The Y2K Play [Part One] (8.16.14)

Ok. So this is a combination of an idea I've had sitting on the notes app on my iPhone for a while and I felt with the following prompts (from 8/14 and 8/16 that I just had to write it:)

Prompt(s): Tear gas. Screaming. The sound of shattering glass. Chanting. Running. Is it a protest or a riot. How'd it get that bad? On what side of the line do your characters fall? How will it all resolve?

Take a supporting character from another play and give them their own starring role in a new play (see: Back To Reality from 8/12)

I'd also like to thank the Wikipedia article "Time Travel In Fiction" for forwarding me to a bizarre play about time travel called "Anno 7603" which, I couldn't find the text to, but helped a lot -- seeing as I've had some intense writer's block

#16: THE Y2K PLAY (PART ONE)

PROLOGUE

(It is 12:01 am, January 1st, 2000. The stage is flooded in a thick haze. "Aquarius Goodnights/Ain't Got No" from the revival cast recording of Hair: The Musical from 0:01-1:02 plays on repeat. At first, we hear some faint screaming--but then suddenly the screaming gets louder and louder--deafeningly loud--as the CROWD begins to enter. They are being murdered by their technology. A woman is being strangled by the hose of a vacuum. A man is being strangled by a phone chord. Another man has his arms stuck in two toasters and is being electrocuted to death. Several people have TVs on their head and they are seizing. It is brutal. Amongst the music, everyone is coughing to death. They are taking their final breaths, their final screams as their bodies collapse on the floor. The sound of glass breaking, sirens, a dial-up tone and several other mechanical and electrical sound floods through the theatre. Projections of fire, buildings collapsing, 2000's technology and corpses flash throughout the stage. After what seems like half an hour, there is a blackout)

SCENE ONE

(Lights rise on CURTIS, center. He has a goatee, blonde highlights that are mostly faded, scuffed up Air Force Ones, diamond earrings, a short-sleeved button down shirt which is completely unbuttoned and a wife beater underneath. He wreaks of the year 2000. He is standing on a huge mountain of broken pieces of technology and dead bodies. We see some broken street lamps in the background. There is minimal light. He is holding a portable CD player. We hear "Let The Sunshine In" from the original 1960 Original Broadway Cast album of "Hair" playing on repeat, but it keeps skipping. Eventually, Curtis grows frustrated and throws the CD player across the stage and cries. After a few moments, we hear scuffling.

CURTIS: What's that?

(Silence. More scuffling. Curtis stands up, alert)

CURTIS: Whose there?

(More scuffling)

CURTIS: If you're a machine, I swear to-!

(Enter ELLERY SMELLERY. She is a young, gawky girl with large glasses and a folded off-the-shoulder top, a choker, and a Bohemian maxi skirt. She is holding a giant stick out to defend herself)

ELLERY: I'm…not. A machine.
CURTIS: …Who are you?
ELLERY: Who are you. You're on my trash mountain.
CURTIS: You're trash mountain? This is my trash mountain.
ELLERY: I was here first!
CURTIS: Look. I'm not interested in discussing the semantics of whose trash mountain this is.
ELLERY: Good. Neither am I.

(A silence)

ELLERY: I'm Ellery. Ellery Smellery.
CURTIS: I'm Curtis Burke.

(A silence)

ELLERY: …How...are we alive.
CURTIS: I don't know.
ELLERY: I hid in a sewer.
CURTIS: I…(beat) got lucky.

(A silence)

ELLERY: Can I join you?
CURTIS: Yeah. If you want.
ELLERY: I do.

