The Moan Grenade

1

The Moan Grenade by Thomas Gabriele Busillo

Cast of Characters* Scott Greer………………………………………….……sales manager / amateur actor James Ijames……………………………………………..bus driver Ben Dibble………………………………………………harmless lunatic Jeff Coon………………………………………………..rich hangglider / enemy agent *A note on the naming of the characters: Two of the characters are named for Scott Greer and James Ijames, the outstanding actors who played the lead roles in the Arden theater’s 2013 production of Endgame. The other 2 characters are named for two other outstanding actors with long ties to the Arden - Ben Dibble (the greatest Batboy ever) and Jeff Coon (who the author’s girlfriend has been threatening to leave him for going on a decade now). Since this play will never be produced, the author felt it would benefit the reader to have the actors who in a ideal world would play the characters in mind as the play is read.

Also, since I’m fessing up to things, the title of the play is an anagram of “Another Endgame.”

TIME: The play takes place simultaneously with Samuel Beckett’s Endgame.

SETTING: At the top of an abandoned black metal lighthouse in obvious disrepair.

Where there would be a lantern is hung a sheet with a large circle crudely painted on it. A ladder leads up to it. Three characters sit underneath it chair on a very large widows walk with a railing, sit on a lawn chair, a stool and a folding chair. Scattered about are cans of paint, piles of clothes, and various boxes of unknown contents, although one is a case of Jack Daniels (James and Ben are sitting in chairs playing what appears to be some variation of rock/scissors/paper. Scott is to the right of them leaning over railing.)

JAMES Fossils.

BEN

2 Neanderthals.

JAMES Fossils.

BEN Neanderthals.

JAMES Every gene of your body.

BEN Every gene of your body.

SCOTT (dramatically over-emoting) So as to not be it. Not to be the rain or but so affected like that.

JAMES (looks over shoulder at Scott, annoyed) What are you doing?

SCOTT Hmmm...?

JAMES What are you doing?

SCOTT: (somewhat offended) Practicing soliloquies. I figured with all this down time – JAMES (gets up from chair and walks over to Scott) Soliloquies for what?

3

SCOTT For whenever they're needed.

JAMES I've lived thirty-eight years and I've never found myself in need of a soliloquy.

SCOTT These are not the usual times. Am I right or am I right? You never know when a good soliloquy may just be your ticket out. Look, I know the rules were we're to know as little about our strike team mates as possible, in case, you know (mimes an explosion with his hands) but before - you know – out there, down there (points downward) I was actor.

JAMES Really, an actor?

SCOTT Yes. More or less. I mean - for a living (over-emoting, with palm of hand on forehead) toiling for my daily bread. (in normal voice) I'm the sales manager at a very, very successful Honda dealership. A five-time President's Award winner, I'll have you know. But in here (points to heart, which is blocked by the cellphone he is wearing around his neck at the end of a lanyard. He moves the cellphone, then touches his actual chest) in here. I'm an actor.

JAMES Been in anything I'd know. Broadway. Movies. TV. SCOTT Well, I'm not quite there yet. I but I will be…maybe….it’s a long shot to make it as an actor in normal times let alone…ypu know (points out to rest of the world) I've done community theatre. I have done a few films, but they’re very specialized.

4

JAMES So you work in porn?

SCOTT (taken aback) Never! Not to say that there’s anything wrong with it, although, granted, there are certain sub-genres that do seem to be pushing it just a tad (he brays like a horse) The films I’m in they're films, well, more like videos really that the general public wouldn't typically see. But nevertheless require you to have some degree of acting chops.

In fact, I’d argue you need to be more on your toes in these pieces given the audience.

JAMES What were they called?

SCOTT Well, I played "Mr. Arm Around the Shoulder" in "Stopping Sexual Harassment in the Workplace Before it Starts" JAMES Can't say I've heard of it.

SCOTT I also played "Panicked Shift Supervisor" in "What Everyone Should Know about Firee Extinguishers" (James shakes head) "Victim #2" in "HazMat Training for First-Responders"? That was a very challenging roll. I was in the makeup chair for hours. What we actors go through.

