Contemplation
Contemplation
By Daniel Brothers
For my brother Robby,
“I left a steady plane for worlds of uncertainty
I miss the sureness of my feet, but god…
...what wonders there are to see”
Setting: A neighborhood street, a kitchen with a phone in it, and a representation of the power of intrusive thoughts
Characters:
Voice: Someone who speaks
Person: Someone who physically exists on the stage. Capable of laughing.
[the lights come up on a model sized house. The light is on in the kitchen and the sounds of someone using a kitchen can be heard as if through a wall. A phone rings at similar volume and you watch the light go on in a different room of the house. The phone stops ringing and the light goes off leaving just the kitchen light. The sound of a pan dropping. A person enters the stage]
Voice: I was surprise when I heard that voice, dropped my pasta all over the floor. I wasn’t expecting the call, but i wasn’t surprised either. They always were persistent.
[ the person approaches the house and looms over it, slowly circling and lazily touching the parts of the hosue]
Voice: The conversation was tense but not all together painful. It was deceptively tame. I could feel him creeping back into my good graces as he asked for his old shirts back, wasn’t even mad when i said I had given them all away. We went to say goodbye, and I. I head my voice before i knew I was speaking
[the person leans down to put their face right beside the little glowing room, looking in. Giving a kiss as the voice says]
Voice: The air from the open window gave me chills, the kind I hadn’t felt since I was first kissed by them.They creeped down my spine as I told them I love you. Too late to stop myself, force of habit. Acting without the desire to act. My body doing what the mind did not want to do. Who is in charge of my own body? Me, or someone else? Someone inside me puppeting the parts. Someone from outside who got in
[the person begins to pull the house apart and wearing it. As simple as lifting the roof off and sitting inside, or as complex as pulling each room off and putting them on like pieces of a costume. ]
Voice: I don’t feel safe by myself anymore. Their eyes are on my back. Their words are in my mouth. I can taste them. I hope I can move away. I hope I can move away one day and leave the flavor of their words behind with the person who is living inside of my body. Witness protection can’t hide you from what’s inside yourself.
[the person laughs inside of the house. The lights fade to black]