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Psyche

by

Ruth Scherr

rhscherr@gmail.com
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Cast of Characters:

PSYCHE: Young, beautiful, angry. She will grow out of one

of these descriptors.

MOTHER: Careful and worried. Not enough.

APHRODITE: The goddess of love. Eros mother. Kind, cruel,

and beautiful.

PERSEPHONE: Deeply loves two people who do not love each

other. Fresh, beautiful, and friendly. Still a goddess.

EROS: A god of love. Really just a body under a blanket in

the night.

HEDONE: Daughter of Eros and Psyche. Loved.

Doubling should be such.

ACTRESS 1: PSYCHE
ACTRESS 2: MOTHER, APHRODITE, PERSEPHONE
EROS and HEDONE are up to discretion.

SETTING: It is ancient Greece, except it is 1840s England,

except it is present day America. Mostly, it is everything
but the future.

NOTE: On scene transitions there shouldnt be any until

the end.
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SCENE 1

AT RISE: A cliff, towering, cold, periodically sprayed by

the sea. On the cliff is PSYCHE, sobbing. She is dressed
for a wedding and a funeral both her own. The wind whips
harshly over the scene, but to PSYCHE it is a caress,
unnoticed and unwanted.

(MOTHER enters, bowed against the wind, clutching

desperately to her own guilt.)

MOTHER
Oh my Psyche, my baby girl. I am sorry I could not save
you.

(Psyche continues to cry. MOTHER pulls out a

short candle stub, and presses it into PSYCHEs
hands.)

This is all I have left to give. I love you.

(MOTHER kisses the top of PSYCHEs head and

starts to walk away. A pause.)

PSYCHE
Thats it?

Youre just going to give me a burnt-out candle and walk

away? Thats it? What kind of mother are you?

The kind who sends her only child to death and watches
without crying, right? Im glad Im going to die on my
wedding night, if only so I dont make the same mistakes as
you.

MOTHER
I have never regretted anything more than this

PSYCHE
Dont just say some pretty words about regret at me and
pretend like youve done everything you could! Rescue me!
Take me away from this terrible cliff and my terrible fate!

Just take me home.

MOTHER
You want to go back to people who would send you to a
monster without hesitation?
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I got you out, Psyche. I put everything I had into saving

you before the worst could happen.

PSYCHE
Well it wasnt enough, was it? Last time I checked Im
still going to die!

MOTHER
We all die, Psyche! All I can do is change how much of hell
you see before you go there!

Im sorry. Im so...

(PSYCHE curls up. She does not want to listen

anymore.)

I could apologize to you forever and it would never be

enough. A childs curse is to be changed by a parents
mistakes and I... I have made so many.

(A long pause. The wind grows louder, ripping at

MOTHER but gently lifting PSYCHEs hair. PSYCHE
is crying again, quietly. MOTHER exits.)

(The wind grows to a howling roar. Imagine a

hurricane just outside the eye, a jet engine from
outside and behind. It sounds like the earth
itself has moved. Then all sound stops. The
lights flicker.)

SCENE 2

(PSYCHE stops crying and looks up. She is in an

elaborately beautiful bedroom.)

PSYCHE
Husband, I am so lonely.

Every night you wake me after the sun has gone down and you
tell me you love me. Im not sure I believe you. How can
you love someone you dont know? How can you know someone
you never see?

I mean, I guess the sight is not the problem. The problem

is, well, the problem is everything about this situation
honestly, husband, can you not see this is insane but the
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problem is that I dont know how you can love someone if

you dont know them and I dont know how you can know
someone if you dont get to know them. I

I know many things about you, husband. I know you have

wealth, and power, and that my country and my parents were
so afraid of you that they sent their only heir to you
without complaint. I know you are strong, and warm, and
that your hair smells like the wind. You do not like it
when I cry but when I laugh I can feel you smiling.

I cannot see it, of course, but. It feels lovely. It feels

loving. You feel loving.

Im not sure I believe you.

I do not presume to tell you your own feelings, husband,

but I cannot believe you love me because I dont know how
you could.

Can you love a caged thing? A pet, a lesser being, a human

mortal striving to be in your godly image but doomed to be
lesser?

Well, I am perhaps not in your image, husband.

Men love their dogs, I guess, just as mothers love their

children. Its a different love, I hope, when we love
another person. Or god-shaped being. Maybe not a full love
of equals but closer, I think.

I do not want to be your pet, husband. A compromise must be

made for a marriage to work. A balance must be struck. I am
willing to strike that balance... but I guess I am not the
one giving something up. I am only asking for your trust,
husband. You already have mine whether or not I wanted to
give it.

If I cannot have your trust, then I am not your partner. I

am your possession, or your tamed wolf, at best. Well. If I
do not deserve your trust than why should I even try to
earn it? Even a tamed wolf will bite the hand that feeds it
if it is unhappy.

Oh, husband. Sometimes I wonder which one of us is the

monster.

(She breathes.)
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They say you cannot love something without knowing it.

Well. I know your hands. I know the feel of your skin
against mine and the way you breathe like the wind is
trapped in your lungs. I know you make love like it gives
you life. I know your mouth.

(Convincing herself)

I love all these things.

(PSYCHE gets into bed with an invisible EROS. The

lights dim, with a spot on PSYCHEs face. The
next line is half confession, half testing to see
if he is awake.)

I want to love you.

(She holds up her hand with MOTHERs candle in

it, lit. The light in the space all the light
increases to the point of discomfort. EROS
screams as the wax drips on him and wakes him up.
The lights flicker.)