Nightshade

A Performance Scenerio
By T. R. Pickerill

2008

© T. R. Pickerill- All rights reserved

 

Nightshade
performance

stage set:
mattress and bloody sheets lie on the floor
kitchen table and two chairs
old dinners, bottles, etc left on table and floor (messy)
unused table setting for her
a dress of hers lying over the back of her chair
single bare light bulb hanging above the table
TV set on stand with sound turned off
video projection of green static covers the set

characters:
Person, widowed husband, also reads for soldier, murderer, rapist of wife.
dressed in underwear, white t-shirt, and robe
Dead Wife, raped and murdered (Iraq/war/a land raped.)
half naked wearing a plane dress, mostly ripped off, left breast revealed
bloody and hair is a mess of knots and blood

scenario:
both characters are in place and video running prior to audience entering
He is sitting at the table, she is standing still behind
Begin with him reading a text of a murder and rape testimony by
American soldiers in Iraq, as the audience enters.
Read it only then and at the end trailing off.
The woman watches
she screams but has no voice
vocalize pain, crying out with the body
woman's text prerecorded, soprano singing, (almost like greek chorus),
screeching and screaming
his voice is sparse and simple
movement as response to text and voice
vocalize movement

everything is as if dismembered and disembodied
stop making sense
a chaos of reason in movement
disjointed, and contorted
a body wracked with poison
immersed in fire
tortured

he remembers...
video of a couple embracing in bed, softly, lying, touching slowly

arrange items on bed to represent her on bed
puts lipstick on her imaginary self
he makes love to this assemblage
then begins to fall apart and attacks it
she dances lewd and wildly, painfully in response, mocking
video of her receding from him
dance opposite of each other but backs turned
she repeatedly reaches out to him but his anger walls her off
he can't see any more
repetition
never face each other tho she watches
start again with murder text