TOMORROW A One Act 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: OLD WOMAN JACK JILL THE SET: A rocking chair upstage center, set in a rectangular box that resembles in its presence, a coffin. Two small tables are set down stage right and left. On each is a make- up mirror, stage make-up, wigs, hair spray color, etc. A seat, or stool is behind it. The floor is completely black. Surrounding the set is darkness, endlessness. As the play progresses, the characters of Jack and Jill put on age make-up, transforming them from a youthful twenty or twenty five, to eighty. They must select in their discovery of the play, the exact and appropriate time to age from one decade to the next, or every five years, if possible. It should feel and look natural, very real. The old Woman, must be played by a man, or give the impression that she, could be either male or female. All actors remain seated in their positions throughout the entire play. There must not be an intermission during the entirety of it. The actor and actress playing Jack and Jill must have the ability to create physical and vocal age, equal to their changing appearances. This must be detailed, subtle, honest and clear, since it is the underlying terror of this seemingly simple little parable of a tale. The play should move swiftly, easily, and effortlessly, playfully playing, allowing the various rhythms merge and move like a mother telling the tale of Jack and Jill to a small child in bed, until she realizes that what she is saying is in fact a terror, a metaphor and a symbol of unrealized lives and dreams. The lights fade to black. A spot comes on the old Woman in the rocking chair rocking back and forth. She looks at her box, then the audience and begins to rhyme her woes. WOMAN I wonder what tomorrow would beIf only I could see the sea Weeps. I've progressed into a wither it's true seeking a kind of gain while loss engulfs me by the heartlike a storm about to rain I wonder Weeps. what it might of beenif I had done all I never didbut dreamed of doing day to day until I lie on my death bedmelting away I wonder Weeps. Lights rise up slowly revealing a young Woman stage right and a young man stage left seated at their tables, smiling out at the audience. Jill wears a big pink ribbon tied into a bow tie in her pony tail and Jack wears a neat shirt with a tie and glasses, groomed with his hair slicked down. They look almost doll-like. JACK I've got nothing to say because when I do I'm contradicted through and through Like a hurricane battling a volcano's wind I've lost my self to the machines grind so from here till the end I'm done with it all my tongue is flat my diaphragm low my lips in a tight knit of a smile I'm zippered into place, quieted a while a once virile hope put in place in the race I've lost my hope, Fore, I've lost my face Silence. They look at each other. Smile, and then back at the audience. JILL Are you finished not saying anything? Or is there something more you don't have to say? JACK I'm done not doing anything. JILL That's good because if you continued in that statewe might never progress from here to there wherever it might be if it ever existed at all. JACK What? JILL I thought you weren't speaking again? JACK I'm not I'm not... JILL This is getting very insignificant Jack. JACK I realize that Jill. JILL Did you mow the lawn? JACK Why do you ask? JILL Garbage? JACK Laundry? JILL Diapers? JACK Bills? JILL Etcetera... JACK As insignificant as all that? They look strait ahead. Apply make up. WOMAN In my youth the grass was like a blanketto roll on with my soft soft skinand it melted into it's tickling pricklesthe ends of the grass poking at melike love fingers of angelsteasing me into the playfulnessof life. But did I listen? Weeps JACK Why have we stopped... JILL ...I don't feel what I used to... JACK And what was that? JILL Romance. JACK Courtship? JILL Missing... JACK La la's? JILL Romantic bliss, stars, and roses - ah - daffodilsa sweet chocolate to kiss in the summer air.All of it's gone... Goneeeeee... JACK I'll go to Hallmark right now if it'll stir you into a smile. JILL There is more missing, much much more. JACK I'm never going to understand another person who cannotbe understood JILL (panic) HAVE WE PAID ALL OF OUR BILLSOR ARE WE IN DEBT TO OTHER PEOPLEWHO ARE WAITING FOR THE MONEYWE DON'T HAVE YET? JACK I have to... Jack farts, but silently. Makes a grunting face. Jill watches. Old Woman weeps. JILL Romance Romance like a pink dress burnt to ash and I'm left naked without even a memory of it what's left? JACK Excuse me Jill for... JILL Gross Jack, very gross... JACK Air. It seems to be everywhere. JILL The romance is over... WOMAN I remember the penetration First, an image with a voice accompanying it saying something hopeful so I'd buy it and then the looking outside after the machine was turned off I