January 4 Play: IN THE MOONSLIGHT

4: IN THE MOONSLIGHT - by Ed Valentine
© January 4, 2010 * ed@edvalentine.com

LIGHTS UP: Full moon visible outside. A WOMAN sits in a hardbacked chair in a shaft of moonlight that falls from a high window.

The woman has a distraught, destroyed appearance. Obsessively pulls at a loose strand of hair. Her focus: far away, squinting.


WOMAN
She goes towards the light.
He goes away from the light.
She goes closer to the darkened field.
He goes into the field.
She says, why have you come here, and where are you going?
He says: nothing.
She answers, give me an answer.
He answers nothing.
Give me an answer.
Give me an answer.
Give me an answer.
Give me an answer.
Give me an answer.
Give me an answer.
Give me – He says, the old words don’t work.
He slurs it.
She stops.
She says, wait: did you say ‘the old words don’t work’ or ‘the old worlds don’t work’?
He stops.
He says: does it matter?
-
-
-
And with that he begins to walk away from the light again,
into the darkened field.
He walks away from the light.
He walks away from the light.
She never sees him
Again.

(She quiets. Stands. Regards the audience directly for the first time. Then walks backward into darkness. Silence for a moment.)

END OF PLAY.