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Electra
By Don Nigro
45 West 25th Street New York, NY 10010-2751
Phone: (866) 598-8449
Fax: (212) 206-1429
[email protected]
samuelfrench.com
ELECTRA
a play by
Don Nigro
Copyright © 2011
by Don Nigro.
All Rights Reserved.
Samuel French, Inc.
45 West 25th Street
New York, NY 10010
(212) 206-8990
www.samuelfrench.com
DG
Member.
All Rights
& Privileges.
Characters:
Lexie Ryan (28)
Thomas Ryan (27)
Carolyn Ryan (47) mother of Jenna, Lexie and Thomas
Jenna Ryan Demetrius (29)
Nick Demetrius (40) husband of Jenna
Setting: A house in Armitage, a small town in Pendragon County, east Ohio, in
the year 1920. All locations exist simultaneously in one simple unit set: down
right, a bench, and a bit of Bedlam cemetery; down left, a chair in the madhouse
in Massillon; up one step is the level of the Ryan front porch, right, with porch
swing, right center, and the table and chairs that will indicate the dining room,
center left. Up two steps is the study, with chair, desk and books, and up another
step is the bathroom, with tub. Although no scenes actually take place in this
location, it's very important that it be visible there. Up three more steps is a little
landing leading to an unseen attic, up center. On the landing is a window leading
to a section of roof, up right. This geography is very fluid. It's not a realistic
representation of a house, except for the furniture. Walls and doors are
fragmentary or non-existent. The flow of action between locations must be easy
and unbroken throughout the play, and characters may be seen in other parts of
the stage during scenes in which they have no dialogue, so that the transition
from one scene to the next is often simply an actor moving naturally, in character
and in full view of the audience, from one location to another in which the actors
for the next scene are already present. Escape stairs make it easy for actors to
enter and exit from any location on the set. There must never be any dead space
between scenes or actors scuttling about out of character in the dark. No
furniture is moved, and there are no set changes.
Electra is the third play in The Greek Trilogy, comprised of three full length
plays:
Iphigenia
Clytemnestra
Electra
The plays are meant to be done on three successive nights or perhaps afternoon,
evening and late night of the same day, but each play may also be produced on its
own, separate from the others.
Scenes:
1 The Cemetery
2 The Porch
3 The Madhouse
4 The Kitchen
5 The Porch
6 The Roof
7 The Study
8 The Porch
9 The Cemetery
10 The Porch
11 The Roof
3
1
(Sound of crows in the darkness. Lights up on Lexie and Thomas in
Bedlam Cemetery.)
LEXIE
There it is. That little mound of earth, under the wild cherry tree. They still
haven't put the stone up. The man who does the tombstones caught his wife in
bed with a Bible salesman and tried to carve a derogatory inscription on her
backside and in the ruckus they knocked over a candle and set the house on fire,
and the Bible salesman burned to death hiding in the fruit cellar, so the
tombstone carver's in jail for manslaughter, and our father's grave is still just
marked by a little pile of dirt. That's the sort of thing that happens around here.
Dark low comedy. Mother ordered a megalith the size of Stonehenge to impress
the neighbors, but almost nobody speaks to us now. People stare at us on the
street and mutter at each other like extras in a bad Greek chorus. Mother used to
enjoy so much wringing her hands and wailing over and over, my son is dead, my
son is dead. She likes to hear the sound of her own voice so it drowns out any
attempt to think on her part or anybody else's. But here you are, and it's Papa
who's dead. I still can't believe you're here. But everything seems like a dream
now. Even the birds are strange since he died. I don't like the way they look at
me. There's something wrong with the crows. I wake up in the morning and
everything seems just slightly out of place. I look at the trees and think, did
somebody move them over night? Do the trees walk around all night and then
never quite get back in exactly the right places? Everything here is Through The
Looking-Glass. I wonder where Loopy Rye is today. You know things are bad
when the village idiot is ashamed to be seen with you. It's going to rain again. It
always rains now. God, I hate monologues. Please say something so I can shut the
hell up. Thomas? Are you all right?
