Granite

by Joseph Frost a play written for The 31 Plays in 31 Days Project

Draft October 8, 2012

Attic Scripts 4550 Normandy Dr Jackson, MS 39206 atticscripts@hotmail.com

Characters: Litha - female, young. delicate and small.

Gal - female, maybe late 30's. Mik - male, maybe 30's. gruff

Wend - female, maybe late 20's/ early 30's. * the script calls for 2 non-speaking characters, Wend's young child and a woman approximately Mik's age. A production could, if necessary, find a way to represent them without having them appear.

Staging: The 4 speaking characters should each appear in an isolated spot on stage, dimly lit is preferable. The ending should be the only time where the full stage is illuminated, just before the final blackout.

A dark stage. As the characters appear, each is in their own isolated spot on stage. A small flashlight illuminates LITHA. LITHA I was standing in front of the largest piece of granite Ive ever seen Ever Past the fields and over green hill And there it is Enormous There are times when you come face to face with a piece of nature, so.... vast... you have to respect it It was like an ocean of impenetrable... unmoving unmoved unmovable Granite no concern for my small... ness I meant nothing to it How could I? How could I have meant something to it? I wanted I want to mean something to a piece of granite forty feet square and unfeeling rising out of the green grass out past the fields this object this this mass I wanted more than anything to crumble there in front of the largest piece of granite Ive ever seen crumble but somehow somehow somehow i just couldnt Light shines down on GAL, laying on the floor, facing the audience. She is illuminated only from above - as a street lamp.

2. GAL I was there, looking up, long ways down the narrow road. Up the hill, behind the rising buildings and dark awnings. It was there. Rising Rising up, piercing the sky. The night sky pierced with white. The white steeple of the cathedral. Up the narrow road. Past the shops and stones. At the top of the hill. Pointing up. I was on the cobblestones. I felt like I had it in me to stand. I set down my bottle. I pulled myself up with my elbows. I set my knees beneath me Asked my legs to finish the work. I could feel it, in my chest. I was going to stand. I was going to. I was wrong. And the bottle tipped Rolled down Cracking the cobblestones Down the hill Clinking and clacking All the way down I dug my face out of the stone turned up to the top of the hill And the piercing white steeple Still pointed up In the dark, upstage, a cigarette is lit. Mik holds the cigarette. He wears a dark suit and sits on a small stone bench. MIK I only needed someone to blame. All I needed from you. Just that. I didnt want your excuses, I didnt need to know your past, and I couldnt stand the sound of your pitiful fine-china voice. Thats why I treated you... I suppose I should apologize for that. (MORE)

3. MIK (CONT'D) We both know I should have just let it go. I should have just let it go. I had no choice but to hold on. I thought I had no choice but to hold on. So I did. I held on. I gripped with both hands. White knuckles. And I held on. You know I did. No choice. Didnt think I had a choice. Wasnt my choice. A lamp is turned on. The lamp is on a side table near a small wooden chair, on which sits WEND - institutional clothing. WEND It was wrong. I know that. I had no choice. It never seemed like I had a choice. I know now that I had a choice. I chose what I chose, and I make no excuses for myself. I know the score. If anyone knows. I do. But you should have seen the look on his face. If youd seen the look on his little face, theres no way youd blame me. His little smile. His eyes. My god. god. I had always thought of myself as A kind person A generous person Giving Forgiving Thats what I thought of me I couldnt see it otherwise I couldnt Now... Now I can.

4. LITHA Granite can be so cold A block that large you dont have to touch it to know to understand you can feel it from where I was standing you could feel it the cold stealing the heat around it and leaving all with nothing didnt have to touch it but it was taking from me my heat out of my chest and into itself just like that no question no permission no resistance my heat in that block of cold and me Standing in front of it with none left GAL Thats where I woke When the sun smacked me in the eye Across the street A boy Nine? Ten? Sitting on a metal bucket outside a shop Might have been there Ten minutes. An hour? Just looking Brown eyes Whar u looken aet? Incomprehensible He just looked Hazel eyes If Id had my bottle, Id have thrown it I swear I wouldve I hated that boy taemezet just looked Brown with a hint of green taem ez et? Looked A speck of blue what time iz et?! (MORE)

