ac

willow_nts.tm

www.willow-n.com

ac: background is a rehearsal space; the Director, the actor who plays Adam, and the actress who plays Eve are on.

A
And so I named them setting each apart
in mind one from the other each thing thus and so
discernable, and the power of this human art
lifted within up to my eyes my living soul,
and I saw the beauty of the world at one
with the brightness of the glory of great God.
And on my knees I fell as must be ever done
in giving thanks for having made me so odd
that of all the pairs of creatures that God made
there was not one fit to take so by the hand
to stand this way beside me as a help arrayed
like nature's order both both and one, man and
woman. The breath God breathed into the mud I was
was warm and sweet as the breaths that join in this kiss.

D interrupting
No! Well yes, but not like that.

A
Like what?

D
Like you're in some prefab movie that's all cheap suggestion wishing it could go ahead and be expensive pornography -- which would almost be an improvement in most cases.

A
I'm trying, okay? I'm really trying.

D
Try with less effort and more imagination. It's okay. And no matter where you should be lucky enough to get work and try -- and I don't care if it's the trashiest TV or streamed digital..whatever's coming down the line -- keep trying hard and be thankful, thankful you have work. And try to remember that the work may not be primarily all about you.

A
But it is about me. Look! I'm here. It's me. At work. At center stage.

E
Right.

D
Hey..there's been enough of that. Back to work. Look, when you kiss her -- when you kiss each other -- it's like a lift by great dancers, all the mightiness of music, and no gravity.

E
Yeah, it's like we're in ballet, like we're walking down from a slide in art history class.

A
Yeah, whatever. Where do you want me to put my hands?

E
Here. And then like this.

D
And stand up straight. You're in Paradise. Everything is busting at the seams with the energy of life and all's brand new -- beautiful -- youthful and innocence full, including you, the first persons ever.

A
Yeah, I know. I know. I'm cool with that.

D
No! I mean like siezed by the awareness and experience of individual personality.

E
You know, not like your individual ego, like in pschology, like that's what makes mankind all the same.

A
I am totally individual. In every way.

D
Along with how many billion others is it now?

A
What? Yeah, whatever. I understand, okay? From where?

D
...like nature's order both both and one,

A
man and woman.
The breath God breathed into the mud I was
was warm and sweet as the breaths that join in this kiss.

E
Flesh of my flesh, bone of my bones
torn from my side beside

D
Your side.

E
Right. Sorry. Minor slip.

D
From the mother of all living. Keep going. Actually...keep it. See what happens.

A
What do you mean, keep it? The script says "your".

D
The script can say whatever, I'm the director.

A
The script says "your" -- blah, blah, blah bones..torn from your side from beside your heart. It's my rib.

E
You're sure about that? Lemme check which one's missing. tickles him I've always wanted to know which one it was.

A laughing
Okay, okay, I give up. Sorry, alright? I don't know what got into me.

D
I understand. But try to figure it out before it gets into you next time. Okay, let's go. Places...and with feeling and understanding! From "flesh".

E
Flesh of my flesh, bone of my bones
torn from my side like a piece of my heart
cleave unto me, cleave, so for now sewn's
back up what God made so apart.
Woman and man, God made the human,
made us in God's own image of dominion
to care for all alive beneath the sun
to work and to keep this rich earth for a garden.
All here without is ours as is all within that rails
us on to know life's constant self, never the same --
that when the eyes close and shed their scales
sings so wildly in the soul, knowing no name.
So test life's strength to shaking the marrow,
delighting so deeply in taking me now.

A
I breath, between fear and defiance, piety and desire.
But didn't God say -Lest ye die ye shall not

E
What? Know? No, God said of all with life afire
in the glory of God's creation ye shall

A
What? Work and keep this garden and not

E
Are you afraid? Lest ye die?

A
I?

E
And if we surely shall not die? But live
in calm and wisdom knowing what can be known
that partakes both of light and dark --
of great God's ordering power and the others

A
Aye, I will. I too shall love and worship here
great God and the here-below-him powers.
I don't know about "worship," I mean can't that like be sensitive for some people so you'd like want to revise it?

E
You're suggesting you revise the author's work?

A
Yeah. I'm a creative. (I got the right if [he]/[she] does.)

D
Revise to what?

A
Like for me it's like not, you know, worship, like with a religion and all that; for me it's like a personal lifestyle choice alternative that works for me.

D
Works for me. Me!

A
Yeah. Me. It's like I'm here. Me. Not like somebody else that's like you want them to be.

D
Okay. Okay. Try it.

E
And if we surely shall not die? But live
in calm and wisdom knowing that we are
partaking both of light and dark --
the living soul's own naming power, and my

A
Aye, I will. I too shall love and ... I got to think of it, like how to put it -- just give me a minute...

D
When you think of it, we'll go back to it. Alright?

A
Okay.

E
You're planning to think about it now?

A
No. I'm too busy. We got to get through this.

E
Right.

A
(How come you get to just change it? And [she]/[he] doesn't say anything?)

