Origional script and characters by:
David B. Williams
Based upon the poetry by:
Nicole Nordeman
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NIGHT 1
Good
(Opens to MAN and WOMAN joining from opposite wings at center stage, grasp hands and embrace. Look at one another, beam. MAN gestures to WOMAN to dance downstage-center. She complies, the two dance close to one another, a sweet and innocent slow-dance that embodies the two’s contentment. She looks into his eyes. Startled, the two are pulled away from each other. They exit to the opposite alleys. DREAMER, who has been sitting upstage right gazing at the sky as the sun is setting, stands. She possesses an inner innocence, a light like that of a child.)
DREAMER. Day. Night… Mist… (inhales. Holds for a beat. Exhales). A breath… A moment then gone forever, with only an image, a sound, a word, that reminds us that it ever happened in the first place. So quickly and then… poof. (pause.) Do you hear it? That music. It’s but a whisper and yet, its presence is undeniable. (stands. Moves to center stage)I can hear them speak. But they can’t hear me. Even when I scream, not one looks up. (Pause.) But I can still hear them speak. That never changes. (a pause) Do you hear it now? (DREAMER tries to grasp at the receding light. To the fading light and music) No! Wait! Come back! Come back! The silence… is deafening! But here comes night. Oh, sun, do come back! I disappear in shadow. I am now prey to the phantoms of my mind’s many woes- a prison inescapable. (her voice continues to raise) How dare you? How could you? Don’t you understand? Don’t you see? In the darkness… you left me alone! (Pause) I’m alone.
(MAN and WOMAN appear from opposite wings and join in the center. They are dressed in tattered rags that are the color of the Earth. DREAMER walks about as she speaks. Neither acknowledges the other’s presence. The two join hands.)
DREAMER. But what is this? Figures in the darkness. Man. Woman. Bound with the chains of life and death. (pause) No, they can’t see me… I doubt they’ll ever see me again. Maybe if I speak loud enough, one day they might hear. (DREAMER exits SL. MAN and WOMAN break from one another slowly and stand downstage right and left, awaken from their rigid state, and gaze around the room, like frightened animals caught in a trap. MAN is first to regain his composure enough to speak.)
MAN.
If I could, I’d rewrite history.
I’d choose differently. If I could, I would.
I’d leave out the part where I broke Your heart,
In the garden’s shade; fix the mess I made.
If I could, I would.
WOMAN.
If I could, close my eyes and then
Dance around again... If I could, I would.
Be who you adored
Why did I need more?
When beauty was not trained
To hide behind my shame.
If I could, I would.
MAN and WOMAN.
Can you hear us cry?
Wishing we could turn back time
To feel your breath when branches move,
Take one more sunset walk with you.
Must each tomorrow hold
Such brokenness untold?
Can’t imagine how you could
See all of me and say it’s good.
MAN.
If I could, hold one memory
It would surely be
MAN and WOMAN.
How you walked with us.
WOMAN.
I’d go back in time
Untell my first lie
And let Love’s injury
Heal in spite of me.
If I could, I would.
MAN and WOMAN.
Can you hear us cry?
Wishing we could turn back time
To feel your breath when branches move
Take one more sunset walk with you.
Must each tomorrow hold
Such brokenness untold?
Can’t imagine how you could
See all of me and say it’s good.
MAN.
It is good
WOMAN.
It is good
MAN.
You still loved me more than I believed you could.
WOMAN.
Could there be something more?
MAN and WOMAN. (pause)
Will it ever be the way it was before?
(A shadow seems to pass over them and they shudder. Both exit to opposite alleyways. The night is ending.)
YOU ARE READING
Vita de Fracta (The Life of the Broken)
PoetryThe play blurs the line between reality and fantasist dreams as a young girl, known only as Dreamer, lives her life as an isolated observer; reflecting upon the people she watches during the day. Once night falls, however, she bends inwardly to her...
