Ryan Tre`Vaughn Dixon Creative Writing ENG 2015 Dr.

Mary Pernal May 2, 2008

Gratuitous Nonsense A Play

Characters A Young Man A Young Woman

Scene A rectangular dorm room. A door on one of the shorter walls, opposite an open window on the other. An unmade bed and full bookcase lengthwise along one of the longer walls. A desk brimming with papers, a lamp, an ipod plugged into a small radio, & a laptop computer; a three drawer dresser with a small television, and a door along the opposite. Dawn light is brightening through the open window. A Young Man and A Young Woman sit on a throw on the floor playing a card game, passing a joint between them. Miles Davis' Bitches Brew plays on the radio. The joint's smoke floats and curls up on the cool breeze wafting in the window.

YOUNG WOMAN: YOUNG MAN: YOUNG WOMAN: YOUNG MAN: YOUNG WOMAN: Really?

Skip-Bo! Skip-Booooooo! Skip-Bo! Skip-BOOOOOOO! (drawing a card) Jeez. Roughness. No fair play?

(Discarding.) Ha! Fair play is a fallacy, mdear. (Drawing in on Of the

YOUNG MAN:

the joint and exhaling.) Survival is the games name. fittest, of the fittest. YOUNG WOMAN: YOUNG MAN: Right, right. That's right. Sure.

Survivaltown, is it? (Drawing two

Its all right there.

cards). Its all right there in front of the fellow with the right kind of eyes. The fella with the Technicolor eyes. Can you feel Got it?

(Emptying his hand and re-drawing) Can you feel me? my will to power? Feel that? Can you feel my nature rise? Ooh.

That was it right there.

It just did that to you.

(Discarding.) YOUNG WOMAN: (Drawing a card. Shaking her head. Discarding.)

Right, oh merciful benevolence. YOUNG MAN: Right. (Drawing a card.) Right on, peasant. Add it up to sum, scum pump. My God! Pleasant

pleasure pocket.

Check it out.

(Pause, focused on cards).

Heathens slathered along the

side of the road to my own realization, to my own raging wakefulness. My dear, dear friend I beseech you: be mindful of

the experience. I say.

(Passing the joint.)

Mindful of the experiment,

For the way to being is expensively paved with the dead

artifacts of becoming. YOUNG WOMAN: YOUNG MAN: YOUNG WOMAN: YOUNG MAN: YOUNG WOMAN: (Inhaling.) YOUNG MAN: Youre a fucking riot. Youre a fucking card. Youre sharp, kid, sharp. The sharpestThe sharpest damn tool in the shed, kid. The sharpest damn tooth in the shark. (Emptying his hand of cards. Re-drawing. The sharpest-

Discarding.)

Dont forget that when youre off on trailblazing

escapades to discovery with who-knows-what army of stupidly brave young intrepids, assembled by Tony Starks, billionaire industrialist, (YOUNG WOMAN, smiling, draws a card), to assail the vanguard and take over the wheel of the worlds turning! Whiles here I lowly am, whiling away this aching life, smoking slow blunts and waxing eloquent, making mocha machiattos on the firing line with Charlie Phil Collins and The Mad Mad Mad Jew Fro. YOUNG WOMAN: (Pause.) True story? For really real? Your lips

are brimming with it right now. stinking up your teeth. your eyes.

It is stuck up in between and

The bullshit you speak must be up to

It must be your true truth, your essential self,

willing itself to power. YOUNG MAN: Precisely. (Drawing a card). Precisely.

YOUNG WOMAN: grace. YOUNG MAN: YOUNG WOMAN: YOUNG MAN: YOUNG WOMAN: YOUNG MAN:

(Pause.

Inhaling.)

You just skipped me, your

I did not. You did. I did not. You did. I did not. It only appeared as such, to your sad eye Quit Bogarting the essentials. Dont change the subject.

shades, mind slave. YOUNG WOMAN: YOUNG MAN: YOUNG WOMAN: YOUNG MAN: YOUNG WOMAN: YOUNG MAN:

(Inhaling.) I wont. You just did. Ok.

I dont want to play this anymore. Ok. (Rolls over on his back. Sunlight reflects from

his glasses. YOUNG WOMAN: to the table? YOUNG MAN: YOUNG WOMAN:

Miles wails away in the background.) Do you think the next president will bring ecology

(Pause.)

No. Are they

Do you know whats happening in Haiti?

still at civil war? YOUNG MAN: YOUNG WOMAN: I dont know. (The joint has gone out. YOUNG WOMAN places it in

the window sill). night at the river? YOUNG MAN: Yes.

Do you think Marcie sucked Clarks cock last

Of that I am absolutely sure.

YOUNG WOMAN: Hey. Hey you.

(Climbing atop and straddling YOUNG MAN). Gimme some.

Hey.

YOUNG MAN: YOUNG WOMAN: YOUNG MAN: YOUNG WOMAN: YOUNG MAN: YOUNG WOMAN: YOUNG MAN: YOUNG WOMAN: YOUNG MAN: word. loon.

Yeah? Yeah, gimme some. (Nuzzling at his neck). No. Why not, pretty face? No. Im not pretty. I hate that shit.

Yeah? (Smiling, licking YOUNG MANs cheek) Oh God. You know how much I love you? I know how much you say you it, but I dont believe a

Youre a fucking nut-job, sister; an obvious outhouse Take it from the Doctor. He knows. Dont I make you happy? Who are you fooling?

YOUNG WOMAN: YOUNG MAN:

Why dont you believe me? Not even.

You make you happy.

You dont even believe that shit. YOUNG WOMAN: Youre right. Coming? Go on. (Getting up). Its seven-thirty.

Im off to grub. YOUNG MAN: No.

(YOUNG WOMAN stares down at YOUNG MAN, looks around the room). Ill be back. YOUNG MAN: Mm-Hmm. (YOUNG WOMAN exits). YOUNG MAN: My oh my. The more the merrier? Nah. Less is more.

(YOUNG MAN on his back takes a pack of cigarettes and lighter

from his pocket, lights one, inhales.) YOUNG MAN: (Exhaling). Less is more.

to be continued