💾 Archived View for rhino.flounder.online › rhinoplay.gmi captured on 2022-07-16 at 15:31:22. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Here I will write a play and you can watch it progress!
ACT One, Scene I
Open on a kitchen with a table (insert more stage directions). TARA walk in. She sits down at the table, exhausted. CAMILLE walks in from the bed room and sits in front of TARA.
CAMILLE. How are you feeling?
TARA. No.
CAMILLE. What's wrong?
TARA. It's fine, leave me be Camille.
CAMILLE. (beat) You upset me sometimes.
TARA. I upset you? You upset me. I'm quite tired, I think I'm just going to go to sleep, we can talk about-
CAMILLE. Do you know what our problem is?
TARA. I don't want to get into it right now, not with you.
CAMILLE. You're just going to ignore me?
TARA. ...
CAMILLE. We're just too different Tara, I think we should just be friends. Friends is easy.
TARA. Fine. I'm going to sleep, in the room that we share.
CAMILLE. Great. I'll be here. We could do something together. Do you want to watch T.V.
TARA. I want to sleep. And I don't really want to talk to you anymore.
CAMILLE. Oh, ok.
TARA. (Beat.) For god's sake Camille, it only works so many times. Look at me! I'm numb. You've numbed me.
CAMILLE. I've numbed you?
TARA. All you do is push, push, push. If I'm feeling bad, you just dig your little claws in. You just have to make me feel bad about myself all of the time, bringing me down to you tiny, insolent level. You hate that I'm confident, that I don't spend every waking moment loathing my every move.
CAMILLE. I do hate your confidence. What do you have to be confident about? Ask me what I think.
TARA. What do you think Camille?
CAMILLE. I think you like it when I push your buttons.
TARA. I think I used to.
CAMILLE. Are you going to cry?
TARA. No. Are you ever gonna cry Tara? Are you ever going to feel something? (Beat.) No, I guess not.
(TARA begins to walk away)
CAMILLE. What are you doing?
TARA. Looking for apartments.
CAMILLE. Can I see?
TARA. Can you not talk?
CAMILLE. Yeah.
TARA. Ok.
CAMILLE. I can provide you with input though, if you want me to.
TARA. Ok.
CAMILLE. Well, this one's nice but you'd bee kind of out of my way.
TARA. I think that's the point.
CAMILLE. Oh right...
ACT One, Scene II
CAMILLE sits in the kitchen reading a newspaper. (beat.) TARA storms in, throwing her coat, scarf and bag down on the floor leaving a trail as she exits into the bedroom. (beat.) CAMILLE comes back in and starts making a cup of tea.
CAMILLE. It's disgusting.
TARA. Ok...
CAMILLE. The way that they see the form, I hate it. I hate them.
TARA. Who's them?
CAMILLE. The board. They want something with the theme of "female empowerment" but they are unwilling to look beyond the mundane, they are unwilling to even consider that maybe, just maybe, a man can not write a play about female empowerment without male bias.
TARA. They didn't pick your play.
CAMILLE. They didn't have a reason not to.
TARA. I'm sorry. (TARA goes back to reading her newspaper)
CAMILLE. What?
TARA. It's nothing.
CAMILLE. You kill me when you do that. What? What were you going to say?
TARA. I just think that they want to sell tickets... And your play ins't exactly something that people want to watch. I mean, I love your play, we, you and me love your play, it's just different, it's not... I'm sorry Camille, I shouldn't have said anything.
CAMILLE. Fuck. The play is bad?
TARA. No, I don't think it's bad, it's just... kind of gory... and kind of pushy...
CAMILLE. Do you like the play?
TARA. Camille you know how it is. I just can't hold things in, they just bottle up. (to herself) I really need to work on keeping my mouth shut.
CAMILLE. Do you like the play or not?
TARA. Well do I like the play? As in do I enjoy reading it? Do I enjoy you and your art, yes.
CAMILLE. If you don't like the play just say it.
TARA. I like the play... Do I think it's sellable? I don't know. You said it yourself, abortion plays are hard, everyone is doing abortion plays. Maybe it's the way you presented it?
CAMILLE. You upset me.
TARA. I know.
CAMILLE. I was really counting on that money.
TARA. I know. Hey, you still have your job at the coffee shop.
CAMILLE. Yeah.
TARA. You do still have your job at the coffee shop right?
CAMILLE. I was really banking on this play... I thought that maybe if I put my all into it, it would work out.
TARA. Sometimes you upset me.
CAMILLE. I'm sorry Tara.
TARA. Why? Why would you just quit?
CAMILLE. I don't know, I was just banking on it working out.
TARA. Well, you'll figure it out I'm sure. (TARA gets up, and starts picking up some stray dishes then gets her gloves goes into the bedroom. CAMILLE sits down, drinking her tea)
CAMILLE. Where are you going?
TARA. I'm going to see that girl I told you about.
CAMILLE. Oh, I must have forgotten.
TARA. I'm sorry, I'm sure I told you.
CAMILLE. No, it's okay.
TARA. Are you sure, you look like you're about to cry.
CAMILLE. Go. Have a good time.
TARA. I love you.
CAMILLE. I know. I might go over to Casey's if you want to come back here. Just let me know when you're done.
TARA. Ok. Tell Casey I say hi.
