PROMPT: I couldn't tell anyone ....
Lynne Kaufman, playwright
Lily, 29, dressed in a lovely dress and carrying a handbag, wanders the stage.
LILY
I don’t know what’s real any more.
Lily stops. She looks around in fear like someone or something is coming after her.
LILY
I don’t know where I am.
She looks around again.
LILY
7th and Park.
(looking around)
McDonald’s... Subway... Starbucks... Walgreens...
(shaking her head)
Where am I?
Lily looks in her purse and takes out her cell phone. She looks at it, eyes widening in fear. She flings it away from her.
Carrie, 27, perky, enters checking her cell phone.
CARRIE
Lily! There you are! I’ve been trying to message you.
Carrie comes over to Lily.
LILY
Carrie?
CARRIE
Of course, silly. Come on, let’s go get lunch.
Carrie takes Lily’s arm and tries to lead Lily off, but Lily pulls her arm from Carrie’s grasp.
CARRIE
What’s wrong?
Lily drifts back from Carrie and slumps to sitting position.
CARRIE
(growing concerned)
Are you all right?
LILY
I couldn’t tell anybody.
CARRIE
Okay... What couldn’t you tell anybody.
LILY
We are all naked.
CARRIE
(looking down at herself)
I’m wearing clothes.
(she nods at Lily)
You’re wearing clothes.
Lily grabs Carrie and draws her close.
LILY
Did you ever read McLuhan?!
CARRIE
(resisting a little)
Who?
LILY
Marshall McLuhan!
CARRIE
He was that medium is the message guy, right?
LILY
Exactly.
CARRIE
Yea, I never understood that shit. That was way back in the 60’s, wasn’t it?
LILY
(clutching at Carrie who back up)
You’ve read it! You’ve read Understanding Media!
CARRIE
I had a professor who assigned it in college, but it was so boring...
LILY
Boring!? Boring!? It was... was revolutionary!
CARRIE
Didn’t he just talk about television and shit?
LILY
He said that media...
CARRIE
Media?
LILY
Film, television, radio, print, the light bulb!
CARRIE
(dubious, but trying to end the discussion)
Media.
LILY
That media was an extension of our bodies, our minds, our spirits.
CARRIE
So what?
LILY
The internet is an extension of our skin! An extension of our id!
CARRIE
You’re crazy!
LILY
What drives the internet?!
CARRIE
Porn?
LILY
Exactly!
CARRIE
You don’t have to watch it. I don’t.
LILY
(looking around conspiratorily)
How do you know that your not out there, naked?!
CARRIE
Because I don’t let my boyfriend take pictures of me... that way... Well, there was that one night...
LILY
We’re all naked on the internet.
CARRIE
He wouldn’t...
LILY
He may have stored them in...
(waving her hands at the sky)
... the cloud.
CARRIE
I know he backs up his computer to...
LILY
You’re out there. Your body, your name, you social security number, your address, pictures of you when you were a baby.
CARRIE
No!
LILY
(leaning in conspiratorially)
I’m naked on the internet. I’ve seen the pictures... the videos.
CARRIE
What? Where?
LILY
Revenge porn. An old boyfriend posted videos we made.
CARRIE
That’s sick!
LILY
It’s inevitable.
CARRIE
I don’t want to be naked on the internet!
LILY
Pull the plug.
CARRIE
What?!
LILY
It’s the only way.
CARRIE
I can’t do that!
LILY
No one can. Not me, not you... Not Right-wing Christian evangelicals..
CARRIE
But...
LILY
Conservative Muslim husbands and fathers don’t know what their wives or daughters are doing in the secret recesses of the harem, a cell phone camera connected to the world wide web in their pockets.
Silence.
CARRIE
That’s kinda scary.
Silence.
CARRIE
We’re all naked on the internet.
Lily nods.
End of play.
No comments:
Post a Comment