BARRIERS A Long One Act Play by JOHN MONTELEONE CONTACT: e-mail: writing@johnmonteleone.com PO Box 2723 Sag Harbor, NY 11963 Copyright 1997 - present by John Monteleone All Rights Reserved Registered with WGAE IMPORTANT NOTE REGARDING PRODUCTIONS STUDENT CLASS PROJECTS If this is for a student class project you may use this text or sections of it free of charge but I want to know that you're doing it for my resume and would love a video tape of the production, and/or quality rehearsals. PRODUCTIONS OF ANY KIND OR LEVEL You may read and use this text-based script for considering work but if you want to produce my work as a student, amateur or professional production you must purchase scripts from me online and pay royalties per performance. __________________________________ CHARACTERS: Joe Eagle A cop, mid forties. Joe Snake A man, mid twenties. TIME: The present SET: A prison. Bare stage, black floor, a metal worn desk, some shit on it, a chair at an angle behind the desk, an old wooden chair center. Three cinder block walls on all three sides of the stage, enclosing them in. Upstage wall has a window with thick prison bars in it. Nothing else. The stage is black, endlessness in all directions above and beyond the walls. Through the lighting, there is a sense is of confinement; a cave-like room. The shadows of bars running over the stage area at a sharp angle can be seen and intensify where indicated in the script. The pre-set is a single light on the single wooden chair, center stage. Pre-set lights fade to black. Sharp, fast music, running together in meshing violent sounds fill the theatre rising to a shrill pitch, then abruptly end. Two men are heard off stage arguing. Lights up fast. Eagle enters, an undercover cop, pony tail, graying, short beard, dungarees, white shirt, black vest, shoulder holster and gun. He pulls Snake by his hand cuffs that are locked in front of him. EAGLE Make yourself at home. I'll get the shit. Snake wears a white, sleeveless tee shirt, and prison pants. His face is unshaven. SNAKE Please take the cuffs off, you promised. EAGLE Got to frisk you first, routine. SNAKE Go ahead. Eagle frisks him. EAGLE Call me Eagle. SNAKE Why not. EAGLE Your name's Snake, that right? SNAKE Nickname. EAGLE Appropriate name for a murderer... SNAKE I'm innocent. EAGLE No shit? SNAKE No fucking shit. EAGLE Don't fucking curse, I'm Catholic. SNAKE I'm a recovering Catholic, myself. Eagle finishes frisking him. EAGLE O.k., so you tell me about it. Everything from start to finish an' maybe the Govenor'll (if he's not constipated in the morning), 'll save ya from cookin'. Eagle takes the cuffs and throws them on the desk. EAGLE You know what a gun can do to a face? SNAKE No, what? EAGLE Same thing a pair of hands can do to a neck, snap it so hard it breaks it in two like you did six years ago in a park. Snake looks at him. EAGLE No tricks. No games. Like a block of metal ice here. You know the rap. You killed her, convicted by an All American, genuine jury, for six years in the slammer blab blab your innocent, (Yuk yuk throw the doggy another bone) now it's fryin' time, your ass is gonna burn. My friends downstairs ask me to do a favor an' get a confession outta you jus' for the fun of it, (you know how it is, get bored sittin' here all day long dealin' with corporate rapists, clergy sodomists, parents who boil babies, an' what not, like a sewer filled with perverts clawin' at the shit to identify themselves), so let's make it easy on me, o.k., I'm good boy, your bad boy, like that. Confess. Sign here, we all go home to ice cream and sitcoms. SNAKE I'm innocent. EAGLE (laughs) I'm in no mood for games, O.k? Hot, tired, gettin' old, the fabric of my love is like brillo, I want answers in writing. SNAKE What answers? EAGLE Answers? Answers to the crime. Answers that'll put her to rest, an'll put your soul to sleep. SNAKE I'm innocent. EAGLE You wanna pretend? O.k, so we'll pretend like this never happened, like the juice won't pop your eyes outta your face, is that what you want? SNAKE Yes. EAGLE You hearin' me? SNAKE Quite well. EAGLE Details. What happened? Answers. SNAKE Answers that'll rest your mind, fry me, and pay your way to Florida when you're through with this routine called a job, right? EAGLE South Carolina, Got a nice piece of property there... SNAKE ...I don't want to be electrocuted just so you can relax. Eagle moves in close to his face, Snake turns away. He talks to Snake's face. EAGLE Listen, I'm cruel (an' I wasn't always bad), ya know? It's in my nature. Jus' like you (what you did), only I got America behind me... SNAKE I'm telling my lawyer about this. EAGLE (backing off) About what? SNAKE Your bad breath... EAGLE Garlic bread booby. Answers or I breathe on ya all night long... SNAKE I'd rather get electrocuted. EAGLE A sense of killer's humor (I got nothin' better to...), look I want to hear it come outta your mouth (yak yak yak), the truth and nothing but the godamned truth so help you God, o.k.? O.K? SNAKE What? EAGLE You did it. Say it to me. SNAKE (shouts) I object your honor. Leading the witness. (deep voice) Overruled. Repeat the question please. EAGLE Son of... SNAKE The sun... Eagle moves to smack him, but stops himself. Snake laughs. SNAKE (shouts) Objection, objection, abusing