JAMES If you’re an actor, then what’s the plot?

SCOTT I’m sorry?

JAMES An actor has to know the plot. So what’s the plot. To this?

5

SCOTT Well, what you said is not entirely true. An actor need not know the plot. I mean in theory, one could be in an improve troupe where one has the basic theme to work with but then must JAMES I think we have the basic theme established. So again, what's the plot? Humor me DeNiro.

SCOTT First, I see myself more as a young Orsen Welles. Only with broader range. But I do appreciate the compliment. Look friend, I'm not privy to any more than you. Yes I'm the team leader and I get to have this gizmo around my neck But really truth be told I know as much as you do. But, heck you want to know, so “spoiler alert” - this will either end very badly or very well.

JAMES Very badly or very well? That’s quite an specific answer. Well, are you leaning one way or the other.

SCOTT Well, I mean, that is to say, I think we know how this is going to end, I'm just saying the your characterization, of the end. It's meaning. Whether you're charging into it like a cannon-ball or being dragged into it like a stray dog on the choke-chain of dogcatcher that would depend on your philosophy. Your outlook on life. This world. What lies beyond. Let me ask you, are you a glass half full or glass half-empty kind of person?

JAMES I’m a bus driver. I like my glass clear so I can know what’s coming at me and whether or not I need to avoid it or can just drive through or over it and in the case of the latter whether or not what it can just be left as it is or requires medical attention.

SCOTT Ah. Pardon me, I feel a soliloquy that needs to get out. (clears throat and over-emotes) There is a moment when the tide prepares for what comes after the clues the future retrieving I am apt to think, can be a tad polarizing and even frightening characters can

6 see their forms sometimes keep in mind that many threads of the plot are all about the symptoms of being uncategorized.

JAMES Had to get out?

SCOTT It’s like really bad gas. You just need to kind of (rubs hands up from stomach, through lungs, then out away from body) …you know.

JAMES Uh huh. So where are we now?

SCOTT The very beginning waiting for an act without words? The very end waiting for words for an act?

BEN (gets off of chair and comes over to the two of them) I couldn’t help but overhearing. The very beginning? Now would that be before the fall of the angels? Or after?

JAMES (shakes head in disgust) Again with the angels.

(James passes by Ben and takes a seat) SCOTT You look like a somewhat rational fellow.

BEN (brightening up) That’s not a word generally associated with me, but if you insist.

SCOTT Well, perhaps I should have place more emphasis on the somewhat. In either case,

7 (puts hands on Ben’s shoulder and leads him to railing) come look around you. Do we look like we are in the time before or the time after angels have fallen?

(Ben looks out over the railings of the lighthouse out into the distance then scanning down) Take your time. All you need.

(Ben continues to look. Scott seems to grow impatient) I assure you, this is not a trick question.

BEN There certainly does seem to be quite a bit of smoke and fire.

SCOTT (claps hands and exclaims) Smoke and fire! Yes! Yes! BEN I do have a knack for observation.

SCOTT So, there you have it. Smoke and fire. There certainly does seem to be quite a bit of smoke and fire. Now, you're halfway home. No more - more than that, your in the homestretch. You’re rounding third. You’re inches from the goaline. Let’s set if you can put the biscuit in the basket. Now do you think a preponderance of smoke and fire would indicate the pristine, heavenly, generally, shall we say smoke and fire-free version of what we imagine the time before the so-called fall of the angels to be or given the vast amount of misery, ruin, devastation we have had for millennia even before recent events and then adding in the misery, ruin, devastation of recent events, where would you place you money – before the fall or after.

BEN Oh, I don’t gamble. Fr. Finnegan says that’s one of the sinful ways.

(Scott’s shoulder’s slump down. He points to a bottle of Jack Daniels. Motions of James to throw it to him. He downs half of it.)

SCOTT (gives Ben a friendly punch to the shoulder) I’m really glad to have you on the team.

8

BEN (taking it as a compliment) Why thank you.

