Disordered
Title: Disordered
Classification: 10 Minute Play
Other: Written, oh, last night and a bit of the one before for a playwriting assignment. Hur-RAH. I think I just wanted to use a cardboard box, aye. And I guy named Gregor.
CHARACTERS
NASHA: Young woman. Dressed in grays.
ANA: Nasha’s sister, six or seven years older. Dressed in black and white.
GREGOR: Man of uncertain age. When not otherwise indicated, his lines are delivered as from a man speaking in his sleep.
[Scene up on Nasha, Gregor, and an indistinct courtyard with a cardboard box if possible. Gregor is sleeping.]
NASHA. Put it back, you’re cheating again! I said put-it-back. You can’t trick me like that, I’ve seen how you play. You don’t place fair. Yeah, you argue, HEY, you stop it! [Kicks Gregor.]
GREGOR. [As if waking up momentarily.] Ehhh… Go ‘way.
NASHA. Bastard, you bastard cheat! [Continues to kick him, receives no response.] Think you can just go on like that, think I won’t fight back, I’ll show you, I won’t take this sitting down! …Fine. Fine, be that way. I’m tired of that game, anyway. It’s the only one we ever play… What happened to the old games? They were more fun.
ANA. [Offstage] Nasha, are you muttering to your fish again?
NASHA. I haven’t got any fish.
ANA. We’re leaving within the hour, Nasha. Are you ready to go?
NASHA. I don’t care. I don’t care what she says, I don’t care about going. I like it here just fine. There’s something to it, anyway. Never mind her. I’m not going. And you either, right?
[Gregor shifts, mutters. Ana enters.]
ANA. Look at this, what have you been doing? Pick up that mess.
NASHA. I’ve left it as a gift for you. You said I should be more generous.
ANA. You’re not being fair, Nasha.
NASHA. No, Gregor’s not being fair. He cheats.
ANA. Of course he does. That’s what Gregors are for. Are you going to pick those up, or leave them for the hens to find?
NASHA. Hens need food, too.
ANA. Well. Don’t come running to me when you have no cards.
NASHA. Gregor can’t cheat without cards.
ANA. I’m sure he’ll find a way.
GREGOR. [Muttering in sleep.] Red and blue for orange, correct, not correct. Solution… Ah, not such a solution. Examine…
NASHA. I miss blue.
ANA. You’re perfectly lovely without it. Come, now. Wash your face, and we’ll be off. We shouldn’t like to miss the coronation.
NASHA. Only fools crown a great bear like that.
ANA. Where did you hear such talk?
NASHA. Father.
ANA. You couldn’t know that.
NASHA. I remember some things, Ana.
ANA. Nasha… How much? How much do you see?
NASHA. That is enough.
ANA. You mustn’t repeat it. It has been chosen to lead, and it will do well.
NASHA. But it doesn’t fit. I can’t connect it, neither can you. I heard you say so to Gregor.
ANA. Nasha! You shouldn’t listen like that.
NASHA. But you said it.
ANA. No… Yes. But it is not our place. It has never been our place.
NASHA. It could be. It must be someone’s. Or maybe you’re right. I’d rather play cards, anyway. I understand them, even if we only play the same game. I’m bored.
ANA. Up.
NASHA. Ana, what if we don’t go? What will it matter?
ANA. Hush! We must.
NASHA. But they don’t care, Ana, they don’t, and they won’t know. Sometimes I wonder whether it isn’t them at all, whether maybe it’s you.
ANA. Nasha!
NASHA. Not all you, that isn’t fair, but it’s not all them, either. When you say that we must go, what are you? Ana, I miss blue, and they stole blue and they left us and now they say bears are better than blue, but that isn’t right.
ANA. Nasha, you-You are not yourself. I will grab your coat, and then we’ll be off.
[Ana exits.]
NASHA. We won’t. Wake up, Gregor. You bum, wake up!
GREGOR. The sum of… There are parts, two and… third… Into a whole they go, hole of whole in total. In…
NASHA. You must help, you must wake up some time, I don’t know what… Wake up! Oh, you… Hello? [Picks up an object, perhaps from behind the box.] Oh, god. Gregor, Gregor-Never mind, never mind, Gregor, don’t bother getting up, I only… Oh my god. It’s beautiful. It’s been so long since I’ve-I’ve dreamt of this for so long. And I never thought I’d really see another one, but it’s so bright, and now it’s in my hand. How can this be wrong?