CAMILLE. Bye Tara.
TARA. Bye. (TARA leaves through the front door.)
Act One, Scene 10
(TARA sits at the table. CAMILLE walks in holding a cup of tea.)
CAMILLE. Hey
TARA. Hi
CAMILLE. How have you been?
TARA. I've been better, not excited to go to fake work for the theatre. How was your trip?
CAMILLE. It was brief, but good.
TARA. Sounds nice.
CAMILLE. I've been meaning to talk to you.
TARA. Well, here I am, sitting here, waiting to be talked to.
CAMILLE. Right...
TARA. ...
CAMILLE. I just- I thought you would be moving further away for work. I thought that when it was time for you to move we would go our separate ways, leave this in the past, but here we are. I just think it would be better if we ended things now, started the healing process now. I just think we would be better friends. (Long beat)
TARA. Ok...
CAMILLE. ...
TARA. I don't know what you want me to say.
CAMILLE. We just don't work well together. I don't know what it is about you, but you just bring out the worst in me. I think I would treat you better if we just took out the intimacy. I mean, I'm sure you felt it last time we had sex, I'm just not romantically interested in you anymore.
TARA. Hasn't that happened in previous relationships? It seems like a pattern for you.
CAMILLE. You've only known me for a year, you don't really know me.
TARA. You're friend-zoning me after a year! And you don't really know me. Sometimes I don't know if you're the person who knows me the best or the least. I mean, I think you think you know me. I think you think you've psychologically mapped me and everyday you critique me. You think I'm overly confident, I was talking to Corey and he thinks I'm the person he knows whose hardest on themselves and you just refuse to see that, it's like it's your goal to bring me down a notch, when I've already hit the bottom.
CAMILLE. I don't know why I'm so mean to you. You just irk me, you constantly and unknowingly push my buttons. Maybe I don't know you.
TARA. You haven't felt anything for me for months?
CAMILLE. I love you, I wanted to be there for you. There was just never a good time for this conversation. I wanted to wait until after your birthday, I wanted to give you that time. Do you think I should have brought it up earlier? Should I have waited until after your work with the theatre? I wanted to wait until after our anniversary... But I just couldn't.
TARA. Are you asking me when the best time to break up with me would have been?
CAMILLE. I mean just for future reference.
TARA. I don't know, wee had a plan, I would have liked to stick to the plan.
CAMILLE. I want to move on with my life, I want to have sex again without feeling obligated to you.
TARA. Obligated? You're an asshole. It's sad because I know your just going to move on immediately. You just jump from person to person.
CAMILLE. God, you don't know anything about me!
TARA. I'm sorry, I just wanted to get a rise out of you. I don't want to break up.
CAMILLE. Well who gets to hang out with Paula? I mean we usually go together, who gets her in the divorce.
TARA. You're insufferable.
CAMILLE. I know. That's why we should break up.
TARA. I guess you can have Paula! I never text her anyways!
CAMILLE. God I was joking. Joking ok? Going to see Paula is our thing, we should always go together. (Beat.) You should take the tea bags out of your tea, it's going to be bitter.
TARA. It is bitter.
CAMILLE. Not yet, not if you take them out right now.
TARA. No I mean the context of the tea, it's bitter. (Beat.) Can I tell you something? I've been keeping a secret from you.
CAMILLE. Yeah, what?
TARA. It's really bad and I feel really guilty about it.
CAMILLE. Ok...
TARA. I slept with Corey. While you were gone. It was one time, I didn't mean for it to happen but it did.
CAMILLE. Well, we are never sleeping together again, that's for sure. God, I sex with you after you had sex with him. That's just a safety issue, we said we would tell each other if we were sleeping with someone. I feel sick after knowing that. Sick.
TARA. I'm so sorry. I felt so guilty I just kept it in, I didn't know what to do. I feel really bad, I know I betrayed your trust-
CAMILLE. Haha! It's always the ones who are worried about me cheating but it's never me! It's. never. me.
TARA. I'm really sorry Camille.
CAMILLE. Yeah, well. (Beat.) Why even tell me that? What was the point?
TARA. I was tired of lying to you, I want a friendship where I'm not lying to you, I didn't know what to do.
CAMILLE. And you didn't trust me? God, that's rich.
TARA. You are SO MEAN.
CAMILLE. I'm mean? How can I ever trust you? And I just can't get over it, with him? What if you gave me an STD.
TARA. I got tested right after.
CAMILLE. I don't know that.
TARA. Ok. (Long beat.)
CAMILLE. I'm sorry I was so curt. It doesn't matter anyways, we're never having sex again anyways.
TARA. I get it, you don't want to have sex with me.
CAMILLE. I don't know what happened, I just don't feel anything for you anymore.
TARA. Ok.
(They just sit there for a while)
TARA. I understand what you're saying, you just want to bee friends, I'm not saying the to manipulate you. I just really want to hurt myself right now. Like I really want to.
CAMILLE. How would you do it?
TARA. I don't know, I'm thinking about it.
CAMILLE. Have you eaten today?
TARA. No.
CAMILLE. Can you call someone? Where's your brother.
TARA. He's at work.
CAMILLE. Well, I'll stay with you for a bit. You're still my buddy and if you die I'll kill you.
(Beat.)
Tara.
Hey.
Tara?
TARA. Hmm?