Sly Flame (Third Play)

I told you there would be a non absurd play. Here it is. Give it a chance
Hope you enjoy.


Sly Flame



A Play in a One Act



Characters:
Ann
Adam
Brad


The set is simple. It’s a park bench in the middle of the set.. Its made of aluminum. Two people sit at it. Its almost night and its very cold. Adam is about sixteen and is one of Brads good friends. Brad is good friends of Jaime. They are both watching the audience. To them the audience is a high school softball game.

Brad: (teeth chattering) You here because-

Adam: Yes.

Brad: (pause) Why?

Adam: Just..because.

Brad: Its not happening.

Adam: It did once.

Brad: (pause) That was a long time ago.

Adam: So?

Brad: Your hopeless.

(Long pause. They watch the game intently.)

Adam: Do you know if she’s-

Brad: Man (sighs) I just told you, she’s not interested. No matter how many of these damn
games you come to, she is not going to care about you. Not like that at least. (Pause) She probably thinks you’re a stalker.


Adam: Women don’t understand me for some reason...

Brad: Hmm, I wonder why? You go to their softball games hoping that they will fall into
your arms after it because you came to see them play sports.


Adam: I don’t want them to fall into my arms..

Brad: Really? Could have fooled me. Well what do you want then Romeo?

Adam: Them to just...

Brad: Just what?

Adam: Notice.

Brad: (pause) I am pretty sure she notices the guy sitting staring at her all game every home game they have.

Adam: I don’t stare at just her. I watch the game.

Brad: Yeah, I always knew you to be a lover of softball games.

(Pause)

Adam: Why do you care what I do?

Brad: (Watches someone hit and watches the ball go over his head) Your both my friends. She is one of my best friends and you are a good friend that I don’t want to see get hurt. She doesn’t want you like that. Think about it...name one time in the recent past when she has made a move on you. Its always been you hasn’t it?

Adam: (pause.) Yeah.

Brad: So now she doesn’t want you. Its not that bad. There are other fish in the sea.


Adam: She’s the goldfish among all the trout.

Brad: (thinks and then looks at him) What? I don’t get it.


Adam: You wouldn’t.

Brad: Whatever. You need to get over this and give her a reason why you come to her
games.


Adam: She knows why I am here.
Brad: Really? Why are you here?

Adam: To see her hit her first home-run this season. I have never seen it happen and I would hate to miss something like that in her life.

Brad: It’s just a hit...

Adam: (smiles.) No. Its not. I know to her its something more then that.

Brad: Like you would know that.

Adam and Brad watch for a minute.

Brad: The games over. (Starts getting up. Opens his cell phone.) You need a ride home?

Adam: No...(pause) I think I’m going to wait.

Brad: Jesus..fine..I will see you tomorrow. Bye.

Adam nods as Brad leaves stage left. Adam stands up slowly and walks around and waits with his back against the bench. In a second Ann comes out. She smiles and waves goodbye to her team then turns to see Adam. Adam smiles.

Adam: Good job in the game.


Ann: Not really. I did terribly.

Adam: That’s not what I saw.


Ann: (sees her friends leaving) Well I have to go. Thanks for coming. Bye (starts walking stage left)


Adam: Oh....(she has gone before he can say goodbye.) Bye. (To himself) Hope to see you at school tomorrow. (Walks slowly off stage right)


Black out

Lights up on the same bench. Brad sits drinking a soda. Adam comes up slowly from stage left.

Brad: You missed half the game.

Adam: (sits down) As long as she sees I am here.

Brad: (drinks) You want some?

Adam: No thanks. How are we doing?

Brad: Well I’m doing quite fine, but actually now that you ask I do have a little chill in the lower part of my-

Adam: I mean the game.

Brad: Oh, (pause) were winning.


Adam: (watches. Then claps.) Good hit.

(Screams of girls in the background yelling incoherent things can be heard)

Brad: So how is life?


Adam: Decent.

Brad: Only decent? I mean she said hi to you didn’t she? (Laughs.)

Adam: Shut up.

Brad: Why? Its not like you mean anything to her...just another guy.

Adam: You’re not really a good friend are you?

Brad: Eh, I am to her.

Adam: When do I get that from you?

Brad: When you leave her out of it.

Adam: Do you like her?


Brad: Not in the way you do. I am here just to cheer her friends and her on.

Adam: So am I.


