this is a one act play emulating Woody Allen's "Death Knocks" that I'm writing for english class. its supposed to be me speaking with an entity that I struggle with. let me know what you think, and please let me know if the title is good also. let me just say that you have to read to the end to get my point. enjoy
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[Walking down a hallway with her boyfriend, Meredith is drawn to a brown mahogany door. She steps inside. Before he has a chance to follow, the door slams shut, leaving Meredith alone. The room is white with two doors on opposite ends. The door on the right is painted red; the one on the left is multicolored. A figure, cloaked in red, face hidden, approaches Meredith.]
Meredith: What is going on? Where am I?
Love: Relax; you’re going to be fine.
Meredith: But where am I?
Love: A moral dilemma.
Meredith: [Confused] What?
Love: I’ll explain later. Oh and don’t worry about your boyfriend, he’s fine too.
Meredith: [Worried] Where’d he go? Why isn’t he here?
Love: He’s waiting for you, [motions to doors] outside, if you choose to join him.
Meredith: Why wouldn’t I choose to…? He’s my boyfriend after all.
Love: Well you see, to get to him you have to go through me.
Meredith: And who might you be?
Love: I’m Love.
Meredith: Love? [Looks closer at Love] I thought you’d be Cupid.
Love: [Groaning] That’s such a stereotype. [Sarcastically] Everyone expects me to be a flying baby shooting arrows hither and thither. [Smirks] I think this look is a little more mysterious.
Meredith: Why the mystery?
Love: Love isn’t mysterious?
Meredith: [Shrugs] I suppose.
Love: Ah ha! I see you don’t know much about me.
Meredith: [Catching herself] No, no. I know a lot about you. After all I am….[Pauses]
Love: [Before she has a chance to recover from the pause] In love?
Meredith: [Reluctantly] Yes.
Love: No you aren’t.
Meredith: [Stubbornly] Yes I am.
Love: Well you aren’t very convincing.
Meredith: Ok fine. I’m not sure. Got a problem with that?
Love: No, but your boyfriend might.
Meredith: [Shuffling her feet] Why do you care? That’s not your problem.
Love: What do you really believe about me? You don’t know much about me. There must be a reason behind that.
Meredith: You don’t exist. Not to me at least, not in this part of my life.
Love: Ahhh, I see. You don’t believe in teenage love. [Meredith shakes her head] What about all those couples who say they’re going to be together forever?
Meredith: They’re lying, or kidding themselves. Either way it only ends badly.
Love: That’s rather cynical.
Meredith: It’s realistic. [Points to Love’s red cloak] Ever wonder why red is associated with love? It’s the archetypal symbol of passion, and destruction. That’s no coincidence.
Love: Interesting. [Slowly walks across the room] Remember that moral dilemma I mentioned? Well here are your escapes, but of course you must make a choice, or else that wouldn’t be much of a dilemma.
Meredith: Where do the doors lead?
Love: I’ll tell you that later.
Meredith: [Slightly annoyed] You’re keeping me in the dark here, Love.
Love: I tend to do that.
Meredith: Fine then, I’ll ask questions until you get so sick of me you’ll have to tell me. [Thinks for a minute] How long have you been around?
Love: As long as humankind has existed.
Meredith: Are you really blind?
Love: Not completely. To heighten certain senses I have to dull others, and sometimes sight must be dulled. Other times it is amplified. It depends on the person.
Meredith: You must dull people’s rationale.
Love: What makes you say that?
Meredith: You cause men to write “woeful ballads to their mistresses’ eyebrow”. That’s a tad absurd if you ask me.
Love: [With a pensive tone] Really?
Meredith: Yes! You mess with people’s minds! You’re worse than any hallucinogen. They think they feel
things that aren’t real.
Love: I let them feel what they want to feel.
Meredith: It’s conniving! It’s devious! It’s Machiavellian! How dare you! I’ve seen too many friends fall apart after meeting you.
Love: They yearn to meet me. I represent everything they’ve ever wanted.
Meredith: Yes, they’re happy, even delirious for that small duration they know you. However, when you leave they fall apart. You show them the best aspects of life and then tear it away from them! How are they supposed to persevere with the same vigor they had before they knew your intoxication? You’re nothing more than a puppeteer, toying with human hearts.
Love: [Light adjusts, creating a bright aura around Love.] Do I look like a sadist?
Meredith: No…
Love: [Steps forwards, out of the spotlight. The light creates shadows on Love’s face, accentuating the depth of his eyes and essentially creating a demonic caricature. He steps back into the spotlight after a few moments.] Do you know who that was? That’s the dark side of me; the reason pain comes from knowing me. To receive my graces, one must deal with my doppelganger.
Meredith: [After a long pause] So you agree you have evil aspects?
Love: My design requires them, in order to compensate.
Meredith: Which face is dominant?
Love: Mine.
Meredith: How does one keep your other face from waking up?
Love: You can’t.
Meredith: Then what am I to do? Should I avoid knowing you because you can’t be trusted?
Love: You can trust me. You can trust the face speaking to you. When my other face is speaking, you’ll know. [Smiles] Now, how about we get you back home?
Meredith: Alright, [Points to doors] how do these work?
Love: The door on the right leads you to your boyfriend, but to pass through it you have to love him. You have to know it completely, not halfway. The door on the left leads you to wherever else life might lead you.
Meredith: So if I love him I go right, and if I don’t I go left?
Love: That’s it in a nutshell.
Meredith: How do I know where to go?
Love: That’s for you to figure out. Isolate your heart; let it do the talking.
[Meredith stares at both doors perplexed. As she stares, the right door vanishes.]
Love: [Didactically] Why do you suppose it did that?
Meredith: [Confidently, yet reluctantly] It was never a choice. There was no way my heart was going to let me lie to myself and walk through that door. The left is the only option. [Looks down at the floor and chuckles] This won’t end well.
Love: If he’s true to his word, then no matter what happens he’ll be there for you. That’s what he told you, right?
Meredith: Yes, how did you know that?
Love: I’m Love, what do you expect?
[Hesitantly, Meredith walks through the left door. On the other side lays a clearly marked pathway. Many people are walking along this path, but one certain face is missing.]
Meredith: What? [Turning back to the closing door.] You said he’d be here. You promised he’d be here!
You lied to me! How dare you! HOW DARE YOU!
[Love watches as Meredith is swept along by the tide of people, then smiles contentedly and marches back downstage.]
Love: All is fair in love.
Gender:
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