the witness. (deep voice) Overruled. Please rephrase the violence. They look at each other. EAGLE O.k., all right.... I'm... you do that for me, I'll act nice to you. Be your friend. I'll talk to you on the way to the electric chair. Deal? Eagle pulls out his gun and plays with it. EAGLE Been as nice as I'm gonna be with you... Pause. SNAKE My mother, she died last year and I loved her. I never had a father. She was inside of my heart. I could hear her crying fifty miles away as her life left her body. You care about that, sir? EAGLE Not when it happened to you. SNAKE And you're a saint? EAGLE I'm no saint, but I don't kill young girls. SNAKE Who do you kill? EAGLE Punk's like you who ask me stupid questions. SNAKE Then you're assuming I'm guilty. EAGLE (laughs in disgust) I assume you're a fuckin' bullshit artist... I never understand it, what makes people do what you did. Unfuckinbelievable. SNAKE You ever read about World War One and Two and the Korean War, Vietnam War, Civil War, Revolutionary War..? EAGLE . ..'fuckinbelievable... SNAKE Well, I agree with you, I never understood it either. But there are reasons, reasons you, and all like you, sir, don't want to know. It's easier to belt me not a confession so you can go home to the evening news. EAGLE Worked Bed Sty, worked Harlem, worked the lower east end of New York's behind, I'm still (and I don't know how I got this far) fuckin' baffled.... SNAKE You are your tribe, sir. EAGLE JESUS H...Can you believe this mouth. Like 'em allllllllllll yabadabadoodoo... SNAKE So, you say to yourself and your little tribe here, that you're all o.k., think your system, it's indifference and hatred and your fear isn't part of crime? How can you separate yourselves so easily from me? EAGLE (laughs) Gotta be kiddin' me kid? (laughs) Logic of a reptile... SNAKE We're all guilty. EAGLE Enough... SNAKE We participate in a world where crime exists? Think about it? EAGLE Not worth it... SNAKE Cost too much? Pause. SNAKE We act ... together. Pause. SNAKE We are each others cause and result. EAGLE Each other's pain in the balls. SNAKE We create it and then pretend it's not there. EAGLE Hot air... SNAKE You work for the good boy machine? EAGLE No... The bad boys nightmare an' you got caught booby... SNAKE (in one breath) The victims fade away into the sea, wronged by the illusions of righteous, wealthy, comfortable people, paying you, to stop the passion of humanity running off the edge and smacking into rainbows that shatter our dreams like razor sharp glass. EAGLE (laughing) Like you. Shatter... (electric chair sound) ZZZZ ZZZZZZZ.... An' good-bye... Let's get on with this huh... Enough thinkin'... Pause. SNAKE (Pause) We place a lot of dignity on our self deceit. Pause. EAGLE Read that in a book ..? SNAKE No, I lived it. EAGLE You're a criminal... SNAKE Aren't we all? EAGLE Not me. SNAKE Isn't ignorance of understanding, a crime? EAGLE Here we go... SNAKE Isn't having a prison, a crime? EAGLE Like I said... SNAKE Isn't the option of crime, a crime? EAGLE Why not? SNAKE Isn't this, you and me here in this cement and metal room a crime? That we have to relate like this? EAGLE Gotta blame somethin'. SNAKE Whatever's outside that creates this, is a crime. EAGLE The climate now? SNAKE Our lives, the bloodshed history of our world... EAGLE The past? SNAKE ...that we have no choice to enter into, is a crime. EAGLE Birth? A sperm? A gene? SNAKE ...it's passed down to us through mistrusting eyes and fear. EAGLE Ya parents fault? SNAKE ...a world that is in every moment involved in some act of crime and rationalizing the acts as they are committed... EAGLE What's a crime, fella, is that I have to sit here and listen to this crapola outta your filthy mouth! That's life imprisonment for me. SNAKE ...Right... while others capitalize on the terror in television broadcasts and "the justice employment departments" of this great big consuming whore house, and on every movie screen across the land, sir! We all want to catch the bad boys in us, and put it behind the bars of conformity. EAGLE The t.v's fault, the movies for Chrissakes? Who's next, God? SNAKE Your attitude. EAGLE My attitude? Jesus H... Look, do me a favor (here I go askin' favors from the slime again)... SNAKE ...I'm a human being. EAGLE ...You're an animal. SNAKE ...So are you... EAGLE ...I'm no animal you fuckin' twisted pervert. I'm a human being. SNAKE That's what I said. EAGLE Don't fuck with my head. SNAKE ...You gonna smack me and call me violent, sir? EAGLE No. SNAKE It was largely circumstantial evidence ... EAGLE You were seen running from the scene... SNAKE ...Not clearly. EAGLE ...Your fingerprints were all over her face and neck. SNAKE ...We were lovers. Pause. Eagle is flustered. He tries to speak but can't. EAGLE You ... and... you were not... SNAKE We were teenage, Summer lovers, and we had made love in the park the night of the murder? EAGLE LIAR! SNAKE What? They stare at one another. SNAKE The jury was scared by the crime, they wanted to go home, not sit there and hear about violence, and have to look in my eyes. They were real eyes, not a movie, not a broadcast, real live eyes and they had to look into reality and they couldn't. Everyone was trying to be the image of justice, and no one could see me. It was all