saw, not what I used to see before the hypnosis but now, what I was supposed to see after the hypnosis my mind was becoming lost to a way of seeing I did not want to see but was force to like a gun in your face Weeps. Tableau. JACK Remember when we first met? JILL No. I remember being with you too long, even before we decided to be together. JACK What are you saying? JILL I remember being with you too long, even before we decided to be together. JACK I thought that's what you said but I wasn't sure until after you repeated it a second time. Am I being clear? JILL What? JACK You heard me don't pretend. Jack freezes into a statue. He is stopped in time. JILL I have no way of knowing if what I feel for you is what I feel for you or if it's what I thought I was supposed to feel for you or someone who offered me the same qualities that you had learned were the right qualities to emulate in the courtship or if I was drawn to you because the others I was drawn to before you were in actuality assholes that turned me off and so your absurd gestures of lies were in fact double dangerous embatings to my lackings. I'm not sure what I just said or why But I am quite positive that I'm confused. Jack moves. Jill freezes in a confused statue. JACK The dissatisfactions I'm beginning to feel daily are not only causing desperation for love but are in fact destroying my humanity as we continue in this stagnant merry go round of a circus. Oh well. Jill moves. They continue. WOMAN It was after the first major loss that I began to hide out inside of myself wishing to do all the things I would never do because I was afraid. Weeps. JILL I never wanted much. JACK Because I never gave it to you? JILL All I ever wanted was love. JACK I gave you that. JILL When? JACK Spring of eighty one. Only kidding ha ha ha... JILL I need more Jack. I'm getting on... JACK Oh stop stop stop There are more important things that have to be manufactured then love, Jill. Silly silly Jill Jill. JILL (screams) I HATE YOU. JACK Take an aspirin. JILL You are not serious, Jack? JACK Since your voice has a touch of murder in it, of course not dear. JILL The children have grown and my dreams have become a mist What I thought I wanted was in fact what I wanted when I thought I wanted it at all but now that I've changed what I thought I wanted was not well thought out at all and now what remains are worse than growing pains and my life is a series of prisons and chains. OOOOOOO, not a bad little rhyme. JACK Lovely rhyme dear. Lovely. Although it lacks domestic cheer the lilt isn't up the pantameters off like a plastic dolls bosom instead of (macho) YOUR VAGINA BABY. JILL Don't try to be sexy, I'll puke. Jack freezes in a middle aged pose of a man trying to be cute and sexy. Jill looking at him disgusted. WOMAN It was after I realized the years wouldn't stop so I'd catch up on my dreams that although I smiled to get along my innards were nothing but screams Weeps. Jack and Jill come to life. JACK (on a phone) So how are you Fred? That's terrific I'm glad to see you doing so well and Jenny and Jimmy and Ethel and Humpty? Oh I'm so glad that no one's fell That's nice that's nice oh good that's nice that's nice that's nice that's nice that's good it's good it's nice that's nice that's nice that's nice that's good good good that's swell oh great that's great very nice very great okay well well keep up the good work okay well then it was nice having a chat yeah sure oh sure yeah gimme a call sure gimme a call an' we'll do something else. JILL Who was that? JACK Fred JILL Fred who? JACK Fred Dead JILL Ohhhhhh, how's he doing? JACK Not too good he's dyeing... They both freezemournful faces. WOMAN I wanted to try things do things and live a life of the living but instead of that I laid on my back and used up all my savings. Weeps. JACK Do you think we should rise up out of these chairs? JILL I'd love to but I'm afraid we might fall. JACK Fall we might, yes indeed we might fall but if I don't get up we can't move at all JILL I know I know but it's better to be alive in a chair then dead in the sea JACK My life is getting dull my mind is becoming round I'd do anything it seems to get a pound... JILL There's more to life then living a dream there's more to life than drinking the sea danger lurks even to think JACK But I'm getting old and weary and my bones are growing stale in a few short years I won't be able to lift my life back up that hill JILL Complaints complaints that's all I hear the sound of crying is in the air the sound of the stars surrounds us all but I'm safe right here inside my walls JACK The world is a miracle fore everywhere I look I see miracles we can surely see and yet I've created this house in a rock where I'm safe from myself where I'm safe for a night and they spare me suit from the wind when it yells and the sky when it cries and the people when