Reflections--A Play (Act III)
Act III
(The Bard steps out from behind the closed curtain and stands in front of it, center stage)
Bard: A human, all too human past is left behind
And now we must descend into a lower world,
For we are more than minds, transcendent. We
Are animals as well, and chemicals, and star-
Dust atoms, purest energy of space-time folds.
As we unfold, de-densify, we seem to come
Apart. Indeed, we do, and many don’t return.
Now witness Adam come apart as he descends
Into and through each mood of time. His suffering
Has only just begun, but please don’t look away –
I ask you now to suffer with our hero. He
Will need your sympathy in order to survive.
But please don’t pity him, for who are you to think
That you are better than he is? It would not take
Too much for any one of you to fall as well.
So do not be afraid to look at Adam’s fall
And see yourself reflected in his face and soul.
Scene 1
(The Bard gestures with his hand and follows the curtain offstage as it opens to a sylvan field. Five Satyrs are dancing in the field)
Satyrs: We dance so we can have the soothing rain!
We dance so we can see the sun again!
We tiptoe on the grass,
Can’t wait to get some virgin ass –
For we don’t think that it would hurt
To roll her naked in the dirt
And make her want to come see us again!
It’s surely not a sin
To take
A lovely girl and make her shake
And dance a tango lying on her back.
What do we lack?
A girl! A girl!
One who would make us all unfurl
And stand up at attention
So we can give her our affection.
(Lily helps Adam on stage left. He is still in pain from what he endured previously)
Lily: I do not understand this place –
We came upon a golden door
Just standing all alone, no base
Or wall or anything. No floor
Or ceiling. Then I couldn’t go
Through it, just you. I went around
It, but you couldn’t. I don’t know
What’s going on or where we’re bound.
Satyr 1: Oh look! Just ask
And you’ll receive. Our task
Is now to take her for ourselves
And separate her from her clothes –
Then joy on joy as each one of us delves
Into her in the grass. Our oaths
To help each other
Make us strong – what say you, brother?
Satyr 2: A girl like that will surely break
If she is tempted by the snake.
I’m certain she
Has tasted of his fruit before.
And I am certain it’s not only me –
She looks like she has played the whore
With many boyfriends in
The past. I’m sure that we will win . . .
(Adam looks up, furious)
Adam: How dare you say these things of her –
I will not take it sir.
I’ll fight you all
Until I see all of you fall
If that is what it takes for you to see
Respect for her eternally.
(The Satyrs go up to them. Two grab Lily as one, Satyr 3, pushes Adam to the ground)
Satyr 3: My weakened friend
We’d know a whore because we spend
All of our time with them.
Just look how high her dress’s hem
Is, high above her knees.
I know that she’ll soon be down begging, “please”
To each of us.
Why, she would take on a whole bus
Of men.
You’ve no idea just where she’s been.
Lily: Now look, I won’t deny my past –
And Adam knows a bit of it –
But could a whore name every last
Man she has been with? You can sit
And I will let you know the men
That I have been with and then you
Can judge yourself if I have been
A whore, if what they say is true.
Satyr 4: Oh good! I cannot wait to hear
The list of all that came before we will. Don’t leer
At all the names.
Like Mike and Jonah, Mark and James.
(As Lily lists the names of all the men she’s had sex with, Adam looks more and more horrified)
Lily: I’ve had a Mike – no, there were three –
A Jonah, Mark, and James. A Jim –
No, two – six Johns. Now let me see . . .
A Jack, a Carlos, and a Tim.
Then there’s Jose and four named Bill,
Three Williams and an Adam too –
Not you, of course – and then there’s Will,
A Jackson, Jesse, Rick, and Drew.
Satyr 5: You’ve barely covered this past year.
We do not have all day, my dear.
Now strip for us
And don’t complain or make a fuss –
We’ll take our turn
With you, so do not spurn
Us. It is easier
To just give in to the sleazier
Side that we know that you expressed
And blessed
Those five good friends on that one day
In their apartment. Play
With us, give as you played with them back then –
We’ll satisfy just like those men.
Lily: It doesn’t matter what I did,
It doesn’t mean that you can take
Me as you wish. Now kindly rid
Yourselves of thoughts that you can make
Me do those things with you because
You proved that I like having sex.
You better know that there are laws
Against attempts at forcing sex.
Satyr 1: The law is us
So don’t put up a fuss.
We’ll do with you just as we wish
And you’ll take what we dish
Out. You will take
Us all on if we like, and we will make
You learn to see
Us as your source of ecstasy.
