DROWNED STALLION A Short Play by John Monteleone CONTACT: e-mail: writing@johnmonteleone.com PO Box 2723 Sag Harbor, NY 11963 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. __________________________________ Copyright 1997 by John Monteleone All Rights Reserved Registered with WGAE CHARACTERS: JOE An old, deeply weathered man. MARY A frail, old women with long white hair. HANK A muscular boy of 18 or 20. SET: A bare stage. Large projection screen upstage and high above center stage. A television can be used for low budget productions. TIME: The present. The image of a white horse running on a beach against the sunrise fills the screen. The mane thrashing in the wind as the animals gorgeous body gallops towards us, the sun rising behind, the large waves crashing on the beach... A pool of light on an older woman in a blue, translucent nightgown holding a small gold candleholder with a yellow candle burning in it down center. She looks out into the vastness as the horse above her gallops at us, nostrils flaring. MARY And the sun rose up... That’s what I remember. It rising above the endless sea stretching out forever. And this white horse, coming at me. Moving like the muscles of a train, galloping, charging, but never touching me. That’s what it was like. I remember it so vividly. JOE (off) What the hell are you doin', Mary? Can’t you come to bed? Mary? It’s three O'clock in the morning. Can’t this stop? Is this going to be like it was before? Are we gonna fight about it in the morning? Can’t do anything nice for you. I gave you the magnesia, didn’t I, or did I forget? I gave you the glycerine. I gave you the digitalis. I gave you the valium. I hope I didn’t forget the metamusil so you can shit in the morning. Get cleaned out. Makes everything seem different. I offered you Nyquil I remember that. I bought you candles? Why can’t a family be like a family? Like it used to be? There was a sort of sacrifice in it? You remember the sacrifice? The compromise? Givin’ somethin’ up? There was somethin’ to that? The good ol’ days? Pride in loss. Remember that? I do. I lived like that. I lived like that for forty years. I was a good Catholic. Before I converted to Judaism. Before I took up Buddhism. That’s you’re problem, Mary. You like comfort. You love flowers. You want your thoughts to be flowers. You don’t want to come down to earth so you can come to bed like everyone else. You sit there regretting your past. I know what you’re up to. I saw it in your eyes over dinner. I saw you goin’ off like that. To that place somewhere deep in your head no one else can see. I had dreams too you know. I had dreams just like you. I was young. I lived in a young body with young hormones, searching. Searching hormones on a beach. I rode a horse. I rode a white stallion. Had my black stallion bleached. He didn’t like it though. Didn’t like gettin’ bleached. Fact is, downright pissed him off. Nothin’ worse then a bleached, pissed off eight hundred pound stallion. I remember him. Ran away. He was tied and he busted that rail and pulled out his bridle, kicked off his saddle, shook his white head and threw off his blinders an' ran like the wind. And I chased him. I was just a boy. I chased him to the beach. I watched from the high dunes, wind washin’ over my long silken hair. There in the light of the sun I saw him run. My God could that horse run. And he did. He ran into the water toward the horizon--the sun comin’ up. I watched each gallop, memorized it. I saw the last hair in his mane, disappear under the waves. I heard him screaming, as the sun went down, and the black night came on us. I stood there. On that dune. As the light turned black. Stood there all night, the wind growing colder and colder, flowing through my hair and my young eyes. And when the morning came, I was old. I couldn’t even remember my youth anymore. It was like it never actually happened. Like it was just a movie I’d gone to see... on a bad date. That’s what it was like. A movie without popcorn. A shitty movie. Without popcorn and a bitchy date. A date full of quick expectations that didn’t know how to lend a helpin’ hand. And I looked up into the sun, risin' over the water and the horse was gone. The beach was barren. The waves were calmed. But the sun... the sun kept doin’ what it always did... rose over the ocean and warmed everything. You could smell it’s heat. You could hear it’s love... I remember that. Mary, are you gonna come to bed, or not? Blow out that candle and come lay beside me. I need you. I need you Mary. It’s night. And I’m an old man. Mary blows out the candle, and the horse stops running, the screen goes black, and the pool of light on her dies out as she weeps. Down stage left young man enters