January 22 Play: TWO ON THE SAND

22: TWO ON THE SAND - by Ed Valentine
© January 22, 2010 * ed@edvalentine.com

LIGHTS UP: A desert island. A palm tree, tall. Sea behind. 2 castaways, ragged. Long beards.

GUSTAVO: Is that –

ALFIERI: No.

GUSTAVO: No, no – I think it is, it IS! Over Here!

ALFIERI: You’re weak with hunger.

GUSTAVO: Here!

ALFIERI: You’re weak in the mind!
-
What now?

GUSTAVO: You’re right. It was a whitecap. A wave.

ALFIERI: Told you! You see, my friend, that’s your trouble!

GUSTAVO: What? What’s my trouble, huh?

ALFIERI: You are too fanciful, too easily susceptible, too – too –

GUSTAVO: Imaginative?

ALFIERI: Yes, and not sensible at all! You’re too willing to – to –

GUSTAVO: Imagine?

ALFIERI: Well, I’d say ‘lie.’

GUSTAVO: Would you? Really?

ALFIERI: Yes. I would say exactly that.

GUSTAVO: Is all imagination a lie?

ALFIERI: Well, of course! Fancies, phantasms, Cottingly Fairies – and lies. You are too willing by half to mistake a dolphin for a dinghy, a cumulous cloud for a helicopter, a whitecap for a waiting ocean liner, and a breaching whale for a battleship!

GUSTAVO: I don’t know that that’s true…

ALFIERI: I do! You should accept your lot. Better by far to eat the coconut flesh –

GUSTAVO: Stale –

ALFIERI: And drink its milk –

GUSTAVO: Sour -

ALFIERI: And be happy here.

GUSTAVO: Happy?

ALFIERI: Or, if not happy, well. I don’t know.

GUSTAVO: Content?

ALFIERI: I suppose. Or something like it.
-
We’ll never leave here. You know?

GUSTAVO: I don’t know.

ALFIERI: Yes, you do. Deep down you do.
(Settles into the sand.)
You might as well admit it.

GUSTAVO: No.

ALFIERI: Admit it.

GUSTAVO: No!

ALFIERI: Admit it!

GUSTAVO: -
(Pointing. Almost quietly:)
A sail. A sail?

(ALFIERI stands. It is.)

ALFIERI: Well, how about that!

(A beat. Disbelieving. Then:)

BOTH: OVER HERE! OVER HERE! OVER HERE!

O.S. a boat blows its horn. Lights up hot on the two castaways, then fade on them waving and shouting.

END OF PLAY.