Sergio De La Pava - Personae

CHARLES: I…

NESTOR: Now the sun shines on those who take action Charles. Stand in the dark and wait for harm and it will assuredly come.

CHARLES: ( shakes head slowly )

NESTOR: But I’m sure you’re right Charles, don’t mind me. The things I’m saying are generalizations and as such they necessarily exclude some truth. You know the specifics well, making you well within your rights to tell me I’m mistaken and all is well.

CHARLES: You’re mistaken, all is well.

NESTOR: See? I’m not upset to be mistaken. On the contrary, I’ve rarely been more relieved to be wrong. Feelings of insecurity are normal and don’t necessarily portend anything untoward. The more I think of it the more certain I become that you’re in the right Charles. You stay right here and wait, everything can still work out. And I’m going to be sitting right here, next to you, every step of the way. ( Nestor stands up and walks away. )

(Nestor joins the others on the other side of the room. Adam has sat on the bed opposite Clarissa and Ludwig and he now moves over to make room for Nestor who sits next to him.)

CLARISSA: We’re trying to decide what to do.

NESTOR: What about?

LUDWIG: We haven’t decided. That is to say, we’ve decided to decide , we just haven’t decided the actual decision yet.

CLARISSA: What’s he saying over there?

NESTOR: He wants to leave, I’m trying to talk him out of it.

CLARISSA: Thank you Nestor.

NESTOR: He says not to bring it up to him anymore.

ADAM: Why can’t he leave.

LUDWIG: We’re not saying he can’t are we?

ADAM: Why shouldn’t he then?

LUDWIG: Why didn’t you leave when you said you were going to?

ADAM: I… changed my mind.

NESTOR: Yeah if I had yours I’d try to change it too.

LUDWIG: We’re in a safe place and once safety is achieved movement can only imperil that.

CLARISSA: This is not a safe place, we’ve had substantial evidence of that. This is a… strange place… where time seems to accelerate exponentially and the feel is of neither destination nor launch but rather of… stasis.

ADAM: What do we know?

LUDWIG: Or is it, what do we know?

NESTOR: I think it best now that Ludwig and I go on that investigation we were about to commence when we were so rudely interrupted by Adam.

CLARISSA: Yes, that might be best. Plus that will give Adam and me some time to catch up.

ADAM: Catch up? We just met.

CLARISSA: Exactly, think how much catching up that makes for.

LUDWIG: Remember that time Adam thought this was an insane asylum?

ADAM: I never…

NESTOR: That was hilarious.

LUDWIG: What a clown, way to project.

CLARISSA: Okay so he was reaching. But the fact remains that unless one of us is willing to posit something compellingly plausible we’re in no position to criticize. In other words, he gets points for trying.

ADAM: I didn’t try. You said…

CLARISSA: Not a lot of points mind you but points . More than we’ve been able to accumulate at any rate.

LUDWIG: It was a good point when he said that if this were an insane asylum that would make us insane and therefore not really fit to recognize it as such.

ADAM: I didn’t… ( giving up ) thank you.

LUDWIG: You’re welcome.

NESTOR: Welcome to stop throwing out wild conjectures that only serve to impede us in our search for truth.

LUDWIG: If your true and honest sole concern is that search then why are you so resistant to what Adam is saying? That our failure to discover that truth is the strongest evidence extant that it simply doesn’t exist.

ADAM: When did I say that?

LUDWIG: Not that truth exists but is somehow inapplicable to our present predicament but rather the greater inescapable conclusion that the larger concept being referred to simply doesn’t exist. There is no truth.

CLARISSA: Now who’s stretching?

NESTOR: Seriously, without truth what intelligent could we say about your just-concluded statement that it doesn’t exist?

LUDWIG: You could intelligently say about it and everything surrounding it that it is meaningless.

ADAM: But would it be true ?

NESTOR: Oh! The new guy contributes.

LUDWIG: Against all odds .

NESTOR: To draw even .

CLARISSA: A prime point, he’s had a number of them.

NESTOR: Okay that’s enough.

CLARISSA: You’re right. You two need to go on that investigation now. Only make it meticulous with an obsessive’s attention to detail and an evident love of craft throughout.

NESTOR: Our investigation’s over.

LUDWIG: Yes we were heavily invested in it but like all human activity it came to an abrupt and violent end.

CLARISSA: And you found out what?

LUDWIG: We found nothing out but did find a lot that’s in.

CLARISSA: In?

LUDWIG: Yes. At first we were inspired.

NESTOR: Intensely.

LUDWIG: Then incredibly, maybe inevitably, we were incited…

NESTOR: Inexorably.

LUDWIG:… into the inescapable conclusion that inherent to our current incarceration is a certain indefatigable incoherence that intriguingly incorporates insufficient…

CLARISSA: Stop! You discovered what exactly?

LUDWIG: Nothing.

ADAM: Incarceration?

NESTOR: A profound epistemological failure.

ADAM: Incarceration?

CLARISSA: Doesn’t sound like much of an investigation.

ADAM: Incarceration?!

LUDWIG: You okay Adam?

ADAM: Why would you refer to this as an incarceration?

LUDWIG: What would you call it?

ADAM: I call it… completely… voluntary… presence?

NESTOR: I agree.

ADAM: ( hopeful ) You agree that’s what it is right?

NESTOR: Oh God no. I agree you call it that. And that’s the important thing of course.

ADAM: No. That’s not the important thing at all! What’s important is what it actually is . Who cares what I call it?

LUDWIG: He has a point.

ADAM: See?

LUDWIG: I was referring to Nestor.

ADAM: Goodness.

( puts his face in his hands )

CLARISSA: Can’t believe you’re still pushing that nonsense Nestor.

LUDWIG: He’s only nominally pushing it. Nominalism.

CLARISSA: Well I nominate Nestor for chief investigator of our predicament.

LUDWIG: I agree.

NESTOR: I disagree.

ADAM: I abstain.

CLARISSA: Of course the primary prerequisite for that position is the swearing of an ironclad, take-no-prisoners, vow of silence.

ADAM: Prisoners?

CLARISSA: Meaning we’ve collectively heard the last of Nestor and can safely proceed, without distraction, to a deeper understanding of this place and our role in it.

LUDWIG: Yes, it’s a role!

NESTOR: But…

ALL: ( immediately reminding him of his vow and silencing him with extreme prejudice)

Epp!

LUDWIG: A role! Don’t you see?

CLARISSA: Yes, we have to roll with it. You’re right Lud.

LUDWIG: Not saying that life is a certain way and we have to roll with it. Saying that what we call life is in fact a role . One we’re compelled to play despite our distaste for the part solely out of a vague sense of loyalty to an outdated concept that dictates the show must go on.

ADAM: I don’t understand.

LUDWIG: Explain it to him Clarissa.

CLARISSA: I will.

LUDWIG: Nestor and I now take our leave of you three and when we return we return armed with nothing less than a beautifully symmetrical and synergistically symbiotic explanation that will produce primarily anger at our failure to spot its blatant obviousness.

( Ludwig and Nestor leave, Nestor sticking to the vow of silence taken on his behalf. Clarissa and Adam remain seated near each other and apart from Charles. )