Knives in a Play

(c) 2007 Claudia Alick

Claudia wears head set microphone and sits in chair center stage holding butcher block full of knives. Her breathing is amplified. Men enter and create semi-circle around her.

Men: She can end this play whenever she’d like.

On the following lines each man takes a knife.

Man 1: It’s about fear

Man 2: Endurance

Man 3: Masochism

Man 4: Art

Men: Do you want this to stop?

Claudia: Yes

Men: Will you ask this to stop?

Claudia: No

On the following lines each man does a dramatic move with a knife.

Man 1: Already her pulse quickens.

Man 2: Palms sweat.

Man 3: It doesn’t seem like much to be afraid of.

Man 4: We’re professionals.

Claudia: Professional actors not knife handlers.

Men: Do you want this to stop?

Claudia: Yes.

Men: Then ask us to stop.

Claudia: No.

On the following lines men set up two blocks stage right.

Man 1: Why is she working so hard not to panic right now?

Man 1 chops a banana forcefully on the block near Claudia’s head.

Man 1: Maybe it’s because when she visited her best friend Cindy’s house for the first time. Cindy’s little brother, Boo, chased her through the house with a butcher knife. She thinks it’s because she’s black.

Claudia: It’s about fear.

Man 2 places his palm on the stage blocks and stabs in between his fingers.

Man 2: Why does she make us do this to her? Maybe it’s because in high-school most of the boys she hung out with brought knives to school. They were always playing games with their knives. Claudia has a big imagination. She thinks they didn’t know they were torturing her.

Claudia: It’s about endurance.

Man 3 carefully moves knife around Claudia but does not touch her.

Man 3: Maybe it’s because at that party he was throwing the knives against the wall to see if they stick. Drinking jungle juice and tequila shots. Doing foolish knife tricks. She asks him to stop.

Claudia: It’s about masochism.

Man 4 carefully lays knife against Claudia skin.

Man 4: Alone in the room he took the knife and slid it under her throat, carefully, almost flirting. He lay the blade against her cheek and then he stopped. She hasn’t thought of this moment for years.

Man 4 puts the knife away. On following lines all men put knives away

Claudia: Maybe it’s because she can’t stand to have a knife or scissors or any sharp object on stage and she hopes this will somehow…

Claudia: It’s about art.

Men: Do you want this to stop?

Claudia: YES!

Man: Then make it stop.

Claudia: I can’t.

Someone else calls curtain

Curtain

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