I am writing 28 plays in 28 days and my prompt was to write about a dream and I played with two dreams I had back to back in 2011 and I called it The Sea Wall and the Bungalow:
THE SEA WALL AND THE BUNGALOW
SCENE ONE – THE SEA WALL
A concrete barrier with a hand rail holds back a stormy winter sea.
TEN WHITE MEN in drab suits holding briefcases stand as if they are waiting to board the first class carriage of the train to London. An eleventh person, a YOUNG WOMAN, not white, joins them. Her clothes are brightly colored. She has no briefcase. The sea – or her view of it -is projected on to the back wall of the stage, over and on the MEN and WOMAN. The swells are the same color as the sky. The sky goes from grey to white, swirling unnaturally. There is a flash of a black moon, as if it was eclipsed, then the blackness is dispersed as if by a prism. A monochromatic rainbow. Only the woman notices. She is filled with terror. She eyes the men carefully but none of them pay attention to her or particularly to the sky. They cannot see what she sees. Far off a tsunami approaches. It comes swiftly. The WOMAN grabs the hand rail waiting to be drowned. The MEN do not react. They are not hit; instead they are in and under the wave. Above their heads is a chaos of swirling foam but at their depth it is calm. As the foam dissipates, the WOMAN is shocked to see a dolphin army. They are swimming in formation. They wear bandoliers and rifles. They are swimming as if they are marching. They radiate furious aggression and it terrifies the WOMAN. As the dolphins keep coming, the WOMAN watches the MEN for a reaction. They cannot see.
SCENE TWO – THE BUNGALOW
A detached middle class house. The front is an American farmhouse in Kansas not unlike Dorothy’s. A bright beautiful white picket fence glows. The back is a Welsh bungalow with a bricked patio and a superbly beautiful garden with roses. Sunshine and birdsong.
The WOMAN enters at the picket fence, in love with the day. This is the best she has ever felt in her life. On the patio, initially unseen by WOMAN, a middle-aged Italian WIDOW, in her too-small best black dress, is watching a giant Burmese mountain dog. The DOG is unfathomably beautiful and attentively waiting. One of the MEN from the sea wall enters from the opposite side as the WOMAN. They don’t see each other. He walks to the patio. She is watching the birds delightedly. The MAN enters the Patio The DOG knocks him over and sits on him very joyfully. The man’s briefcase falls and spills open with loads of blank papers. The fall doesn’t hurt him. It’s a theatre fall. The dog sits on top of him. The man struggles in protest. It is futile, but he is persistent. Not uncomic. Sometimes it seems he is getting the upper hand.
The WIDOW watches sardonically. She walks over to MAN and DOG with purpose and then suddenly changes her mind and returns to the patio table. She pours herself a refill of Champagne. She eyes her beautiful diamond ring. She looks back at the dog and tries to summon courage but instead collapses in her seat. She immediately starts yogic breathing exercises. By this time the MAN has changed tactics to yelling. He does so dispassionately, like he is rebooting his computer and he needs to make noise to do so. Still it is an alarming sound. The WOMAN is drawn away from the idyllic front of the house by the sound and enters at the patio table.
WOMAN
We have to help him.
WIDOW
We have to help the dog.
WOMAN
We have to get the dog off him.
WIDOW
No. We have to get on him with the dog. He’ll definitely yell louder.
WIDOW pours WOMAN some Champagne. The yelling continues.
WIDOW
I have to. I have to.
WOMAN
He is suffering.
WIDOW
Is he though? Take a look.
The WOMAN obliges joyfully. She practically skips over to him. The yelling makes her wince. She cannot help but pat the DOG. She collects the papers.
WOMAN
What are these?
WIDOW
It’s kind of like a case of identity theft. Those are the things made of paper that steal our light. Sovereigns are things made of paper. Governments and courts and corporations and churches. Things made to serve us that now we serve. In exchange for money. You hold in your hands the greatest of all fiction, the fiction of the corporate person. Our earth is destroyed by this fiction. We all serve corporations. But corporations should serve us. Laws should serve us. All must serve the dog for the dog is all life. The dog is you and me. The dog is the life of the planet. He’s trying to shrink the man down to the right size. But I have to help him to make it work.
WOMAN
Why you?
WIDOW
Because I’m a privileged white lady. Those papers have been good to me compared to most people. But life! Think what the suffragettes did for us. I have done too little.(Suddenly exploding) So much work. It’s too much work. But you are here now watching.
WIDOW walks over and sits on the man. He shrinks into a TODDLER. She sits him in a chair and begins to teach him.
WOMAN
Capital and love must flow. They must flow freely and not be damned. Money and identity and data – they are the sparks of our lives. They must flow safely and freely. Justice must flow with them. You must make a mighty river that serves the light of life. The light of the planet is supreme.
The DOG nuzzles the TODDLER lovingly.
WOMAN
He is – what is he?
WIDOW
Everything made of paper. He’s all the governments. He’s all the religions and banks and corporations. They all need to be brought up well or they will —
WOMAN
That’s why he didn’t see the dolphins coming.
WIDOW
Only humans bear witness to these dolphin wars. He is not human. He can’t feel what is coming.
WOMAN
I’ll leave you to it.
WIDOW
Yeah, well you’re going to have to take over.
WOMAN I can’t wait.
As WOMAN exits, WIDOW continues her lecture:
WIDOW
(to the TODDLER) We need you honey. We need governments and laws and churches and trade. You can do that. But you have to look after the dog.
Great job, Rachel! Look forward to seeing what happens for the rest of February. 🙂
Thanks Sarah
Thank you!!1