IT’S JUST THE RADIO

IT’S JUST THE RADIO

Surrey Jones: an unfortunate depressed woman desperate for company. She is a patient bored almost into further depression, but wills to be happy. She is in her 20’s or 30’s.

Eve Anderson: a nurse just doing her job, living day to day and trying not to let herself get too involved, too emotional with the patients. She tries to be a friend, but knows to set her limits, and can sometimes inconsiderately adhere to them. She is in her late 20’s or late 30’s.

A cold, near-empty hospital room. An empty hospital bed with two pillows stands in the middle. A large window with drapes is on one wall. A bookcase is nearby, with multiple books laid rough-housed across its top, and a large calendar above it. There is a table with two chairs. It is morning.

Eve and Surrey enter the hospital room, laughing and holding each other.

SURREY

We didn’t even drink alcohol and I had so much fun!

EVE

It’s good to hear you’re finally enjoying yourself! (Pause) Oh, I loved the dancing! It was great, I never knew the grandpas and grandmas could shake it so well, ha!

SURREY

Yeah, and I’m pretty sure Joseph wanted to keep eating his biscuits and gravy, but I’m glad he danced with me. And the music!

EVE

Hey, this was much more fun than when we poked around the basement, do you remember that?

SURREY

Oooh and then we found that morgue? That is probably the most intriguing aspect of this hospital I’ve seen so far! Maybe next time we can go up to the rooftop, ‘ey?

EVE

W-well…

SURREY

(sarcastically)

Yeah, and then I can jump off the building and off myself.

EVE

(sighing)

Surrey, we can’t go up to the roof.

SURREY

(suddenly heated)

Stop telling me what we can and can’t do!

EVE

It isn’t personal, Surrey. This is just hospital policy. No person is allowed on the roof.

SURREY

(calm)

What bad could possibly happen when I’m with you? Has anyone gone up there before?

EVE

Surrey I don’t want you to pursue the matter. It does not matter what happened the last time someone went up there. That is in the past, and you are all that matters to me.

SURREY

I was just playing... Hey, let’s play a game!

EVE

(snapping her fingers)

Surrey, en garde!

Eve begins to playfully depict fencing.

SURREY

A sword fight! Here!

Surrey jumps onto her bed, tosses a pillow at Eve and grabbing one for her self.

EVE

I haven’t played like this in ages!

Eve and Surrey begin their pillow fight, Surrey increasingly becoming violent, losing control.

SURREY

Take this!

EVE

Su-

SURREY

And this!

EVE

Surre-

SURREY

And this!

EVE

Surrey! Stop! (Surrey lowers her pillow and her head) I think that’s enough. I need to get ready to start my shift.

SURREY

Oh please, just one more hour, please?

EVE

Surrey, I am a nurse with responsibilities and duties I must fulfill. This was fun, but I have to get going now. Will you be okay? (Eve waits for a response, but there is none) I’m leaving now. (Surrey continues to ignore her) Alright, good bye.

Eve turns around and begins to head towards the exit. At the last second, Surrey cries out for Eve.

SURREY

Eve! (Eve stops walking and turns towards Surrey. Surrey smiles) I hope you have a good day at work.

EVE

And you have a good day, too. See you later, ‘gater!

Eve jitterbugs, exiting the stage. Surrey lets out a loud sigh, and jumps onto her bed.

SURREY

Oh Eve! I don’t want you to go. You keep leaving me earlier and earlier. You don’t see me during the day, you don’t even leave a note asking how I’ve been anymore. You stomp around the whole hospital and don’t even set a foot into my room. (Surrey reaches beneath her bed, pulls her hands out, and softly speaks) 10, 20, 30, 40, 45, 46, 47… (Surrey sighs).

Surrey sighs, returns her hands to beneath the mattress, jumps out of bed, paces, and sits down at her table.