THOMAS
I don't know. I've got things in my head.
LEXIE
You mean the war. Papa came back different, too. He said war makes everybody
crazy, even the people who stay home. We sang songs and waved flags and
blubbered over coffins. Now we sit in empty houses and try to remember what it
was all supposed to be for. What was it again that was supposed to justify them
mailing your baby home in a box in twelve different pieces.
THOMAS
It's more like whispering. Like bees in a lime tree.
4
LEXIE
Tell me about the war.
THOMAS
You don't want to hear about the war.
LEXIE
Yes I do. I want details. I'm starving for details. Nobody ever gives me enough
details. I don't care how horrible they are. I can't seem to get close enough to
things. Tell me what it's like to kill. Is it like you turn off a switch in your head,
like a farmer slaughtering pigs?
THOMAS
I'm home now. I'm done with all that. This is a different place.
LEXIE
Not as different as you'd like to think.
THOMAS
How is Jenna?
LEXIE
I go up to the madhouse to see her, but she won't talk to me. I don't think she's
spoken three coherent words to me since it happened. Not that she was ever all
that coherent, but this is worse. I miss her.
THOMAS
I don't understand it. I know she's had emotional problems, but I just can't
believe she'd ever hurt our father.
LEXIE
She didn't hurt our father.
THOMAS
Mother said he was taking a bath and Jenna was giving him a haircut and she
stabbed him in the neck with the scissors.
LEXIE
Mother is a homicidal psychopath.
THOMAS
You're telling me it didn't happen the way Mother said?
5
LEXIE
I'm telling you Mother killed him.
THOMAS
That's crazy.
LEXIE
Listen to me, Tommy. I'm not joking here. Our mother murdered our father.
THOMAS
You saw her?
LEXIE
No, I didn't see her, but I know she did it.
THOMAS
Why would our mother kill our father?
LEXIE
She hated him and she wanted the insurance money so she killed him and
blamed Jenna because she knew they'd just haul her off to the madhouse again.
THOMAS
But Jenna's not well. She stabbed Nick on their wedding night.
LEXIE
If I was married to Nick I'd stab him, too. Jenna's a little batty but she didn't kill
our father. Mother did.
THOMAS
Mother wouldn't do that.
LEXIE
Mother would do absolutely anything. While you and Papa were off playing
soldier, her and Nick were going at it all over the house like a couple of monkeys.
THOMAS
Going at what?
LEXIE
At each other, stupid. Fornicating. God. Do you have any brain left at all?
6
THOMAS
Mother and Nick?
LEXIE
All over the house. There's adulterous body fluids everywhere. No room remains
unstained. We'll never get it clean. We'll have to burn the place down.
THOMAS
That's disgusting.
LEXIE
No kidding. It's why I took up drinking. I can't get the picture out of my head.
THOMAS
But Nick is Jenna's husband.
LEXIE
She killed our father, Tommy. Do you think she's going to have a moral crisis
about sleeping with her son-in-law? She's evil. And when I tried to tell the the
Sheriff, Porky just patted me on the head and told me I was hysterical. I would
have kicked him in the crotch if he had any balls.
THOMAS
Lexie, where did you learn to talk like that?
LEXIE
In the funny papers. Which is where this whole town belongs. Some damned
Sheriff. Big dumb fat crooked old son of a bitch. I swear I'm voting for the Italian
guy next time. Mother was so calm. It chilled my blood. And Nick's as bad as she
is. He didn't say a word when they hauled Jenna off to the madhouse. They're
monsters. They're a couple of monsters out of Greek mythology, and now they've
got all Papa's money.
THOMAS
I just got home. I don't want to deal with this now.
LEXIE
Our father was murdered and you don't want to deal with it? Thomas, you're my
last hope. You're the only one left who can help me.
THOMAS
I can't help anybody. I don't want to think about anything.
7
LEXIE
Tommy, listen to me. I need you. I can't do this without you.
THOMAS
Do what?
LEXIE
We need to kill them. We need to kill Mother, and we need to kill Nick. We need
to kill both of them.
THOMAS
That isn't funny.