(She climbs up the mountain of corpses, trash and broken technology with a lot of difficulty)

ELLERY: Holy shit. You can see everything from up here. (beat) You know what's really ironic?
CURTIS: Hm?
ELLERY: I predicated all of this. I knew it was gonna happen. But I didn't do anything about it.
CURTIS: What do you mean you predicted this? Everyone predicted this. It was Y2K.
ELLERY: A lot of people didn't think it would happen. But I told everyone it was going to happen. I warned people. And yet. (beat) I was a fortune teller.
CURTIS: You mean a professional con-artist?
ELLERY: Funny. (beat) I really did think I could see the future. Sometimes.
CURTIS: I mean seriously though. You just take people's money, tell them what they want to hear and then send them out the door.
ELLERY: So, I'm like a religious institution?
CURTIS: Ha.

(She stares at the ground, awkwardly)

ELLERY: So uh. What were you?
CURTIS: A writer. A very, very unemployed writer.
ELLERY: What did you write?
CURTIS: Radio plays and articles that were published in textbooks.
ELLERY: What subjects?
CURTIS: Animal psychology.
ELLERY: Oh.
CURTIS: Yeah.
ELLERY: Huh. Did you go to college?
CURTIS: Some community college. But I dropped out. You?
ELLERY: I didn't finish high school.
CURTIS: Gotchya.

(She comes across a polaroid camera)

ELLERY: Wow.
CURTIS: ?
ELLERY: Lookit this. It's a polaroid. Wonder if it works.
CURTIS: Be careful, what if it kills you!
ELLERY: It seems diffused. After all, the strap is taking off.
CURTIS: But it could go out of control and beat your face in.
ELLERY: It's worth the risk, I think.

(She tries to take a picture, but the bottom half of it falls off)

ELLERY: Wow. This guy is really busted. I don't think he's gonna hurt us at all.
CURTIS: Hold the bottom of it. Here.

(He does. She tries to take another picture, and one very slowly comes out. After a few moments, they shake it)

ELLERY: Look. It's a picture of all this rubble. It's kinda beautiful. I mean, objectively speaking I guess. It's not beautiful to live in.
CURTIS: Here. Take some more.

(She does. The pictures come out slowly. They shake them and laugh. Ellery tries to take one last one, but nothing happens)

ELLERY: Dammit. I think we killed it.
CURTIS: Yeah.

(She chucks it. Curtis puts the photos in his pocket)

ELLERY: Have you eaten at all since?
CURTIS: No.
ELLERY: Me either. I'm really hungry.
CURTIS: Yeah.

(A silence)

CURTIS: I've been listening to music which help pass the time.
ELLERY: Where? How?
CURTIS: I was listening to that CD player. It was what I had on me before. (beat) It didn't turn on me. It was my friend. (beat) But it was shitty, and kept skipping. So I chucked it.
ELLERY: What music did it play?
CURTIS: "Hair".
ELLERY: Hair? It played human hair?
CURTIS: No. Like the musical.
ELLERY: Oh. (beat) I don't know that musical.

(Then, the mountain begins to rumble. The lights flash. From the mountain, arises a giant NURVULIA. It has the head of a Queen Bee, a bear's body, and giant wings. It speaks like a robot. It carries a present. Curtis and Ellery scream, and cling onto each other) 

CURTIS: What the fuck is that?!
NURVULIA: I am a Nurvulia. I mean no harm.
CURTIS: A Nurvulia?
ELLERY: I've never heard of a Nurvulia.
NURVULIA: I am only summoned in hours of darkness.
ELLERY: Are you--are you what did this?
NURVULIA: No. I am only summoned in hours of darkness.
CURTIS: Can you help us? 
ELLERY: Can you bring us food?
CURTIS: Are you made of magic?
NURVULIA: Silence. I bring you a present.

(A silence)

ELLERY: My mother always told me never to take presents from strangers.
CURTIS: How do we know we can trust you?
NURVULIA: With that outlook how can you trust anyone.

