Breaking the Wall
by Danny Zeff
(Scene: An almost empty
black stage. A black platform serves as a table. Two black chairs are on either
side. Lights come up and ONE walks in carrying a newspaper, a bowl, and a spoon.
He sits down at the table, opens up his newspaper, and begins to read while
“eating” cereal. TWO comes in also with a bowl of cereal. ONE looks up and
acknowledges him.)
ONE: Morning.
TWO: Morning.
ONE: Slept well?
TWO: Alright. Had that
dream again.
ONE: Ah, that one’s a
problem.
TWO: Yep.
(Short moment of reading
and eating.)
TWO: Has Jenna called you
back yet?
ONE: No not yet. Perhaps
she’s still angry at me.
(Another short moment of
no dialogue. All of a sudden TWO looks up from his bowl and stares straight into
the audience. He pauses for a moment with a confused look on his face.)
TWO: Hey, did you ever
notice that there?
ONE: Notice what?
TWO: That. (points to the
audience)
ONE: The wall?
TWO: No, those people!
ONE: What people?
TWO: All those people
right over there. Look they’re staring right at us. There’s one guy biting into
a chocolate bar. There’s a woman trying to shush up her little kid. Then there’s
some young girl putting her cell phone on vibrate after realizing it was hers
that went off five minutes ago disrupting the people sitting around her. Don’t
you see them?
ONE: Are you sure you
slept okay?
TWO: Oh come on. Look
straight ahead. Now tell me that you don’t see them.
ONE: Honestly I don’t know
what you are talking about. All I see is a wall.
TWO: I always thought
there was a wall there too. But the more and more I look I see no wall, just
that group of people watching our every move.
ONE: I still don’t see
them.
TWO: You know, that’s not
the only thing I’ve noticed. Have you ever realized that every day we wake up
it’s always the same thing?
ONE: What are you talking
about?
TWO: Every morning it’s
the same thing. You come in and sit down at this black box….
ONE: You mean the table?
TWO: You carry in that
bowl, that spoon, and that newspaper. You sit down at the “table” and start to
read. Then I come in with my cereal and we talk. And it’s always the same
conversation…. I have that dream and you haven’t called Jenna.
ONE: What are you getting
at?
TWO: What I’m saying is
that it doesn’t feel right. It’s as if we’ve been directed to do that, and then
when we leave the whole thing just starts over again a little later. We never
get on with our lives. It’s just a bunch of repetition!
ONE: You’re just paranoid.
I’ve never thought anything was wrong.
(TWO puts down his cereal
bowl and gets in ONE’s face.)
TWO: What if there was
more out there than these walls? I mean I know there’s definitely something
where that fourth wall used to be. I don’t know what it is but I want to find
out.
ONE: I’m telling you
there’s nothing there.
TWO: You’re always like
that. You aren’t willing to take the chance that maybe everything you know is
wrong.
ONE: Of course not.
Imagine if all your life you are told something exists and you base your life
based on that fact. Then one day, without any warning, you learn that it never
existed. Hell, if that happened…. my whole life would fall apart. Do you realize
what you’re saying? You’re saying that people are watching us like we’re some
sort of creature in a fishbowl. Imagine…. people I can’t see watching me eat my
breakfast and have this pointless conversation. Where do you get these ideas?
TWO: You know what? I
think I’m going to step through it.
ONE: Step through what?
TWO: That space where the
people are! Where the wall used to be…. if there ever was a wall at all! I want
to know what’s out there. You want to come?
(ONE sighs. He leaves his
spot and puts his hands on TWO’s face.)
ONE: Look. To your left, a
wall. To your right, a wall. To the back, a wall. And to the front, a WALL!
There is only one exit to the room, and that’s behind us! There is no other
exit! (Throws TWO out of his hands in anger.) Listen, if you want to go and
crash into the wall that’s fine with me. But don’t drag me into your stupid
impossible beliefs. I’m staying right here, a place that I know and love and
will never change because there is nothing to change.
TWO: Fine. I will go
myself. But before I go, I just want to tell you that I’m disappointed how
one-dimensional you’re acting. I understand that it’s scary to believe that
maybe your entire life was a fake, a phony. But sometimes, you have to accept
change and seek out new ideas. Even if they make no sense based on what you’ve
always been taught to know, perhaps they’ll make more sense in the long run. If
there really is something out there, I’m going to go on and I probably won’t
come back. I’m just hoping that some day you’ll see what I see and perhaps join
me.
(TWO looks at ONE hoping
he’ll respond, but ONE keeps his head down. A disappointed TWO walks off the
stage in curiosity and disappears from the audience’s view. ONE finally looks up
and notices his friend is gone. He stares at “the fourth wall” in awe.)
SCENE