wearing overalls, plaid, muddied shirt, carrying a long-handled shovel covered with mud. He slamms the shovel to the ground and the caked dirt falls off of it. MARY Hank.. you been diggin’ again? HANK Leave me be. What do I look like a figment of your imagination? MARY We were worried about you. Where’d you go. You’ve been gone for years it seems. HANK So what? They’re my days ain’t they? If I want to be gone during a bunch of ‘em, I will. He bangs his feet getting the mud off his high boots, places the shovel carefully against the entryway. He stands looking straight at Mary. MARY You’re father’s hiding again. I couldn’t get him out of the bed. He cried all day. He cried because he couldn’t remember his life. Do you know what that’s like? It’s like forgetting your American Express Card at Caldor’s. HANK Dug up the old tractor. You remember that ol’ tractor? MARY You found it again? HANK I found it. MARY Where was it? HANK In the back yard. Under the hay stack coverin' the mulch. I dug it up. Guess what was underneath? MARY It wasn’t in the back because you weren’t in the back. HANK Me. I was underneath. JOE (offstage) MARY FOR GOD'S SAKE WHO ARE YOU TALKING TO NOW? MARY No one. JOE (offstage) Isn't one crazy lunatic family member enough. MARY You'd better go. HANK I can't go. You're awake. Why don't you go to bed and calm that asshole down. JOE (offstage) Mary, I'm gonna come down there--you're drinking again. I can smell it. HANK Da Da's comin' down like old times. Who's he gonna beat. Me, or you? MARY Shhhhh. He'll hear you. HANK Right. He'll hear me. He'll think it's the trees. Hank starts laughing loudly. Mary motions to him to stop but he bellows, pours himself some whiskey. Joe enters, candle in hand, hair off to one side disheveled. Mary gasps. Hank keeps laughing and drinking. JOE What the devil is goin' on here? Are you remembering your life again? Him? Again. MARY No, Joe. HANK Yes she is Pa... She's rememberin'' everything. JOE Forget about it, Mary. Godsakes look at you it's written all over your pretty face. MARY He was my son, too. JOE He's been dead for fifteen years and you just keep on mournin' his death. Was an accident. Just an accident. HANK No it wasn't ma. He let that tractor run me over on purpose. MARY I know. JOE What's the point, Mary, to never sleep, up all hours. I need you too. I need you like I needed my horse and I don't want you disappearing like he did on me. You know what I mean. HANK YOU SONOFABITCH YOU'RE EVEN TRYING TO TAKE MY MEMORY AWAY FROM HER. FIRST YOU KILLED ME OFF, LIKE SOME DISEASED COW AND NOW YOU'RE TRYIN' TO BRAIN WASH HER. I WAS YOUR SON. YOUR DNA AN' FLESH AND BLOOD. JOE Did you hear somethin' Mary? MARY No. JOE I could've swore I heard his voice. Must be the trees again. Tomorrow I'm gonna trim them down. You do this too me. MARY Not again. You can't keep trimming' trees every time you get spooked. They're almost all stubs. HANK It's not the trees you old buzzard. It's me. Here. Right here in front of your eyes. Your beloved son. MARY Stop it Hank. Just stop it. Go away. JOE My God. HANK I'm here. Right here. In front of your eyes mamma. Look at me. Remember what it felt like. Remember when I was born? Hank makes the sound of a baby being born over: MARY Don't. JOE Come to bed. Come on sweetheart. MARY STOP IT. HANK I was movin' too much. In you. You remember that? Moving around and around in you. And I came out upside down everybody thought we were both goners. But we weren't, were we? We hung in there. The two of us like we were one thing. Nothin' separate about us, Mamma. You and Me, flesh to flesh. Like the earth and the sky. I need you mamma. I'm scared here in this abyss. It's so dark, and lonely. I'm all alone. Like I was in your womb, Mamma. Dark. Like floatin' out in space endlessness everywhere. Nothing nowhwere. Only then, I had a chance to live, and now I never will again. I'm floatin' in the nothingness again 'cause of him. His humanity got the better of him, didn't it Pa? JOE Godamned night. Does the craziest things to ya... Joe grabs the whiskey and drinks from it straight. HANK Never ever again, mamma. You remember? Do you remember? MARY I REMEMBER. I REMEMBER. PLEASE.... JOE Dear God, I'm Callin' Doc. MARY You were such a little baby. Two months early. Everyone thought it was the hurricane that did it. Too much pushin' and pulling things. We almost lost the barn. JOE Hello, Bill? Joe Smithers here. It's Mary, again... yes... Thank you. HANK He called the Doc again, mamma. You know what that means? They're gonna come, those institutionalized men in their little costumes who think they know something, who are here to protect the public morality, they're gonna sedate you--'cause you're hysterical. Cart you