One-Act Play
Characters in order of appearence:
Girl, 13-year old.
Mother, passed away yesterday.
Spring morning. Chilling cold. A small room with scratched and peeled dark brown wallpaper. The springs protrude from the side of an old sunk-in sofa. Big fragment of broken yesterday mirror stands in the corner. There’s a stale smelly air in the room. There’s a big crumpled box full of books with a pile of sweaters o the top of it in the middle of the room. 13-year old girl is curled up on the sofa she’s sleeping.
1
G i r l. Why is it so cold? Why is it always that cold each time I want to sleep? It is so draughty here! As the windows were wide open. Damned windows the hell with them! I will sleep till I become numb or die. Maybe it would become warmer if I die…
I’m so hungry! There’s no hot water, the radiators don’t heat up. So hungry…
Fortunately there’s some bread left. The less you’ve got left the more you appreciate it. What a bliss to know that you have a slice of bread. You can sit on your bed with it slowly eating piece by piece enjoing that fragile pleasure!
Still wish there was a bit warmer – that would make my life almost perfect!
This mirror! Had been broken yesterday… (touching sharp edges of the mirror.) What does it mean when something self-sufficient, complete, indivisible suddenly breaks into ugly bitter pieces? Don’t want to look at myself I look ugly in it. ( Girl takes a sweater from the box and covers the mirror.) Why am I so ugly? (Touching her face.) I feel like full of something horrible and disgusting. I can’t make myself forgive and love people who have locked 13-year old me, alone in this single-chamber cage…
Yes! They could have sent me to children’s home and deprive me of everything that I still don’t possess, could have deride or even kill… (in a whispour covering face with hands.) But they would never deprive me of my inner Single-Chamber Cage . (Rushes to turn the noisy hissing radio loud, turns on the faucets in bathroom and kitchen. Takes books from the box and throws them all around the room with rattle, swinging her arms awkwardly. ) Sounds!Let it sound! Let it make noise, rattle, crash, show up at least such kind of life … Sounds, sounds! At least not silence! (Little by little she comes to counsciousness, turns everything off, listens to the silence. ) That’s all… Yesterday was a holliday – 8th of March. Everyone had flowers in his hand – blue, white, yellow, orange and red… So many flowers – unbelievable! Everithing seemed to be so fun outside my silent room. Have you ever found yourself in a deathly silence ? When it gets so quiet that every sound seems to blow everything up? Have you ever found yourself in silence where you can hear every heartbeat – you start to feel endless ruthless corpse of time it entwines you harder and harder every minute, ready to choke you?
Mother… I will always remember her watching the dawn. She will remain in my heart till I die. All the mothers love their chilldren so much it becomes burden for them. I tried to love her… I guess it doesn’t make sence anymore .
2
Sweater that covers the mirror falls , Mother appears in it. Her face is remarkably noble. The Girl and Mother stare at each other and rush towards. Mother looks tired and exhausted she is very pale but that makes her even more beautiful – she is wearing a light dress made of printed cotton. Girl is wearing several sweaters and a blanket on her shoulders.
M o t h e r. Hello.
G i r l. Hello. (Trying to reach her mother but it’s only an image.)
M o t h e r. It’s so cold here. Do you feel cold?
G i r l: Yes… I’m freezing!
M o t h e r (takes a toy whistle in a shape of a bird and starts to play. Suddenly it becomes a bit warmer in the room). I wanted to warm you up a little – song of angels . (Mother gives the toy to her daughter)
G i r l. Oh, you shouldn’t have… It’s as cold in my chamber as it should be . As cold as a human can bear…
M o t h e r. Are you angry with me?
G i r l. No. I don’t care.
M o t h e r. Don’t be angry, Girl, my heart is with you forever.
G i r l. Don’t talk about it. I’m not angry and I don’t want to talk about heart. Human’s heart would never do it…
M o t h e r. I didn’t know any other way. If I only knew I would be paying for it to rest of my days!
G i r l. You would be paying for it? What about me? Did you think about me? Look at the chamber I’ve been locked in to the rest of my days. Will somebody ever find the key to open it? You? Your heart? The chamber has been locked! The key was thrown away in a deep well. Why me? Found myself locked here, in this cage, why not you? Why my youth, lust of life, vivid eyes are condemned to die? When I look through the iron bars at the birds, that are flying high and free, I want to fly away with them , crash into the cliff with them, but to learn what it is like to fly in the sky! A trifling cockroach or a spider is more independent than me , he is able to watch the world joyfuly, crawl on the stinky floors and dirty towels joyfuly, look for a crumb of bread and feed it’s chilldren with it joyfuly. I’m not just locked inside the cage, I’m deprived of the most mysterious and sacred in the world – bliss of life. You think you can find excuse for what you’ve done – look what surrounds me, it could hardly invigorate or grow something beautiful!
