CHARACTERS:
A
B
C
D
SETTING: Dark bar; people are drinking.
A: I always wanted to know what it would be to be straight.
B: That’s funny; I always wanted to know what it would be like to be gay.
C: Just for a night I’d be lesbian.
D: Just for a thrill I’d be a regular gal.
A: You like a cup of regular coffee?
B: How boring.
C: We can all change faces.
D: And not be double faced.
A: I’d feel double crossed.
B: I’d feel like I’d be lost.
C: But what could be gained?
D: Or retained?
A: Or retrained?
B: I would remember if I changed.
C: You’re deranged.
D: Just strange. We are all strangers to each other.
A: And to our partner and our own sex.
C: And the opposite sex.
D: What roles we play…
A: And no one knows us, really.
B: We don’t even know ourselves.
C: Before or after sex.
D: It doesn’t matter. It’s all chat and chatter. All that matters is character.
A: Isn’t that what we are?
B: Not what we want to have or believe to be.
C: It’s a mystery, I mean, our own person and personality.
D: Or persona.
A: I’m more than my sex. I know that.
B: But you are in a body.
(C plays “Body and Soul’ on the piano.)
D: We have each other.
A: But for how long?
B: You’d think we were in hell or purgatory.
C: Do you think we are really living?
D: Speak for yourself.
A: I want to speak for others. That’s why I became an actor.
B: But what about your lines; the lines in your face?
C: Can I do anything about it?
D: Yes, this isn’t the Middle Ages.
A: For us it is. We approach it after twenty but we hide it from ourselves.
B: In mirrors of our breaking or making.
C: We need to have games.
D: Or change our names to disguise is not always wise.
A: It’s in the eyes.
B: What mascara, your soul?
C: Talk to me; it’s getting late.
D: I need a date, a calendar, something to write on.
A: A diary.
B: A fairy godmother.
C: A loving father.
D: A good mother.
A: I don’t want to fight the battle of the sexes.
B: You can’t help it; you’re human.
C: I feel something is being taken away from us.
D: No one can take our identity.
A: Our entity and nakedness.
B: Our humanity is being taken.
C: But by whom – the devil-may-care make-up man?
D: I feel lost; I need to feel another human.
A: I’m still here.
B: So am I; I need the bartender.
C: I’m disappearing; it’s getting darker…
D: Lights out.
(Bar goes dark.)
B. Z. Niditch is a poet, playwright and teacher. His work appears in Anthology of Magazine Verse & Yearbook of American Poetry, Columbia: A Magazine of Poetry and Art, The Literary Review, Denver Quarterly, International Poetry Review, Hawaii Review, Prism International, France's Le Guepard, and the Czech Republic's Jejune. He will soon be featured in The New Novel Review. A new collection of his poetry, Crucifixion Times, has just published by University Editions.