Get up

The stage is entirely black, and a spotlight lands on one chair. The chair is from a three-piece suite, it’s dark red velvet and rather square. A boy, JayeL, walks smartly to his seat, sits down and looks at the ground. The audience in silence, no light but on him and not a single sound. Until…..

He looks up, his elbows on his knees and hands clasped, and says:

JayeL

“Every night before I fall asleep, I have to go somewhere. I try to contextualise it, to make sense of it, but to be honest all that happens is I appear on a beach, sitting at a table. It’s hot and humid, cloudy and windy. I’m probably wearing a shirt and shorts, but no shoes. I’m looking out at the sea and every time I’m there a barefoot girl walks towards me. She’s wearing an orange bikini and has a white sarong wrapped around her waist. She sits down and looks at me.”

Another spotlight reveals the girl sat at a small round silver table to JayeL’s right. As he describes her actions, she carries them out using the audience as her focus.

JayeL

“I keep looking out at the sea. She looks behind her at the sea. She doesn’t understand, she wants my attention. And I want her too. I want to tell her how much I love her, how much I really want to move my hands across the table to hold hers. But I keep them on my side of the table. She circles water on the table with her finger, holding up her head with her other thin, flat hand. Her hair is blown back by the wind and she asks me what’s wrong. Why am I still thinking? Why can’t you stop staring at the sea? Why are you so involved in the tiny minutiae of life and not taken with what you need to do? Why can’t anything sweep you off your feet? Why can’t you become passionate? Why are you so satisfied with a small life?”

JayeL puts his head in his hands. The spotlights switch off and a new softer, brighter light encompasses the stage. A young man in his early twenties walks out on the stage. Joe is a more animated version of JayeL, more fiery with large hand gestures and an insatiable desire to broadcast his own voice to the back of the room, because he likes the sound of it. Joe is camp and excitable, walking from side to side behind the chair in which JayeL is sat with his head down.

He walks over to the girl. She’s looking at her nails, oblivious to Joe because he’s too loud and annoying. She wants JayeL. Joe looks her up and down, dragging it out because he’s trying to get a laugh. He’s fully aware of the audience’s presence, if they weren’t there than neither would he. He crouches down behind the girl and takes it all in.

Joe

“Oh to be that chair. Look at that arse!! So…….so fucking……..”

He grabs her rear with both hands

“Oh yes! Firm, yet pliable. Soft, yet taut.”

She turns around, and gives him a look the audience doesn’t see. He immediately releases his grip and stands up to attention.

Joe

“Why does he always do that? He’s sitting there, she’s sitting here and she sitting on that………that arse. And he’d rather hold his fat head in his hands and stare at his fucking…….what the hell is he looking at?”

Joe walks around to JayeL and crouches beside him, trying to catch his attention and then looking at where his gaze is directed towards.

Joe

“Yes, that’s much more worth your while. Ignore the goddess beside you and keep staring at the intricate, non-descript patterns of the chipboard. Stare at the stitches in your shoes. I know you’re happy like that, staring at those things. I know you’re listening to the sounds I make more than my words. I know you’re happy like this. But for fuck’s sake!!! How can you just ignore the obvious? How can you think she’s not worthy of your attention?”

JayeL lifts his head and stares at Joe. Joe is taken aback and stands up again.

Joe

“And her breasts! They’re only hinting at the beauty that lies below, the way they heave [Joe crouches beside the Girl and looks intently at her breasts] ever….so….slightly upwards as she breathes…….”

He stops talking and watches her breathe, she remains oblivious.

“……and fall beneath onto her belly with such a beautiful fold. And her thighs, her knees, her legs, her…..ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME????”

Joe springs to his feet and goes back over to JayeL, who’s head is still down

Joe

“Why can’t you see, Joseph? Why can’t you do this? Why can’t you appreciate what beauty you have? You have so much going for you and [he raises his voice] YOU’D RATHER STARE AT THE FLOOR AND FEEL SORRY FOR YOURSELF!!!!”

JayeL looks at Joe in shock. The lights go down.

The End

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