M o t h e r. Everyone is responsible for what happens to him… People sometimes are strong but stupid destroying everithing rational and reprehensible on their ways, they break through and hope that there is something better behind the ruins . Therefore they find themselves in a blind alley, because at the end of the day they don’t have enough strength to create a new world and of course they didn’t consider how hard the reconstructing of a wonderfull, inspiring dream will be…
G i r l. Shut up! I don’t want to listen to that load of rubbish! You’re such a fake, a silhouette of air . As well as your words are – can dissappear at any time. What a delusion! Yes, yes, yes! I know because I made you up. You are far not real I can’t feel your warmth. In fact, I never could.
M o t h e r. you’re already affraid … No surprise. I’m thinking about you all the time…
G i r l (roughly). I’m thinking about the sun all the time. It shines because it can not stop doing it, so is a human who can’t stop loving and if he could …
M o t h e r . I have always loved you and always will. In fact I’m affraid that …
G i r l. The fear breeds desperation …
M o t h e r. No! The fear breeds pain, when it becomes unbearable …
G i r l. Well, it didn’t bother you to leave me!
M o t h e r. I didn’t leave you I was forced to!
G i r l. Really? And you think being brought up in a hellhole where you lived would be a relief for me?
M o t h e r. I don’t know… Don’t know nothing… You would have been with me… All my friends admired your stubborn and severe temper and big blue eyes . They saw something in you, someone they never could become but always wanted to …
G i r l . No, I don’t know… I don’t remember! (covering her ears with hands like in torture) I don’t want to remember nobody!!!!!! They lied to you , they were laugthing at you, and you were chasing them like a mad homeless dog begging for a miserable crumb of food. Why? What for? Back in the days you were the most honest-minded , kind and innocent of all, but conseqently became average. Joined the society of people with eyes , faces and souls blood shut. I remember cleary how we once found ourselves at somebody’s place with one of your friends. There was an umbrella and a suitcase on the stairs. Immediately colluded, you snatched somebody’s belongings and rushed to sell them. It was raining , you couldn’t agree on a price with a tall man with expressionless greyish freckled face. Your hands were shaking so much! You seemed to strain your voice with every breath you took. It was raining harder and harder, we were standing still, soaking. I was dying of cold , but you paid no attention. I was standing and pulling your sleeve. Finally, you received your money , bought booze, and with a massive crowd you came in an empty, deserted appartment . I didn’t even find a single chair , set on the floor by the radiator trying to warm up my wet hands . I was hungry, but you were so busy yelling, singing songs, stomping the floor with dirty boots, I was scared. I turned my face to the window and couldn’t stop staring through, wishing that somebody big and warm will reach me out and take away forever.
M o t h e r . Why do you talk this way? Don’t talk this way, please… Our souls were too naked and too sencerely open to the world and for that we have payed. People never miss an opportunity to leave a scar in somebody’s open soul. Our eyes were wide open we stared intently at the people, and they hated to be clearly seen, they would rather put out your eyes than let you see more than you’re supposed to. Our faces were open even though suffered from wind and frost. When they became complitely bruised we started covering them. Yes! I was chasing them like a mad homeless dog begging for a miserable crumb of food, because I couldn’t take living in a Single-Chamber Cage, were you survive with such dignity. I wanted to sing and listen to the songs, feel the soft snow on my lips, feel alive – in pain or happiness, in trouble or in sorrow. I know I treated you wrong and now here comes a payback… I’m sorry… I heard each your heartbeat, caught every tear from your eyes. I felt your pain, believe me I felt it twice as hard… I acted severe and unapproachable, because I had no rights to make my child face the horrible truth that dwelled inside me. I drank to be ruthless , to be bad, to myself first of all! If it makes any point!
I was growing up without father. My mother didn’t understand me, we were different people. She was working, making money. She had a lot of open questions after war, she went into her shell, trying to find answers – locked herself inside her world, no one could invade it. In the outer world she just carried out her obligations accurately. It was : to feed me, supply with clothes, check my pupil’s diary sometimes pat me on the back. I was growing up and the ammount of unanswered questions was growing, too. When I finnished high school I fell in love passionately for the first time! I didn’t know how to control it at all. I was disresponsible and helpless, my body and my soul became part and parcel of Him. Soon I became a wife and my life changed its meaning.
Do you know what stands for « the first love»? When you open your eyes see this world for the first time – it gorgeous, full of mysteries, inexperienced… When you make a first step you fall, than you rise , again and again, but keep trying on and on. When you see and feel the most sacred and misterious thing in the world. When you realise that you can do anything you want , turn this world upside down. First love like childhood is incapable to hurt or humiliate, it makes you a human, a real human, who can see, can hear and has faith. But they took away my love from me just as they took you away , my girl. You were born already far away. The first child, the child of love, who was ment to grow up and enlighten the world was dead. In fact, we died together. My husband left me, my child was dead, and I didn’t care at all what to eat or whom to sleep with. I tryed to commit a suicide, to poison myself, but I decided to give myself a month.