GREGOR. Red from purple, disallowed, we cannot have… It does not fit. Something began the troubles, something believed to fit…
ANA. [Entering.] I couldn’t find your coat. Did you hide it? Nasha, answer me, did you hide it? Nasha, are you…? Oh, no, Nasha, answer me, please, only look up and answer me!
NASHA. [Not looking up.] Ana.
ANA. Thanks gods! Oh, for a moment I was so worried, I’d thought you had… But of course you didn’t, you couldn’t. Oh, Nasha… I couldn’t find your coat.
NASHA. Maybe the hens stole my coat. They’ve left the cards alone; you were wrong.
ANA. Because you are here, watching for them. …what do you have?
NASHA. Nothing that exists. Not for you.
ANA. That is unkind. Please, I only ask a question.
NASHA. It’s mine.
ANA. Only, please… I see the way you’re looking at it, Nasha. You can keep quiet, if you want, but I think I know what it is. Or I have an idea, and it frightens me. Nasha, you shouldn’t have that, where did you find it?
NASHA. I don’t have anything. You don’t know what it is. It’s mine.
GREGOR. Ninety-five percent of all uprisings related… stricken by the they… The shade… Ah, I told you. [Sits up for a moment before resuming sleep.]
ANA. It’s blue, isn’t it? It is. I know how you used to look at blue, Nasha, and I know you speak of it at night, in your sleep. I don’t know what this blue is, Nasha, but I know that it is.
NASHA. Go away.
ANA. Nasha, please. You’re going to get us into trouble. You know we can’t have blue; is this really worth it?
NASHA. It is, Ana, it is. It’s… It’s here.
ANA. Oh, gods…
NASHA. I missed blue.
ANA. I did too, I think. Only think, real blue, not a shade away, nothing like what they’ve given us. And the way that it glows… Oh, Nasha, it is beautiful.
NASHA. And it’s ours. They won’t have it.
ANA. We shouldn’t have this.
NASHA. They shouldn’t take it. Ana, for years and years we had blue, and it was wonderful. Then they decided that it wasn’t ours, that we shouldn’t have any, and they stole all of it…
ANA. I remember. I remember, before it fell apart, when there was something to hold together and be held by.
NASHA. When there was sense?
ANA. I feel… I feel calm. Oh, Nasha, I feel as if I understand now, as if everything falls into place.
GREGOR. There will be, are, anomalies… The act that we enact… It is simple enough to affect these…
ANA. This should be ridiculous. It is only a marble… There are plenty of marbles in the world.
NASHA. Not like this.
ANA. No. Not like this. But how did we get here, how…? I cannot understand, but somehow I do.
NASHA. Yes. It is what we needed. What was missing…We don’t have to go now, do we?
ANA. Go…?
NASHA. Their beloved bear.
ANA. Gods… I’d forgotten.
NASHA. I’m glad. You shouldn’t be so concerned. They won’t notice, and it doesn’t matter. It’s absurd. This is what matters.
ANA. I know… I am glad. I shouldn’t be. They could find us… Nasha, you don’t know, you haven’t seen. You cannot remember what happened with Father, but I saw, and I-They know. They see.
NASHA. You must relax. They can’t see everything we do, they can’t possibly.
GREGOR. Destroy, together destroy… Not what we have said but what we will do, what we will. That our voices will rise through action, incontrovertible. That one and the next, after the first, and soon follows a fall…
NASHA. Forget them, anyway. What are they? They sit around and discuss, discuss and then strangle us further every day. And while they do that, what? They take away our blue. I’m sure they keep it for themselves, they laugh it up, ah, the bastards! No, Ana, they’re too busy with themselves.
ANA. I wish I could believe you. But the screams-
NASHA. Those are gone.
ANA. You wouldn’t say as much if you had heard them.
NASHA. Ana.
ANA. …Yes, you may be correct. Perhaps father was an anomaly. Perhaps we are quite safe.
NASHA. And we have the blue.
ANA. Yes. That may matter most, after all.
GREGOR. It is very easy.
