| A one-act play for youth, about community unity.
The UnionA One-Act Religious Drama for Youth Written by Debra Bruch
Setting This play can be produced either outside or inside. The setting is that of an old back yard, with junk around and, most important, a fence. A person must be able to sit on the fence. Each actor or actress wears a shirt with the name of his or her character printed on it. The age of each character is not set. The play takes place anytime, anywhere.
Characters
* * * * * * * * * * * (SLEEP, CONTENTMENT, and SECURITY are on stage. Pleasure enters with a ball and bat.) PLEASURE (To SECURITY.) Hey! You wanna play? SECURITY (A snob.) Play what? PLEASURE (Looks at his bat.) Play house. SECURITY Not without my bat and my ball. PLEASURE But you don't have any. These are the only ones around here. SECURITY Then I don't want to play. PLEASURE (To CONTENTMENT.) You wanna go? CONTENTMENT Go where? PLEASURE (Looks at his bat.) Go fishing. CONTENTMENT How far away is the water? PLEASURE Ten minutes. CONTENTMENT That's too far. I like it here, so I don't want to go. PLEASURE (To SLEEP.) Hey! You wanna live? SLEEP (Wakes.) Huh? What? What is this noise? Ah, the rabble! Live? Live where? I live here. This is where I live. Why can't you children leave us alone? PLEASURE Do you sleep all the time? SLEEP Do I --- ! What a silly question! Of course I sleep all the time. I am Sleep. It's such a wonderful world here. Everything's easy, relaxed. Full of love and beauty, and centered around ME! Why, I can have whatever I want, be in any situation I want. In sleep, I think DEEP thoughts. Find meaning. Find reality! Go away. I'm busy. (Goes back to sleep.) PLEASURE Good. I wanted to play by myself anyway. (Exits.) (A noise is heard, blown from a trumpet offstage by DISCIPLE. Soon, people are heard. COMMUNITY, CHURCH, EDUCATION, POLITICS, and ECONOMY run in, very frightened and making a lot of noise.) COMMUNITY Help us! A crazy man is chasing us. Save us! SLEEP (Wakes.) What? Huh? Ah, the rabble! ECONOMY Help me! Please! I might fall! POLITICS (Frightened.) I'm not scared! I just act that way because the people want me to! CHURCH Such an evil noise! SECURITY (Calms them.) It's all right. He can't get you here. You're safe here. Safe and secure. I'll give you security. I'll give you life! SLEEP I'll give you rest and beauty. I'll give you life! COMMUNITY I feel better already. It must be right if it makes you feel good. CHURCH Maybe. But wisdom dictates that it's safer up here. (Climbs and sits on top of the fence, where he remains.) Must think of appearances, you know. ECONOMY It seems as if we're in good company. POLITICS (To SECURITY.) I promise you, sir, we'll be no trouble at all. None at all. (PLEASURE enters.) SLEEP Ah, our frolicking friend returns. PLEASURE Hey! Company! Wanna play? SECURITY No! They've had a terrible fright! They need to sleep. EDUCATION But I'm not sleepy. SECURITY Yes you are. (To POLITICS.) Don't you think he's sleepy? Don't you think you're all sleepy? POLITICS Whatever you say. COMMUNITY Come to think of it, I do feel a little tired. SLEEP All that running. PLEASURE All that playing. CONTENTMENT All that doing. SECURITY All that thinking. CHURCH But if you play a game, you won't be sleepy anymore. SECURITY Who asked you? COMMUNITY Seems like a good idea to me. Let's do something. PLEASURE Okay! (All but CHURCH on stage gather away from the fence and mime a game of softball, with SECURITY pitching. At first, it is lively, but gradually slows down until everyone seems tired. Meanwhile, the trumpeting begins again, and DISCIPLE enters, out of breath.) CHURCH (To DISCIPLE.) Aren't you tired of blowing that thing? DISCIPLE Tired! I'm half-dead. Aren't you tired of sitting up there? CHURCH Oh no! There's a lot of things I can do. I can sit this way, or this way, or like this, or this. DISCIPLE Come down and follow me. CHURCH Why? What can you do for me? DISCIPLE I'll give you life. CHURCH It's safer up here. My conscience is clear up here. DISCIPLE (Watches the others.) They worship Security. CHURCH I worship God. DISCIPLE I worship God. You worship the fence. CHURCH I pray every morning and sit through the ritual every Sunday. What do you do? DISCIPLE I live life. CHURCH You're crazy. Have you killed God? DISCIPLE No. He's still alive and values still the same. (Blows the trumpet.) COMMUNITY Look! He's here! Help us! He's mad! Mean! Vicious! ECONOMY He'll eat us! SECURITY He can't. You're safe here. He can't come in. COMMUNITY All he has to do is to walk around the fence! POLITICS There are alternatives to everything. SECURITY He won't. (With great authority.) Who are you and what do you want? DISCIPLE I am Disciple and wish for you to follow me. POLITICS Why? DISCIPLE So you can better