like that. Except my lawyer who spent more time on the phone with his press agent than... EAGLE ...they plea bargained... stamped the books they... SNAKE ...got it over with. EAGLE ...Shit... Eagle slams his head into the desk fed up as Snake looks away, disgusted, remembering. SNAKE ...They take ya fingerprints... EAGLE (to himself incredulously) ...Ya make love for Chrissakes... SNAKE ...photo front... EAGLE ...nine months later... SNAKE ...and side... EAGLE ...smack... SNAKE ...other side... EAGLE ...a miracle screams... SNAKE ...no smile... EAGLE ...begin to grow... SNAKE ...look mean... EAGLE ...ya sacrifice... SNAKE ...act the part... EAGLE ...pray to God... SNAKE ...take the picture... EAGLE ...pain and joy... SNAKE ...hand you greens... EAGLE ...growin' up... SNAKE ...take your stuff... EAGLE ...kisses and discipline... SNAKE ...walk you through the zoo... EAGLE ...an' in the prime of life... SNAKE ...the door slams shut... EAGLE ...die on the way... SNAKE ...shut them stiff... EAGLE ...one kills... SNAKE ...in a cell... EAGLE ..the other gets murdered... SNAKE (screams to Eagle) ...I'm not a criminal! EAGLE ...Bullshit you're an... SNAKE ...American... EAGLE ...animal... SNAKE ...vicious... EAGLE ...Moral... SNAKE ...cruel... EAGLE ...human... SNAKE ...violently ugly ... EAGLE ...being... SNAKE ...desperate and lonely ... EAGLE ...an upstanding citizen of the .. SNAKE ...who's got a lifetime of abuse behind ... EAGLE ...I go to work, pay the tax... SNAKE ...sells crack ten past childhood ... EAGLE ...I raised my kids ... SNAKE ...father's drunk with self hatred an' splits ... EAGLE ...support the economy... SNAKE ...mom's devastated screws around ... EAGLE ...try to live a decent life... SNAKE ...put a lion in a cage and ... EAGLE ...think up here... SNAKE ...try to balance all of that out into your illusion of safety ...see how it runs... EAGLE What the hell is goin' on in that cranium? SNAKE Thoughts. EAGLE Where's your mind? SNAKE Somewhere below the rainbow. EAGLE You gonna confess? SNAKE Maybe somewhere exactly across, below, away from exactly where your morality sits and demands kisses, you see? EAGLE I'll put that twisted head of yours on that wall, you keep playin' wit my head. SNAKE Like a hunted, gutted, mounted reindeer? EAGLE I had enough of this I said. SNAKE Like a monument of childhood grown up dead eyed hope, Mr. Law? Hanging on a wall, staring into eternity with nothin' behind it's eyes. EAGLE That's enough, that's godamned enough! I'm gettin' the forms, we'll finish this non-sense. SNAKE You sign me away, and you'll just begin all over again. You can't close the books on humanity. But you do, you just keep on closin' the books so you don't have to deal with the pictures. Eagle stops and stares at him from across the room. SNAKE What are you going to do, kill me? I have what, 8 hours until I go to the gas chamber? I don't want to talk to you. You're not worth it. You have no love in you. And, when someone's dying, ALL they need, all they crave, is love. So slit my throat, fill my lungs with gas, put some chemical in my veins, or fry me... Without love, it makes no difference how you die. Because you're not alive to begin with. Sorry, I didn't mean to touch you. EAGLE Listen, mouth... I know what you are underneath all that imagery. SNAKE You do? EAGLE You're a filthy... SNAKE ...pure... EAGLE ...violent... SNAKE ...gentle... EAGLE ...conniving... SNAKE ...honest... EAGLE ...cannibalistic... SNAKE ...modern... EAGLE ...barbarian... SNAKE ...contemporary... EAGLE ...ready to do something unthinkable for your own self preservation, and... SNAKE ...you forgot going to church on Sunday and taking holy communion from a Priest who's fucking an alter boy. They look at each other. EAGLE Spent my whole absurd life... SNAKE ...your life... EAGLE . ..trying to clean up the streets of this... Eagle rummages through the desk drawer looking for forms. SNAKE ...Mr. Clean? You belong on an Ivory soap commercial. EAGLE (ignoring him) ...month after month and it gets worse. I don't get it, I just don't get it, I just don't ... SNAKE ...maybe you're using the wrong cleanser? EAGLE We're outta forms, used up. Had a stack a foot high this morning. I'll get more, you sit and don't move, doors metal, walls are stone, you're basically stuck... SNAKE That'll do it, all those lines in the right place and all, like you're doing something useful. Make you feel secure? Eagle is exiting. SNAKE Everyone can look in the file, know where everything is, put some focus on the chaos... EAGLE ...thank God... SNAKE ...hurry, don't waist time, Miss Liberty's waiting for you in the stock room .... or maybe just her faded an' torn photograph... Eagle just exits. We hear a large metal door slam shut and echo. Snake chuckles. Silence. Snake stands up and looks around, alone. He takes a small, old yellow note out of his pocket. It is folded many times. He opens it. Then reads. SNAKE I give a flower, and say "this is for tomorrow, after the world stops being so hateful, after you stop being so tough", and then we look into each others eyes, from across the flower beds, the night air stands between us, our smiles kiss through moonlight. It's as if something deeply mysterious wants the other, needs the other. But when I'm touched, the