Characters:
P1:
Optimistic female: represents "society"
P2:
Realistic male: represents "reality"
Danny:
An angel who is looking back on his life. He committed suicide because
he felt he was alone.
Angie:
Danny's friend, usually optimistic but very upset over her friend's death.
Two people enter stage. One from the left and the other from the right. They are each holding a paper lunch bag. They sit down on a park bench.
P1: Afternoon.
P2: I suppose.
P1: What do you mean you suppose? You can't deny that it's the afternoon.
P2: I suppose.
P1: (annoyed) Anyway, how are you?
P2: I've been thinking.
P1: Thinking?
P2: Thinking. About the sorry state of affairs the world has spiraled down into.
P1: (hardly listening) I like the world, that's where I keep my stuff.
P2: You can't turn on a TV, or open a magazine, or watch a movie, or even go to church without people telling you how you should act, and think, and be.
P1: (ignoring him) I have a lot of stuff to keep.
P2: And then you feel disappointed when you realize that you can't live up to the impossible standards that these stereotypes set for you.
P1: Role models should set goals for us that are attainable by the average person.
P2: They shouldn't have to set goals for us.
P1: No goals?
P2: Not for us.
P1: Then how would anything get accomplished?
P2: We set our own goals, think for ourselves, and be SHEEP that follow other people around.
P1: That's a new concept.
P2: The world is full of scared mindless little people who would like nothing more than to successfully distance themselves from all that might seem threatening, emotionally damaging, or questioning to their belief structure. So you try your hardest to conform to these impossible standards, therefore destroying the unique individual you could have been.
P1: So are you saying that the people I idolize hold an accountability on the way I develop as an individual?
P2: Yes. If they realize that you admire them that much and use them as the basis of your development, they should make an effort at least, to provide a good example.
P1: So if I get all messed up then I can place the blame on those that I look up to?
P2: Exactly!
P1: Exactly?
P2: Sure!
P1: So you're saying that I should take advantage of my life and be the best me I can be, but if I get all messed up I can blame it on the media?
P2: No.
P1: I seems like I'm just dodging the blame, but if I were to cast off the shackles of conformity, and be nothing but myself, then if I were to somehow get messed up, it would be entirely my fault!
P2: I know. The two possibilities exist separately. If you look up to people and you get messed up because of them, then you can place the blame.
P1: It's impossible to be entirely yourself. From the day we're born, we imitate others in order to learn. It's human nature that we combine little bits and pieces of others personalities into our own. Therefore being like others makes us unique.
P2: Isn't that an oxymoron?
P1: If you think too much it is.
P2: I like thinking.
P1: You think too much.
P2: I know.
Fade to black. Music starts to play in the background. A male voice recites the poem Times Remembered by Trevor D. Lowe.
I remember a time,
when life seemed so simple.
Worries, obligations, and responsibilities
were small.
Girls had cooties, and friends were
all around.
A time of sand boxes, club houses, and
magical holidays.
But times have changed...
Life seems harder now.
Worries, obligations, and responsibilities
are greater.
Cooties are gone, and true friends are
rare.
It's a time of education, jobs and stressful
holidays.
A time of not knowing where you fit
among your peers.
A time of decisions for the future,
of anxiously yearning to finish it all.
The journey is long, but completed,
you too will look back,
and remember a time.
Male voice: At least I had role models to guide me through it all and understand my pain, when no one cared.
Spotlight on one part of the stage revealing a tombstone. A girl enters with flowers and kneels by the grave.
Angie: You had so much to live for, a bright future ahead of you, friends and family who loved you, you had everything, but I guess you didn't realize that and it's too late now. When they told me what happened I refused to believe you were dead, I expected you to pop out from around the corner and it would all be a joke. But it's not. But suicide? That's choosing to die, choosing to make people around you sad. I suppose you were too wrapped up in your music and the dark role models you idolized to even care about anyone else. All you thought about was how bad you thought your life was, (becoming angry) but it wasn't! If you had opened your eyes you would have seen that. (pause) Oh Danny! (sobs)
At "Danny" the lights shift and a male figure dressed in white steps into the light behind her.
Danny: Oh God I'm so sorry. I never meant for it to be this way. But you have to understand what I was up against. No one understood me, no one cared. The music I listened to.. the lyrics, they were what I was feeling inside.
Angie: (talking to the tombstone) If only you had listened to something different, something happy. You would have been happy too.. It's all their fault that you're gone.. the music you listened to and the people who sang it took you away from us.
Danny: No!! That's not it at all! They had nothing to do with what I felt! Nothing! The angry lyrics helped me to focus my anger.. they helped me... (comes to a realization) stay angry. They made me think that only my role models understood me... but they didn't, they didn't know me... you knew me! What have I done!?! I've got to do something! But what? I'm dead! So many times I've said that, but it's always been an exaggeration, but now, it's real. This can't happen to anyone else, I'll make sure of it. I don't know how, but I'll find a way. I promise. Don't cry Angie, please. Be happy like you usually are, I'm going to a better place, and I'm going to make sure this never happens again. (pauses, turns to leave and then stops. He smiles, remembering old times) See you later Angie. You be good now.
Spotlight shifts back to focus on Angie and the tombstone. Danny steps back into the darkness before exiting.
Angie: I can almost hear your voice. (wipes away a tear) Just like always, like I'll see you tomorrow. (imitating Danny) I'll see you later Angie. You be good now. (starts to cry again, then stops herself and tries to regain her composure) I'll try. Bye Danny. (stands with the flowers in her hand, smells them and then places them on the grave.) I'll miss you.
Angie walks back into the darkness of the stage and exits. Music resumes. Blackout.
Lights rise and P1 and P2 are sitting on the bench as they were before. P1 looks sad.
P2: What's wrong? You're always so happy.
P1: It's just kind of sad that the role models we look up to are under so much pressure to be a good influence to everyone. I was just thinking... what if they don't want to accept that responsibility?
P2: Then people get messed up and blame it on them. (laughs) Now you're thinking too much! Don't worry, it won't happen to us, we're smarter than that.
P1: (smiles) Ok... but we've both got to stop thinking so much. (looks at watch) I've got to go, lunch is almost over.
P2: Me too. (they stand taking their paper lunch bags with them) See you later Angie. You be good now.
P1: (laughing) I'll try. Bye Danny!
They exit to the right and to the left in the same directions in which they entered. Pause. Blackout.