(Curtis hesitantly gets up and accepts the gift. He opens it. Inside the box, is a small orb--the size of a large ornament. It looks like a rather large stopwatch, but with a bunch of extra gears, switches and pulleys)

CURTIS: What is this.
NURVULIA: It is a time machine.
ELLERY: Can…can it go back in time!!
NURVULIA: No. That would be a paradox.
CURTIS: Oh. Shit.
NURVULIA: Just kidding. It can go back in time, forward and time. But it will only work for both of you if both of you are holding onto the device. You are to go back in time and warn the others of their fate, and try and stop it. Otherwise, you will suffer this fate for all eternity and you will never be given this chance again. 

(A silence. Ellery and Curtis stare at each other, bewildered)

ELLERY: Are…you…God?
NURVULIA: Good. Luck.

(The Nurvulia flies into the air. Ellery and Curtis stand there, in shock)

ELLERY: We…better do what it says.

(Curious, Ellery takes one of the levers on the time machine and pulls it back. A giant gust of wind blows through the theatre. Multicolored lights and comets flash throughout the stage. Then, a sudden blackout)


SCENE TWO

(Lights rise on a street in New York City. There are multiple passerby's, walking by. It is December 31st, 1999. Ellery and Curtis are both on soapboxes holding giant signs that read "Y2K IS COMING". No one pays attention. They are holding megaphones)

ELLERY: --Folks, citizens…concerned residents of New York City. Y2K is coming!
CURTIS: --We've seen it! We've witnessed it FIRST. HAND.
ELLERY: We have seen God! He--
CURTIS: We're actually not sure if it's a 'he', Ellery.
ELLERY: --He…she…IT…it has warned us! And it gave us a time machine! Please! Everyone listen to us!
BOTH: We're from the future! Y2K IS COMING! Y2K IS COMING! Y2K IS COMING!

(No one gives a shit. Then, BORIS, an attractive young middle eastern college student walks by)

BORIS: You've seen Y2K you say?
CURTIS: Yes! We have. We come from the future.
ELLERY: I know, it sounds ridiculous. No one is listening--
BORIS: What is it like? How can you prove you're from the future?

(They look at each other. Then--)

ELLERY: Oh my god. Curt! The pictures! The pictures! Show him!

(Curtis shows Boris the pictures from the polaroid. Boris studies them)

CURTIS: Don't steal these. I will run after you.
BORIS: These…look like they were taken at a junkyard.
CURTIS: No. No. No. That's what the future looks like. Just…piles of a bunch of dead appliances.
ELLERY: They attacked everyone. Truly. No one is safe.
CURTIS: I watched people get attacked by their television sets…phone chords strangling them around their necks.
ELLERY: People being decimated by desktop computers!
BORIS: How did you get here then?
CURTIS: We…we can't tell you that.
ELLERY: Really it sounds absolutely. We sound insane.
BORIS: Just… tell me this. Did you use a time traveling device to get here?
CURTIS: Yes.
BORIS: Can you prove that?

(Curtis and Ellery look at each other. They give each other "the look". Curtis goes behind the soapbox. He produces the time machine. Passerbys walk by)

CURTIS: Here. Put your hand on this. Quickly.

(Ellery and Boris put their hands on the device. Curtis pulls a pulley, and everyone on the street stops)

BORIS: Woah! What the fuck just happened!
ELLERY: Don't let go. Just. Look.

(Boris takes it in. A few moments)

ELLERY: This device can make time freeze, go back, or forward. We haven't shown this to anyone. Do you believe us now?
BORIS: Yes. I believe you. (beat) Wow. Everything's so…still.

(Curtis pulls a different pulley on the device. Everyone begins to move again)

ELLERY: Alright. So you believe us. Help us spread the word. Tell your friends!
BORIS: Come to my apartment. I have a way to stop Y2K from happening. I think. I've been planning it myself for the last year, and I've been waiting until tonight to try it. But I'm scared to do it alone.
ELLERY: How do we know we can trust you?
BORIS: There's…no detectable history of mental illness in my family?

(Ellery and Curtis look at each other)

ELLERY: Fair enough, I suppose. Alright. We'll go.


(They take their soapbox and signs and follow Boris as he exits)

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