ANA. For now… I suppose it must be our secret. I should like to share it, but I fear this would be unwise.
NASHA. Keep it quiet, Ana.
ANA. We need no further screams.
NASHA. We will make a close family, you and I and the marble.
ANA. It is not the same.
NASHA. It’s as close as we’ll come. It was his color, and it was hers, and now it is ours and that’s how it should have been, anyway.
ANA. We needn’t worry anymore, then. Not about this bear of theirs or their men or even their restrictions. We should listen, perhaps, but what should we care? What should their rules matter when we have this?
NASHA. It is ours. Damn what they’ll say, because we’ll have them then.
GREGOR. No… No! [Jolts upright, suddenly awake.] It is not. Stop where you are.
NASHA. What are you going?
ANA. Gregor, what is this?
[Gregor takes and swallows the marble.]
GREGOR. That is not allowed; consider this your warning. [Resumes sleep.]
ANA. No!
NASHA. No, no, no! You bastard, no! [Begins to beat at Gregor, who does not respond.]
ANA. Nasha…
NASHA. No, no, you cannot! Gregor, Gregor, you cheat, you cannot do that, you cannot be that!
ANA. Nasha, it is too late. …we were unwise.
NASHA. Ana, Ana, no, we were right, I know we were! It is what Father said, what he…
ANA. Nasha, Father screamed. He screamed for hours when they finally came, became a man I felt I could never have heard-Nasha, he was our father, but he was no longer our father, he was something else, they changed him-and I could almost see him, though I hid myself, I hid and I listened, and he died, screaming.
NASHA. They cannot…
ANA. They see.
NASHA. Is that it, then? But we were close, so close-
ANA. We never were.
NASHA. …Then we might as well see the bear, after all. [Begins to exit.]
ANA. No. [Nasha halts.] We are too late. We’ve missed it. …They’ll know that, too.
NASHA. No…
ANA. Clean the yard. I’ll not have hens running around, not now. We may soon find ourselves graced by visitors.
NASHA. Ana…
ANA. No, Nasha.
[Ana exits. Nasha picks up the cards, then follows. A moment passes. Gregor laughs, quietly. Fade out.]
Classification: 10 Minute Play
Other: Written, oh, last night and a bit of the one before for a playwriting assignment. Hur-RAH. I think I just wanted to use a cardboard box, aye. And I guy named Gregor.
CHARACTERS
NASHA: Young woman. Dressed in grays.
ANA: Nasha’s sister, six or seven years older. Dressed in black and white.
GREGOR: Man of uncertain age. When not otherwise indicated, his lines are delivered as from a man speaking in his sleep.
[Scene up on Nasha, Gregor, and an indistinct courtyard with a cardboard box if possible. Gregor is sleeping.]
NASHA. Put it back, you’re cheating again! I said put-it-back. You can’t trick me like that, I’ve seen how you play. You don’t place fair. Yeah, you argue, HEY, you stop it! [Kicks Gregor.]
GREGOR. [As if waking up momentarily.] Ehhh… Go ‘way.
NASHA. Bastard, you bastard cheat! [Continues to kick him, receives no response.] Think you can just go on like that, think I won’t fight back, I’ll show you, I won’t take this sitting down! …Fine. Fine, be that way. I’m tired of that game, anyway. It’s the only one we ever play… What happened to the old games? They were more fun.
ANA. [Offstage] Nasha, are you muttering to your fish again?
NASHA. I haven’t got any fish.
ANA. We’re leaving within the hour, Nasha. Are you ready to go?
NASHA. I don’t care. I don’t care what she says, I don’t care about going. I like it here just fine. There’s something to it, anyway. Never mind her. I’m not going. And you either, right?
[Gregor shifts, mutters. Ana enters.]
ANA. Look at this, what have you been doing? Pick up that mess.
NASHA. I’ve left it as a gift for you. You said I should be more generous.
ANA. You’re not being fair, Nasha.
NASHA. No, Gregor’s not being fair. He cheats.
ANA. Of course he does. That’s what Gregors are for. Are you going to pick those up, or leave them for the hens to find?
NASHA. Hens need food, too.
ANA. Well. Don’t come running to me when you have no cards.
NASHA. Gregor can’t cheat without cards.
