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ACT I
Scene One : Morning
AT RISE:
SUNRISE, dressed in white robes
associated with some religious or
spiritual groups, is stretched over a
tree stump, roses at her side.
MAGDA, dressed in a white exercise
suit, jogs in circles, then stops by a
park bench and begins to exercise.
MAGDA
Hello. Good to see you out there too. Yes yes, it is
beautiful out here this time of the morning, makes you feel
really alive. Yes, of course it used to be a lot easier, but
when we were young wasn't everything. I can remember when I
didn't even have to think about touching these toes. Now I
just pray I can get through these exercises without coming
apart. Enough! I am finished.
(MAGDA stops and pulls out a pack of cigarettes,
now aware of SUNRISE)
Yes, yes, I know it isn't very good for me, but I fool myself
and only smoke in this park -- in the morning -- and when I
get home I tell myself I will quit for good. Yah, we all have
our weaknesses.
(MAGDA coolly turns offering SUNRISE a cigarette
as SUNRISE offers MAGDA roses)
Would you like cigarette?
SUNRISE
Won't you take a pretty flower?
MAGDA
What did you say?
SUNRISE
I don't smoke. No one should.
MAGDA
I only asked because you were watching me. You were watching
me weren't you?
SUNRISE
I thought you might like some flowers.
MAGDA
Ah, roses, they are my favorite.
SUNRISE
Take one. They yours.
(MAGDA puts the cigarette back, reaches out to
take the flower, then stops abruptly.)
What's wrong?
MAGDA
Roses have thorns.
SUNRISE
Oh! Of course. Let me pick one out for you.
(Pricks her hand)
Ouch!
MAGDA
I warned you. Now, let me see. Ah, nothing serious here,
nothing serious at all. Just suck on it.
(SUNRISE stares at her)
Believe me, it'll make it feel better.
(SUNRISE puts her finger in her mouth)
Now isn't that better?
SUNRISE
Uh-huh.
MAGDA
Yes, roses are very beautiful, and very, very dangerous.
Obviously much too dangerous for you. I'm surprised your
mother lets you out alone. (walking away)
SUNRISE
MY MOTHER IS THE SOLAR SYSTEM!
MAGDA
Really! (stops) And your father?
SUNRISE
My father is the--
MAGDA
No, no, no don't tell me. You're father is the Cosmos!
SUNRISE
Exactly.
MAGDA
Exactly.
SUNRISE
I knew you'd understand.
MAGDA
I don't understand at all, my dear child, I was just simply
making a joke.
SUNRISE
I'm not a child.
MAGDA
No, obviously you are not. Please accept my apology Miss..?
SUNRISE
Sunrise.
MAGDA
Sunrise...what?
SUNRISE
Just Sunrise.
MAGDA
Of course. And why would you give me such a lovely present?
SUNRISE
I'm an Eastern Celestial and I was hoping that you might be
one too.
MAGDA
An Eastern what?
SUNRISE
An Eastern Celestial, you know, in harmony with the greater
consciousness of the universe.
MAGDA
No, no, I'm afraid you've made a terrible mistake. I am many
things -- as both my friends and my enemies would be attest
to -- but being an Eastern Celestial is not one of them.
(MAGDA starts to leave but SUNRISE follows)
SUNRISE
But if you're not an Eastern Celestial...
MAGDA
Which I am not.
SUNRISE
What are you?
MAGDA
A "Western Survivor" I suppose. What possible difference can
it make?
SUNRISE
I think what you are makes a big difference. And I don't
think it's funny.
MAGDA
That makes two of us.
SUNRISE
I'm serious.
MAGDA
Anyone can see, my dear, that you are quite serious, but tell
me, my dear -- did they make you give up your sense of humor
when you joined them or did you do it willingly?
SUNRISE
I think I have a wonderful sense of humor.
MAGDA
That makes one of us.
SUNRISE
And they don't make us do anything we don't want to do.
MAGDA
Then you should be more careful. Just going up to someone in
the park can be very dangerous. Terrible things can happen
here even in the daylight
SUNRISE
I'm not afraid.
MAGDA
Then you are a serious fool as well as a -- what did you call
yourself?
SUNRISE
An Eastern Celestial.
MAGDA
Yes, yes, an Eastern Celestial. Your mother is the solar
system and your father is the cosmos?
SUNRISE
Exactly!
MAGDA
Exactly, and you take this all very seriously, whatever this
is, though I'm sure you're about to explain that to me too.
SUNRISE
If you're really serious.
MAGDA
I have nothing against being serious since everything in life
is very serious, except death, of course, which is merely
inconvenient...
(looking at the cigarette and tossing it to the
ground)
and inevitable.
(stomping out the cigarette)
SUNRISE
Not inevitable if you're an Eastern Celestial -
MAGDA
(overlapping) Eastern Celestial, of course! I should have
expected that.
SUNRISE
But it's true.
