I woke up was its claws heading for my eyes. I have never been so terrified in my life.

P2: I’m still confused. What has that to do with your parents or suicide for that matter.

P1: It’s a sign. I read it in a dream book once. An owl symbolizes an expansion in awareness or an awakening. It can also be an omen of death. I think it was trying to warn me of something.

P2: So you think that because you saw an owl in your dream, an owl that you tried to kill and in return reacted in self-defense, that it means that you should kill yourself.

P1: Well, sort of. It means that I am going to kill myself.

P2: And that your parents would be indifferent? Am I getting this right?

P1: That’s correct.

P2: That’s absurd! Horoscopes, palm readings, dreams- all this superstitious hocus pocus- it’s unreal. You’re not thinking logically. Dreams don’t have any alternative meaning. They aren’t special. They’re just brain events that happen when you sleep. It’s all one big hallucination. You can’t just look at a dream and say the next morning, oh I think it would be just splendid if I killed myself because that’s what I think the dream wants me to do! It doesn’t work like that, love.

P1: Just because YOU don’t believe in hocus pocus doesn’t mean that it’s not real. There is a lot of things people believe in that others doubt. Like religion. You’re always picking on God.

P2: I’m not picking on God, just his fan club. I don’t like organized religion because I believe that its delusional and aims to achieve control rather than spiritual awakening. And don’t change the subject. How did you think I was going to react when the person I care about says that they want to kill themselves? Am I supposed to be jolly? Even if your parents hated you with all their hearts, something I really do doubt, there are still some of us who care.

P1: You’re an atheist.

P2: I am not an atheist. I just don’t want to see you hurt yourself.

P1: You’re an atheist and you want to see me in pain.

P2: I DO NOT want to see you in pain. I want the opposite for you. I want you to be happy and to stop hurling that word around as if it’s an insult. I don’t think you even know what it means.

P1: If you’re not an atheist, then why are you always doubting God or my dreams? Why do you always put me down for introspecting? You claim to be this liberal but you’re so closed minded. You always tell me that I’m being illogical or delusional because I pray or believe in the power of divine miracles. It’s not the same as seeing the blessed mother in toast you know!

P2: I am not an atheist because I do not claim to know for certain if God does indeed exist or not. And for future arguments sake, I never claimed to be a theist either.

P1: Obviously…

P2: And don’t go saying that I am always doubting you. I just question. If you can give me evidence that your dreams determine your existence, with absolute unquestionable certainty, then yes, I would not doubt you. But until you can prove that, then I will always be on the fence. Especially when they spawn these ridiculous notions about suicide!

P1: Who ever said anything about suicide?

P2: You did! Just now you said, I think I’m going to kill myself.

P1: Yeah but it’s not the same as suicide, silly.

P2: Oh my God, how? Suicide is the act of taking your own life. Killing yourself is literally the same thing. Don’t start arguing with me over semantics again.

P1: No, in all seriousness it’s true. You see, I think of suicide as a thing spawned out of desperation or mental illness. I think of it as the last resort sort of option. When life has become so unbearable that you have no other choice. I am going to kill myself because I believe that it is in my fate to do so. We all die, pumpkin, and whether that is because I am hit by a bus in 20 years or hang myself tomorrow makes no difference! You see, it’s all according to plan. The stars have aligned and it’s my time to move on.

P2: You’re either insane or lying…or both. Wait a minute, you said earlier that it was because you were depressed. That a mental illness! You can’t have both.

P1: In a way I am depressed because I am unhappy. I do not mean it in a clinical sense of the term. Besides, how else was I supposed to get your attention? You never listen to my stories. You always call me crazy or some other insult. We never talk anymore!

P2: So you mean to tell me that this was all just an act? That you lied about being severely depressed because you wanted me to listen to your stupid f*****g dream!?

P1: Well, yeah. I mean you don’t really think I was going to kill myself did you?

P2: Of course I did! You, sadistic jerk! You’ve really done it this time, Annie. You’ve really fucked with me for the last time. How am I supposed to trust you when you’re toying with my emotions? You’ve done this before, like the time you pretended to be sick or said your mother was in the hospital.

P1: Yeah, but you only listen to me when I’m in pain. You’re a narcissist. Everything is always about you, even when I am down, you find the opportunity to insult me. Maybe if you took me out once in a while or asked me how my day is I wouldn’t have to tell such outrageous stories. I wouldn’t have to lie to my fiancé!

P2: You’re a sick person, you know that? I can’t deal with you anymore or any of this!

Starts to leave the room.

P1: No, Sam please don’t leave me. I love you.

P2: And yesterday you hated me, and tomorrow who knows what? This is the last time you push me, Annie.

P2 exits stage