E
(You're jealous? But you're the leading man.)

D
Hey. Clock's ticking. Back to it.

A
Yeah. consulting script Now what?

D
Now you're hiding -- in shock from first self-consciousness -- of fear and shame and guilt.

A
That was it? It's over?

E
Completely. And you didn't even notice what you got yourself into?

A
What is this shit? Where's the trees..of this and that? And you're telling me there's no..like apple?

D
Apparently not. But I'll see at the end what I can do about working in a flaming sword.

A
Flaming sword?

E
Yeah, so that way when you stick it up your ass you'll have like two of a kind.

A
What do you know about my ass?

E
What do I want to know about your ass?

D
Stop it! I don't want to hear it. That whole modality. It depresses me. It depresses..sensibility. So, not on my stage please. Got it?

E
You can't deselect us or whatever for like not having your taste okay? That's like probably a violation.

A
Yeah. Yeah. Like a grievance. I mean I could file one on you..if I wanted to.

D
Okay. Okay. I'm asking. Please. No..you know..so relentless, superficial and all the time.

A
Okay. Hey, I want to do what you want. That's like my job. But I also have my creative responsibility to myself as a an artist.

E
Spare us. Please.

A
I'm not going to say anything. Okay? So, flaming sword?

D
Actually, there is no flaming sword. At least not in this script, so

A
No. There's like supposed to be a flaming sword, right? So, okay, I don't get it. But that doesn't mean

D
No! It's just not important so

A
Yeah! I don't get the joke, I don't get the sword. So like you think I'm common and stupid.

D
Why would I think anything like that?

A
Stop being dismissive about me, that's all. That's one thing, one thing I just won't stand for.

D
Oh for God's sake.. Look, that's the last thing I am..please! Let's just go back to where

A
Yeah, Uh-huh? And so how come there's not even no fucking serpent?

D
Oh!

E pulling stuffed animal from her bag/backpack
Coo-coo! Guess who? I brought one just in case. Never know when there might be a special appearance opportunity for a good-looking, smooth-talking snake. Right baby? Hssss....

D
Put away the fucking serpent! Please.

E putting away stuffed animal (see below) in bag/backpack, behind something etc.
(See you later.)

D
Come on. Now, you're in the garden trying to hide.

E
I sense it rippling in among the leaves
the breeze that cool from having kissed
the racing crests of sea swells' gentle heaves
comes quell from West the heat of day in Eden's East.

A
In the rustling in the trees I think I hear...
but it's my heart and breath both running faster...
the suns's yet high but yet the shade's so cold here...
this fear that rages is more than I can master!

E
Be silent, be silent. Your groans of fear alone
are enough to bring great God to find us.

A
And great God will and oh! make us atone
for your wiles and wisdom that so blind us!

E
Better great God had let us live ignorantly free.

A
As in this life now knowing death can never be.

E
But soft I hear the voice come near us. Hide me! Hide me!

A
Give me your hand. I will that too. If you...

E
I do.

A
And I will answer when great God may find me.

E
But betrayed great God will strike down both me and you.

A
And rightly so for He allied Himself with me and I for you

E
you did betray Him for knowledge of your own

A
that His abject equal I now know what I should and should not do

E
with only the consolation that you're not alone.
And now He comes and wants His answer and what will

A
I am here! For I was afraid, and hid, for she beguiled me,
and know now I am unsuited for seeing good and evil
so see why you, great God, revile me.

E
So must in pain and sorrow eke out the life of each day --
to dust returning, all lives to silence carried away.

A
For seeing justice, I will fail to fight
iniquity. For before wronging violence
I will wall up my hearing and hide my sight
to turn away, humiliated, keeping silence.

E
And guilty you'll multiply, from righteous pride
the cruelty and pain of all our living,
already hard with birthing's groans and toil beside --
you, simple man by God exhalted, ever unforgiving.

A
My sins, my failings will be more than many,
but to His way now will I hew to my last breath.

E
No! Come with me West to the sun-matched sea
where by foam-tressed stones none but nature orders death.

A
And not great God? No! For I will stay and so will you.

E
For over me God said you rule?

A
My strength is trust in Him. What He commands, we do.
For to your powers I'll not play the fool.

E
And so the emnity between us will

A
last and last, and rightly so, as great God said.

E
You question not? Have you not learned? But still

A
I? I had not? It was you! You who dead
to great God's all-creation turned your back
to the radiance of his light and in the shadow
of your belly so proudly held out the wrack
and seethe of life's life-giving now
and

E
you took thereof and

A
the knowing so

E
to be desired

A and E together
is so bitterly both of God and here below.

E
Yes both, both of God and here-below-him

A
No! Of only God alone, all-knowing and all one!

E
So regaled in righteousness so zealous and grim

A
Yes! I will kill His enemies so His work be done.

E
And the blood and the blood and the blood

A
shall be pleasing to Him lest His enemies kill me.

E
And heart and hearth and love in family?

A
I will rule and teach to sacrifice for God.