SURREY

Aren’t you thirsty, Joseph? Here have some tea. (Surrey motions as if pouring tea from a tea kettle into a tea pot, then pouring from the tea pot into a tea cup, and serving it towards the other chair) There’s your cup. It’s jasmine tea, Dragon Pearl, to be exact. It is Eve’s favorite tea, and mine’s too, of course. (Surrey reaches over to the bookcase, looking at a calendar) Oh Joseph, I’m so happy, tomorrow is our 24^th day! Oh I just can’t wait to leave this place. (Surrey motions again, as if picking up the teapot, and pouring more tea into a cup in front of her) Don’t you just love tea? I sure do wish more people would love tea like you do. More people need to have what they love, you know?

The light in the room quickly becomes an orange glow, suggesting a nearing sunset. The orange glow paints itself onto the wall, referring to and reflecting the setting of the sun.

SURREY

Perhaps no one knows how they’ll die, and that’s why they don’t know how to enjoy life to the fullest. Just like us, huh Joseph? Let’s go keep having fun. I’ll see you later.

Surrey leaves the table to sit upright by her bed.

SURREY

Hmm. Don’t you think Eve looked especially pretty today? I really like her rosy cheeks when she begins to talk too much and runs out of breath. Ha, and Joseph was such a cutie today. I’m pretty sure he was flirting with me during tea time. He is such a hound-dog!

Eve passes by, outside her room.

SURREY

(Calling)

Morning!

Eve enters.

EVE

Wha-? It’s almost eve-.

SURREY

Yeah that’s you! Where are you off to?

EVE

(Annoyed)

Home, finally! I’m tired after covering Nurse Joy’s shift, and I need to take a good, long hot shower. I am going home.

SURREY

(sarcastically)

Oh, well that’s nice, you’re going home. Well, I’m off to explore the streets of London…

EVE

(not taking the bait)

Sorry Surrey, but I’m just not in the mood to play. I really just want to go home.

SURREY

Well aren’t you even going to ask me what’s to explore in the streets of London?

EVE

I have blood on my clothes and some still on my chin, I don’t really feel like-

SURREY

Zombies!

A moment of silence as Eve looks on.

SURREY

Zombies!

EVE

Yeah, yeah I got that, why are you looking for zombies?

SURREY

Oh, ew no, I don’t like zombies… just as much as I dislike the word (slowly) “moist”.

Eve and Surrey shudder.

EVE

You shouldn’t be exploring things you don’t want to see. You’re destined to be miserable.

SURREY

Oh yeah? Are you some sort of know-it-all or something?

EVE

(playfully)

Well, I know what I want, and I know what I need. It’s been obvious how alone I am. I-

SURREY

(Interrupting)

Alone? You’ve got me!

EVE

…Oh, no no, it’s moments when you’re at a birthday, and (emphasized) everyone gets up to dance with another person. I’m always that person by themselves.

SURREY

Yeah, I know what you mean. I- I’m also a bit lonely, but I know I’ll find my man! (mumbled) Again..

EVE

That –That’s good for you, now I gotta g-

SURREY

I want a man to read Harry Potter with!

EVE

What? Surrey, look, it’s seven and I really need to-

SURREY

Wait! Please, please don’t leave.

EVE

Sometimes, everyone has to go.

SURREY

I really need someone to talk to.

EVE

Look, I’m sorry, but I can’t help you right now.

SURREY

I don’t really need your help, I- I just need your company.

EVE

Well, Surrey, it’s already past seven and I need to go home-

SURREY

Don’t go! Don’t let the sun go down... Don’t let me go alone into the dark.

EVE

I’m sorry Surrey, but I have to go.

Eve looks into Surrey, and slumps a bit as her guilt weighs her down. Eve leaves. The orange glow of the room fades out, and a white light replaces it, indicating the moonshine. Surrey tosses in bed, gets up and goes up to the window.

SURREY

It’s this still of the night that breaks me. I just can’t stand this place... Everything is so familiar, these books are useless, and everyone just wants to go home… No one wants to play anymore, no one wants to have fun. Everyone wants to “live”, but not really “live life”… Which do you do more often?

The moonlight shines in momentarily and now the sunrise’s orange glow fills the room.