(Scott holds whiskey bottle toward Ben, then pauses).

SCOTT I don’t know why I’m even bothering to ask, but - you don’t do you?

BEN Oh, I don’t drink. Fr. Finnegan says that’s not only one of the sinful ways, but can lead to even more sinful ways.

JAMES Like gambling.

BEN Why you’re right! You’re a Catholic?

JAMES I was raised in a Jehovah’s Witness household. (pulls out a fresh bottle of Jack Daniels out of a case) But then I ran into some sinful ways, and they became habits. (he and Scott laugh) BEN (pointing to cellphone) The men who gave you that, are you saying they are or are not angels then?

SCOTT I’m not sure I said either, but I will now. The men on the other end of this are no angels in more ways that one let me assure you of that. (cellphone goes off) SCOTT Speak of the devil.

9

BEN (frightened) Is that who we’re mixed up with?

SCOTT It’s just an expression. (looks at cellphone readout, somewhat puzzled) JAMES What now?

SCOTT They want it orange.

JAMES We just made it yellow.

SCOTT What can I say friend? These are fast-moving times. They wanted it yellow then. They want it orange now. The have their reasons. (to Ben) You, my young friend of temperance, climb up there (points to ladder leading to painted sheet) and change it to orange.

BEN But I did it last time. It’s not my turn.?

SCOTT Oh, it’s your turn.

BEN How is it my turn when I did that last one?

SCOTT Because it’s whoever’s turn it is whose closet to the can of paint. You were closet to yellow. Now you’re the one closest to orange.

10

BEN That’s not a really turn, that’s more like proximity.

JAMES There’s no law that says turns can’t be based on proximity.

SCOTT There’s no law that says anything! (claps hands) There’s only unfolding action and we are a part of it and action is what we need. Haste!

Many lives may be at stake.

(Scott sits down with his whiskey bottle. Toasts James as Ben goes to the cans of paint. Ben puts on a white painters jumpsuit and cap, climbs a ladder with a can of orange paint and begins to paint the sheet orange. He continues painting during the next section of dialogue.)

JAMES (mocking Scott in an imitation of Scott’s voice) Many lives may be at stake.

SCOTT Excuse me?

JAMES (same mocking tone) Many lives may be at stake. Few lives may be at stake. Anywhere from four to four billion lives may be at stake. And let’s not forget the kittens and puppies. (back to normal voice) What do we even know at this point? (points to cellphone around Scott’s neck) Who even gave that to you?

SCOTT As I indicated before, these are people you do not want to mess with. They make the Russian Mob look like the current state of the Italian mob, if you know what I mean. This came from a highly reliable source. Highly reliable and I mean big cheese reliable. With strict instructions to follow the instructions. It hasn’t failed us yet has it?

JAMES

11 Yet. SCOTT We all took an oath.

JAMES I said a few words once and now look where I am. High and – SCOTT (raising bottle of whiskey) At least not dry.

SCOTT Look around you. This doesn’t phase me and this shouldn’t phase you. We’re involved in big things. We’re in on the plan. You could be out there - down there - and not up here.

You say you only uttered words, but many a man’s neck has been saved by its ability to produce words - the right words at the right time to the right people in the right circumstances. That’s what drives fate.... words are actions. This is destiny.

JAMES There really is no plan is there? This is all one of those improvisational theatre pieces.

SCOTT Oh there’s a plan. There's more than I tell you. There's more than I can’t tell you I can tell you which you don't know which I don't know. (sitting back) You really are one of those glass half-empty characters.

JAMES I told you before I’m a I want a clear glass I can see through type of character. And it’s served me well so far. (takes another swig) What have we?

SCOTT We’ve still got the world. We’ve still got the moments to fill. I know, yes, there’s a great temptation to look around and feel you've reached the end, that it’s all a game, and the pieces are about to be scattered to the floor left to be swept up, boxed, put away, or worse gather dust. But it continues. We continue.

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JAMES We continue along with our suffering.