E
And if I or child would live for lives of our own?

A
You'll be constrained to stay or banished to stay out.

E
Slave or exile -- and thus free to flout

A
No! You break the laws I make for God and you'll atone

E
I'll make the laws for me by good reason's light

A
And die faithless in Godless, brutal night!

E
I will, I will -- make my way as I see the right.

A in argument and struggle stuffed animal put away above is spilled from bag/backpack, kicked out from behind something etc. and both grab after it.
You'll stay! Never dare defy God's might!

E
Haargh!

A
Huurgh!

E
It's mine!

A
So?

E
Give it back!

A
Come get it.

E
I'm going to!

A
Hah...yahah...

E trying to take it as he keeps it away from her
Urrghch...Ouch! Hey!

A
Nyahah...

E
Give it back, I said! Give it back to me now. It's mine!

A
It's right here..nyew-nyew-nyew...right in my hand where I can squeeze the living shit out of your cutsie-wootsie warm and fuzzy...

E
Arghrgh!

D
Give it back to her, I mean alright...Oh! I mean...now!

A tossing it her -- she immedately puts it away again
Take it. There, you happy? ... So, what are we going wearing anyway? Fig leaves, haah?

D
No, nothing. You're supposed to be naked...like apes.

A
Yeah? Aw.. No shit, huh? Huh, yeah... You hear that? Like we're going to get naked and do a little steam scene for a fuckflick.

E
Forget about it.

D
Completely. You're going to be naked, not nude.

A
Yeah? C'mon, like wouldn't it be like more realistic?

D
Absolutely, that's why you're going to be naked -- naked as can be as the best can be at work at center stage decked out completely in tinsel and grease -- and clothes.

E
So what are we going to be wearing?

D
Whatever -- what you're wearing...jeans, t-shirt -- doesn't matter.

A
What if they're people want to see me take my shirt off? They're people want to see me nude, why not?

D
Exactly. Why? So keep your shirt on.

E consulting script
So now what?

D
So now we go to the end. Now you're old. What you've been through and now know, at your age, you'd never believe you'd know. And I dunno, if shrunk and leathery, glint-eyed and exhausted, there's any fierce spark of hope remaining or all's beaten resignation having seen sons kill one the other -- but then life persists anew...

A
The day

E
the night

A
draws down

E
draws near

D
Yes but...more like
The day, the night, draws down, draws near -- so still --
as side by side from the threshold of this house
we stand together looking to what will
be anew a next tomorrow sure to rouse
all life in great God's creation to again
engage, each it's next begin-and-end, and
rise, decline, grow, grow old, and then
disorder ereasing flows and nets, just end.
Til then, in flesh and bone now so slow and aching
in mind and heart that strain to stand, upright
against the hunching weights of sorrows' making
stay by my side now our end's in sight.
Turn, engage -- cook and share with me -- despite what we know,
and partake again the bread of sorrow 'fore we go.

E
To tasks of love that are my self's unmaking
I turn again a help meet made by habit --
soul-seared again at wombwater's breaking,
then the hurt and howl of the smeared head spit
from the wombmouth, again to live the Eden peace
of child and mother alive as both both and one.
Didn't you all tug equally, refusing to release,
suckling at what were my breasts? So why oh so undone?
Did we not play and play, and learn to laugh together?
The cold stun of the news still chokes my heart
that one brother lifted to death his hand against the other --
oh arrogance and jealousy that broke my life apart...
But love is made, a son is born and hope anew
with somber brightness springs from human habit too?

A
Hope's only hope is wisdom in the fear
of life's all-maker's judgment of us now --
here too, living this spark of time we're here,
spark now and gone, yet long enough to allow
such pain. Did I, walking in the sun not see
the figure bent and panting in the field
glaring at his brother on the ground and I...aieee...
did I not run across the earth and yield
to fear blasting the heart and lift the head
so cold and hot and bloody on this arm?
"Why did you do this?" And he turned and fled,
ascurrying like a beast judgmentless in alarm.
What hope can life bestow upon a man
who buries his own son killed by a brother's hand?

E
Were we not blessed to have another in his place?

A
No.

E
We were blessed.

A
As time and desire

E
engaged us to a last born

A
that when I see his face

E
so in your likeness

A
that I smile

E
your heart afire?

A
Yes. For God so willed it.

E
To turn us from hard despairs?
Here take

A
this cup of water

E
to your lips

A
that parched,
drink its sweetness sweeter for my thirst of cares?

E
And stay to end this life through which we've marched?

A
The day

E
the night

A
the tumult

E
of the years

A
come

E
go

A
greater, lesser light

E
laughter and tears.

A
Yet still we rage against what wrongs are done.

E
But look yet with pride at all what we've begun.

A
Here

E
take

A
at end

E
of living's

A
cries

E
of joy

A
and groans

E
of paining

A
at last

E
to ground

A and E together
this house of bones.

D
Okay... Okay, now again, from the top...let's go.

A
And so I cried out their names each thing thus and so

THE END