SURREY

I wish I could hear the buzz of the street below… (getting back into bed) Haha, I wish I could hear a rooster crow! But there aren’t any in this town, huh? The day starts so slow without them... (Surrey reaches beneath her bed, pulls her hands out, and softly speaks) 10, 20, 30, 40, 45, 46, 47, 48..

Enter a waltzing Eve

EVE

Morning, Sunshine!

SURREY

Eve! (returns her hands beneath her pillow) Are you gonna join me for breakfast?

EVE

Of course, hon’! They still have 10 minutes ‘til they start dishing out the good stuff, you know. Let’s play another game. Hey, go on and tell me something about yourself.

SURREY

Hmmmm… What don’t you already know?

EVE

Tell me about your face, and then I’ll tell you about mine!

SURREY

Okay, okay. Let’s see. My eyes. I have a pair of dreary, dreary eyes. (Surrey slumps) Sometimes they cry and sometimes they dry, but they never, ever tell lies. Some dull color green on some dull color white. (Surrey slumps some more) I have these lips... Lips so dry and tasteless as the concrete outsid-

EVE

Umm, how about we play something else? Tell me something else about yourself, that I wouldn’t know.

SURREY

Hmm… Well… I can tell you a secret that I’d never tell.

EVE

Oh can you now? A secret that you’d (emphasized) never tell? And why is that?

SURREY

(with excitement)

Because these rock legends are not supposed to retire!

EVE

You’d rather let them light themselves

on fire?

SURREY

(reflective)

Or overdose in a four star hotel… (Surrey slumps forward into a crooked hunch.)

EVE

Oh, Surrey, don’t feel bad. Your fear is the most telling sign of who you are, and I don’t want to see you like this anymore. (Eve sits next to Surrey on her bed, and embraces her) I want to help you, guide you home. I want to light up your path. (pauses and gets back up) It’s time for brunch! I’ll be right back with the food.

SURREY

Wait! Don’t go yet! There’s still more we haven’t said!

Eve foxtrots out of the room and leaves.

SURREY

I just want to bring you back. I just want to know you again. We were like theatre gods in the velvet dark. Just talking and acting out our true, vivid dreams. We had so much bright fun together. We went on so many enlightening journeys. Now all we have is this hazy light, where nothing can really be photographed well...

I reach into the mattress.

SURREY

Twenty-four days I have collected you. (pause)

I ingest my 48 pills. My machine flat-lines. Doctors rush in and I am pronounced “Dead, at eleven oh-four A.M.”. The doctors leave and leave me in my bed. My sister boogies into the room, only to drop our tray of food at the sight of me.

EVE

D-Don’t go-

She says, but I’m sleeping. She says it to herself.

EVE

Don’t go.

The sun keeps rising.

Eve tugs on my sheets a bit. She begins to leave as the light of the room fades away.

FIN.

An Entry

Surrey’s Diary

Present day in the past:

Diary,

What’s the point of it anymore? It won’t make a difference if I stop. No one even reads you. So why should I keep writing in you? Why should I continue?

Because I LOVE you! Oh diary you’re so special, I think about you night and day! You hold all my memories, all my opinions, all my thoughts and wonders. You’re like another me! Haha, could you imaging that? I don’t think the world could handle us both. They’re so unaccepting. No one needs them. And no one needs us. No one needs us.

I went to get apples today. The man at the register kept looking at me like I was going to steal it. Turns out he was just checking me out, so I left the store.

Olivia came over today. I don’t think I like her that much. Today we talked about my weight. All my ribs don’t show anymore, apparently. I sometimes wish she was nicer. I sometimes wish everyone was nicer.

I also got oranges at the store. They weren’t as acidic as I thought they would be, so it was a pleasant surprise. Today was a good day.

Do you know I haven’t- Well, of course you know… You’re me! Haha, but anyway. Do you know that I haven’t been outside in DAYS until today? I saw the mailman outside, and he waved at me. There should be more mailmen. More waving.