MAGDA
What's true? That you've found some way to explain death.
SUNRISE
We don't need to explain it.
MAGDA
To eliminate it then.
SUNRISE
We can't do that either.
MAGDA
Then what do you have us do with it.
SUNRISE
We don't need to eliminate it, since, for us, death has
absolutely no meaning.
MAGDA
How appealing.
SUNRISE
Our Holy Mystic, the most benign leader, Mansa Poor-na, has
revealed to us that death is to be welcomed like the coming
of spring.
(SUNRISE freezes like a tree a la Isadora Duncan)
MAGDA
But then you must have a high suicide rate?
SUNRISE
I thought you were serious.
MAGDA
I admit I don't understand very much of this business --by
the way -- was that a tree you were becoming just now?
SUNRISE
No.
MAGDA
Good.
SUNRISE
It wasn't a tree.
MAGDA
Because it didn't look like a tree.
SUNRISE
It was the embodiment of life.
MAGDA
Oh, but you must admit that nothing embodies life quite so
well as -- life itself, and nothing makes life quite so
precious as the spectre of our own mortality. But mortality --
or immortality, wouldn't interest you anymore and I find that
a loss for you and your -- what did you call him?
SUNRISE
Mansa Poorna.
MAGDA
I'm afraid your Mansa has eliminated more than the fear of
death.
SUNRISE
What do you mean?
MAGDA
He has eliminated the very reasons we need to go on living.
SUNRISE
But that's not true. You just wait and let it happen when it
will happen.
MAGDA
A good insurance policy to be sure.
SUNRISE
Against what?
MAGDA
Pain. Fear. Disappointment.
SUNRISE
What's so great about pain.
MAGDA
It helps define pleasure. Or has your Holy Mystic done away
with that too.
SUNRISE
What kind of pain are you talking about?
MAGDA
I don't know.
SUNRISE
Something physical?
MAGDA
That might part of it.
SUNRISE
That's easy then.
MAGDA
Good.
SUNRISE
It would mean nothing.
MAGDA
Nothing?
SUNRISE
Actually, it would mean less than nothing.
MAGDA
I didn't know there was such a category. But obviously there
is much I don't know anymore.
SUNRISE
Are we through with the pain thing?
MAGDA
But then not all pain is physical.What about the mental and
emotional pain?
SUNRISE
Same answer.
MAGDA
But they're not the same.
SUNRISE
Less than nothing.
MAGDA
How can you answer the same way when they are obviously quite
different?
SUNRISE
They are the same for me.
MAGDA
Disappointment?
SUNRISE
Meaningless.
MAGDA
Love?
SUNRISE
The Mansa says --
MAGDA
Is love worth dying for?
SUNRISE
Why are you so interested in what I'm willing to die for.
MAGDA
How about your family? Your country? Your work?
SUNRISE
This is my work.
MAGDA
Coming to the park and giving out flowers to strangers may
fill up your day but it is not work.
SUNRISE
I thought you would understand.
MAGDA
What? I'm a very patient woman but I don't understand--
SUNRISE
(interrupting) This is my life now.
MAGDA
This may be your life now, but sometime you must have dreamed
of something else -- of being someone other than whatever it
is you are now.
SUNRISE
Why can't all of you see that this is all I need now. I have
every reason I need right here in this little book. All I
have to do is accept it
MAGDA
I'm afraid all this acceptance is too much for this old lady.
SUNRISE
You're not so old.
MAGDA
Tell that to my undertaker.
SUNRISE
You take very good care of yourself.
MAGDA
I admit my weakness for flattery. But you may still keep your
Holy man. I need all of those things that your Mansa would
tell you are not worth having.
SUNRISE
I admire how you come out here and exercise.
MAGDA
Taking care of myself is my own small contribution toward
warding off that disease called Death that you have so
conveniently eliminated.
SUNRISE
The Mansa says that our bodies are the storehouses of our
sacred auras. And that we must take care of them while they
wait to pass on to their futures.
MAGDA
Whatever that may be.
SUNRISE
It's very important to keep yourself in good order.
MAGDA
Obviously your Mystic's not over seventy yet.
SUNRISE
For a healthy body is the result - and the protector - of a
healthy soul.
MAGDA
Stop!
SUNRISE
What's wrong?
MAGDA
Go back.
SUNRISE
Where.
MAGDA
To what you just said before. What did you just say --
exactly.
SUNRISE
That the healthy body a person has, is the result --
MAGDA
Of a healthy soul.
SUNRISE
Exactly.
MAGDA
And you believe that.
SUNRISE
Yes.
MAGDA
Just the way you said it?
SUNRISE
Yes.
MAGDA
Then you must believe in its opposite.
SUNRISE
What opposite?
MAGDA
The language is very important.
SUNRISE
Is this a game?
MAGDA
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Script created with Final Draft
© 1998 Halem Studios
Last updated September 1998
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