they want and myself when I think oh, I feel trapped so so trapped so trapped like a rat like a bat like a knat oh fuck it oh no no not like that more like a lion in a cannibals pot. He freezes. She moves JILL I would do anything to find a passionate love where the thunder in the heavens swarm into me like a ghost and lift me up and take me away into the sun He wakes. She freezes JACK What's for dinner? JILL Left overs. JACK We had left overs from the left overs from the left overs yesterday and the day before that so why may I ask my dear sweet wife are we having left overs AGAIN? JILL Because I'm DISGUSTED. JACK Oh. Okay then I'll set the table you get the domestics. JILL I got the domestics yesterday and the day before that and the day before that JACK Yes dear I know but you forget I got the domestics the day before that and the day before that AND the day before that The old Woman rises and walks over to them. JILL Yes sweetheart BUT you've lost track I got the domestics the day before that the day before that the day before that the day before that the day before that the day before that and the day before that and that and that and that and that and THAAAAAAAAAAAAT!!! Pause. Perhaps you remember now? Pause. JACK I'll get the domestics They both freeze in boredom holding domestics WOMAN (to them) I remember a tale, a fairy tale with a meaning underneath the beat But I've forgotten the stories meaning and now only remember the facts oh well Weeps. Returns to her rocking chair. JACK Do you remember how it went? JILL The story? JACK Yes, the story. JILL Something about a hill? JACK Yes, a hill, and two people JILL They climbed up the hill JACK Yes, both of them climbed up a hill JILL And one was afraid? JACK One must have been terrified. JILL Terror stricken, perhaps. JACK Yes. Or was it that they both were? JILL Maybe. Why? JACK He saw too much, once he reached the top of the hill. JILL What did he see? JACK The world. He saw, for a brief moment, the possibilityof the world. JILL And that's when he fell? JACK No. Not right away. JILL When? JACK When he had this thought. JILL What was it? JACK That he hadn't seen the world before only a small, small part of it just a nibble of it and that's all he ever knew or could relate to He thought his nibble was the whole world but then after he looked he realized it wasn't and he felt regret Deep, deep regret a regret that he hadn't seen the world or it's possibility until that very moment and that because there was more than he had ever dreamed possible in that one moment of enlightenment he felt his life had been meaningless. JILL But if he hadn't been who he was, and gone through all that he had gone through he wouldn't have reached the top of the hill to see the world in the first place JACK I know. But he became scared Overwhelmed at the thought that he had after all reached a point of knowledge and that he would be able to know the world and all its wonder if he just walked down the other side of the hill and used that new light but his legs weakened Jack and Jill freeze horror on their old faces WOMAN I realized I couldn't do anything about that which I hadn't done yesterday but I could do something about it the very second I realized I couldn't do anything about it yesterday tomorrow but I forgot what it was that I wanted to do yesterday today because through that realization I came to the conclusion that I didn't need to do it because I had already imagined it But then I came to another conclusion that all my thinking was was a diversion from doing anything or from doing now what I realized I wanted to do then but I didn't do it then I realized I made myself confused because I was really afraid of staying on top of that little mountain and looking out over the world out over the universe back to me and walk strait down the hill to the other side with a new awareness of life but I never did that My legs weakened Weeps The Woman dies unnoticeably. She closes her eyes and simply stops rocking her chair. JILL So he fell? JACK Yes. He fell down. Back to the bottom where he started out wanting to climb the hill but afraid to JILL Why didn't he try and try again? JACK He was injured. JILL What happened to him? JACK He hit his head. JILL Was he alright? JACK No. He broke his crown. JILL Was he a king? JACK Almost. But he fell. JILL (sadly) He fell. JACK And so did she. JILL Who? JACK His friend. JILL She fell too? JACK She followed after him. JILL Why? JACK She was alone on top of the hilland became afraid to. JILL What a sad story, Jack. JACK Tragic, Jill. They are very old. They look out at the audience with disbelief that their lives are over and that they haven't felt fulfilled. The lights fade slowly on Jack and Jill, staring out but a dim light remains on the Woman who is now dead. The chair still. Her eyes closed. All fades to black. End of Play