Anyway, I have to go. There is a draft and it’s pushing some of the drapes open. Ever since I’ve been here, the smallest amount of light is such a nuisance.

I love you,

Surrey Jones

The Son of Man

Magrette Lefèvre: a strong-willed woman, having worked hard to be where she is now.

Renn Lefèvre: a rebel without a cause, with a history to show for it.

Magrette and Renn traditionally go to Tasse for their early-morning coffee. It gives them the opportunity to be with each other before they go to work, slowing their world enough to spend a lifetime with each other every day. Today begins like any other day.

Magrette and Renn have been married for two years, and have known each other for fifteen. Their newborn baby has added a new and different dimension to their strong relationship.

Magrette and Renn both enjoy each other’s company, and honor the sanctity of their marriage, each day upholding the morals and emotional needs of each other. With the new responsibility of caring for and raising their child, however, there seems to be some disconnect in the relationship, regarding the role of each parent.

Wife (Magrette) and Husband (Renn) are at the terrace of a coffee shop. The wife needs her husband to be a father to their biological daughter. But the husband doesn’t know how to do that because he never had a father of his own.

THE SON OF MAN

A quaint coffee shop, early in the morning. Two characters sit on the same side of a table, ordering.

MAGRETTE

The café au lait, please.

RENN

And I will take a café noir, thank you.

They sit in silence for a few minutes, admiring the ever-lasting beauty of their view, a sunrise against their waterfront. The coffee arrives.

MAGRETTE

(Taking a sip of coffee)

Renn, were you able to finish your report? That seemed like such a task, and for Jon to only give you a day to complete!

RENN

Ah, it was difficult, but yes. I hope I didn’t wake you when I got back into bed. I was so tired I couldn’t even notice if I was making too much noise.

MAGRETTE

No, no, you were fine. I fell fast asleep as soon as I got into bed… It was a struggle trying to bathe Aimée and get her to bed. At least she liked the food I made, haha.

RENN

That casserole was delicious! My mother used to make one just like yours, anytime one of us had a “rainy day”.

MAGRETTE

A rainy day?

RENN

It’s what mother said whenever we were thinking about James.

MAGRETTE

When was the last time you saw your father?

RENN

I think the last memory I have of James is of when he asked me for money to buy his train ticket away from us.

MAGRETTE

How terrible!

RENN

Eh, it was James’ own money anyway. I gave him what he gave me for my third birthday.

They watch a dog being tied to a stake outside the shop next-door. Slowly, the dog unties himself, walking away and jumping a nearby fence, one separating the sandy beach from the empty street, as his owner wastes his time shopping for medicine.

RENN

Wow, did you see that? That must be the smartest dog I’ve ever seen!

MAGRETTE

Oh dear! (Pause) Speaking of which, Renn, did you put up the baby fence so that Aimée can’t leave her crib? We shouldn’t let her fall again… The doctor mentioned it might create intellectual setbacks later in her life…

RENN

Ah, right, sorry dear, I completely forgot. I know it was my job to put the fence up, but I was busy removing the pedestrian-button from the city’s crosswalks.

MAGRETTE

Why were you removing pedestrian buttons?

RENN

I wanted to see if there wou-

MAGRETTE

(Interrupting)

Renn, I really need you to be a father to our child.

RENN

I “am” her father, Magrette.

MAGRETTE

It’s more than just being related, you have to take a more active-

RENN

Ah, my coffee’s cold…

MAGRETTE

Uhm. You have to take a more active role in her life. You need to be more structured. And I don’t think your hobby is helping.

RENN

Magrette, I didn’t have a father when I was a little boy. When I was a child, James never hugged me, James never even looked at me.

MAGRETTE

Oh Renn-

RENN

I know it’s hard sometimes, but I thank you for putting up with all my antics. But when you don’t have a father’s love, when you don’t hear him say that you’re his little boy (trailing)… (Choking on his words) We never had one at home. And I understand why James couldn’t be there.

MAGRETTE

Nobody taught him how to be a father.

RENN

Magrette, I’m sorry.