Sound of Modern Silence
Two people sit back to back, looking out. Generous pause/silence.
A: Shh!
B: (Whispering) I didn’t say anything.
A: Shh!
B: (Rolls eyes and waits.)
A: Do you hear that?
B: What?
A: Shh!
(Pause)
A: What?
B: I didn’t say anything.
A: What is that??
B: Shhh! (Long pause. Whispers) I have no idea.
A: Do you have a—
B: Feeling? Yeah.
A: I don’t like it.
B: Maybe if we’re quiet.
A: I don’t like it.
B: What?
A: The sound.
B: What sound?
A: The sound of us being quiet.
B: That’s not sound.
A: It is.
B: It isn’t!
A: It most definitely is. Don’t question me.
B: (sighs heavily).
A: Don’t get emotional!
B: (Emotional) I’m not emotional!
A: Will you please SHUT, UP!?
B: I thought you said you didn’t like the quiet?
A: I changed my mind. It’s better this way. None of us talking.
B: Fine.
A: Fine.
B: I’ll be quiet.
A: Please.
B: As a whisper.
A: Whispers are not quiet. Still sounds.
B: They don’t make your vocal chords move.
A: Will you please, QUIET YOURSELF!?
B: Don’t yell at me.
A: I am not yelling.
B: What do you constitute as yelling?
A: …I will not play your silly game.
B: Shh!
A: What?
B: I thought I heard something…
A: What?
B: The sound of your bullshit.
A: Bad form!
B: Only retaliating.
A: (Mutters) Big baby…
B: What?
A: Nothing! Must have been the silence.
B: Oh…
A: Silence has gotten funny, now-a-days…
B: How do you mean?
A: (Musing. Enjoying it.) Oh…silence isn’t really silence anymore, is it? There’s constant buzzing and cars passing. Central air turning on and off. Electricity zapping through wires and turning things on. I miss the day when silence was silence. Nothing could be heard for miles except the occasional flutter of a birds wings. (B takes out phone and calls A. Somewhere in here, A answers phone. Doesn’t have to finish monologue). Now there are too many airplanes overhead to hear any birds. One can hardly live in town because so many people listen to their music loud enough to rattle the windows. I want to be able to hear my own mind, which is difficult these days.
A: (On phone). Hello?
B: WILL YOU PLEASE REFRAIN!?
A: (Jolted by sound of yelling. Hangs up phone. Whispers) You didn’t have to be so rude. Could have simply asked me to stop talking.
B: Would you have listened?
A: Of course not. Still would have been better form.
B: Wouldn’t have accomplished the goal of “cheap, modern” silence.
A: I’m only saying, there are other ways of phrasing.
B: By all means provide examples.
A: ‘Good sir, though you are brilliant in your speech, please hush yourself so we can better hear.’
B: Or: Quiet down! You drone too long!
A: Muffle your tones.
B: Close your mouth.
A: Leave the end of your monologue unuttered.
B: Put yourself on mute.
A mocks B behind their back. They sit in silence for a while. Suddenly A hits the wall behind them as hard as they can. Jarring B.
B: What the hell is the matter with you?
A: It was too quiet.
B: You just said—
A: Never mind what I said, listen!
B: (Pause. Whispers) What?
A: (Jumps out of seat) HO!
B: What’s the matter? Are you hurt?
A: No. I just thought of something exciting. (Sits again)
B: (Waits expectantly for a while). Well?
A: Well what?
B: What’s exciting??
A: I’m not telling you.
B: You boob.
A: (Grabs B’s arm, freezing). Wait.
B: What?
A: (leans closer to B, speaks from corner of mouth, still looking ahead) I think I figured out what we heard…we’re not alone…
A and B slowly pan heads to audience, looking them in the face.
END.
your writing (and thus performance) feels very much like Godot, with the kind of silly short banter and i find it absolutely wonderful. not many performances this time had upbeat, humorous situations so it was very refreshing. the end, with B and A finally realizing they're being watched, is definitely a nice touch because you think they're hearing an animal or that A has taken acid, and then you remember that you are an audience and have a powerful effect on performance. I also admire the characters being called B and A. It's ambiguous enough to really make me formulate actual names, but also to realize that sometimes names aren't of importance.
ReplyDeleteYour performance very much reminded me of Godot, the characters seem silly and somewhat empty-headed. Your piece was light, but insightful at the same time. I love the title. A’s short monologue about silence today was very thought provoking. I think the title puts more emphasis on A’s point than I picked up during the performance. The title puts it in more context for me. You did a great job of modeling this piece for performance, you make the audience aware of itself in a very interesting way. In most performances, the point is to make the audience forget about itself. Normally you want people to separate from themselves and not think about the fact that they are watching a performance. But you bring in an interesting reversal here, making a point to break that fourth wall so to speak. This was a very enjoyable performance, great job.
ReplyDeleteI thought this was a good piece. It seemed to be a lighthearted, unique play on a common concern in our world. It's funny that even if we remove ourselves from everything in our lives, and even seclude ourselves completely from outside interference, there still isn't such a thing as absolute quiet.
ReplyDeleteThere was something very child-like and gently mocking about the tone of your script. Like: the humor of contemporary culture, and the silliness of how seriously we can take ourselves. Manners and social rights and wrongs are pretty ridiculous in the scheme of things. All the artifice of being a person in this crazy world, was brought to light throughout your performance and then topped off at the end when the actors acknowledge the audience. The Harry Potter ringtone was a nice accidental touch that seemed to enhance the moment of your performance. Especially given the title of your piece, the random technological interference combined with the planned phone calls made your work that much more relevant.
ReplyDeleteIt was a lot of fun to participate in this piece with you, Emily, even though I was so sick. I hope my lackluster performance wasn't too disappointing. I found the piece particularly well written, and the relative ease I experienced while reading it nearly cold is testament to this. Well done! Your attention to the details of our studies was quite evident, and you clearly incorporated ideas from all the major figures of the semester (Beckett, Stein, Churchill). The tone in which the two characters deal with one another is at once both condescending and loving, and seems indicative of a sibling relationship. This was astutely observed in the writing and the minimal directorial indications, and is the most commendable aspect of an all-around commendable piece. Thank you for letting me be a part of it.
ReplyDeleteDear Emily,
ReplyDeleteI didn't notice the title in class. I read it and was instantly reminded of your piece and how all the smaller parts fits together.
The script was very you. You have this ironic humor about you that really shows in this piece. The irony of how serious one takes the absurd, the absurdity of the mundane (which is reminiscent of the poet's theatre we're currently studying.) The piece also seemed very subjective- is there actually a noise? who is watching A and B? It reminded me of 1984, in our modern culture we are always being watched, always listening, forever "progressing."
AAAAnd you should totally just write in the Harry Potter ring tone. It's comical and it adds an air of mystery that only a surprise visit from the wizarding world could supply.
Love, Monster
Upon reception of my classmates/colleagues works I became entranced by a single word that I unconsciously associated to each piece. Now I don’t want these words to be misunderstood as entrapments to their art; these words are purely a minimalist’s interpretation of the works. So with this understanding in mind, the word that I intuited from your piece is…
ReplyDelete< Sly >
On the surface it appears that your piece is a fun-loving and playful exploration of dialogue and performance. However, the contextual information that emanates from the title puts the rest of the piece in an even greater perspective. The inundation of auditory info that plagues our society these days makes you wonder; what happened to silence?