Sergio De La Pava - Personae

NESTOR: Not when there’s nothing can be done!

LUDWIG: What are you talking about? There’s always something can be done. There’s respirators, ventilators…

CLARISSA: Refrigerators.

LUDWIG: Defibrillators, fibrillators as well obviously. Elevators, alligators…

CLARISSA: Incinerators.

ADAM: Impetuators.

NESTOR: Okay, that’s not a word.

CHARLES: My wife, many years, used to say that she would die, I would die, but we would never die.

NESTOR: Why doesn’t she say things like that anymore?

CHARLES: She died.

NESTOR: As will you and as did the plural you at the time of your wife’s.

LUDWIG: You don’t know that.

NESTOR: Oh I don’t?

LUDWIG: No, not know .

NESTOR: No?

LUDWIG: A military hospital ICU Adam. To answer your question.

NESTOR: Where’d you get military from?

CLARISSA: Military’s your objection? Where’d he get any of it from? Who says it’s an ICU at all?

LUDWIG: You don’t feel the care we’re getting in this unit is intensive?

CLARISSA: Correct.

LUDWIG: Because I do. Hence the ICU.

NESTOR: Wrong, this is an assisted living…

CHARLES: Dying.

NESTOR: … facility.

CLARISSA: In which no one is being assisted in any way? This is an insane asylum Adam. That’s why you see so much disagreement. You can scarcely get sane people to agree on anything nowadays.

CHARLES: I agree.

LUDWIG: Me too.

NESTOR: I disagree.

CLARISSA: ( looking at Adam ) See?

CHARLES: Why do you care? Seriously, let’s get down to it, why?

ADAM: Why do I care where I am? Doesn’t seem a minor careless thing.

NESTOR: He speaks carefully, if anyone cares.

LUDWIG: Well then Adam, today’s you’re lucky day…

NESTOR: Night.

LUDWIG: … ( motioning with chin towards doorway ) because here’s your answer.

( All look at doorway but there’s nothing there. They look back at Ludwig not understanding, then back at the entryway. Nothing.)

CLARISSA: If this were an insane asylum wouldn’t we, the insane, be the last to know?

NESTOR: Right, so your belief it is proves it isn’t.

LUDWIG: Thought we agreed, more or less, on the vat.

CHARLES: We would never die she would say but I’m afraid it didn’t prove so.

NESTOR: You’re afraid it didn’t or it didn’t.

CHARLES: It didn’t, and as a result I’m afraid.

CLARISSA: ( walking over to Charles and placing her hand on his shoulder ) I don’t think there’s any reason for fear Charles.

NESTOR: ( aside to audience) I see ample reason, and little reason for anything else. And where none exists, I’ll create.

CHARLES: We fear what we don’t know and I fear we do so rightly.

LUDWIG: I fear nothing and if anyone has less to fear than me it’s you.

CHARLES: You mean more to fear than you.

LUDWIG: ( unsure ) Maybe.

CLARISSA: There’s no reason for fear of any level, tell them Adam.

NESTOR: Don’t answer that Adam, they’re just trying to scare you.

ADAM: I’m not scared at all.

NESTOR: Why do you think they’re trying so hard?

CHARLES: I’m not scared either, thank you Clarissa. And I was wrong before when I said she’d died, that Linda had died. Linda wouldn’t leave me like that, she’ll be back. She said to wait here for her and that’s what I intend to do. Her hand will be in mine again, I just have to wait here. Placidly.

LUDWIG: Not sure this is the kind of place where you can just peacefully wait.

CLARISSA: Why not? The machines are working. You wait right here Charles. Your hand will envelop hers again.

NESTOR: Abandoned by your love, or let’s just say by Love as an entity entire.

CHARLES: Love hasn’t abandoned me… yet.

NESTOR: Because there is no love.

CHARLES: There is. I felt it before and I’ll feel it again. I just have to wait here.

LUDWIG: Because out of even the bleakest darkness there must emerge a light.

CLARISSA: You wait right here baby, Love will be back.

( She walks away from Charles’s bed and to Adam and Ludwig whom she addresses in a whisper. )

I’m worried about him, he has a distant look in his eyes I haven’t seen before.

LUDWIG: On anyone?

CLARISSA: On… him… I guess, what’s the difference?

LUDWIG: Want me to talk to him?

CLARISSA: Might be best.

ADAM: Excuse me, am I missing something? What good is talk going to do? He needs medical attention.

LUDWIG: You see all the machines, soulless blips and bleeps, what more do you want?

ADAM: I don’t know, a person ? Preferably one trained in medicine who would examine Charles and determine what if any salutary effect the machines are having and what adjustments should be made. Let’s get someone like that in here.

( Ludwig and Clarissa look at each other but say nothing. Adam is awaiting a response but gets none. Instead Ludwig and Clarissa sit resignedly on a nearby bed. In the meantime Nestor has made his way over to Charles and sits near him so that only Charles can hear his words. )

NESTOR: Comfortable Charles? ( Charles nods affirmatively ) Because I think I have to level with you. Now I’m not a doctor, of course, but I’ve played one in various productions and I must say that I don’t like what I see when I look at your charts. ( Charles looks around but as he suspected there are no charts in the vicinity ) You understand that as time draws to a close we either go out like docile lambs or we roar against it like lions. These are machines, heartless and cold, they can’t help you when the moment comes. What comes into play then is your will. It’s not coincidence it’s called your last will and testament right? Your last moments are a testament to your will. What’s yours Charles? ( silent pause ) You need to leave this room.

CHARLES: No, I’m to wait here for her return.

NESTOR: Whose return?

CHARLES: Uh… she’ll be back.

NESTOR: You don’t remember her name do you?

CHARLES: ( confused ) Uh…

NESTOR: Because it’s lunacy to wait here for someone you don’t know.

CHARLES: ( insulted ) I don’t know my wife now?

NESTOR: She’s certainly moved on by now, married someone else. There’s only so much you can expect from a person.

CHARLES: No she wouldn’t do that. Wait here she said. She said wait here.

NESTOR: That’s silly Charles. That’s what they always say, don’t you see?

CHARLES: No.

NESTOR: They say wait here, don’t move, I’ll be back. You know what the intent is?

CHARLES: To get me not to move?

NESTOR: Exactly. You don’t find that suspicious?

CHARLES: She doesn’t want me to move so that when she returns I’ll be here and we’ll be reunited.

NESTOR: Nonsense, you were never united in the first place. A proper union lasts forever and a truly eternal bond cannot be severed as easily as yours was.

CHARLES: There was nothing easy about it.

NESTOR: That’s what you’re dealing with here Charles, I’m surprised someone of your experience doesn’t know better. Her lips moved and out came wait here for me, don’t move, I’ll be back . But what moved were the lips of a woman. Why do you think women’s lips are so beautiful? To distract us from what escapes them, expelled by the serpentine tongue lying behind.

CHARLES: No, you don’t know her.

NESTOR: I know of her. I know she’s a woman, why else would you be so worked up? Ask yourself this. Who’s been her biggest defender? Clarissa right? What a coincidence, the only woman here. They stick together man. Can you deny it?