SCOTT We're all suffering. There are going to be glitches. There’s going to be devastation. but this is how things are worked out, tweaked, sometimes first on an individual level, sometimes on a collective level that forces individual change, adaptation. But then over time, you’ve got it nailed down JAMES What’s you’re idea of time?

SCOTT Years, centuries, millennia. The point is what’s broken is being fixed. Yes, things are broken, but they are improving. Our great ancestors, they wriggled in the ooze of the primordial pond, they crawled out of the swamp, they dragged themselves to land and flopped around. That’s suffering. Suffering is progress. Do we miss the mark? Yes. Violently. The point isn’t being comfortable. The point is being part of the story, the continuing story, even when it looks like the book is ending, it’s only the chapter. Who knows where were are? The table of contents. The prologue. The author’s note. The acknowledgment? The appendices?

BEN (Is finished painting and has climbed down ladder. He begins to take off painters outfit) We all had ours removed.

SCOTT (to James) Should I take this?

JAMES I would greatly prefer it if you would.

SCOTT Fine, but that’s one that you owe me. (to Ben) Who all had what all removed?

BEN

13 Our appendices. We had them removed. When we were only eight.

SCOTT (looks him over slowly) We? Is there a conjoined twin I am missing?

BEN Oh, fraternal triplets. Everything hit at the same time. The doctor said we don't even really use them. It's some type of anacondaism.

SCOTT Ah yes. The human appendix. A charming “anacondaism”. Some would say that in some cases the brain – in some mind you, not all – is also a charming “anacondaism” BEN What would you think with?

SCOTT Yes. That’s does seem to be the question on the table at the moment.

(James sees something in the distance. Tracking it with his eyes he moves up to the rail. The others follow. The grow more and more excited and their reactions indicate that whatever it is coming closer. When it is almost on top of them Scott cries out.)

SCOTT Holy mother of Jesus! Get down, get down! Crash formation! (suddenly, Jeff Coon crashes into the top the lighthouse while piloting a hang-glider. The other three characters are speechless and approach him warily. James lifts up the back of his shirt to reveal a gun seen by the audience, but Scott motions to him to wait before drawing it.)

SCOTT Good god man! Where did you come from?

JEFF

14 (Looking around. Puts up finger to the wind.

Inspects wrecked hang-glider. Mimes various calculation. The director is encouraged to have the actor milk this for as long a duration as he/she sees fit.)

From over there.

JAMES (skeptically) And now the cavalry has arrived.

JEFF What?

BEN Are you some type of wayward angel?

JEFF A what?

SCOTT (very seriously) Are you a counter-element?

JEFF A what?

SCOTT A counter-element sent to infiltrate us – to delay us from our mission?

JAMES He is wearing a uniform.

BEN And he does have a helmet.

(Stops to think) Angels do not have helmets.

(Thinks some more).

But soldiers do!

15

SCOTT We were warned! We were warned. There would be false prophets!

JEFF I’m not a prophet. I’m a psychiatrist.

SCOTT (angrily) Seize him!

(Ben and James grab him) JEFF Stop! Stop! I’ll give you anything you want. Anything. Name it.

JAMES We’d like a way out that includes a soft landing.

BEN We’d like a way out that includes a soft landing in heaven. A good spot up there. a comfy chair by the fire. With tea and a good book…read to us by angels of course.

SCOTT Can you give us that? Mr. Deus ex Machina? Hmmm...Mr. human bird? Mr. well it’s the end of everything, the shit has hit the fan, so why not do a little hang-gliding. Can you give us that? A way out? A way to heaven? A path to truth?

JAMES At this point indoor plumbing would do nicely.

BEN And a rotisserie chicken would not be unwelcome. I’m getting tired of beans.

SCOTT Well, can you give us anything?

16

JEFF I can’t give you that. But I what I can give you is money. I’m rich.

SCOTT (feigning surprise) Oh, you’re rich! (to the others) Did you hear that, we have a rich man with us. Oh lord or whatever (he starts to bless himself...and halfway through the sign of the cross gives a dismissive wave/shrug) oh how bountiful you are. In our darkest hours....ff all things ...To have sent us a rich man with, of all things, money! Money!

