AUTHOR'S OTHER TITLES (2) By A Bay Or Unloved Cardboard (Plays) A short play about the nature of reality as told by a nit wit. [825 words] [Fantasy] Straightsville, Usa, Operetta (Songs) A sketch of a satire of an opera. [341 words] [Humor]
An Abstract Play Ignatz Hockwitz
A wide eyed simpering human, scared and bold, stupid and brilliant, named Ego, bounds onto the stage naked or scantily clothed. There are various people standing about the stage spotlighted. Ego apes his way around the figures looking at them with exaggerated chimpanzee emotions, occasionally scratching his head. Some of the people on stage he appears fond of, others he seems afraid of. He probably prefers the opposite sex, but not necessarily. Each of the people on the stage are a piece of Ego. The play is the story of Ego's life.
An older smiling female approaches him. Crouched down defensive animal poster he approaches her. When he is near her he stands up carefully and surely smiles broadly and says:
Ego, Hello Mother.
Mother, My son. They embrace.
E, Been a long time.
M, A long time... Are you still with that lovely girl, um ah, Linda?
E, No. I had to leave her.
M, Oh. To bad.
E, That's how it goes, sometimes things don't work out. You and dad have been together all your lives.
M, Well we talked about separation. Sometimes I wish we had.
E, I wonder if people were meant to live with each other.
M, You can't live with em and you can't live without em.
E, I think that after three years you know for sure whether you want to live with some one or not.
M, You never know. I was with your father ten years before I found out...
E, Found out what mom?
M, (Turns away) Never mind.
E, And what happened mother?
M, That was when I found he had another woman.
E, Women really have it all these days, I found Linda had another man.
M, Men, they're all no good. I wish I had been born a man. I could have done so much.
E, I wish I had been born a woman, I would have had it so much easier.
M, You, you sniveling coward. Why don't you stand up and show them all.
E, I tried, but no one would listen. I failed, I want to retire and hide away.
M, You might as well you big oaf. You're not doing a lot of good out here in public, breaking that girl's heart like that.
E, Mother! She took another lover.
M, She wouldn't have if you'd been more of a man.
E, There was nothing I could do to reach her, we've been over this a hundred times already. Well I have to go now, good bye.
M, (shattered but managing a smile) Good son, come again soon.
S, (exits, mother sobs once. Son walks around state feeling a little twisted and dazed. He is seeking someone and he comes upon a woman on the stage and stops.) Hello Linda.
Linda, Hello Ego, (big smile).
The father is almost colorless, non-existent. There is a man on stage who Ego is afraid of, a nameless threatening authoritarian figure who represents the system who wants Ego to change or go to jail.
There is a guru who says, "Sit up, roll over, play dead, imagine a fire in your pineal gland. How do you feel?" There is a stupid empty headed person named Angel who is an empty handed panhandler yet who has the angle of consciousness of one who knows all and is forgiving and filled with direction.
Crescendo happens when everyone on state is yelling and there is no peace anymore. Ego runs to Angel and begs, "Please, I did not mean to screw it all up. (supplicating) Oh please let me start again". Angel strikes him dead. Egos soul gets up and walks off stage. A person acting like a chimpanzee enters the stage and walks up to a woman. "Mother?" he asks.
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