HUNTING THE
PENUMBRA
© 2000 Paddy Gillard-Bentley with Lindsay
Stewart
Drama
95 min.
2m/1f
–
A
fascinating and dark adventure unfolds as Julian's friend, Alex, attempts to
cure his insomnia
with
hypnosis. The plan goes awry and takes him
on the journey of his lives! Julian confronts
the
reality of his own demons as he experiences several past life
regressions. The characters
emerge,
minimal costume, minimal set…all dark and dangerous. But Julian isn’t dangerous…
is
he? Struggling actor/poet, Alex
discovers too late she does not know him as well as she thinks.
Unable
to cope with the intrusion into his mind, and very pissed off that Alex might
guess he had
a
darker side, Julian begins to demonstrate characteristics that belong in
another time and place,
and
Alex pays the ultimate price for curiosity.
Once a psychopath always a psychopath? Some bananas
should not be peeled.
This
play is a psychological thriller. Dark and broody, but not without its jarring moments of humor.
Ideally,
this would be ambitiously done as a three hander, but the diversity needed is
daunting.
Inside
the story, there are many characters.
PRODUCTION
HISTORY
Received a staged-reading at the Water Street
Theatre – Feb. 2000 in an earlier incarnation.
SET FOR A nTHEATRE
COLD READING -
An excerpt from Hunting the Penumbra.
|
ACT: I ~ SCENE: X Lights up half. John, a captured Highway Man from the seventeenth
century, is sitting in the middle of an empty stage holding his knees. He is in rags and completely
disheveled. He is on the verge of
madness. JOHN I have been in years and years.
Morning has no light, there is only the door and it remains
locked. At the appointed hour the man
kicks the door. One crust of bread,
the water is brackish in the cup. The
floor is damp. Walls are damp. The air stinks. There is death all around. I’ve got sores on my legs. There is no light until the sun passes over
the building to the other side. There
is nothing to be seen, nothing to be seen at all. I can smell the river…the stink of bodies. There are 302 scratches in the wall.
I suppose you would have to ask the previous tenant of this place, but
I think it would mean that he did not make it to 303. Pause. I feel ill much of the time.
The lungs are full of this damp air.
Once, I held 15 gold sovereign in my hand. Now there is just the peeling skin. The guard broke three of my fingers a fortnight
ago. It caused me much pain. He is playing with a coin. Today, the priest came to visit.
He gave me 5p for my confession.
I get bread and meat today, for they do not wish me to die before I am
hung. He sneers. He rises to his feet with difficulty He was one once. You can see
it in his eyes. His nose has been
broken. He puts the coin over his eye,
glaring like a pirate. I’ll be hung for robbing the like and he’ll be paid for hanging
me. I can feel the pulse beating from
my head. There is nothing here but the
madness...that same voice in my head.
There is no color in this place.
My lips have cracked. Every day
‘tis the same. I cannot stand
now. They will have to help me to the
gallows. I’d hoped to cross this path
as a man. It is time. I can hear them
down the hall. Cold stone, shuffling
feet. I can smell the incense of the
priest. Funny that the last scent in
this place of death is not that of death. I must walk now. God must help
me. It is as if John is being pulled to
CS by two guards. I will take the final once. Commend my soul to God as a sinner. He walks with difficulty to the edge
of the stage. He stares at the
audience. Ah, it's the crowds! Come to
see Cut go? Lovely Elspeth will not
see this. Her good brother will keep
her. It is so strange to see all the
colors and the ruddy faces of the people. I am charged with the murder and betrayal of a good businessman in
this Kentish town. God will take my
soul to his judgment. He slips the coin to the imagined
hangman. It drops to the floor. He imitates the actions of hanging. His hands, pulled behind his back, he looks
up, then tips his head forward as if a noose is
being secured around his throat. He
turns his head toward the hangman. Whisper. Tie fast the knot that I may not linger. God forgive you
sir. He drops to his knees as the lights go out. ~end of Act I ~ |