(Adam stands and draws his sword)
Adam: Get back
Or else I will attack
And turn you into eunichs
So you’ll be left all wearing tunics
So you can hide your shame –
And you will only have yourselves to blame.
(The Satyrs cower together, but don’t release Lily)
Satyr 2: Now let’s calm down. Please don’t get hasty.
This tasty
And all too eager girl
Should not cause you to leap and hurl
Yourself at us.
This wide and cavernous
Young slut
I’m sure would offer us the rut
We seek if you weren’t here.
But let us make it clear
That we won’t fight –
In fact, I’m certain that we’d feel the bite
Of an infection
Once each of us made our injection.
(Lily is shoved away from them toward Adam. She runs to Adam for his protection)
Adam: Now go
And make it fast, not slow.
I will not put
Up with your insults any more. My foot
Will do to each of you
What you just threatened now to do
To her. I will
Not listen to your insults, either. I will kill
The next who dares to say
One more bad thing about this girl today.
Satyr 3: Why should we go? This is our land.
Why don’t you take your stand
In other places and just leave
And maybe after Steve
And Nick and Jason, she will let you have a turn.
I hope it doesn’t burn.
Lily: Come on, let’s go and leave this place.
I do not want to have to face
These stupid creatures any more,
Who have no room to call me “whore.”
Satyr 4: Oh, look, she’s trying now
To change a sow
Into an angel. Well, good luck!
Too bad. We know you like to . . .
Lily: Shut up! Oh, Adam, shut them up –
I cannot take their scorn and taunts.
They’re handing me a bitter cup,
A past of mine that always haunts
Me everywhere I go. Please shut
Them up, please let us leave before
I have to hear them call me “slut”
Again. I won’t be called a whore!
Adam: Get back and do not let me hear
You say a thing that brings a tear
Into her eyes.
You better learn to prize
Your lives more than you do.
Another word, and I will run you through.
(Adam walks with Lily across the stage, sword drawn and ready. The Satyrs move as a group to keep away from him)
Satyr 5: Well, go. Just go.
I guess you’ll never know
How Lily really is. You will not hear
The truth because you fear
That your illusions will be gone
And you’ll see that you’re just a pawn
Of all her teasing.
No pleasing
A slutty girl like that,
A spoiled rotten little brat.
(Adam lifts his sword and all the Satyrs cringe. He shakes his head and leads Lily off stage right. When they’re gone, the Satyrs laugh and start to dance again)
Satyrs: We dance so we can have the soothing rain!
We dance so we can see the sun again!
We tiptoe on the grass,
Can’t wait to get some virgin ass –
For we don’t think that it would hurt
To roll her naked in the dirt
And make her want to come see us again!
It’s surely not a sin
To take
A lovely girl and make her shake
And dance a tango lying on her back.
What do we lack?
A girl! A girl!
One who would make us all unfurl
And stand up at attention
So we can give her our affection.
(Lights go down)
Scene 2
(Lights come up. Todd the Fox, a Deer, a Cougar, a Wolf, and a Bison are on stage with trees, grass, and flowers. A boat, called Acheron, is at the far right end of the stage)
Todd: It’s might
That rules, not right
In woods like these. You fight
Or turn your tail in rapid flight –
The choices here are either black or white.
We’re lurking here both day and night –
Some will run at the light
Of man; some bite
On sight.
(Todd runs off stage right. The animals hide between the trees. Adam and Lily enter stage left; their Doubles enter stage right. The Doubles are dressed in identical clothes of opposite colors)
Lily and Double: Do you know where we’re going now?
I’m scared of what may happen next.
I wish that you could tell me how
We could escape this place. I’d text
Or call but I don’t have my phone,
And I don’t know what I would tell
Someone where I am at. I’ve flown
With harpies and been in a cell
And I’ve been bought and sold. Please take
Me home, away from all this Hell –
Please take me home for goodness sake.
Adam and Double: This knowledge of you frightens
Me, Lily. It enlightens,
And yet my heart still tightens when you’re near –
The night turns light and brightens.
Adam: You’ve really been with every
Man that you named? Can it be
A possibility? Three, six, or ten
Tend to terrify me.
Adam dbl: You’ve never been with any
Man? Really, how can it be
A possibility? See, virgins do
Tend to terrify me.
Lily and dbl: Well, either you’ll get over it
Or . . . I don’t know what to tell you.
So either throw a little fit
Or else accept that it is true.
(Adam and Lily look across the stage and are startled to see their Doubles)
Adam: Is that myself I see here?
Another you as well. Dear.