off again. You better run. Run Mamma. Run. MARY STOP IT HANK. STOP IT. JOE? JOE Come here honey. Doc'll be here, give you a sedative and you'll be able to rest. HANK NO HE WON'T MAMMA. HE'LL PUT YOU IN A STRAIT JACKET AGAIN. LIKE LAST TIME AND THE TIME BEFORE THAT. TAKE YOU AWAY FROM YOURSELF. MARY I need to rest. Can't we go away Joe? Can't we take a vacation. He's in my head. I can't get rid of his voice. I can't get rid of him. JOE Don't make sense. It's fifteen years. Has to be a female thing. HANK Because she's guilty. You're guilty as hell aren't you Mamma. For lettin' him kill me. You know he did. You knew he was gonna do it. You could see it in his eyes. In his movements. When he looked at me and stood in that insincere way. You were his accomplice, weren't you? JOE Was an accident, Mary. Accidents happen. We don't like them too but they do. All the time. Mistakes. Misjudgments. Our emotions curve our reason and someone dies. We're only human. Aren't we human? Mary? HANK You know he's lyin' to you. We always fought. He didn't like it. He wanted me to be his son, not my own person. And when I started to think on my own he wanted me dead. JOE You can't let it get to you. Wipe it away. It was his fault. HANK Look who's talking. Mr. Adultery himself. Mr. I'm just goin' out for a nightcap--to a hotel room. Mr. Liar. Mr. Pervert. Mr. American Values gone haywire. You can't let go of a life you idiot. MARY I know. JOE Was that the Doc? I heard a voice? Was that him. No. Damn wind. MARY GO AWAY. JUST GO AWAY. JOE That's it honey. Push it out of your mind, stand your ground against yourself. My horse. I coulda swore I just saw that damn thing again. Right out back. That mane flarin' in the night wind. HANK I loved you mamma. MARY There's no horse, Joe. There's nothin' but us. Nothin. What time is it? HANK He was jealous of me. He was jealous because his white horse drown. Just like him. Him and his life. Drowned. JOE Three fifteen in the a.m. Look at that. I see it Mary, over the corn field. HANK His life, drowned. His dreams died. Suffocated. JOE So many years ago that horse went for a swim. MARY It never happened. I need something. JOE NO BOOZE. MARY I NEED IT, MY NERVES. HANK The bubbles came up to the surface. He remembered his life. His pain. He tried to escape it. He tried to run. He gasped for air, but there wasn't none nowheres in his life. When he slept. Couldn't let it go. It was all the substance he had left. MARY I CAN'T TAKE THIS JOE. STOP HIM SHUT HIM UP. JOE SHE'S GALLOPING INTO THE HIGH STALKS. I CAN SEE HER MANE. WILL YOU LOOK AT THAT? MARY THERE IS NO HORSE. THERE IS NO BOY. THEY'RE ALL GONE. THERE'S NOTHING BUT US. LOOK AT ME. JOE? LOOK AT ME, I'M YOUR WIFE. JOE Just the tip of the white hair now, goin' under, under, annnnnd... How the hell can a horse do that? I'm gonna save her. MARY I'M GONNA GO OUT THERE AND SAVE MY BLEACHED HORSE. MARY No. No please don't go. Stay here with me, Please. Joe? JOE What? Who's there? MARY It's me, Joe. Mary. I'm right here. Look at me, sweetheart. She grabs him by both arms staring at him. Joe looks right through her as if she weren't there. HANK Help me. Help me, the tractor Paw. The tractor's got my pants. It's pullin' me? MARY I need you Joe. I'm losin' myself. Hold me? JOE What? The horse, Mary. I've got to... HANK NO PAW. STOP THE TRACTOR. STOP THE ENGINE... IT'S GOT ME, IT'S DRAGOON ME UNDER... THE TIRES ARE SO BIG. PAW? PAW? JOE SHE'S DROWNIN' IN THE CORN. I CAN'T LOOSE HER AGAIN? HANK OH MY GOD NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.... We hear the sound of tractor engine killing the boy. Joe keeps looking out the window, and Mary pulls at his pajamas. JOE STOP THIS. STOP THIS STOP STOP STOP STOP STOP... HANK MY LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIFEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE... JOE ...What? Stop what? Mary. Are you all right? Mary? My God. Mary... He puts his hand out to touch her but can't reach her as she slowly backs away. The lights fade out on her and Hank looking solemnly right at Joe. He is now alone on- stage, and trembling with the realization he is alone, and old, he moves down toward the audience looking out over them. The image of the white stallion running fades in on the screen above him, in the same spot it was above Mary in the beginning. JOE Don't do that. Mary. Hank. Sinkin' into the ground like that. One footstep at a time. Like a haze of a life behind us. What was it all about, anyway? All the work. All the fighting. All the love. Please? Please come back to me. Come... back... to... me? The image fades out leaving him alone in a dim pool of light. Then the lights slowly fade out on him, reaching out over the audience.. The End