ANA. I’m sure he’ll find a way.
GREGOR. [Muttering in sleep.] Red and blue for orange, correct, not correct. Solution… Ah, not such a solution. Examine…
NASHA. I miss blue.
ANA. You’re perfectly lovely without it. Come, now. Wash your face, and we’ll be off. We shouldn’t like to miss the coronation.
NASHA. Only fools crown a great bear like that.
ANA. Where did you hear such talk?
NASHA. Father.
ANA. You couldn’t know that.
NASHA. I remember some things, Ana.
ANA. Nasha… How much? How much do you see?
NASHA. That is enough.
ANA. You mustn’t repeat it. It has been chosen to lead, and it will do well.
NASHA. But it doesn’t fit. I can’t connect it, neither can you. I heard you say so to Gregor.
ANA. Nasha! You shouldn’t listen like that.
NASHA. But you said it.
ANA. No… Yes. But it is not our place. It has never been our place.
NASHA. It could be. It must be someone’s. Or maybe you’re right. I’d rather play cards, anyway. I understand them, even if we only play the same game. I’m bored.
ANA. Up.
NASHA. Ana, what if we don’t go? What will it matter?
ANA. Hush! We must.
NASHA. But they don’t care, Ana, they don’t, and they won’t know. Sometimes I wonder whether it isn’t them at all, whether maybe it’s you.
ANA. Nasha!
NASHA. Not all you, that isn’t fair, but it’s not all them, either. When you say that we must go, what are you? Ana, I miss blue, and they stole blue and they left us and now they say bears are better than blue, but that isn’t right.
ANA. Nasha, you-You are not yourself. I will grab your coat, and then we’ll be off.
[Ana exits.]
NASHA. We won’t. Wake up, Gregor. You bum, wake up!
GREGOR. The sum of… There are parts, two and… third… Into a whole they go, hole of whole in total. In…
NASHA. You must help, you must wake up some time, I don’t know what… Wake up! Oh, you… Hello? [Picks up an object, perhaps from behind the box.] Oh, god. Gregor, Gregor-Never mind, never mind, Gregor, don’t bother getting up, I only… Oh my god. It’s beautiful. It’s been so long since I’ve-I’ve dreamt of this for so long. And I never thought I’d really see another one, but it’s so bright, and now it’s in my hand. How can this be wrong?
GREGOR. Red from purple, disallowed, we cannot have… It does not fit. Something began the troubles, something believed to fit…
ANA. [Entering.] I couldn’t find your coat. Did you hide it? Nasha, answer me, did you hide it? Nasha, are you…? Oh, no, Nasha, answer me, please, only look up and answer me!
NASHA. [Not looking up.] Ana.
ANA. Thanks gods! Oh, for a moment I was so worried, I’d thought you had… But of course you didn’t, you couldn’t. Oh, Nasha… I couldn’t find your coat.
NASHA. Maybe the hens stole my coat. They’ve left the cards alone; you were wrong.
ANA. Because you are here, watching for them. …what do you have?
NASHA. Nothing that exists. Not for you.
ANA. That is unkind. Please, I only ask a question.
NASHA. It’s mine.
ANA. Only, please… I see the way you’re looking at it, Nasha. You can keep quiet, if you want, but I think I know what it is. Or I have an idea, and it frightens me. Nasha, you shouldn’t have that, where did you find it?
NASHA. I don’t have anything. You don’t know what it is. It’s mine.
GREGOR. Ninety-five percent of all uprisings related… stricken by the they… The shade… Ah, I told you. [Sits up for a moment before resuming sleep.]
ANA. It’s blue, isn’t it? It is. I know how you used to look at blue, Nasha, and I know you speak of it at night, in your sleep. I don’t know what this blue is, Nasha, but I know that it is.
NASHA. Go away.
ANA. Nasha, please. You’re going to get us into trouble. You know we can’t have blue; is this really worth it?
NASHA. It is, Ana, it is. It’s… It’s here.
ANA. Oh, gods…
NASHA. I missed blue.
ANA. I did too, I think. Only think, real blue, not a shade away, nothing like what they’ve given us. And the way that it glows… Oh, Nasha, it is beautiful.
NASHA. And it’s ours. They won’t have it.
ANA. We shouldn’t have this.