Now what is going on? Nearby I see
Something. Boats, sea, dark fear.
Adam dbl: I see a me – the pansy
Of me. Another Lily
Is with him. I should quickly trade the one
With me for the slutty . . .
Lily dbl: How could you say that? Don’t you know
I love you? Here I fell for you
And all you ever seem to show
Me is contempt for being true.
Adam: Would everyone stop calling
The one I love a slut! Sing
Her praises. It is taxing hearing her
Hailed a whore unceasing.
Adam dbl: Come trade with me. It’s likely
You’ll like her better. Lonely
Virgins like yourself should only be with
Women like this Lily.
Lily (to Adam): I wish that you were more like him –
I’m sure our friendship soon would turn
Into the love you want. Your prim
And proper ways don’t make me burned
Up with desire in the way
Your double opposite makes me.
With him I’d quickly toss away
My clothes. With him I would be free
To be myself. You put me high
Up on a pedestal. I don’t
Belong up there. I don’t know why
You won’t see me for me. You won’t
Love me for who I truly am
And that is why I won’t love you.
You want a woman who’s a lamb –
And that is why our friendship’s through.
(Lily runs over to Adam’s Double)
Lily dbl: You get away from him, you slut.
This Adam here is mine. He’s yours.
Lily: He’d be yours if you chose to rut
With him like all his other whores.
Lily dbl: Like you, you mean. Now get away –
This man is mine and mine alone.
Lily: You lost him on the very day
You wouldn’t let him hear you moan.
(Lily grabs her Double by the arm and flings her toward Adam. She falls at Adam’s feet)
Lily: You want a man to worship you.
Well, that one will. So go with him.
I do not care if I get through
This place to home. I think it’s slim
To none that he would get me there –
I’d rather take my chances on
A man like this, a man who’d share
Himself with me. Good-bye. I’m gone.
(Lily leaves with Adam’s Double, stage right, walking right past Adam and Lily’s Double, still on the ground)
Lily dbl: I do not love you, though you look
Like him. Please do not make me stay.
I could not bear if he forsook
Me even for a single day.
(Lily’s double stands and runs after Adam’s double and Lily, stage right)
Adam: And now I am alone in
These woods to face my darkest sin
Of . . . what? I thought that I’d win Lily’s heart.
Heaven feels so foreign.
(The animals slowly step out from among the trees)
Deer: Adam, take the small boat that you see there floating – it waits for you.
Wolf: Fear engulfs you until you go embark out on the sea. Now go.
Bison: Thirst and hunger will take tolls on your soul. Take this here boat and go.
Cougar: Sex, desire are dark friends of the strong. Seek out the truth and know.
Adam: Animals speak to me. Madness is here; clearly I’ve gone insane.
(Adam wanders past the animals and gets into the boat. Lights go down)
Scene 3
(Lights come up. Adam is sitting in the boat. The water is completely calm. It is dark. Sea Nymphs appear from stage left and right and dance around the boat.)
Nymphs: In the oceans we swim, in the oceans we swim.
In the boat is a man and we do not know him.
Has he come to the sea so that he can be free
In his soul and his mind, and we hope he will find
All the things that he’s looking for. Floating away,
We are sure that he’ll come to the shore where he’ll stay.
Adam: I am lost and adrift and I don’t have a clue
What to do. I am lost without her and the love
That I felt. I am nothing, no, nothing, unless
I feel love for that woman, my Lily, my love.
I am nothing and nobody, lost on the sea,
And a nothing and nobody cannot be free.
Nymph 1: Oh the poor little man lost his love. How did she
Become lost? Where’d she go? What is wrong? Why’d you flee?
Adam: She was lost when I loved her, and I didn’t know.
She is off with some lover who won’t love her back.
I am selfish and think it’s my job to save her.
I am here because there cannot be room for me
In her life and I see that I ruined it all.
Nymph 2: Oh the poor little man. How you float on the sea
Because you fell in love with a woman who could
Never love you as you would love her. Is that true?
Adam: Because I fell in love with a woman who could
Never love herself. I’m just a selfish young man
And I didn’t love Lily or even myself.
I just floated myself on an image of love –
I just loved the idea of love and I put
My false love in the frame and I claimed that she was
A fine artwork, but all that she was was a fake,
A bad duplicate that I had painted myself.
I’m a plagiarist. Love can’t be copied like that.
Nymph 3: Oh the poor little man. He’s the false prophet who
We are told would be here. The false prophet of love
Is now here on the sea in a boat and now we
Must decide what to do with this man who loves love.