LEXIE
I'm perfectly serious.
THOMAS
You're out of your mind.
LEXIE
I wish I was, but I'm not. It would almost be a relief to be crazy, like Jenna, but
I'm not crazy. I've thought about it and I've thought about it and I can see it very
clearly. It's the only solution. We've got to kill them. Otherwise they’ll get away
with murder. They've got the house and all of Papa's money. Do you think Nick's
ever going to let you get your hands on any of it? He married into this family to
take everything, and he's not going to stop now. Papa's gone, and we're next.
THOMAS
Mother would never hurt us.
LEXIE
Mother is weak and stupid and greedy and half crazy, and she's got the morals of
a hyena. They killed Papa and they’ll kill us too, one way or another. Once they've
got the taste of blood in their mouths, they can't stop. I've been reading Papa's
Greek plays, so I know how this works. The only answer is to kill them first.
THOMAS
Lexie, I'm not going to kill anybody.
LEXIE
Oh, come on, Tommy. Have some faith in yourself. The government spent a lot of
money teaching you how to kill.
8
THOMAS
Nobody taught me how to kill my mother.
LEXIE
Necessary things are always messy. Birth. Sex. Death. But you can't run away
from them. You've got to run right at them. It's the only way.
THOMAS
Lexie, I think you're having some sort of a breakdown. Maybe you should stop
reading those plays and take piano lessons or something. No, don't do that. I
can't deal with noise. What about embroidery? Or find a nice man and get
married.
LEXIE
A nice man? Find a nice man? I don't want a nice man. What the hell am I
supposed to do with a nice man? There aren't any nice men. I'd do it by myself,
but I'm afraid I could only get one of them.
THOMAS
I could never do a thing like that, and neither could you.
LEXIE
I don't see why not. Papa could. He killed people in the war, and he murdered an
old man in New York, didn't he? Isn't that where our money came from? He
didn't get it all embezzling from the bank.
THOMAS
I'm not killing anybody.
LEXIE
If the government can send you off to shoot people you don't even know and give
you a medal for it, why can't you help me kill these horrible people who murdered
our father? When did I ever ask you to do anything for me? All those years I ran
interference for you with Mother, taking her on again and again so you and Jenna
wouldn't have to, and now I ask you to do this one little thing for me—
THOMAS
Killing our mother is not a little thing.
LEXIE
In the larger scope of cosmic events it is. There are stars exploding out there. This
is just a tiny, tiny little event. It won't even make a ripple in the water.
9
THOMAS
I can't deal with this. I'm not well. I've got all this whispering in my head.
LEXIE
So do I. And there's only one way to stop it. Papa knew. He left us instructions in
those Greek plays he used to shut himself up in his study reading so he wouldn't
have to talk to Mother. It's very clear. We've got to kill them. It's in the script.
We've got to follow the script. Because if we don't follow the script, all we're left
with is the obscene chaos of improvisation, and nobody wants that. Unscripted
disaster is just life. But scripted disaster is a work of art. Well, it can be. If we just
play our parts well enough. I just want you to play your part.
THOMAS
I am not a character in some stupid play.
LEXIE
But you are. We all are. You're Orestes and I'm Electra. That whispering you hear
in your head is the gods telling you to kill your mother. Don't fight it. The voices
tell you what to do. Trust the gods. Just listen.
(Thomas looks at her. Sound of crows and a faint humming, buzzing,
whispering sound as the light fades on them.)
10
2
(Carolyn sitting on the porch swing. Evening. Thomas is standing
in the stage right shadows.)
CAROLYN
Which is not to say I'm not perfectly fine, because I am fine, for a woman whose
insane daughter has stuck her husband in the neck with a pair of scissors in the
bath tub. I'm a strong, powerful woman who's taken charge of her life. And I'm
not ashamed to say that—What the hell are all those damned flapping noises?
What is it? Who are you? Bats? Are you bats? What's flapping? Who's
whispering? What is all this damned whispering about? Will you children be
quiet and go to sleep? There is no damned crocodile under the bed. I just need to
get some rest. Loopy? I know you're out there listening. Damned village idiot.