And this month was one of the most wonderfull moments. It’s impossible to turn back time. The countdown began. I wandered around the city, went fora walk every night, the world turned so bright like never did before. I looked in eyes of the homeless, standing on a church porch making their ill and half-naked chilldren sing silly songs with their husky voices. All of a sudden I saw a lot of people who had lost their minds, without pain, or happiness, or bitter expressions on their faces – they were just wasting the time of their worthless lives. I saw homeless dogs , mental homes, people begging in the streets. I saw people in front of the icons, standing on their knees but hating God, who made them bend down. I looked at it all and realised I don’t even have any words for them. Let the deadmen bury the dead!
Breaking through the crowd my heart was quite aware of how is one estranged from another, how lonely is everyone in this clot of bodies. Than I felt better, in the middle of that noise and clamour – my pain became natural and average. I wanted to feel all the pain that dwells on earth, embrace the world!
The month has passed , I didn’t change my mind. The pills were bought the place was chosen and the rite began. I was lying on the grass, smelled it, felt it touching my skin, saw the clouds in the sky, everything was clear and quiet. All of a sudden everything became so peaceful so good, it even seemed that I found… It! The rapture didn’t last for long , and there came a revenge after this short moment of happiness as it always does. It was scarry. The Single-Chamber Cage moved ahead entwined me with its iron arms grinded hard to the ground. I tried to break through but the iron bars just stretched and interwoven with my hands like springs, than bounced back, causing pain. But the scariest sound was the sound of approaching, evil like chirring of millions of grasshoppers. It was approaching, filling the space , grew unbearable. My brain seemed to blow from headache, I was goin insane. But suddenly everything illuminated. As I came to myself I saw the doctors. I turned out to be pregnant with you, the doctors were amazed how the fetus could handle such an experience and stay alive. I don’t know your father and I guess I don’t know you. Many times I felt alienation as I looked in your face.
You are the one who wanted to know the truth! Look in the mirror – it’s broken and it makes no difference for it where to be – in this room or in a trashcan… broken, ugly, nobody cares about it, but it still hopes to rise from the dead…
G i r l. It’s not true… No! You lie to me, you lie! You are a figment of my imagination.
M o t h e r. Yes, girl, I lie to you, it’s so comfortable to think that way… Stop it , I came here for something else.
G i r l. I wish you didn’t come here at all! I hate you! (Hits the mirror with a fist. It doesn’t break, but there’s a crack left in the middle.) I never wanted to be your daughter. And! And… I didn’t choose you, I’ll try to forget who you are!
M o t h e r. Now you are wrong – it was you who chose me! Being a bundle of energy you felt sorry for me, you thought you’re so strong and I need your help, redeem me with your birth, you carried your imaginary mission, but now you just hurl reproaches at me – the choice was yours!
All I want to say is that you have enough power to destroy the Single-Chamber Cage. You’d better not loose your time and start destoying it right after my dissappearence… I believe you can handle it…
G i r l. Why does it feel so scarry to talk to you and why is it so dark on the street? Yesterday they told me that you’re dead – is it true?
M o t h e r. I’m not dead… I moved far away to the land where happiness inhabits. I was looking forit all around the world and finally they invited me there. You know, baby daughter, there is a dream that I see from time to time – a wide, empty field. There is no end to it. Nothing grows on that field: no grass, no trees, just a bare scorched earth . Suddenly I decide to cross the field, even though I understand that I can’t reach the end. I do the first step. And to my great surprise the space the I’ve crossed becomes full of flowers in bloom, the birds start to sing there, everything comes to life. There’s no way back. The further I go the more joy and happieness flourishes behind me, the harder it gets to walk. I stand on the empty ground and realise, that my feet are forced to step on, restlessly, without a place of refuge, everything that grows and shines doesn’t belong to me, I’ll never dare to step into this wonderfull world. The further I go, the more my overwhelming desire grows , more and more, to break into the sweet dream that’s left behind…
That’s it, my baby daughter…It feels rather unusual to be there. Not that it’s better, but absolutely different.
G i r l. Why did you left me alone here, why didn’t you take me away with you?
M o t h e r . There was only one ticket, my Baby Daughter. I couldn’t compromise you, you might have dislike it…
G i r l. So you have chosen freedom for yourself and the Single-Chamber Cage for me?
M o t h e r. Forgive me! Forgive me, girl!
G i r l: Mommy! Dear mommy, don’t leave! It’s so cold and scarry at night, the mice are scratching. Warm me up, Mommy, please, it so cold. And please don’t leave! I will behave, I’ll be a good girl, just don’t leave me alone here… In the Single-Chamber Cage! Please, one moment… I LOVE YOU… (Screams.) I LOVE YOU VERY MUCH! (Starts crying.)
Mother’s image melts in the mirror, her voice sounds form far away.
M o t h e r. Forgive me! Goodbye, girl!
It gets cold again. It begins to snow in the room. The bells ring.
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