Hera's Cement A Play in One-Act written by Susy Zelaya 1994 This play should be done as a farce with six actors who play nine roles. The stage set is stark, compact, relying on light to carry placement and timing. ~ the author.. Characters: Emily : A pregnant woman dressed in a hospital gown with bandages on her wrists. Man One Man Two } These men are dressed as Man Three janitors who are cleaning . Judge Doctor } Played by the three men. Voice of man Mrs. White } School Teachers Mrs. Murphy ______________________________________ Props: Broom, mop, rag, A large clock, a desk with chairs on both sides, a podium with flags on both sides, a free standing chalkboard, a large box of bananas, a gavel, a doll about the size of a three year old child, a feather boa, a baby's toy rattle.... ACT ONE. Scene One. A gigantic clock face , Back Center Stage; the audience hears a ticking throghout the play that becomes louder during key moments for maximum effect.. The three men dressed as janitors ENTER, they sweep, mop, and swab the clock face as they say their piece.... The men are meant to represent not only the cleansing of the mind but also, men who have committed violent crimes against women. They talk and laugh together and include the audience in their conversation... MAN ONE: (with broom): "My two friends and I have alot to brag about! All the times we met young ladies and fell for their sickening sweet talk are over..hahaha! What we loved to do with those women..putting it in and pulling it out (uses broom handle in the air to show this action) Hey! Ladies! It's not the sight of blood we long for, oh, nooo.. that's not we long to see, uh-uh, it's the SMELL! It's the scent of it that brings the thrills..am I correct?". MAN TWO: "You can say that - I liked it when they were all in the same room with a view - like my mother, and my sister, ...the smell of them...the blood was satiating...the blood? Or, perhaps I wanted the sound of them fading in my mind, fading, ...fading to eternalize...I enjoyed killing those nurses,(leans against the mop) (sigh), so young, sweet, tender..Ted had the most fun though! He had lots of fun! He had a cool car!". (cont.) MAN THREE: "Mac, Richard, whooaa...hahaha! I'll tell you what was really fun! Sweet Thangs by the dozen laid out in my car! - Easy! I plucked them right up out of the shopping mall! Delicious thangs, I had my way with them. They smelled like my mother's home cooking. They dressed like my girlfriend. I took them all to places they'd never gone before - new hieghts! Everyman wants to have lived the way I have..hahaha......". They all three laugh and continue cleaning; the clock is ticking loudly.. Spotlight on Emily as she enters/STAGE LEFT/ wiping sleep from her eyes...going near the desk with a chair on both sides... DIM / STAGE RIGHT EXIT. Scene Two. LIGHTS UP / DOCTOR ENTERS: CLOCK TICKS SOFTLY. DOCTOR: "Emily!, There you are. How are you feeling this morning? ". EMILY: "How am I feeling.. ha..they've put men on the moon but I've been sucked into a black hole!...(paces the floor in front of the desk where the doctor sits, shuffling papers and scibbling on a clipboard) I'll never get out of here, will I?.. They've locked the door and thrown away the key! Take my life- and use it, for what? I've been wasted!This is ridiculous... (cont.) ( plops down on the chair facing the doctor across the desk) Now, where is my mother? Where is my father? I'll tell you! They've got theirs left over from war after war! What's left for me? A nuclear power plant? What good does that do me? I don't like baseball- I don't eat sugar or meat, I've been sucked into a black hole! All I hear is queer this, queer that, nigger, spic, woman, bitch...lost opportunity, new houses, new cars, and beer drinking fat factory pigs with guns up the butt! Argument after argument that goes around in circles, LIES and more lies.... (Emily seems to calm down a bit, slouching in the chair) I got the stick! I got the bad end of the stick, that's what..and now, they've put Men on the Moon - oh, and I'm pregnant with god knows what - like, I didn't ask for this - the stick sure had alot of gooey poison on it.... ( she begins to rant again) You should see what they brought in here yesterday, a woman with her breast cut off, another woman who they plucked right out of her bath tub, wrapped in a sheet and it took two big guys to get her down the Hall of Justice; carried her in screaming....There's one down the hall plugged into the wall.You call this mental health care? (cont.) ...I've been sucked into a black hole. I'll be spit out into another black hole! Great! Is this what I get for being born into a World? Sucked into a Black Hole...". DOCTOR: " If you're through Emily, I would like to talk to you. I see here that you are a suicide risk. I'd like to talk to you and find out if I can help you,...now, if you answer my questions correctly, clearly, this will only take a moment.". EMILY: "(sneeringly, sarcastically) What could a middle aged, middle classed, white, ugly, bureacrat that you are do to help anyone? You've skimmed the fat off the poor people and the government has allied you with a gestapo nazi force to usurp theauthority of those of us who do not go willingly into your genocidal domminance plan and seek asylum! You've sucked me