And that crooked son of a bitch Harry MacBeth is trying to push Nick out of the
bank. Nobody will talk to us. People point and whisper on the street. The house is
falling apart. I'm going to end up jabbering in the graveyard with Loopy if I don't
watch out. You're not my father. The village idiot is not my father. Last night I
dreamed I gave birth to a snake. I wrapped it in Tommy's baby blanket and let it
suck at my breasts, and it drew clotted blood with the milk. I have suckled
monsters. Jenna was sweet but always teetering at the edge of some precipice or
other. Lexie was more self reliant but she asked too many damned questions.
Intelligence in children is always a sign of bad things to come. Thomas was a
train wreck. Such nightmares. Giant insects eating him. Drowning in vats of
blood. I'd ask myself, who are these bizarre creatures who've crawled out of my
body? And is there any way I can put them back and exchange them for
something else? Some sort of washing machine? But redemption comes from
within. In other words, there is none. I feared as much.
(She notices someone standing in the shadows.)
Who is that? Why is there always somebody standing over there in the dark? We
need to get a god damned street light put in down here. Loopy? Is that you?
Michael?
THOMAS
It's me, Mother. Papa is dead.
CAROLYN
I am very much aware that your father is dead. It took me weeks to get the blood
stains out from between the cracks of the bathroom tiles. Your sister always did
know how to make a mess. Come up here and sit on the porch with me. Come on.
I'm your mother. I won't bite you. Snakes and pigs devour their young, but lucky
for you, I already ate. I made flapjacks. They tasted like the skin that peels off
your feet. I can't taste anything since your father died.
11
THOMAS
Who were you talking to?
CAROLYN
I wasn't talking to anybody. You're hearing things again. You used to swear you
could hear angels speaking French every time we flushed the toilet. None of my
children has ever been quite right in the head. I thank God every day that I'm
normal. Come up here and sit with your mother. Come on. Don't be shy. Girls
don't want shy boys, you know. They like the bad ones. Come on. I'm cold.
THOMAS
All right.
(Thomas comes up onto the porch and sits beside her.)
CAROLYN
I can't seem to get warm lately. There. Isn't this nice? Mother and son. Sitting on
the porch. Listening to owls. What were you doing lurking about there in the
shadows? Where have you been?
THOMAS
The war. I've been to the war.
CAROLYN
I know you've been to the war. I mean where have you been this evening? Out
spooning with one of your girlfriends?
THOMAS
I don't have any girlfriends.
CAROLYN
Don't worry. We've got money. We'll buy you some.
THOMAS
I don't need you to buy me any girlfriends.
CAROLYN
So where were you, Thomas?
THOMAS
Lexie took me to the cemetery.
12
CAROLYN
Well, that doesn't sound like much fun. Going to the cemetery with your sister. I
don't know what the hell she thinks she's doing, hanging around that cemetery all
the time. Maybe digging up graves and stealing gold teeth. You really should stay
away from her. That girl is not well.
THOMAS
She's lonely.
CAROLYN
Well, she spends all her time at the cemetery. What kind of company does she
expect to dig up there?
THOMAS
I think you should talk to her.
CAROLYN
She doesn't want to talk to me.
THOMAS
I think she does. She just doesn't know how. She's got a lot of crazy ideas. I mean,
really crazy ideas.
CAROLYN
What sort of ideas? What's she been telling you?
THOMAS
Nothing that makes any sense to me. But I've been having a lot of trouble
concentrating since I got home.
CAROLYN
Thomas, I know you don't like to talk about these things, but the war's been over
for two years. Where have you been all this time?
THOMAS
I don't remember all of it. Something exploded. Then I was lost. I couldn't hear
right, and I couldn't make sense of anything. Something was wrong with my
head. Then there were two Dutch girls. And there were strawberries. And the
room was full of clocks. And then I saw a cow, or something like a cow, at the end
of the field, and when I moved towards it, everything blurred like the rain.
13
CAROLYN
Well, that clears it up for me. We thought you were dead.