JAMES I bet you drive a fancy car, don’t you?

JEFF Well, it’s not that fancy. It’s just a BMW SCOTT A rich man who drives a BMW. Lord. Lord. Lord. (blesses himself halfway with same dismissive gesture) How you do work in such mysterious ways.

BEN If I may ask, what series?

JEFF (warily) A seven series.

SCOTT A seven series? Did you hear that?

JAMES Truly impressive. Let me guess, it’s black.

17

JEFF Yes. SCOTT Let us regale thee with adoration. Worship formation!

(All three characters get down on there knees and bows head to the floor and kiss his feet) JEFF Really, it’s nothing...

SCOTT (after the three have gotten up) Oh I do not think it is nothing. Oh no, not nothing.

JAMES It is something.

BEN That is what not nothing is. Something.

SCOTT That or a vacuum. So, Herr Doctor Hang Glider what is it you think ails us?

JEFF Us? SCOTT Us. (pointing out over the railing to the world) Everything. Everything that’s left. What’s left us in this state we are in? Did we all love our mother’s too much? Did we breast-feed a little too long? Were we potty-trained too early? Too late? Is our present state some kind of unconscious wish being fulfilled? Is it that we wish to crawl back, back, back up inside our mothers womb? Is that what this group hysteria, mania and violence are about?

JEFF I don’t know.

SCOTT

18 (pretends to see something on the ground 100 feet from the assumed base of the lighthouse) Did you say that you drove a black BMW seven series?

JEFF Yes. SCOTT Why look over there? (points to down) See right there. I think it’s on fire.

JEFF No! I just paid five-hundred dollars to have it detailed!

(Jeff moves to railing and look over. SCOTT nods to other two. They throw him off) SCOTT Oh, that was a tree! My mistake. (to others) Well, there’s one less rich man in what’s left of the world. (pointed to hang glider remnants) Get that out of here too.

(They throw hang glider remnants from the top of lighthouse. Ben looks at the helmet and when the others aren’t looking stuffs it behind some boxes).

JAMES What next?

SCOTT We wait.

JAMES For what?

SCOTT For one moment to succeed another.

19 (cell phone alarm goes off) SCOTT See. One moment always succeeds another. (looks down at the cellphone) We are to be commended.

JAMES Commended?

SCOTT For our quick dispatch of a certain problem. (to James) You're not one for improvisation are you friend? No. You're the kind, you want it all laid out in advance. You want a fixed route. Right turn onto Maple and then stopping every block to let off a passenger.

JAMES If there is no route, no set route that you can know in advance, what is the purpose of the bus? Who's going to get on a bus when they have no idea where it's going?

SCOTT And yet you wake up every day.

JAMES Where's that bottle?

SCOTT I‘ve seen worse. Understand friend, the chaos and turbulence we are now experiencing are that of conservation. the big conversation. We are its words. We are it’s grunts. We are it’s half-sighs. it’s huff and puffs at the top of a hill. Soliloquy! (assumes dramatic persona) Skip the year! No one cares about the ways we act look distant see ourselves as abundant similarities forms of which have had likeness not one of us but many The Word the other half a normal life with problems some things relaxed far more than would be well think again with the differences in the sounds the shown similarities all multiple branches of good people.

BEN

20 The good people like in the Christmas cease-fire?

SCOTT (gives a scowl, but continues) Eden can't help crying the ratio by which we enjoy exhaustion. We're glad it's not just us, though, and that there's plenty more too, there's dancing again, there's plenty more to it.

Why are we supposed to be surprised about the fall from grace again wrapped up with a question incomplete. (cellphone goes off) Damn it! I was on a roll! Hold on. New instructions coming in.

(James maneuvers himself on the other side of Ben so he will not be near the cans of paint) SCOTT They want the color changed.

JAMES Let me guess - red perhaps?

SCOTT It says “moose mouse” (hits the cell phone as if to correct it) BEN Moose mouse?

JAMES Are you sure?

