 |
||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Until...
by
CUE: Lights up on full stage
(Empty stage save a podium stage left.
On it is a script and a bottle of water.)
(Enter our NARRATOR. Lights will dim
on the "main action" through the play, but lights
will always remain up on the NARRATOR.)
NARRATOR: (addressing the audience)
To begin this story with 'Once upon a time' would strip
it of its validity and probability. People automatically
associate those four words with fairy tales and children's
nursery rhymes. And yet it is those same tales in which
the general population stores its faith and puts its longing.
Those fables are the ones everyone really wants to see
happen in..."real life." It is for that reason
that the tale I weave for you now begins with...
(reading from the script) Once upon a
time, there was a girl of average importance. You might
have graduated from high school with her or seen her walking
her dog. She's not the particularly memorable type, but,
as in such cases, one day, she met a young man who struck her
fancy.
(enter BOY, holding two chairs. He
puts them both down, sits on one and offers the other to the
GIRL. She sits beside him.)
She found his sense of humor attractive.
(GIRL laughs…too loudly.)
He was attractive in the way only funny men
can be. He asked her name.
GIRL: Violet.
BOY: Ah, like the color.
VIOLET: (chuckling) I never thought
of it that way. I always thought of the flower.
NARRATOR: She wasn't the brightest bulb on
the tree. Violet and this young man, whose name was Ben,
got on rather well. They had some common interests and
things progressed. As is the way in these stories, he
fucked her silly.
(BEN looks at VIOLET as if to say,
"Well?" She appears hesitant. He pats his
lap in a friendly manner. She stands and straddles him
while he's on the chair. He stands, she wraps her legs
around his waist.)
NARRATOR: Violet decided this was love.
(moaning from VIOLET and BEN)
She had never been in love before,
(more moaning from VIOLET and BEN)
but clearly--
(waves hand broadly toward Violet and Ben)
--this was it.
(on "this," BEN leans VIOLET
backward and she looks toward the audience screaming,
"Jesus Christ!")
Despite Violet being in love, Ben was
not. Another month passed and he told her so.
(BEN and VIOLET have returned to the
chairs.)
BEN: I don't love you.
VIOLET: (staring blankly) I don't
understand.
BEN: (looks around the room with his
eyes only) Um…I don't love you.
VIOLET: Oh.
(Her face scrunches up and BEN stares at
her, thinking about how ugly she looks when she cries.)
NARRATOR: He stared at her, thinking
about how ugly she looked when she cried. Devastated, she
asked if they were still friends.
VIOLET: (sniffling) Are we still
friends?
(He nods.)
NARRATOR: At Ben's nod, Violet smiled
through her tears. There was still hope.
CUE: Lights dim CS as sets are moved
NARRATOR: A year passed and another
quickly on its heels. Things didn't change so much as
shift and by the end of those years, Ben and Violet were
together again.
CUE: Lights up on CS
(BEN and VIOLET are now on a sofa together,
not so much holding hands, but VIOLET'S hand is draped over
BEN'S.)
However, they weren't the same people.
Ben did, in fact, love Violet. He was older and
decided if there was any girl who would put up with all his
shit…
(BEN shoots the NARRATOR a dirty look.)
It would be Violet. And Violet was
nothing if not a little more shrewd about the situation.
The pair had been through their ups and downs and Violet
through her fair share of pain, but she finally had what she
wanted and she was going to keep a tight grip.
NARRATOR: Early on in their
relationship, Ben suggested that maybe it would be better if
Violet screwed some other people. Without him.
BEN: (looking at Violet) More
experience.
NARRATOR: He'd said. She told
him:
VIOLET: There's not anyone else I want.
NARRATOR: Which was true…at the
time.
But the idea dwelt in the back of her
head, festering and waiting until she met Richard.
(Enter RICHARD, exit BEN. RICHARD
takes his seat next to VIOLET.)
NARRATOR: They agreed on everything.
They both preferred cold Chinese food.
RICHARD: Cold chicken mei fun.
VIOLET: Wonton soup.
RICHARD: (excitedly) Yes.
NARRATOR: They both disliked any
variations of their first names.
VIOLET: (nods, laughing) I know!
I hate that!
(RICHARD nods.)
NARRATOR: They both hated beer.
(VIOLET covers up her face and groans,
shuddering.)
Violet wanted him. But she had Ben
and Richard was already taken. She tried not to think
about it when they were together. So many times, she'd
been close to saying something, close to reaching out to touch
his face.
(VIOLET leans her forehead against
RICHARD'S. They make eye contact. She moves back.)
But she resisted. She held firm.
She loved Ben…didn't she?
CUE: Lights dim CS
(Exit VIOLET. RICHARD moves to the
floor, his back against the couch.
CUE: Lights up CS on RICHARD.
(RICHARD stares forward. He's
watching a movie.)
(A knock at his door.)
RICHARD: Come in!
(VIOLET enters SR.)
VIOLET: (smiling) Hello.
(She ruffles his hair on her way past the
TV.)
Do you want anything?
NARRATOR: She yelled from the
kitchen.
RICHARD: (stares forward, but yells to her
direction) No, thanks.
(NARRATOR passes the bottled water to
VIOLET. She returns to the couch.)
VIOLET: So, (sips water) where's Marie?
NARRATOR: The girlfriend.
RICHARD: (indifferent) Out doing
chick stuff.
(VIOLET grins.)
VIOLET: You're funny.
RICHARD: Why's that?
VIOLET: She's chick stuff. But I'm
not.
RICHARD: That is weird, isn't it?
VIOLET: Yeah.
(She sits on the arm of the couch.
RICHARD pats the space in front of his lap.)
RICHARD: Sit here.
(She does. RICHARD puts his chin on
her shoulder and slides his arms around her midriff.
VIOLET closes her eyes tightly.)
Hard to watch the movie like that.
VIOLET: (eyes snap open) Yeah, sorry.
I'm just tired.
(She turns her head to face him and their
lips just barely meet. It's only a fraction of a second,
but the damage is done.)
VIOLET: (a whisper) Richard. We
can't.
RICHARD: We can…we just shouldn't.
(She tries to fight him off with just her
gaze.)
Tell me you don't want to and we
won't.
VIOLET: I can't even if I want to. I
love Ben.
(beat)
RICHARD: Okay.