into a Black Hole, YOU, you, and your kind, your world war consciousness keeps on killing like the blue water you flush down the toilet with your monstrous reasons produced in your American Dream. You are nothing, nothing but a money grubbing pig with a legal right to imprison and murder me and that's all you ever will be. Your mother should have smothered you at birth.You're a drug dealer, a dope dispensary, and that's all you ever will be, aren't you? Take your own medicine, do you doctor? And, you enjoy "helping" me, don't you, doctor?". DOCTOR: "Why did you do it?". (cont.) EMILY: " To die.". DOCTOR: " Why is it you want to die?". EMILY: "I don't want to have children as long as Men Like You run the World.". DOCTOR: " Are you pregnant?". EMILY: "Yes, that's right.". DOCTOR: "I can't let you out of here until you want to live.". EMILY: "Then, why don't you die for me?". DOCTOR: " You could give your chid to an adoption agency; lots of couples want babies.". EMILY: " I don't want to have it.". DOCTOR: "You could give it someone .". EMILY: " I want an abortion.". DOCTOR: "You are too young to have an abortion; it's not legal.". (cont.) EMILY: "Then, I want to die.". DOCTOR: "Now, Emily, I can't help you if you keep saying that. I can't let you leave this hospital as long as you are a athreat to yourself and your unborn child.". EMILY: "I don't want to be pregnant! I don't want to be a mother! I don't want a child brought through me to suffer - comprende? I'll have to agree to give birth if you agree to eat it when it comes out! Otherwise, I intend to die! I would like a cigarette, too.". DOCTOR: ''You're too young to smoke, Emily. If you're caught smoking, you'll be locked in seclusion, restrained, and confined for three days.". EMILY: "So,.....if you decide that I want to live and have children, you'll let me out of this Snake Pit and I can go have a cigarette. You've got a compulsion problem in your practice, doctor. You want me to be what you want me to be, to be what you require. You want me to be like you? Is that correct?". DOCTOR: "We screen the mail, Emily.". (cont.) ...(Doctor shuffles paper and envelopes on his desk)..."We have these letters..Did you write these letters?". EMILY: (Surprised)..."Those are my letters...". DOCTOR: "Tell me who you wrote them to.". EMILY: "I wrote them to a MAN, he sent me flowers while I'm in this hospital...Dr. WHOEVER YOU ARE!... DR.NOSE!....What kind of doctor are you, anyway? A snake doctor.... You have about as much sense as a god damn snake! ( a beat )..Who died and made you King?...Who and what gives you the right to read my letters and tell me which way to go in this Black Hole?". The doctor looks dumbfounded as Emily asks: EMILY: "Give me my letters, please.". Then, she becomes irate.. standing and stomping her feet, slamming her fists on the table and getting in the doctor's face.. EMILY: "Give me my letters, you idiot!..How dare you tamper with the US Mail? As if you need to take anything from me..Why in hell did you take my letters? I realize you are holding me prisoner in this mental ward but you most certainly are not helping me. You are making me sick!". (cont.) DOCTOR: "Who are they written to?". EMILY: "I just told you. Are you deaf, Dr. Nose?" DOCTOR: "What exactly is his relationship to you?". EMILY: "I've told you...he sent me flowers; these are simple thank you notes...got it? Did you hear me, this time?". DOCTOR: "Do you think he will get you out of here?". EMILY: (laughing).."He's in jail! Can't you read? The address is to the prison state from the mental state. ...(points at the envelope) ..How many more idiotic questions from an idiot must I endure?". DOCTOR: "Why is he in jail, Emily?" EMILY: "Why are you asking me? Why don't you ask somebody who knows? Why don't you do something with your life without ruining mine? What is your problem? You think you have answers? Your questions are insane! Insane! As you are, obviously. ..Why don't you shoot yourself up with some of your pharmaceuticals? Or, better yet, why don't you hang yourself by that ridiculous tie knotted around your flimsy little throat? You're a no-neck monsteHUH? Why don't you act like a real man and die for your country?". (cont.) DOCTOR: "Who is the father?" EMILY: "Are you deaf? There is no father. There is no child. There is this hungry, old, balding, white middle class donkey sitting in front of me telling me what my life is supposed to be.". DOCTOR: "Emily, I need to know why you did this...Did you do it because the father is in jail?". EMILY: " Why don't you ask me something real...like, why does a rolling stone gather no moss? Or, if I use drugs, or, about my father? I slashed my wrists, I opened my viens to dye the mattress red, you idiot. Isn't that obvious/ I actually did after changing a diaper. Now, do you get it? Do you hear what I'm telling you? Do you understand my mind? Do you get it at all, Dr. Nose?.. Afterall, it's my life. I can dowhat I want -just like you, see....get off my cloud.".