SCOTT (looks worried) Moose mouse?

JAMES If it was “spring glimmer” or “seashore sunrise” I could help you. Those are my bathroom colors. But I do not recall seeing any moose mouse in the racks at Lowes.

21 BEN Can you spell it out?

SCOTT (as if talking to a baby, then getting angry) They want us to change the color to moose mouse which is a color of questionable hue, so questionable to be unknown to us at this time!

BEN No. I mean, the letters.

SCOTT (worried) M. O. O. S. E. Space. M. O. U. S. S. E. JAMES There’s your problem. It’s moose mousse, not moose mouse.

SCOTT What is a mousse?

BEN: A woodland creature, similar to an elk – SCOTT (angrily) No. Not moose. Mousse. One “O” two “S”’s.

BEN: Ah. The dessert. Generally a type of whipped, fluffy, creamy pudding.

JAMES Soliloquy. Alas, chocolate mocha mousse. I knew it well. A desert of infinite deliciousness.

SCOTT Stipulated. Mousse is delicious. Mousse is whipped creamy goodness. But what color is it?

22

BEN It really depends on what type of mousse. You have your Chocolate mousse. You have you salmon mousse. You have your SCOTT (angrily) We have moose – that’s M.O.O.S.E – mousee. What is the color of moose mousse?

(Ben and James look at each other then say together) BEN & JAMES A brown.

SCOTT Do we even have brown?

(James nudges to Ben to investigate. Ben looks over cans of paint) BEN No. We have green, blue, yellow, orange and red.

SCOTT Does anyone know how to make brown out of some combination of those? (turn to James) Do you?

JAMES Out of white, yellow, green, orange and red? Don’t look at me expecting Mark Rothko. I drive a bus.

SCOTT We have no time. Let me think (puts hand to head) We’ll have to make doo. (as an aside to audience) That’s with two O’s, and I’m afraid that where you think this is going, oh, it’s going there alright.

23 (back to others) I have a plan.

JAMES You seem to always do.

SCOTT (holds hands to instestines) Actually, I've been a little shall we say "irregular" lately. But that will all be explained in the plan. Huddle Formation!

(They huddle. At one point Ben and James recoil, but Scott draws them in. They determine something by all throwing their hands as if playing rock/paper/scissors. It’s obvious that Scott has lost. However, he waves his hands and points to his intestines and shakes his head. They throw again and Ben is chosen. Ben sheepishly takes a can of paint and goes behind the lighthouse where the audience cannot see him.)

SCOTT Nice fellow really.

JAMES As lunatics go, I’d say I’d agree.

(Some length of time goes by. Scott and James fidget and look at their watches) SCOTT In case the situation did not make itself abundantly clear to you, this is no time to be reading the sports page.

(Ben bounds out proudly. Holding can up. Scott gives him an enthusiastic thumbs up, but starts to recoil, as does James, when he starts to bring it a little too close.)

SCOTT Up there with that.

24 (BEN climbs the ladder to the sheet. He attempts to use the brush on what is in the can, but the substance will not stick to the brush.)

BEN It won’t stick to the brush. What should I do?

SCOTT (to audience) Look, I know if there’s a hell, I’ve already got my ticket punched, but I’ll admit, this may be pushing it a little too far even for me. (to Ben) Do you like monkeys?

BEN Like in the jungle monkeys?

JAMES (to Scott, waving arms) As opposed to the kind you’d find?

SCOTT I want you to imagine you are a monkey. An angry monkey. I want you to do what monkeys do when they are very, very angry. When they are very, very angry they…um…

BEN (happily using hands) Like this?

SCOTT Yes! That’s it exactly! You make an excellent angry monkey.

BEN I’ve actually always wanted to do this. I’m a big fan of Fluxus art.

JAMES Of course he is. (another cellphone message comes in) SCOTT Silence!

25 (Looks worried as he reads message. He moves to sit in one of the chairs, visibly shaken) JAMES What is it?

SCOTT (to Ben) You can stop. Come down.

JAMES What is it?

BEN: Perhaps you can break it down into good new and bad news?

