Within
Within
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: Two adjoining bathrooms, A mirror frame splits the stage perpendicular to the audience. Two sinks face each other through the mirror. Stall doors are hung like melting clocks in the background.
Notation: @X:XX references a time signature in the song
Characters:
Girl: A freshman girl with tears painted down her face
Guy: A Junior guy with tears painted up his face
Song: The lyrics to the song Within, By Daft Punk
[Lights up, they are dim and dirty. A moment of silence].
[Within By Daft Punk begins to play]
[A girl enters stage left and faces the audience]
[A guy enters stage right and faces the audience]
[They turn to the mirror and walk slowly towards it.]
[They grip the sink and breath heavily taking in their features]
@0:43 The light breaks from the dim dirty shadows to show two different emotional states on either side of the stage. Neither positive.
@0:53 Girl recoils back from the mirror and falls to the floor, Guy doubles down and grits his teeth staring deeper into the glass. This holds
Song: There are so many things that I don’t understand
[Guy’s smile becomes pained as he turns his face into his downstage shoulder, shame.]
Song: There’s a whirlwind in me that I can not explain
[guy rolls head slowly spinning to sitting, perched on his legs, facing the audience]
[Girl slowly spins up and faces the mirror]
Song: Many rooms to explore but the doors look the same
[Guy looks off stage left as girl approaches the mirror]
Song: I am lost I can’t even remember my name
[Girl recoils from mirror, guy pulls himself from the floor. Both run to face the audience mirrored on the stage]
Song: Hiding for sometime, looking for someone, I need to know now, Please tell me who I am
[ They dance in mirrored ballet, Back and forth. In and out. And then grasp their head and roatate]
Song: Hiding for sometime, looking for someone, I need to know now, Please tell me who I am
[ They run Up stage, away from center stage, down stage, and then to center stage facing each other in the mirror. ]
@1:52.5 Lights shift to blur the two halves of the stage. Both grab the mirror frame and look closer into the mirror
Song: There are so many things that I don’t understand
[Guy pulls away, sharing his own struggles, the girl is pulled partly through the mirror wishing to follow, guy returns]
Song: there’s a whirlwind in me that I cannot explain
[Girl pulls away, sharing her own struggles, the guy is pulled partly through the mirror wishing to help, but unable. The girl returns]
Song: Many rooms to explore but the doors look the same
[ They press hands against each other through the mirror pane, and slowly lean into it, breaking at the echo of the song]
Song: I am lost I can’t even remember my name
[ they walk downstage and then together, grasping each other and rotating to switch sides of the stage]
Song: Hiding for sometime, looking for someone, I need to know now, Please tell me who I am (first and second)
[ They repeat the moves from before, but on their new sides of the stage]
Song: Hiding for sometime, looking for someone, I need to know now, Please tell me who I am (third)
[ They break form and grab each others head as you would someone you held for a kiss, holding the other this way at arms length. They rotate slowly back to their sides of the stage. They dance slowly up wanting to part]
Song: Hiding for sometime, looking for someone, I need to know now, Please tell me who I am (fourth)
[looking at each other they smile knowing something has changed, and whipe the tears from each others face.]
[they both walk back to their respective bathrooms, looking through the mirror fondly over their shoulder as they walk offstage. Lights fade slowly to black]
End