Cradlestein 1 Act Plays

Senior Inquiry - Period 1/2

4 March 2016
The Party at Bokonons House

Characters:
Bokonon: Ben Schoenhals
Mill: Sarah Roisland
Kant: Hope Roche
Victor: Michelle Schaefer
Monster: Andrea Finol
Felix: Mattie Schmidt

One night, Bokonon decided to invite all of his good friends over to his new home for a
housewarming party. All of his friends have just arrived at his home -- a newly found cave that in
the side of a mountain of San Lorenzo -- (somehow simultaneously) and are awaiting his answer
at the door.

(There is a knock at the door to the cave (yes, the cave has a door).)

Bokonon: Just as I thought. Come in.

(Group Enters)

Bokonon: Welcome to my new home.

(Everyone Exchanges Greetings)

Monster: So, what do you have planned for us tonight, my dearest Bokonon?

Victor: Abhorred Monster! Fiend thou art! How dare you approach me and my friends? Begone!
There can be no community between you and me; we are enemies.

Bokonon: Now Victor all of us are meant to be here, I made it precisely as so. And Monster, I
knew you would ask just that question! I thought that we could all play a nice... fair game
of poker.

Kant: *gasps* Fair? That is not a fair game. This is a game of lies and deceit. Its unethical!

Mill: Kant, not all situations can be subject to such black and white terms of ethics! We all
understand the benefits (Everyone agrees who plays the game to a level of misleading all
for the enjoyment of the game and overall happiness of the group!)

Kant: *scoffs* I have a better idea-- A game of truths. Its called, never have I ever.

Felix: (sits down and mumbles) Chairs, while meant for sitting perhaps serve a better role as
decoration (as if cued everyone sits at the table)

Monster: Whats poker? What's never have I ever?! You guys know I'm relatively new to life.

Victor: Oh don't bother explaining it to that thing. His brain is incapable! We all shall surely
suffer from his presence.

Bokonon: (cuts in) Well, we go around in a circle and everyone says something that they have
never done. If you have done it, you put down one of your 10 fingers that you are holding
up. We keep going until all of someones finger are down.

Felix: Why should I bother with made-up games when there are so many real ones going on?

Victor: Precisely! How scandalous!

Monster: This sounds like a great way to get to know people. I am alone and thirst for
companionship and intimacy.

Bokonon: The best way to understand your fellows, is a game of absolute truths paired with
drinks and Jell-O. Perhaps I'll add that to the seventy-fifth Book of Bokonon

Victor: Perhaps some of us know each other too well. (Glares at monster)

Bokonon: Alright... Im going to get a couple drinks and some Jell-O to set the mood.
(whispers) God these people (grabs liquor off of the table behind him and hands the
drinks out) Shall we begin? (puts hands out on the table)

(Everyone holds out their open hands)

Bokonon: (With a growing smirk on his face) Never have I ever.. murdered someone.

(Monster puts a couple fingers down)

Victor: Vile insect! Oh that if I could, with the extinction of your miserable existence, restore
those victims whom you have so diabolically murdered! And the grief that I feel for I was
the miserable wretch who created you...I cannot bear the blame!

Monster: Listen to me, Frankenstein. You accuse me of murder, and yet you would destroy your
own creature.

Felix: I wonder where does responsibility fall? And intention? Bokonon, what about the
mountain?

Bokonon: I didnt kill those people, I merely made a suggestion. Either way, Felix, what about
ice-nine? Oh, and Hiroshima?

Felix: Ah, what a curious thought! Yes, I made the bomb and ice-nine, though I didn't set it off.
The pursuit of science and truth is not guilty for the uses by evil men.

Mill: Neither of you are cleared of blame. You havent a semblance of an idea of the pain you
inflicted on those affected by your crimes; and to add insult to injury, neither of you care
to take responsibility for them.

Kant: (about Felix AND Bokonon.) Every individual is responsible for their own actions,
therefore Felix and Bokonon are not murderers. But. Bokonon lied so therefore that's
bad or perhaps unethical. (smug) Never have I ever lied.

Victor: (as he lowers a finger) Not one remains innocent of that sin.

Felix: What is sin.

Bokonon: Another good quote! (Bokonon scribbles into his book) No one remains innocent of
their sins, they are collected in ethereal bins. They will be looked on by god, who will
decide if you are a fraud.

Monster: Why are you taking note of all of these quotes, Bokonon?

Bokonon: Oh nothing, just writing my latest book. Oh, and before you ask, Kant, I dont steal
quotes, I adapt them then say them out loud which makes it my quote.

Kant: Oh. I see your point. Stealing would be very unethical would also make you a liar since
they are not yours.

Monster: Can we just move on! Never have I ever created a monster. (pointed look at Victor)

Victor: (puts a finger down)

Felix: (doesn't put finger down)

Mill: (visibly annoyed) Felix. Enough with this childish blame-diversion, put your finger down!
We all know of your creations!

