Excerpt from CELL MATES
CAST
(0M, 2F)
- Liz — woman, 20s—30s
- Fran — woman, 20s—30s (Liz’s cyber-biological clone)
TIME
The future.
PLACE
A simple room (cell).
STYLE
Drama. (30 mins)
(The lights rise on LIZ, lying down flat on the stage floor. FRAN enters, her back to the audience, and faces LIZ. After a moment LIZ turns and looks at FRAN.)
LIZ
What is it?
(LIZ checks the clock.)
Six twenty-two in the morning.
FRAN
It’s Six thirty. That device is incorrect.
LIZ
It’s correct.
FRAN
It’s six thirty. I have an internal Exactex one-fifty. It’s the—
LIZ
Shut the fuck up. I set the clock like that on purpose. I set it… No. I’m not going to waste my breath. I’m going back to sleep. Go away please.
(LIZ lies back down again.)
FRAN
You work today.
LIZ
No.
FRAN
Thursday. You work. You work Thursday. I know you work Thursday.
LIZ
It’s a holiday. Go back to sleep or whatever it is you do.
FRAN
It’s a holiday.
LIZ
That’s right. Please put that in your memory. Every November. The… Never mind. I’ll do it for you later.
(A moment passes. FRAN looks around.)
FRAN
Liz.
LIZ
What?
FRAN
What do we do for this holiday?
LIZ
We’re thankful, and then I go back to sleep.
FRAN
You should tell me about the holiday.
(LIZ sits up. It is obvious that there will be no going back to sleep.)
You should help me understand.
LIZ
Don’t ever fucking tell me what I should do. I decide that. I decide what I should do and what I shouldn’t do? You got that? ‘Cause I’ll rip out your fucking battery. Do you hear me?
FRAN
It would be a crime to rip out my battery.
LIZ
(Laughs.)
Yeah. Very good. You’re right.
(LIZ stands and faces off FRAN.)
Don’t worry. I’ll make it look like an accident.
FRAN
Worry?
LIZ
“Don’t think I won’t”. We have a double negative. They confuse you, don’t they? Don’t they, won’t they? I know: Do think I will. “Don’t worry” means “Do think I will”. Its sounds like I care that you will worry, but I won’t care. In fact, I want you to think that I’m wanting you not to worry… but not really, because with my sarcastic tone, you should be able to tell that I’m threatening you. In some cases things mean the opposite of what they really mean because of how you say it.
FRAN
Sarcasm is a feeling?
LIZ
No, you stupid fuck. You stupid fuck. No. Wait. Yes it does. No it doesn’t. It changes as I speak actually. Except for every third Wednesday and a half and two thirds of a fuck. You fuck!
(LIZ throws a pillow at FRAN. FRAN picks up the pillow and peacefully returns it to its original place. LIZ throws it back onto the floor.)
FRAN
Feelings. I have an advanced form of behavioral simulation, with adaptive response analog.
LIZ
I know, but they’re not feelings. I don’t care how top of the line you are.
Contact rajnoosh[at]gmail[dot]com for the full script.