Adagio and the Death of Love

Transcription

1 Adagio and the Death of Love A play in one act by Reid Conrad Performance Rights It is an infringement of the federal copyright law to copy or reproduce this script in any manner or to perform this play without royalty payment. All rights are controlled by Eldridge Publishing Co., Inc. Contact the publisher for additional scripts and further licensing information. The author s name must appear on all programs and advertising with the notice: Produced by special arrangement with Eldridge Publishing Company. ELDRIDGE PUBLISHING COMPANY histage.com 2009 Reid Conrad Download your complete script from Eldridge Publishing

2 - 2 - DEDICATION To Cody, whose love is unconditional. STORY OF THE PLAY The Imarovas were once the royal family and held sway over the social and political arenas of the country. But a new regime gained power and the Imarova children became captives in their own home. They live under a repressive guard, yet each sibling remembers or knows a different kind of love: romantic love, paid love, love of a child and pet, and most of all, Anabella s childlike, colorful love of life itself. It is only their family wealth and figurehead status that keep them from joining the work colonies. Today is Anabella s fourteenth birthday and as the youngest, she will discover this most important day will bring a change for all of her family. ORIGINAL PERFORMANCE First performed by the Seabreeze Alumni for Theatre Arts at the Spring 2009 One-Act Festival, Seabreeze High School, Daytona Beach, Fl. Anabella Imarova Michelle Lindahl Stephane Imarova Steven Miller Tanya Imarova Heather Campbell Peter Imarova Lenny Owens Soli Imarova Ashley Scarbrough Madame Bathory..... Rebecca Abramowitz Mr. Avarit Scott Harrell Mr. Luxur Aaron Green Asmodeus Luxur Max Henderson Komen Alex Glover

3 - 3 - CAST OF CHARACTERS (5-6 m, 4 w, extras) RELIGIOUS FIGURES MILITIA POLITICIANS TYCOONS FOUR PALLBEARERS WOMAN ANABELLA IMAROVA: Innocent, celebrating her birthday. STEPHANE IMAROVA: Her brother, studious and cynical. PETER IMAROVA: Her eldest brother, hard-working, and good natured. TANYA IMAROVA: The oldest sister, practical and apprehensive. SOLI IMAROVA: Anabella s beautiful sister. MADAME BATHORY: A cruel, bloodless woman. MR. AVARIT: A rather drab, unremarkable little man. MR. LUXUR: A commanding figure, intimidating. ASMODEUS LUXUR: Appears unsure, hides his sickliness. KOMEN: Luxur s servant. (May be played by Avarit.) Casting/Production Note The procession at the beginning and end of the play may be omitted, if your production has time constraints or a limited number of available actors, without altering the integrity of the performance. Editor s Note: This play is rich in symbolism. The death of art and love is even more stark when compared to some of the character names. While Anabella means easy to love, the names of Mrs. Crepuscular, Mr. Mammon, Mr. Bodkins, (the real) Madame Bathory and Asmo(deus) are much more sinister, representing legendary evils. The more you study the play, the more symbolism you will find.

4 - 4 - (MUSIC up Albinoni s Adagio in G minor. ) (AT RISE: After the music has begun, intersecting processions of figures begin to walk in time across the stage with the music. The numbers gradually increase. While the clothing is not specific for any time period or identifiable group, the procession consists of monks and nuns, militia and warmongers, politicians and tycoons. Some walk with the beat, some double and triple time. Their lines are straight and unbroken. After the procession is underway, starting at up left and proceeding to center stage, a heavily draped bed is carried by FOUR PALLBEARERS. Gradually, the intersecting lines of characters decreases and is gone. On the bed lies a WOMAN. Five children, in descending age, PETER, TANYA, SOLI, STEPHANE and ANABELLA, follow in single file. When the bed is set down, the pallbearers step upstage and the children crowd around. The woman lifts a hand to each of their faces, then lays still. The children fall weeping on the motionless figure. The lights fade to black. The music slowly fades. After a moment, lights up at center stage. The pallbearers and the woman are gone. TANYA, SOLI and ANABELLA lie on bed with Anabella closest to audience. PETER is upstage lying on floor above bed and cannot be seen. STEPHANE sits profile, back against the foot of the bed, head bent over a book. As lights come up on bed Anabella rises and crosses down front to face the audience. She pantomimes the opening of a curtain. As the bed is the only set piece, all action is pantomimed.) ANABELLA: (Brightly.) It s a lovely day today. The sun is up. Hello, Mr. Sun. The sky is a deep cerulean blue with big lazy clouds floating across it all the way to the mountains. The lake is blue too. Why I could dip my cup into it and come away with a day s worth of cheer. Oh, look. A mother lark is feeding her little brown babies.