Nymph 4: He loves no one but love and will always find fault
In a woman who’s real and won’t fit his ideal.
He’s turned love into porn and no woman can live
Up to porn-star ideals. And in truth they’re all hurt
And they’re damaged, no woman you really would want.
Adam: I can beat myself up myself without your help –
I don’t need to hear preaching from you. I can do
This just fine to myself. Now please go so that I
Can just suffer alone in this boat till I die.
Nymph 5: He is selfish in suffering just as in love
And he thinks that it’s all about him. Well, it’s not.
Nymph 1: He will have to break down until he comes to see
That his self-obsessed world isn’t all that there is.
Nymph 2: You see, there is a storm that is coming for you.
Nymph 3: So just stop with your whining and brace for the storm.
Nymph 4: Don’t be fooled by the calm that you have at this time.
Nymph 5: For the storm, it will come, and you’ll pay for your crime.
Adam: And just what is my crime? That I loved her? That she
Was not worthy of love, of my life that I had?
That I loved such a woman who’d never love me?
that I loved such a whore as she turned out to be?
And just why should that be such a crime so that I
Have to suffer and face the abyss, be destroyed?
Nymphs: Now just calm yourself down, for the storm’s not here yet.
You will suffer and yet we know you won’t regret
That you suffered for her and you’re not where you were
When you’ve reached the abyss and come out with the kiss
Of the gift that is meant for the world, and is sent
Through the vessel of you. So just lie yourself down
And prepare for the storm that will come – so now, drown!
(The Nymphs reach out, grab Adam by the arms and shoulders, and press him down into the bottom of the boat. Adam lies down in the boat. The Nymphs exist stage left and right. Thunder, lightning. Lights go down)
Scene 4
(Lights come up. It is dark. Adam is standing on the shore of an island beside his boat. On the shore are stone statues of men scattered about. Lightning and thunder)
Adam: I am thankful this island of calm has appeared
At the moment the storm started up. I had feared
That the storm would have swamped that small boat and that I
Would have drowned or that lightning would strike and I’d die.
(Lightning and thunder. Adam looks around)
Adam: All these statues of men look so real and afraid.
(Lightning and thunder. Adam draws his sword and lifts his shield)
Adam: There is something real strange on this island. Who made
All these statues? It was a most delicate hand
That had carved all these men in such detail. They stand
With their backs to the sea. Why is that? Now the hair
On my arms prickle up – why is that? Who is there?
(A Basilisk appears stage right. It looks like a cross between a snake and a dragon)
Basilisk: Who dares disembark? Boy, you’ll die dry as
These stone statues which wait until time ends.
(Lightning and thunder. Adam lifts his sword hand to wipe his brow)
Adam: It’s hot. Hell-like heat hammers down, drenching
My brow. Basilisk. Lightning. Stone statues.
I can’t catch his eyes else I’ll make marble
My home here, a stone statue for time timeless.
(Lightning and thunder. The Basilisk lurches for Adam. Adam raises his shield to protect himself. Lightning. The Basilisk sees his reflection and turns to stone. Thunder. Adam shakes, waiting for the Basilisk to hit his shield)
Adam: How on earth can I look so that I will then know
If he’s gone or he’s there as a trick so I’ll show
Him my eyes and I’ll die, turned to stone like these men?
But I don’t hear a thing – will he lurch once again?
(The statues turn to men)
Man 1: Where is the monster? You must look away!
No, wait. What happened here? You saved the day,
My boy. The basilisk is turned to stone
And we are all returned to flesh and bone.
Adam: What brought you here and when’d you come? I came
By accident and saw you here, each turned
To stone. Did time for you just stop and go?
Man 2: I cannot speak for them, but probably,
Like me, they came to kill the basilisk.
Adam: What kind of place is this? It’s hot like Hell
Must be. Why would you want to come down here
To kill the basilisk? It makes no sense
To risk your life to try to kill that thing.
(Lightning and thunder)
Man 3: We came to kill it knowing that we’d fail.
Man 4: We did it on the likelihood that you
Would come and rescue us by killing it.
Adam: I’d have thought it unlikely that I’d have come here –
You don’t know what a coward I am, full of fear.
Man 5: And that is why we waited all this time
For you – it takes a warrior to rhyme.
(The men draw their swords and attack Adam. Adam fights back, blocking with his shield)
Adam: Why fight me? I just rescued you. This makes
No sense. My arm! My leg! I’m bleeding, stabbed.
Men: You basilisk, die. You basilisk, die.