toughness, the roughness ... disappears, and the softness of the flower pedals, become the tips of fingers, and we embrace each other under the trees, and we can't let go... Love always... He folds the note. As he does a small corner turns into dust and trickles down to his feet. He watches it. Then returns the note to his pocket. The sound of a large, metal door slamming shut and echoing is heard. Eagle enters with a bunch of papers. EAGLE Siddown. Have to organize this. SNAKE I want to stand. EAGLE Sitting's a formality when we fill out this form. Snake remains standing. EAGLE You can't avoid the inevitable son. SNAKE Isn't that what we all do? If were weren't trying to avoid the inevitable, why wouldn't we all just kill our selves? EAGLE (holds up a form) John Hancock on this... Snake looks at him, smiling. EAGLE Discussed it in your cell. Said you'd talk. SNAKE (imitating his speech pattern) Talkin', but you're not listenin'. No one does. Too busy proving they're right about somethin'... EAGLE Last time I ask nice. Then, I put you in your cage, go home and let Grizzo do his thing with you in the morning. Pause. They look at each other. SNAKE (smiles) O.k. Pause. EAGLE O.k., I gotta ask you, tell me, then I write it on the form. Know your name but, I gotta ask you anyway. This form, it's a bureaucracy. O.k.? SNAKE O.k. EAGLE (very fast) Last name... SNAKE (very fast) ...Nazareth... EAGLE ...First... SNAKE ...Jesus... EAGLE ...Middle... SNAKE ...of... EAGLE ...Fuck this... He gets up and goes strait towards the exit. Snake chuckles. EAGLE Pete I'm leaving. Get the cuffs on the desk, bank him. I'm splitting. SNAKE So kind. EAGLE (to Snake) IF HE DOESN'T TALK, GET HIM A LAWYER AND LET HIM TALK TO THE LAWYER. IF HE DOESN'T TALK THERE'S NO CHANCE FOR A PARDON... SNAKE So legitimate. EAGLE (to Pete, off) TELL THE ASSHOLE LAWYER TO TRANSLATE TO US, IN ENGLISH, WHAT THE FUCK THEY WANT TO DO WITH THIS PERVERT... I DON'T CARE... SNAKE So fair... EAGLE Goin' home... SNAKE To morality? EAGLE No, to sit-coms, and beer. See ya kid. Have a nice fry. He moves to the door. SNAKE Wait... EAGLE For what? SNAKE Talk...to me. EAGLE Talk to you. SNAKE Talk to me. EAGLE Talk? SNAKE Talk. EAGLE We are talkin'. SNAKE I mean, talk, really have a conversation.. EAGLE A conversation? SNAKE A real conversation. EAGLE This is a conversation... SNAKE Not like this. EAGLE Like what? SNAKE A conversation. About things... Real things... EAGLE Real? SNAKE Real things. EAGLE Real things. SNAKE Yes, real... EAGLE You mean get personal? SNAKE Yes. EAGLE Personal things... you and me? SNAKE If you don't mind... EAGLE Real, personal things? SNAKE Yes. EAGLE Like why you killed? SNAKE Will you stay? EAGLE Maybe. SNAKE If I cooperate? EAGLE For how long? SNAKE For a little while. EAGLE The murder? SNAKE Poetry, the wild wild west, whatever you want. EAGLE I want you to confess. SNAKE That's all? EAGLE Yeah. SNAKE Okay. Pause. EAGLE When? SNAKE Eventually. EAGLE You got eight hours. SNAKE All right. I can do it in eight hours. EAGLE I only got a little while ... SNAKE Okay ... EAGLE . ..But when I say I've had enough talk... we stop. SNAKE Fine. EAGLE I'm not a tear jerker, you can't get me to cry... SNAKE I noticed... EAGLE Been on the job for twenty years. I've heard all the bullshit, o.k.? SNAKE O.k. EAGLE Tear ducts are all dried up. SNAKE I know. Eagle sits at the desk again. EAGLE Last name. SNAKE Samantha. EAGLE First. SNAKE Joe. EAGLE Same as mine... SNAKE I know. EAGLE Middle. SNAKE Hope. EAGLE Hope? What kind of a name's that? SNAKE My mother was optimistic. EAGLE Bad guess. O.K. go ahead, let me hear your story. I can write as fast as you babble. SNAKE (to Eagle directly) Each of us, is a moment, in time, breathing in our history, and within, beauty has been hunted by violence, each fragile thing has reached out for that which keeps it warm. There is something, inside of us, like the core of mother earth. A hatred. Volcanic. Molten lava in the middle of the heart. Unforgivable. As unforgivable as every war, every act of violence, every thought of violence anyone has ever had throughout eternity, as unforgivable as all that. But how can we live if we cannot forgive? How can we go forward, if we cannot forgive? (pause) When love is killed, we go blind. (pause) And there's been a lot of murder... Pause. EAGLE What's unforgivable, son? SNAKE Harm. Harming. EAGLE Who'd you harm, son? Pause. EAGLE Talk about it. You asked me to listen. Here I am. SNAKE About what? EAGLE Whatever. Harming. SNAKE I'm beginning to like you. EAGLE Beginning to like you too. Talk. Go on, feel free. SNAKE I ... meant ... I didn't want to be alone. Anymore. EAGLE I know. You remember the night it happened? SNAKE I'm innocent. You've got to understand that... EAGLE I understand? SNAKE The person you are looking at, didn't do it. EAGLE You're sayin', you're guilty? But not now. Then, you were, now you're not, somehow. Is that the line of... reasoning? Snake is quiet. EAGLE You're not gonna hand me this "I'm a different person godamned fuckin' horseshit" I been hearin' since I'm a sperm here? . (pause) You read a few books and start soundin' like a scholar, reformed... SNAKE ...That's not it... EAGLE "Im reformed" line of horseshit all criminals about to face justice