Felix: Well, they weren't monsters. Not in a literal sense. They were just creations, necessary for
the advancement of scientific knowledge. It was not I who made them monsters.

Kant: Then what would qualify as a monster?

Victor: A monster is that, horrid, wretched devil! (points at the monster) Oh I shall never relive a
peaceful moment with that thing in the room!

Monster: It is not my fault that I look and act the way I do, Victor. Maybe if my creator hadnt
abandoned me or had made me a bride as I asked, I would not have acted out. I felt
betrayed Victor. You hurt me, Frankenstein.

Victor: If Felix is not responsible for the mass destruction dealt by his creations then why should
I be held responsible for mine. Perhaps my wretched situation is no fault of my own..
Alas, but the misery I feel is solely mine to bear!

Kant: Neither Felix or Victor are responsible for their creations. They each created them to
further advance science and knowledge.

Mill: Yet only Victor did so for a noble cause, Kant. (to Victor) Did you not truly believe you
could save from agony those afflicted with fatal disease through your research? And is it
even conceivable that anyone could find unharmful benefit in Hoenikkers advances?

Victor: Why do you call to my remembrance circumstances of which I shudder to reflect?? I

cannot bear this game any longer! Relieve me I pray!

(Bokonon takes a sip from his cup and takes a bite of some Jell-O and starts choking)

Mill: Good God, are you ok?

Felix: It appears that hes been poisoned! How curious.

Victor: Poisoned?? Death seems to follow my very existence. I warned you all against inviting
that murderer! (Points to monster)

Bokonon: (writing in his book and reading aloud) As I now approach what seems to be my
inevitable death, I realize that this is my fate. I must accept that this is where I end and
transcend this pool-pah of a world. Through my death I have provoked meaningful
argument. I was always supposed to create this argument. Now I will destroy the world...

(Bokonon collapses, falling out of his chair)

Monster: BOKONON!!!! Wake up my dear friend. Guys we need to help him. Victor! I entreat
you, bring him back to life! This alone you can do. You have done it before, surely you
can do it again! Hes the only man that truly cares for me and has offered me his
friendship (sobs)

Victor: I do refuse it! No torture shall ever extort a consent from me! I shall not make the same
mistake twice that lead to my ultimate demise!

Felix: Monster Ill help you reanimate him. I would like to see this scientific phenomenon
myself For research purposes!

Mill: Have you not meddled with life and death enough, Hoenikker, that you feel
compelled to unrightfully bring Bokonon back? Have you yet considered that you may be
doing so against his will? It would be a disservice to Bokonon to reanimate him without
knowledge of the circumstances surrounding his death. Can we, beyond doubt, rule out
suicide?

Kant: Mill, have you considered that all rational beings should be preserved? If everyone
was immortal, no one could use each other as a means to an end. God created man Thus,
for each human, whose body, soul and existence is an end for himself, to continue in
perpetual existence, the body must rise again to be reunited with the soul.
Victor: Maybe he doesnt want to live... Not everyone does, as I have experienced. I beg
of you, learn from my wretched existence!

Mill: Just as every man has the right to live as he chooses, so long as he isnt harming
others, he has the right to die. If that is the path he has chosen willingly we must respect
his decision.

(Scene pans over to Monster and Felix who have been working at the reanimation of
Bokonon whilst the others were arguing)

Felix: So, if they arent going to do anything about this, we need to do something
ourselves.

Monster: I believe I have Frankenstein notes with me. Lets see.

Felix: If we place this electrode here, and this one here

Monster: Hmm, I believe that Victor put them over here.

Felix: Ok, ok, lets try it. Flip the switch Monster

Victor and Mill: NO!

(Electricity surges through the body and Bokonon screams and writhes on the makeshift
workbench that is the table (Yes Bokonons cave has electricity and powerful breakers.)

(Bokonon rises up.)

Bokonon: It seems that I was wrong. My fate was not to stir up meaningful ethical
argument; rather, it was to enhance scientific knowledge. Odd considering that science is
dangerous and interferes with the serenity of pure life. Either way, this must be what was
actually meant to happen. After all, I cannot choose my own fate. (Bokonon writes I
cannot chose my own fate in his newest Book of Bokonon 17 times)

Felix: Science is to be done for the sake of science and is the only pursuit we need! It
allows us to make way for discovery; fate.

Victor: I thought so as well before it led to the monstrous disasters, fiends, despair. How
I detest the dangers of this truth.

(Victor walks menacingly towards the monster)

Monster: Must your relentless chase begin again? Can we not end this feud and create
peace between us? Youll never rest as long as you follow me.

(Monster backs away towards the exit)

Victor: I cannot rest whilst an abhorrent being such as you runs through the wilds
murdering innocents. You. Must. Die.

(Victor chases the Monster out of the cave into the wilderness of San Lorenzo, never to be
seen again)

As the scene dims, everyone that is left in Bokonons home keeps drinking until they are all
having a great time being horribly unethical. Later the next morning they wake up and regret
everything that they had done. Except Bokonon.
The end.