(Adam kills Man 5)
Adam: You’re speaking nonsense. None of this makes sense.
Men: We have to kill the sea nymph. You must die!
(Adam kills Man 4)
Adam: What’s wrong with you? Why don’t you make some sense?
Men: We’ll kill you both. We must kill both of you.
Adam: There’s only one of me. It seems enough.
(Adam kills Man 3)
Men: You sensuous satyr must die, must die!
Adam: You madmen all must die. You’re killing me.
(Adam swipes at the two men left and kills them both with the one swipe)
Adam: Am I going insane? They attacked me for no
Understandable reason at all, that I know.
And they blabbered and blabbered and didn’t make sense.
Now I’m feeling all woozy and getting confused.
(Adam passes out on the sand. Lightning and thunder. Lightning and thunder. Earth Nymphs appear stage right)
Nymphs: Corpses, corpses got to go.
Take them, pile them in the boat.
Let them go and let them float.
Corpses, corpses got to go.
(The Nymphs pile the bodies in the boat, placing Adam on the top, and push the boat out to sea)
Nymphs: Corpses, corpses go to go –
Rot upon the choppy seas –
Please be gone, oh be gone please –
Corpses, corpses got to go.
(Lightning and thunder. Lights go down)
Scene 5
(Lights come up. It is dark. Lightning and thunder. Adam is lying on top of the bodies in the boat. The seas are choppy. A shadow looms overhead. It is the Dragon. Adam sits up, bleeding and confused)
Adam: Bleeding. Death-smell brine. Sulfur. Where could . . . Hot. It this salty taste sweat, tears, the sea? Blood? I think I’m going to throw up. Head throbs. God, it’s hot. How can it be so dry in the sea? I am so thirsty. “Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink.” Coleridge. What was my sin? Albatross? Will I wear Lily around my neck for life?
(Flames leap up around the boat on the surface of the sea)
Adam: What kind of madness is this?
(The Dragon’s shadow sharpens in the background)
Dragon: Quiet you whining impotent. You sicken me. Die and let time take
Back all you took from her. Die so we’ll live without hearing you whine, wretch.
Adam: What do you know of my pain? Back in your cave or your lair,
I don’t care where you came from. What do you know of my pain?
Dragon: Pain? What a whining, pathetic, sad wimp you are. I’ll show you pain. Hell
Fire is what you deserve. If you want pain, you’ll have pain.
(Adam writhes in pain)
Adam: Pain! Oh, the heat of the flames are too much! Someone help me, oh help! Help!
Fire, the fire, it burns. Heat is unbinding me. Help!
Dragon: Fire will burn the impurities from your weak soul or will kill you.
Death should be preferable over the sad life you have.
(Adam faints from the heat and pain. The Norns appear stage right and approach the boat)
Norn 1: His past has brought him here to die.
The whiny coward – there he’ll lie.
Norn 2: His present death would be a shame
If he would ever be the same.
Norn 3: His death is only a beginning –
He has to learn from all his sinning.
These corpses all will have to go –
Just let the fire burn them slow.
(The Norns drag all the corpses out of the boat, leaving them around the boat. They drag Adam through the fire, chanting)
Norns: Fire, fire, burn him up, you
Flames must burn this weak old body.
Leave a body that’s reborn, new
Body, soul, and spirit living.
(The Norns drag Adam’s body back into the boat. The flames die down. Adam sits up suddenly, gasping)
Adam: Lily! Lily! Where’s my love at?
Norn 2: Kill him once again. He isn’t
Purified quite yet. Now kill him.
(The flames shoot back up)
Adam: Oh God! The pain, the fiery pain! Why do I have to
Suffer like this? Why are you killing me?
Norn 1: We’re killing you because the man
You were was useless. You must ban
Him from the world and let a new
And better man come out and through.
Dragon: Die you sad wretch, you pathetic old corpse of a man. You aren’t worth life,
Coward. Take death and the pain you deserve. You need pain. Love the hot death.
(The Norns grab Adam and drag him, kicking and screaming through the flames. When he stops struggling and goes limp, they put him back in the boat)
Norn 3: He must become a smoldering
Charcoal instead of flaming wood
If he’s to be worth anything,
If he’s to be both true and good.
Dragon: Airless, intense are these flames. Smoldering coals he’ll become
Once I am finished with him. Golden and hot he will burn.
Norn 2: We’re grateful for the flames which kill
The weakness in him. Leave the ill
Old life behind and take ahold
Of life and live a life that’s bold.
(Lights go down. Curtains close.)
End Act III
Intermission