start preaching. SNAKE We all can change. EAGLE Pure white to pure puke, I've changed. I came into this job thinkin' I could take the scum of the earth offa the earth and put 'em behind bars and let the decent ... (he stops) SNAKE (pause) There are people who carry around with them an emptiness in all the noise. And emptiness has to be filled or it blinds us from ourselves and the truth. EAGLE Plato? SNAKE There are people that have learned to hate themselves and everyone around them... EAGLE Like you, Aristotle? SNAKE No. Like you. Pause. So filled with contempt. Filled with hatred. What happened to you? Pause. SNAKE You had a dream, that died, didn't you? Pause. EAGLE I thought I could make a difference in this shithouse. I thought I could be happy. Help those who suffered under criminals hands, find justice, some peace. SNAKE You can't get rid of humanity. But you can enlighten a human being. Let them see the magnificence. Then, contempt and hatred, lifts. Pause. SNAKE The answers aren't outside, Eagle. You had compassion once... empathy? Do you remember? Eagle looks at him. SNAKE Tell me about your dreams... Snake looks at Eagle who grows uncomfortable and looks away. There is a long pause. The images slowly possess Eagle. EAGLE (thinking. softly) My dreams. Became ... nightmares. I walk out of my house an' see her on the lawn, playing, an' I smell the air. It's like she's alive in the air. In the scent of the air. All at once, as if I were thrown back in time, I'm alive again. It smells like hope. She's alive there. She's alive in me, an' I'm alive in her, there, back then. I'd dream of ... what? Peace. I come to work... an' see the dead people, the attacked, the attackers, it all just ... kills something. Then I realize she's... Long pause. SNAKE You're wife? Pause. SNAKE You said she. Who died? Pause. SNAKE You lost someone dear to you? EAGLE We all lose someone, if not someone, something. SNAKE Who? EAGLE Who's interrogatin' who here? SNAKE If you don't want to talk about ... EAGLE ...Fuckin' beautiful daughter O.k? SNAKE I didn't mean to.. EAGLE Dead, killed, o.k.? Silence. EAGLE Someone took her life an' with it, my soul. SNAKE ...I'm... EAGLE ...O.k.? SNAKE ...No... EAGLE ...Happy now..? SNAKE No. It's awful. EAGLE O.k., good. Pause. Eagle's pacing now. EAGLE Out in her white dress. Pickin' flowers. Loved pickin' flowers. Makin' up poems. (pause) Beautiful. (pause) No show. I'm worried sick. Wife's sittin', rocking like a ball of fear. I start a search. All out bulletin. All out. Everyone of the boys is lookin'. My buddy Pete, finds her. The white poem holdin' a white rose starin' up, dead eyes, mouth wide open shocked, like she's askin' God only knows who, why me, so pure and pretty. An' I see ...see ... see.... her... Pause. EAGLE My heart ... He is shaken. He begins to wobble, as if he were going to pass out, and Snake stands and grabs him gently as Eagle, overwhelmed with emotion, leans on Snake for support. Long pause. EAGLE (pulling away abruptly) What the... SNAKE Are you all right? EAGLE No .... sit! SNAKE Your daughter? EAGLE Like I said... Sit! SNAKE I'm sorry... Eagle stares at Snake. Snake sits. EAGLE Evil met her and a prehistoric thing happened. Evil fools people. Comes from nowhere, leaves everyone in disbelief. Pause. EAGLE Fuck Pete, go home, I'll finish this bullshit. See ya tomorrow. One of the things I can't understand, (I don't even wanna try understanding in this mess called civilization we've created), is hurtin'. Bewilders the shit outta me, the kinda pain we inflict on each other. I can't fathom you. SNAKE I understand. EAGLE Understand what? (pause) Just you and me. No tape, see? Opens desk drawers. EAGLE Look, It might get you a pardon. Let me help you. It's your life. Fuck me. SNAKE It cleans up your books, your conscience, while I'm a barbecue and you hold a mass to a crucified savior? EAGLE It's an ugly .. uh ... situation... a difficult thing. But you said you wanted to talk. I'm here. SNAKE The last six years I've lived in a cell, away from everything I ever knew. The only thing I could look to were thoughts. And me putting together my past into an understanding. EAGLE Right? SNAKE My cell. Stone walls, metal bars, a cot, a sink and a toilet, and a mirror I couldn't look into for a year. I couldn't see a reflection that made any sense. My life before was dead. EAGLE I see... right. Go on. SNAKE There, in my cell, meaning was taken away. Life's promises, all I ever thought was real, became a joke. I thought that behind the curtain, there was a set filled with light, and as the curtain was drawn slowly open, there's nothing but darkness, and me looking at it. Then there's no meaning outside of my eyes. Day by day, hour by hour I grew older in this place. Each idea of my youth fading into absolute oblivion, the myths given to me to protect my innocence were shattered, like glass, then pulverized into dust. And the darkness grows into all. Then, the meaning of my life began to reveal itself. EAGLE Where? Pause. EAGLE Where's the meaning revealed, son? SNAKE Within. EAGLE Within what? SNAKE My eyes. EAGLE Eyes? SNAKE Behind my eyes. EAGLE What's there? What do you see behind your eyes? SNAKE A light, bright as the sun, from the sun... a miracle of light is flowering in the