yourselves, quicken yourselves, strive for the full potential within yourselves. ECONOMY Did someone pay you to say that? EDUCATION Sounds phony to me. POLITICS (Thoughtful.) I can't just pack off. It all depends on demand and the will of the majority. (To CHURCH.) I hate to be indecisive, don't you? CHURCH Oh, I don't know. COMMUNITY Why should we come over there? We're safe here. We have security here. We're contented living out life here. We find peace in sleep. You're just throwing vinegar in the water. It's you that's full of evil and crime. Here there's something better. We're on the inside and you're not. If you want us to be happy, then leave us alone. (SLEEP touches COMMUNITY, EDUCATION, POLITICS, and ECONOMY. One by one, they fall asleep.) SECURITY (To DISCIPLE.) You see. Like they said, if you want them to be happy, then leave them alone. DISCIPLE I won't leave them alone. I'll wake them up. SECURITY You can't. They choose to be here. DISCIPLE I can try. SECURITY You won't succeed. Try it. (DISCIPLE blows his trumpet. No sound.) SECURITY You see? You can't. CHURCH (About the trumpet.) It doesn't work any more! DISCIPLE (Sad.) They've all been fooled. Every one of them. Their side is the world, not mine. (To CHURCH.) You too. I can talk all I want, but if you don't respond, there's nothing I can do. CHURCH But I'm safe here. I'm on the fence with one foot in the world while the other is beyond the world. Once in a while, when I have the time of course, I'll do something for the world. Build a few buildings, have a few bake sales, and generally spread the word to whoever wants to listen. I'm contented living my own life in this world. I can still have pleasure in life, and security. After all, I'm only human and everybody needs security. Anything else would be unrealistic. DISCIPLE You don't understand, do you? The fence makes your crime greater. You have a foot over here and responsibility follows. CHURCH You want me to be a part of the world, but you don't understand. It would be unrealistic to try to live without those things over there. Life is terrible without them. I need them. DISCIPLE You need them as long as you have them. As soon as you let them go, you'll find out you don't need them after all. You'll be given something better. But that, you'll have to find out for yourself. CHURCH It's risky. DISCIPLE So take a risk. CHURCH But the world . . . is . . . so . . . cruel. DISCIPLE Cruel . . . Yes, my friend. Life is full of cruelty, selfishness, greed, sickness. . . . Misery. That is life as it is. But sometimes, just sometimes, beauty and even love can break through. Too many times it gives only a feeble glow. Too many times. Only a crazy person can see it. I've seen men and women die for it . . . tortured, humiliated. These were people! People who see life as it should be. . . . But to only see life as it is. I pity the person who only sees life as it is. I'd rather be crazy than blind. . . . Because a crazy person can live life as it should be, to make it life as it is. CHURCH What are you gonna do about them? DISCIPLE I can't do anything. But maybe you can. (Gives CHURCH the trumpet.) Here. This is yours now. CHURCH (Drily.) You're giving me a broken trumpet. (DISCIPLE starts to exit.) Hey! You're not leaving me! What about them? DISCIPLE You figure it out. (DISCIPLE exits.) CHURCH Terrific. . . . He's crazy. . . . Take a risk, huh? Maybe. (Tries to blow the trumpet, but no sound.) I knew it wouldn't work. (Tries it again. No sound.) Nothing but a fake. Humm. . . . Maybe. Maybe --- (Jumps down off of the fence, on the side where the others are. Then blows the trumpet. It sounds. The others wake up.) SLEEP Huh? What? SECURITY Get that thing out of here! SLEEP You interrupted some deep thinking I'd have you know. CHURCH I have a great idea! Let's organize ourselves! SLEEP The rabble. Nothing but the rabble. ECONOMY What for? CHURCH To better the world! To let a little beauty and love come through. EDUCATION You're nuts. CHURCH But we can do it! COMMUNITY How. CHURCH How? EVERYONE (Not all at once.) How? (CHURCH looks at himself, looks at the fence, then proceeds to remove the fence.) SECURITY Hey! You can't do that! I say you can't do that! CHURCH (Removes the fence.) I did it. SECURITY Come on. We can't stay here. SLEEP Of all the nerve! PLEASURE (To CHURCH.) Boy, you're no fun at all! COMMUNITY Hey! What about us? SECURITY God help you now, you're on your own! (SECURITY, SLEEP, CONTENTMENT, and PLEASURE exit.) POLITICS (To CHURCH.) Now you've done it. EDUCATION Gee, I don't feel so bad. COMMUNITY Neither do I. CHURCH Now we can do something! Together! (They all exit, CHURCH blowing the trumpet.) End of Play
Copyright 1994 Debra Bruch
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