SCOTT: Well, the (sarcastically w/ airquotes) good news, ne, the great news is that we won’t be spending another night up here.

BEN Thank god. I’m so sick of beans.

JAMES And the bad news?

SCOTT (looks at him and nods. JAMES sits down) So it’s time.

SCOTT So it’s time.

BEN So it’s time?

SCOTT

26 So it’s time. (sadly) Soliloquy. We think we can touch every corner of the world. Be in all places at once.... (angrily) FUCK! (Composes himself, then says with a commanding presence) Like we practiced. Our best time ever. No mistakes. I want us up and going in under 2 minutes.

(The three characters take explosives out of the various sacks and bags lying around and wire the lighthouse. There is a timer visible to the audience set to 5 minutes that begins to tick down.)

SCOTT There’s still time for the finale before (nods to the explosives) you know. (all three comes to the front of the lighthouse railing and lean on it looking out into audience) Group soliloquy!

JAMES Clear the board, the end is nigh.

SCOTT Clearly bored, the end as night.

BEN There's got to be a morning after?

JAMES They paved Paradise and put up a new Paradise, but this time it was all luxury condos with underground parking and two floors of retail, including a Jimmy Choo.

SCOTT Like a bird in a fryer. Like a trunk borne on thin white tires. I have tripped in my waves to the sea.

27

JAMES now the waves strike but they are too SCOTT no longer walking BEN what comes after they JAMES who are the ones BEN where there is a place that we know SCOTT by the first civilization finished up JAMES last night following through BEN the epilogue SCOTT so a similar directive was given JAMES somewhere between the real BEN and the excluded from this SCOTT or chewing the words of uncertain meaning

28

JAMES we link to something BEN the obsessive SCOTT the early JAMES what comes after forgetting BEN when fair and but idea SCOTT relating sounds to everywhere JAMES I sees in these What I’ve been BEN our before SCOTT I could only question JAMES I wouldn’t return that judgment BEN chagrin

29 SCOTT survival JAMES ground work BEN all SCOTT possibly JAMES fluent in what breaks BEN were in you in my velocity SCOTT I and who were relating to light JAMES certain structures for silence BEN things by breaks SCOTT as possibility or afterthoughts JAMES what life there SCOTT now after, what changes

30

BEN what changes JAMES what changes SCOTT is I BEN is I JAMES is I SCOTT ruling that recovery BEN filling the underscores JAMES you get to torpor SCOTT you get corporeal BEN you get to the figuring slip JAMES what works are SCOTT

31 possibly elements known BEN a modulation JAMES isolated SCOTT parts together BEN in sections JAMES that tried certain SCOTT among sound then is found remitting music BEN that which needs its absence JAMES as that then surrounding SCOTT that's the stuff I’d say JAMES act BEN sound

32

SCOTT work JAMES build BEN look about SCOTT I answer I JAMES what could ask BEN as nothing SCOTT but stasis JAMES one breath BEN of inception to what playground SCOTT I’m lightly JAMES stately BEN

33 off detail SCOTT how I spiral JAMES ripple in expression BEN a while SCOTT often or interplay JAMES composed BEN in the obsessive SCOTT in outbursting JAMES long long now I moved from surprise BEN the changes interpreting SCOTT the drenched wants JAMES it’s when

34

BEN it’s always for SCOTT solitude JAMES stories (Lights start to fade. The actors voices get softer and softer with the darkness.)

BEN it's almost our life reciting the morning to a mirror SCOTT it’s I too if goodnight JAMES think for breath to breathe BEN breathe up always acts of secrecy SCOTT how something to solve JAMES with a kind of cold talking BEN what of I in and out of I SCOTT confronting

35

JAMES have a world BEN among them and us SCOTT and love teach us delight (by this time the stage is pitch black except for the timer, which when reaching zero, itself turns black. At this moment, the audience should expect a thundering explosion, but one does not occur, in keeping w/ one of Scott’s very first lines in the play “You never know when a good soliloquy may just be your ticket out.”)

THE END