reality of me. And that's all the meaning there ever was or ever will be. I exist. And my life was filled once. With nothing but fear, and hate, and anger, and separation from that light and I was something very different than I am now. EAGLE And that light, did it explode one night? Against your will, and reason? SNAKE The light doesn't explode. It sings about the gift of life; the miracle of its birth. EAGLE Sings what? SNAKE It sings of the value of a single life. Of one, single life. EAGLE Horrible when it's killed, huh son? SNAKE But in our world, the one we created, there is no value in a single life. Here, life, is seen as a threat, not a song. It's just like it is in nature--food for someone elses survival. No feeling about the one being eaten! EAGLE You were sayin' something about a song? Light? SNAKE The world has become an illusion, born from man's darkest fears and needs. A world built on the idea of escaping discomfort. Not obtaining light. You have to go to another place to know it. The darkness leads to the light. Like a birth. An awakening. EAGLE What makes the light go black, make it kill, son? SNAKE You have too much going on in front of your eyes to see what's going on behind them. Your blinded by the lies of our heritage. You can't see me. You're not listening to me, only what you can use to prove yourself right, so you can eat me up. So you can kill me and not feel the guilt. You're all killers, seeking killers so you can feel the comforts of your delusions. EAGLE Okay. But still, we gotta know what happened. 'Cause it's the truth. You want the truth, right? There's... light... in the truth? SNAKE How can you tell the truth to liars? EAGLE I don't know. Try me. SNAKE We've only become paranoid of each other... EAGLE I need figure you out. SNAKE Figure me out, huh? Then fry me with ten billion bolts of juice and watch my eyes die? EAGLE A killers eyes (fade like nightfall) and the light of no more killing brightens, just a little bit. SNAKE By killing me? Where's the light in you killing me? They look at each other intensely. SNAKE These eyes are a killers eyes? EAGLE Yeah... SNAKE Then what are yours now, looking at me and wanting me dead? EAGLE There's different kinds of killing. One's to preserve life, an' that's what killin' you is all about. And one, is just to take it. Which is what you did. SNAKE Did you ever kill anyone? EAGLE Only someone trying to kill me. SNAKE With a weapon? EAGLE Yes. SNAKE With love? EAGLE What? SNAKE Kill with love? EAGLE I heard it all, take me... SNAKE ...killing because you can't find any love? EAGLE ...I'm ready... SNAKE ...Because love was taken away... EAGLE ...get me outta this... SNAKE ...when love is taken away... EAGLE ...madhouse... SNAKE ...it's a deadly weapon. EAGLE Okay okay... I'm sorry I lost my tempter... tell me... did you kill for love? (pause) Think back ... remember... Did you?! SNAKE I was a child. Nineteen... I was a child in a man's body seeking love. I was fragile. I was so very afraid inside... No one had taught me how to express my vulnerability... or understand the complexity of my feelings. It was all guess work. Separate. The inside from the outside, so the outside couldn't hurt the inside... EAGLE You were in the park ... it was night ... SNAKE ...in love with the most beautiful... couldn't think of anything else, completely consumed with love.... Pause. EAGLE ...in love, and you met in the park, you remember that? SNAKE It was moonlit, very beautiful ...the world was... EAGLE ...dark, sunset... SNAKE We met every night ... her eyes, looked right into my heart ... They saw me and I her as we looked into each other. EAGLE Beautiful. SNAKE So radiant. Perfect wholeness, together. EAGLE And... it was dark that night ... moonlit... SNAKE My life before that moment was a series of confused impulses, images, complete lack of love... she was like food to me ... EAGLE And you talked? SNAKE Yes. Every night in this park. Like a garden. Like a place you dream about. And the night air was primitive. Cool, crisp, dark, the clouds were lit by the moonlight and it was so wild. Like a young world, waiting to grow up. In the love, there was this safety. No need to hide or run. Inside of me, was this searching, seeking, yearning to find some place where I was safe from the ugliness of our streets. I was deeply sensitive, and hiding behind a mask of strength. I was looking out of this glass body through my eyes and seeking a place to understand ... something ... my existence... something. Everyone was hiding. Always and everywhere, hiding. Hardness. Cold. I wanted to know myself. But I didn't have the resources. A child in a man's body immersed in a cement jungle. And ... She ... she was so pure... so in need of me. She was what I so desperately needed to hold onto within myself. I needed her and she needed strength to protect her because she was so vulnerable. These two parts of ourselves, felt, but not understood, needed to touch the other. Hold the other. (pause) And I realized as I grew, that these two things must be together to be whole and for a person to feel complete. We search for it in all of our actions. That warmth... That openness... that safety... EAGLE ...was beautiful... SNAKE A beautiful feeling. I had this feeling to be inside of