Brad: Uh huh. (Scene goes out with Brad staring at Adam)

(Black out)
(Lights up on the same field Brad is sitting back resting against the bench)

Brad: (yell) Oh come on girls (Pause. To himself) Jesus, they’re getting trumped.
(Adam walks in slowly from stage left)

Adam: How are we doing? (Sits down)

Brad: Ugh...losing

Adam: By how much?
Brad: We scored a run about three innings ago. They have scored three runs in this inning alone.

Adam: What inning is it?

Brad: Bottom of the sixth. Were up to bat.

Adam: Last chance
(Brad nods. Both of the teens get deep into watching the game, their faces moving back and forth up and down for a few minutes.)

Brad: (laughs.) There you go. Bases loaded and she is up to bat.
Adam: (under his breathe) Come on....

(They both watch as a loud crack is heard. They both stand up and watch with intent eyes going from all the way stage left to far stage right.)

Brad: ...Wow.

Adam: What a hit...

(Cheers are heard all round.)

Brad: They won. She hit her first home-run

Adam: (smiles) I was here to see it.

Brad: Well I gotta get out of here. Its getting dark.

Adam: See you later. (Brad leaves.)

(Adam walks over to where Ann was first seen. He waits till Ann comes out. She is smiling and waving to her friends cheers. She sees Adam and smiles and gives him a hug and then leaves. Adam watches her leave. He smiles and walks out stage right)

(Black out)
(Lights up on Brad and Adam walking a hallway the week following the hit. The bench has been struck and it is now just an open stage with a few lockers. Brad walks to his locker and stops to open it. Adam follows slowly looking around listening to music. He stops the music and takes it out of his ears.)

Brad: So that’s it?

Adam: Yeah, you were right the whole time.

Brad: Told you.

Adam: Doesn’t matter. I saw her first home-run. It was worth it.

Brad: (laughs.) Your taking this better then I thought you would. Whys that?
Adam: I have a girlfriend now.

Brad: Really?

Adam: Yes. (Smiles.)

Brad: (looking at the time.) Well I gotta go to class. Talk to you later. (Waves and leaves stage left.)

Adam walks off slowly stage right. Ann runs from stage left and catches up to him. They hold hands and smile at each other. They both walk hand in hand off stage right.

The End

Hi there.

I thought it was pretty good - as in, you wrote it very well - and I got an extremely good feel of your characters. For example, Brad's conflict of interest (is Ann's friend, doesn't want her to jilt Adam). For yet another example, Adam's desire to get Ann to notice him, which speaks very loudly to your readers. (We've all been there, haven't we? Trying to attract the attention of someone we desperately like, and failing miserably?) For this reason, I commend you.

However, much of the dialogue seems redundant. You could probably sum it up by saying, "Adam likes Ann and can't get her attention, while Brad (who is friends with both of them) feels caught in the middle." Maybe add a deeper, more subtle element to the plot, something a bit more attention grabbing, a bit more emotive or striking. A sub-plot maybe. (Maybe Brad finds himself in love with Ann?) I don't know, I'm really not good at this sort of thing, but it's something you might want to consider.

I liked the ending, I was rooting for Adam, but why didn't he tell Brad that the new girlfriend was Ann? (Unless I'm missing something, here...) And why was it called Sly Flame? Maybe I'm just being considerably stupid, but I really didn't get the title.

All in all, I thought it was great, but it could have been spiced up a bit somehow.
My favorite one is still Unlimited Rule.

Good luck with the plays, Neost! I could never write them half so well.

I edited it so that it wouldn't skew the main page so much. I just got rid of some of the spaces between "Sly Flame", "A Play in One Act", and "Characters."

I really enjoyed reading this. It was well written, and the scene was described well. The ending was sweet. Overall, it was good reading a play, which didn't have any twists, just a simple high school play. I also felt the emotions in the characters.

A great play

I really enjoyed reading this. I felt that I could actually relate to the characters. The play is simple yet it has meaning to it. Very well written!

It's a nice play, but as Dreamdeep pointed out the dialog was occasionally redundant. There were a couple of grammatical errors (your when it should be you're, etc) but other than that it was a great short play about a group of friends. And you're biggest achievement?
Because it's a drama rather than comedic, it wasn't cliche ridden like most of the serious scripts around here. You deserve a medal for that!

Very well written.
The ending was soothing.
The only fault in the play is that it has some grammatical errors.
I think its simplicity makes it very good.

As Gazza said u deserve a medal,:)