5 - 5 - ANABELLA: (Cont d.) They jostle so. Stop it, now, you bully, there s enough for all. Look, there s a doe, sleek and silent, and her wobbly, dappled fawn, come to drink at the side of the stream. STEPHANE: (Who has staggered up from the floor and comes to ANABELLA s side, parts the curtain next to her.) The sky is grey. Everything s grey. Same as every other day. And there are no birds left anymore. Or deer. (Lets the curtain drop and shuffles right where he pantomimes washing his face from a basin.) ANABELLA: (In a sudden rage.) Oh, Stephane, now you ve ruined it! You just had to go and TANYA: (Rolling over quickly to face ANABELLA.) Will you two stop it! Just one morning I d like to wake up feeling refreshed ANABELLA: (To STEPHANE.) You ve ruined my day! I hope you re happy, making me miserable! TANYA: (Sitting up.) Peter, will you deal with this child? STEPHANE: I haven t ruined anything. You ve ruined it. You woke up. TANYA: Peter! PETER: (Jumping up from behind bed.) Up, up. (Looks around for something near him, then at TANYA.) I m up! TANYA: They re at it again. I m not going to stand for it. STEPHANE: (Returning to his book.) As if you had a choice. TANYA: You see! Insolence. Aggravating insolence. Will you deal with this, please! PETER: Dealing, dealing. (Walks around to foot of bed. HE looks down at STEPHANE.) Stephane. Do you think for one morning you could leave your sister be? STEPHANE: She irks me. PETER: Yes, but (Squatting in front of STEPHANE.) don t let it get to you. You can t let the little things get to you, not if you want to get ahead. (Taps the books.) Not with technical quaternarians coming up. STEPHANE: Her incessant blabber fuddles my mind.

6 - 6 - PETER: Learn to block it out. It s the only way you will make it here. Understood? (Waits for a reply.) Understood? STEPHANE: Understood. PETER: Good then. (Rises.) And you (Crosses to left of ANABELLA who is sitting on floor below window with her back to STEPHANE.) why are you pouting over here in the corner? ANABELLA: I m not pouting. PETER: No? ANABELLA: I m pondering. PETER: Oh. (Slight pause.) Well, while you ponder I m going to have a look out the window. STEPHANE: Peter! PETER: (Turns to STEPHANE.) Block it out, Stephane. This ll be good practice for you. (Looks down at ANABELLA and then lifts curtain facing audience.) Yes, yes, a sunshiny day. Sunshiny indeed. But don t let that fool you. A most wretched wind is lurking in the treetops. I can just make it out perching secretly in the boughs of the old plane tree. Oh, look. There s that nasty Mrs. Crepuscular walking her poor excuse for a dog. Looks more like a green bean or a preying mantis with its blotches of olive fur not like a real dog by any stretch of the imagination. Uh oh, that wily wicked wind has caught a glimpse of Mrs. Crepuscular. He s diving in for the attack! (ANABELLA jumps up to look out the window and takes great pleasure in the narrative.) The poor woman is caught unawares! Up goes her bonnet! Up go her skirts! Up goes that poor excuse for a dog TANYA: Peter! I m going to strangle you in a minute! You re the worst one of all! I cannot get a wink of sleep with all of this distraction PETER: Doesn t seem to bother Soli STEPHANE: Soli doesn t let anything bother her. PETER: And let her be an example to you. STEPHANE: Thank god I ve got more than my looks to get me through the day

7 - 7 - PETER: (To TANYA.) And besides it s seven-thirty. Beauty sleep all gone. Up and at em, my pippernoggers! (Jumps onto the bed.) TANYA: Peter! (ANABELLA runs and jumps onto the bed. A great tickle fight begins. Anabella is getting the worst of it.) PETER: (With a sing-song taunt.) Oh, Stephane. Now s your opportunity for a modicum of revenge. (STEPHANE looks up, thinks for a second, slams book onto floor and dives onto the heap of bodies on the bed. Now PETER is the object of the assault.) PETER: Not me! Okay, okay. I give! I give already! (The CHILDREN lie panting from exhaustion.) TANYA: Let s motivate here, children. We all have places to go PETER: People to meet, appointments to keep! STEPHANE: Except for Anabella. She doesn t do a thing. PETER: She doesn t have to. Not yet. ANABELLA: What makes you say that? PETER: You are still the baby of this family. ANABELLA: But babies grow up. STEPHANE: Yes, please! ANABELLA: (Ignoring STEPHANE, who returns to his book.) And, doesn t anyone know what today is? PETER: (Tickling SOLI.) The day Soli gets out of bed at a decent hour? ANABELLA: Didn t any of you remember? It s my birthday! (At once PETER stops tickling. TANYA appears frightened. STEPHANE buries himself in his book, ignoring the ensuing conversation. SOLI sits up for the first time and stares wideeyed at ANABELLA.)

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