her, all of me, in all of her, and all of her in all of me. (pause) She and I held each other for the longest time. And I felt whole. (pause) I ... kissed her... Her face looked at me and she felt safe. I kissed her again, she responded with a smile, but then pulled away, like a voice in her told her to. I felt her fear, and her want, and I held her gently. Then she buried her lips in my neck and I kissed her neck, oh, and the world moved under me, like I was standing on water and I saw her eyes, like the eyes of the sky, pure blue innocence and unaware of its own beauty looking up at me, helplessly, staring for safety, fear seeking love, in the darkness. As we touched, our passions deepened, everything... went away. I ....wanted ... to feel my flesh .. and hers connect .... and they did... (pause) We were one, in that moment and in that moment I felt safe and whole and full. Something I'd never felt before... Then, suddenly, she began pulling away... and the need to be with someone, something, kept on being cut, a little more each second, it kept being mutilated and the anger of hate, contemptuous, ugly, grew as the love was torn away, moment by moment from my life...like she was stabbing me with her flowers... I was alone, like the entire world, my world, pushing me away again, like a mother dropping her baby out of a window and the baby reaching helplessly for its mother as it fell, and I looked at her in this dark place, and she began to cry, and she kept saying over and over again, "my God, my father will kill me, my father will kill me, if he finds out that we..." I begged her to stop crying, she stood up to run and I grabbed her trying to comfort my love, and she pulled and I reached for her so we could look at each other, and as I held her face in my hands and we struggled to connect, she twisted her head in one sharp jerk and ... it broke I ... broke her neck .... and she fell down onto the ground like a fetus and I kneeled over her and lifted her in my arms and I kissed my love with my screaming tears wanting reality to be a dream... didn't believe what had happened, I felt for her pulse...none, I looked in her face her eyes dead, glassed over, my eyes went dead, and I could feel my love draining out of me, like my juggler had been slashed deep, I began pounding on her chest, trying to save my love, but she just stared up at me, dead, dead, the love had been cut away from her and it killed her, and desperately, like a wild and wounded beast, I ran through the night screaming... Eagle is standing, his body monstrous, shaking like a wild animal void of anything but complete revenge. EAGLE I had to be sure. I couldn't... unless I was positive... A jury wasn't enough... SNAKE What's wrong with you? Why are you looking at me like that..? I was explaining... EAGLE ...She was my daughter...! Pause, as Snake begins to back far away from Eagle. Eagle slowly walks toward Snake. Eagle, like a raging bull, begins to chase Snake. SNAKE Think about her... Eagle dives at him, and falls over the desk in a rage, he picks up the wood chair and throws it at him, Snake is not hit. Eagle knocks the phone off the desk and turns the desk over, groaning like a wild animal, then pursues him. SNAKE I loved her... We are together in that ... she was pure... We're one Eagle ... Eagle grabs him from behind, around the neck. Snake breaks away. Eagle grabs him again. SNAKE My neck. You're going to break my neck. A struggle pursues, both men fighting, Snake to get away, Eagle to kill him. SNAKE If you want the killing to stop, why repeat the killing? Eagle is killing Snake. Snake falls to the floor. Eagle is choking him. Snake kicks him hard in the chest and Eagle stumbles back. Snake tries to rise, and lifts up kneeling, as if against a wall. He is leaning all the way back and throws his arms out in terror, begging Eagle to forgive him ... SNAKE Please? See another way. Eagle pulls out a jackknife and snaps it open. SNAKE There is love in us... Eagle runs at him and stabs Snake in the lower right stomach. The two grasp into each other as if they are one, Snake rising off his knees in pain and astonishment ... The two groan as one ending as Eagle jerks the knife out of Snake, it is filled with dripping blood, and Eagle stops groaning but Snake's groan grows into a primitive piercing scream, he falls on all fours and begins to crawl like a wounded animal. SNAKE (moaning) Please ...rephrase ... the... violence ... Snake walks, howling, lifting one arm, almost in slow motion, and placing it down again. He looks like a deeply wounded animal and for a moment, his human qualities fade completely away. Eagle, sees what he has done. His eyes fixed, and slowly, as the hatred lifts from his body, what remains is a guilt ridden, confused and weakened man, lost and alone-- his vulnerability surfaces completely. A person he doesn't know, and wasn't prepared to experience. In self disgust almost drunk with emotion, he walks over to the desk, and falls onto it, sitting on the corner of it. He tries to look at Snake but he begins to weep. Long pause, as the sounds subside. SNAKE Help me? EAGLE Wha'd I do? oh my God ... SNAKE Is this your God? EAGLE Holy... SNAKE Is this holy? EAGLE Christ ... SNAKE Is this why we made up ... holiness? EAGLE Fuckin' save