NASHA. They shouldn’t take it. Ana, for years and years we had blue, and it was wonderful. Then they decided that it wasn’t ours, that we shouldn’t have any, and they stole all of it…
ANA. I remember. I remember, before it fell apart, when there was something to hold together and be held by.
NASHA. When there was sense?
ANA. I feel… I feel calm. Oh, Nasha, I feel as if I understand now, as if everything falls into place.
GREGOR. There will be, are, anomalies… The act that we enact… It is simple enough to affect these…
ANA. This should be ridiculous. It is only a marble… There are plenty of marbles in the world.
NASHA. Not like this.
ANA. No. Not like this. But how did we get here, how…? I cannot understand, but somehow I do.
NASHA. Yes. It is what we needed. What was missing…We don’t have to go now, do we?
ANA. Go…?
NASHA. Their beloved bear.
ANA. Gods… I’d forgotten.
NASHA. I’m glad. You shouldn’t be so concerned. They won’t notice, and it doesn’t matter. It’s absurd. This is what matters.
ANA. I know… I am glad. I shouldn’t be. They could find us… Nasha, you don’t know, you haven’t seen. You cannot remember what happened with Father, but I saw, and I-They know. They see.
NASHA. You must relax. They can’t see everything we do, they can’t possibly.
GREGOR. Destroy, together destroy… Not what we have said but what we will do, what we will. That our voices will rise through action, incontrovertible. That one and the next, after the first, and soon follows a fall…
NASHA. Forget them, anyway. What are they? They sit around and discuss, discuss and then strangle us further every day. And while they do that, what? They take away our blue. I’m sure they keep it for themselves, they laugh it up, ah, the bastards! No, Ana, they’re too busy with themselves.
ANA. I wish I could believe you. But the screams-
NASHA. Those are gone.
ANA. You wouldn’t say as much if you had heard them.
NASHA. Ana.
ANA. …Yes, you may be correct. Perhaps father was an anomaly. Perhaps we are quite safe.
NASHA. And we have the blue.
ANA. Yes. That may matter most, after all.
GREGOR. It is very easy.
ANA. For now… I suppose it must be our secret. I should like to share it, but I fear this would be unwise.
NASHA. Keep it quiet, Ana.
ANA. We need no further screams.
NASHA. We will make a close family, you and I and the marble.
ANA. It is not the same.
NASHA. It’s as close as we’ll come. It was his color, and it was hers, and now it is ours and that’s how it should have been, anyway.
ANA. We needn’t worry anymore, then. Not about this bear of theirs or their men or even their restrictions. We should listen, perhaps, but what should we care? What should their rules matter when we have this?
NASHA. It is ours. Damn what they’ll say, because we’ll have them then.
GREGOR. No… No! [Jolts upright, suddenly awake.] It is not. Stop where you are.
NASHA. What are you going?
ANA. Gregor, what is this?
[Gregor takes and swallows the marble.]
GREGOR. That is not allowed; consider this your warning. [Resumes sleep.]
ANA. No!
NASHA. No, no, no! You bastard, no! [Begins to beat at Gregor, who does not respond.]
ANA. Nasha…
NASHA. No, no, you cannot! Gregor, Gregor, you cheat, you cannot do that, you cannot be that!
ANA. Nasha, it is too late. …we were unwise.
NASHA. Ana, Ana, no, we were right, I know we were! It is what Father said, what he…
ANA. Nasha, Father screamed. He screamed for hours when they finally came, became a man I felt I could never have heard-Nasha, he was our father, but he was no longer our father, he was something else, they changed him-and I could almost see him, though I hid myself, I hid and I listened, and he died, screaming.
NASHA. They cannot…
ANA. They see.
NASHA. Is that it, then? But we were close, so close-
ANA. We never were.
NASHA. …Then we might as well see the bear, after all. [Begins to exit.]
ANA. No. [Nasha halts.] We are too late. We’ve missed it. …They’ll know that, too.
NASHA. No…
ANA. Clean the yard. I’ll not have hens running around, not now. We may soon find ourselves graced by visitors.
NASHA. Ana…
ANA. No, Nasha.
[Ana exits. Nasha picks up the cards, then follows. A moment passes. Gregor laughs, quietly. Fade out.]