(Emily gets up and paces the floor to the slow ticking of the clock.). DOCTOR: "Whose diaper did you change?" EMILY: "A politician, a compromising employer, a puppeteer, a shadow in my eyes - I didn't ask for his identity, I took the money after I did the dirty job! I took the money and gave myself an edge on life, I opened up a vein after I spent all the money...What else do you want to know? What else can I possibly tell you?...There is nothing more." (cont.) Scene Three: Spotlight on clock face / Doctor, EXIT RIGHT. Emily walks slowly to STAGE LEFT where the teacher, Mrs. White sits in a chair in front of a chalkboard that reads "Thou shalt not kill" one hundred times, but Mrs. White stares blankly ahead. Emily walks all around her back and forth trying to figure out why the teacher does not respond. EMILY: "Mrs. White?...Is that you?...What are you doing here?" (waves her hand in front of Mrs. White's face but she doesn't respond.) "Do you remember me? Hello?..I can't believe it...this is the person who taught me to read and write....I had a job, delivering the Star to her back door. On cold days, she invited me in for some warmth and saomething to drink and eat. What happened? Are you all right?".... As she speaks, trying to get some response from Mrs. White, Mrs. Murphy ENTERS / STAGE RIGHT, carrying a box of banana and pracically bubbling over with excitement... (cont.) MISS MURPHY: "You have both missed the boat! Both of you! Languishing in this state tsk, tsk, tsk, I should know, why I spent many years in the military! That was before I became a teacher, saluting the flag everyday of my life.... Oh, but the images, the images, the images. Lowest paying jobs in the world. Oh. You know what they say the image is the first to go..."(she drops the box of bananas at their feet). EMILY: "Miss Murphy? Wha-aa-at! What are you doing here?". MISS MURPHY: "I've brought you some math problems. Here, count these bananas - backwards!" (she hands a bunch to Emily) "Count them~ AAAAAh! Precious logic, ladies!". Miss Murphy EXITS / STAGE LEFT - Emily breaks off a banana from the bunch and peels it, takes a bite, chews, and breaks one off for Mrs. White, who does not respond. FADE TO BLACK. (a beat.) SPOTLIGHT ON CENTER STAGE / Clock Face/ a loud ticking...FADE TO BLACK. Scene Four. SPOTLIGHT, STAGE RIGHT / we find Man Two dressed as a Judge in a black robe, behind the podium between the two flags banging a gavel ( above Emily) Emily, holding a bunch of bananas, crosses over to in front of the judge. (cont.) JUDGE: " The High Court of the Sacred Icons will now come to Order! Order, I say! Shut up and sit down! If you've come here to plead not guilty, ha! You are in the wrong place1 I'll have none of this contempt for the flag! ALL the little criminals here will be put away as long as they are homosexual, female, black, hispanic, drug addicted, or prostitutes living on the dole. I've got Big Houses for all thelittle crooks here! Ignorance is no excuse for your behavior!... First Case - oh, it's you. Emily, what is this mess you've made young lady?." EMILY: "o,...OOOh, YESSS, Your Honor! What about these lies you've been feeding me?... I've been SUCKED into Black Holes!... I'm starving! - And I'm not the Only One! What is this stuff? You ARE feeding me lies....How many have you put to the death with this stuff?". JUDGE: (yelling and banging the gavel, interrupting Emily..) "I'll not have any of this! You have NOTHING to gain! What are you doing in my Court? Bailiff! Who is your lawyer, Emily?... I recommend that you have psychiatric care! Hahahaha!..- Just try to get out of that! Your crimes against my laws hold you here. You should be proud to eat the oyster of life. I know I don't feel guilty about it - now, (hrrmp) get, get out! Get out of here, right now!". (cont.) EMILY; "You slime bucket.. you scourge on the face of humanity, you fundmentalist BIGOT! You go and prosecute the hell out of me, go ahead - and, while your're at it, knock yourself out with that hammer you son of a...". The Judge just pounds away and hollers... FADE TO BLACK. SPOTLIGHT on clock face which is ticking loudly. Scene Five. The clock ticks softly. Man Three enters / STAGE LEFT. He is dressed as a Priest or an archbishop, a man of the cloth. He sits at the desk and wries a letter, a prerecorded voice over reads as he writes.... As he reads the letter, EMILY ENTERS / STAGE RIGHT still wearing the hospital gown and banages but also the red feather boa and teaching her child (the doll) to walk by holing her arms up and slowly going in circles and making mommy noises of encouragement... MAN THREE: "Dear Emily, How are you today? Today is another cold day in hell, the fog, cold weather; these cement walls are holding the cold and seem to be closing in on me. The warden won't hear my case.. you know I'm in here for a long time and I have a feeling I will never see you again. I don't think I can take it. I am sorry if I have hurt you, Emily, but you were so precious to me. I could not hold myself back from you. If you see our Mother, tell her I wanted her to be proud of me. Instead, she's going to be sorry...They've got me on the row...sincerely, Brother Jack.". (cont.) FADE OUT STAGE RIGHT> SPOTLIGHT ON EMILY>> CLOCK GETS LOUDER>>> EMILY: "Men! The scoundrel who brought my RUIN! I'll beat him at his own game.. serves him right. Only, as my victim, in these trying times, I'll rattle him I'll give him what he wants!". BLACKOUT. EMILY EXITS. Clock ticks loud, then, slowly bring lights up and the three are cleaning the Clock as ticking fades out simultaneously with lights. The End.