me... SNAKE Is this your salvation? EAGLE My God... SNAKE Call an ambulance, please... A large wet blood spot is seen clearly through Snake's sleeveless tee shirt on the right side. EAGLE I don't think it's serious I got you in the flesh... SNAKE It hurts... EAGLE ...somethin' stopped me from gutting you. I was gonna gut you right up to your heart. Jesus... Who the fuck am I? SNAKE Call a doctor... He tries to get up again but cannot. SNAKE I can't move... Snake falls on his side, facing the audience, panting, and looking at Eagle helplessly. EAGLE I was a cop. You understand me? An' I gotyoubackfor .... I mean I became ... SNAKE ...Like the killer you thought I was... EAGLE ... see what I'm sayin'.... I can't be blamed for ... Shit... SNAKE (weakly) ...I need you... EAGLE I gotyouback and I'm glad I did... YOU'RE A KILLER ... I'M ...UPHOLDING .... Nogodamnit ... they'll understand why I lost my... what the fuck am I apologizing for..? For Chrissakes, you're an inhuman sonofabitchand you deservertodie... you fuckinlittlebastard... an' I'm feelin' guilty in takin' your scumfuckkerslife..? SNAKE ... MY LIFE EAGLE.... CALL AN AMBULANCE. MY BLOOD. ... EAGLE You sonofabitch. My Beautiful... Snake tries to reach Eagle. He crawls slowly over towards him on all fours. EAGLE ...We'd go for walks... SNAKE ...please... EAGLE ...and you pick flowers for me? SNAKE ...my life ... EAGLE ...and I'd tell you stories... SNAKE ...my love ... EAGLE ...of wishes... pet your face, kiss you in the sunlight... like holding a baby in my arms... SNAKE ...Me... Snake continues to crawl to Eagle. EAGLE ...I looked at you. I saw my life in you... Lights begin to fade slowly. SNAKE ...I... EAGLE ...faded .... Lights lowering. SNAKE ...away .... like a vanishing hope ... like the broken shadow of a lost dream... Lights dim on stage, so that a pool of light remains center, the rest is in shadows. Eagle glows, center. Snake crawls to him from out of the shadows and into the light and finally touches Eagle's legs, and attempts to climb him to safety. Eagle doesn't notice him. EAGLE ...It's like we're killin' the love everyday just to survive... Snake climbs slowly up Eagle's legs. EAGLE ...I wish ya'd come back... SNAKE Please find some compassion in your heart ... please help me .. understand me ... at least ... give me some... (pause) ...if you can only help me stand up... Eagle looks at Snake and it is as if he has awoken from a dream. He grabs him under his arms holding him half way up to standing. Snake steadies himself. He is still hurt. They stand center stage looking at one another. SNAKE I am so afraid. Snake falls weakly into Eagles arms weeping. Eagle stands limp, his body holding him up, but Eagle only looks out into the abyss. EAGLE I can't forgive you. SNAKE I can't forgive you. But please don't hate me. Pause. Snake is hugging Eagle. Eagle's arms remain limp, as he looks out over the abyss of the theatre, still in a semi-daze of emotional remembrance. EAGLE (incredulously) Stop hating? Pause. Eagle looks at him, and gently pushes him away. EAGLE Siddown. Eagle picks up the chair laying on its side and sets down stage center in the pool of white light. He helps Snake sit in the wooden chair, center stage, in the light. There is some of Snake's blood on Eagle's belly now. He doesn't notice it. He crosses out of the light to the desk, then picks the phone up off the floor and dials. Snake groans as he sits slumped back, his arms thrown out in pain, his legs straight out in front of him, his back arched gently over the back of the chair. He seems to glow in white light. The bloodstain on Snake's belly is large and clearly visible. EAGLE (on the phone, we hear only his voice) Interrogation Room. Send an ambulance. There's been a mistake... He hangs up. SNAKE Thank you . Eagle crosses into the light. EAGLE We gotta save you so we can kill you... He looks at Snake sitting, arms spread out like the wings of an eagle. The lights shift so that the remaining stage in shadows becomes black and disappears. Now, sharply defined "bar shadows" reflect on a sharp angle across the stage and both of them. Pause. EAGLE It's over soon... SNAKE I know... EAGLE Just like that. SNAKE Whoosh, I'm gone... Me... EAGLE I can't stand the loneliness, ya know? Everyday of my life, alone, here in this fucking jail. SNAKE We built it. We live in it. We don't have to. EAGLE I feel like I've broken up inside. You ever feel like that? SNAKE A barrier? EAGLE A what? SNAKE You broke down a barrier. EAGLE Yeah. SNAKE Look at me. Eagle does. EAGLE Inside of me... Ain't that funny? SNAKE No. We have to tear down the walls... EAGLE Right. Like a wall's been smashed through. SNAKE Walls inside. Walls outside. How can you live like that? Snake, in agony, back arched against the back of the chair, stares up to the heavens, arms out, legs straight out in front of him on the floor. Eagle's eyes fixed on him. We hear an ambulance approaching in the distance. Tableau. Lights dim to black, slowly. A moment in the dark before the curtain call. Pool of light comes back up, bar shadows remain streaking across them on a sharp angle. Curtain call: No smiles, no bows, actors standing looking at the audience. Blackout. The End CLICK ON BACK ON TOP OF YOUR SCREEN TO RETURN TO MAIN MENUE