5. he points up I know where I dont even Not even the GAL (CONT'D) the street hes pointing look corner of my eye

And I finally took in a deep inhale through my nose and I smell I think I smell it fresh baked bread roll coffee at once I did smell it and there it was before my stomach could rumble I felt it the hunger Deep within new To my knowledge But Persistent like it was there the whole time and I hadnt noticed it Across from me Sitting on a metal bucket Looking me in the face and I never knew it until I smelled and it was there Mik lights the lighter again and keeps it lit for as long as possible. MIK Never trusted anyone much less someone like you Much less even myself Ive only ever let me down learned that lesson I am unreliable as anyone Ive ever met (MORE)

6. MIK (CONT'D) I didnt trust you but I dont trust me I treated you like I treat me Like a stray dog bite your finger if you feed it too close bite it right off gotta keep a stray out of the yard I promise you and you have to hear me on this I promise you I never meant for this to happen million years never couldnt imagine ever loving anyone I promise like I loved you wouldnt wish it on my enemy the longing yearning didnt know it would be like that wasnt ready for it I put it on you not surprised how it turned out not surprised at all I know what it did to you what it had to do to drive you to... you shouldnt be in the ground and me standing up here Empty words, apologies If Id meant them, we wouldnt be me here you there That pastd not be and you and me we would be we would be I know that for sure for damn sure I should have been... more

7. WEND Youd imagine. Youd hope. Youd expect that it would take a whole hell of a lot to turn you into a thief. That it wouldnt be so easy to steal. Steal. That ugly word. You would just hope that justifying it would be... difficult. But there I was, thinking of that sweet little face and how responsible I felt for what he was going through and all of a sudden Im standing in my house and handing it over to an unsuspecting child like Im a hero. Like Im robin hood the benevolent noble one. When Im just a thief. Justified. I was pretty sure I was on solid ground on that one. I had needs, I was meeting needs of others, they had plenty to spare, whats the harm, the whole racket. I was sure. Absolutely sure. Twelve people saw it differently. They couldnt put themselves in my shoes. Walk a mile. They wore their own shoes out of the room and I wore slippers. Theyre at home, Im in a cell. Bars. And I havent seen or heard from that sweet little one-(opens a drawer in the side table. Many papers inside.) I write a letter a week. Havent sent one since valentines. They stay with me. here in this cell. In my cell. Me and the letters right

LITHA I couldnt fathom big it and little me fair was out of the question but somehow right it was right the one thing I could grasp rightness we were us me and it one as undeniable as the other and I felt an... urge it made no sense to me but it was there - an urge pushed me from my back not a shove a guiding a nudge an urge

(MORE)

8. LITHA (CONT'D) and I followed forward I stepped forward toward toward it forward toward the granite forty feet square and granite as granite step step and it got closer almost felt like it got closer and not me barely felt the ground or my feet step and it it the immovable the immovable The immovable moved it moved the immovable moved as I walked forward toward and I step through granite GAL The looking boy just pointed up the street. MIK You deserved so much more than me. WEND Him out there and me in here is the way it is. GAL And I dont know why I did it but I looked MIK I couldnt be more than me.

9. WEND Nothing can be done about it now. GAL And I could see the steeple, white and piercing. MIK I cant be what... who I was. WEND Its impossible to change. GAL I could smell the bread, my narrow eyes, and the piercing... MIK Youve crushed me down to the powder. WEND I cant be more sorry for what Ive done. The piercing. Crushed. Guilty. And the immovable the immovable the immovable moved Near Gal, the shadow of a steeple. Near Mik, the figure of a woman steps up behind him. Near Wend, a small boy stands. It moved. LITHA (CONTD) Simultaneously: Gal reaches out for the steeple - and stands. GAL MIK WEND LITHA This is what it took.

10. The woman reaches past Mik and takes his cigarette, douses it. Puts hand on his back. The boy puts his arms around Wends neck. As this happens, lights brighten the entire stage, finally connecting the individual spots on stage. The immovable moved. walk forward and step through granite A short moment, then all lights go out. The end. LITHA (CONTD)