THOMAS
I was dead. Then I woke up and missed your cooking. That's when I knew I wasn't
right in the head.
CAROLYN
There's nothing wrong with my cooking. It just needs more salt. Or maybe less
salt. I don't know what anything tastes like any more. Maybe a spider crawled
into my mouth while I was sleeping and bit me on the tongue. You're not eating
anything. You're like a skeleton walking around here. I should make a pie. You
should eat lots of pie. Get your strength back. Work out with dumbbells. Do some
jumping jacks. When you're feeling better, Nick can find you something to do at
the bank.
THOMAS
I don't want to work at the bank. I hate the bank.
CAROLYN
You don't hate the bank. Why would you hate the bank?
THOMAS
The banks made the war.
CAROLYN
Don't be silly. Banks don't make war. Banks make money off war. A bank is just a
building with money in it. Like a church. Only holier. I notice you haven't been
bathing much. I can't taste anything, but I can still smell a little. It's all right to go
up and take a bath, you know. It's all been thoroughly scoured and disinfected. I
poured bleach all over everything in there. You could eat scrambled eggs off the
bathroom floor. I'll make you some scrambled eggs if you like and we can eat
them off the floor together. Except they might taste like bleach. You really do
need a bath. You smell like a badger den. Your sister won't set foot in that
bathroom either. She takes spit baths in the kitchen sink after everybody goes to
bed. I don't know where she urinates and voids her bowels. Maybe out in the
cemetery, like a stray cat. If you're going to work at the bank, you've got to smell
good. The bank itself might stink of greed but the people have got to smell like a
spring meadow.
THOMAS
I'm not going to the bank. I'd rather work in the fields.
14
CAROLYN
The fields? What are you going to do in the fields? What fields?
THOMAS
I'll bale hay.
CAROLYN
You don't want to bale hay. Hay makes you itch. We have poor people to do that
for us. Farmers and people like that.
THOMAS
I need to do something with my hands. Something that isn't killing. I'm done with
killing. No more killing.
CAROLYN
All right. Just relax. Maybe if you just take it easy for a while, you'll feel better
about things. But you really need to stop hanging around the cemetery with your
sister. I have to tell you, Thomas, and I'm sorry to have to say it, but I really do
think she might be losing her mind, just like the other one. Maybe it runs in the
family. Not that there's anything wrong with me. It must be from your father's
side. They were a bunch of Greeks. Probably all insane. Now, there's a civilization
gone to seed. Thank God I'm normal. Someone has to be the voice of reason in
this family.
(Looking up suddenly.)
What's that? Are those bats? Get away from here. Get away.
(Calming herself.)
Sorry. I keep hearing bats. Or mice. I suppose bats are like flying mice. Squeak,
squeak. It's very disturbing. Thomas, you love your mother, don't you?
THOMAS
I haven't been able to sleep.
CAROLYN
Yes, but you do love your mother.
THOMAS
I just stare at the ceiling and try not to think about anything.
CAROLYN
Because it's a great comfort to me to have my children here at my side. Except of
course for the one who killed your father with the scissors. In my embrace. In my
15
nest. Like eggs. It's like sitting on eggs. I'm keeping you warm, like an incubator.
THOMAS
Nothing good seems real to me now. Only horrible things I try to put out of my
head and can't. It feels like something is eating the inside of my head.
CAROLYN
Oh, don't worry about that, dear. I'd never let anything eat you. I'd rather gobble
you up myself. Do you remember that game we played, when you were a little
boy? I was the fox and I gobbled you up. I started with your feet and worked my
way up. You used to laugh so hard you cried, and then you'd cough and gag and
couldn't breathe and I had to turn you upside down and shake you and then you
peed yourself. You remember that, don't you?
THOMAS
Not until now I didn't.
CAROLYN
Well, sometimes having no memory is a good thing. We're all going to have to
work on that. Because memory can kill you. It really can.
THOMAS
Everything kills. Except me. I don't kill. Not any more.
CAROLYN
Well, good. That's good to know. I'm glad we've had this little talk. I feel much
better now.
(She looks at him uneasily. The light fades on them.)
16
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