An Outside Influence III

Act 31

Setting: A dark room.  The only light is from a small window, and it shines down into the room.  It is a dungeon.  Against the centerstage wall, Paul and Wallace can be barely seen, chained.  There are other prisoners in the room.2

Wallace: (singing)3

Nobody knows4

the trouble I seen.5

Nobody knows my sorrow.6

Nobody knows7

the trouble I seen.8

Nobody knows but-9

Paul: Jesus!  Everybody knows the trouble you’ve seen.  Could you try to be a little more... original?10

Wallace: You mean, make something up?11

Paul: Precisely.12

Wallace: Can’t.13

Paul: And why not?14

Wallace: I haven’t any time.15

Paul: We’ve been siting here for... for a long time.  Odds are we’ll be sitting here for many days to come, so I think it would be safe to say that you do indeed have plenty of time.16

Prisoner 1: Ooh!  Many days you say?  Days, is it?!  More like years.  Decades.17

Paul: Who’s there?18

Prisoner 6: Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed us until now.  We noticed you.19

Paul: Did you speak to us?20

Prisoner 1: Is that all it takes to be noticed?  Well, la dee da!  I should have started yapping to you dolts the minute you entered.  Huh!  Like I’ve got anything to say.21

Prisoner 2: What are you boys in for?22

Wallace: We’re not entirely sure.23

Paul: I think we might have accidentally meddled in the political processes of this regime.24

Prisoner 8: Political processes?  Is that what they call it these days?  I always knew it as murder, mayhem, and chivalry.25

Paul: I think I can say with the utmost impunity that chivalry played no role in our imprisonment.26

Wallace: What are you in for?27

Prisoner 1: I slapped a thane.28

Prisoner 2: I spanked a thane’s wife.29

pause30

Paul: How’s that again?31

Prisoner 2: I don’t like to talk about it.32

beat33

Wallace: It’s no use, Paul.  I can’t think of a thing.  I’m no good at creating, only spreading that which already exists.34

Paul: Forget about it.  It doesn’t matter.  I doubt the growth of individuality in your personality could help us out of this mess.  It looks like this is the end of the line.35

Prisoner 7: Aya, nobody’s ever left this place.  I hope you boys make yourselves comfortable.  I have a feeling you’re going to be here for a long, long time.36

beat37

Wallace: I spy with my little eye... something.... black.38

Paul: A rat.39

Wallace: Damn!  You’re good.  Your turn.40

Paul: I don’t want to play.41

Wallace: But a step forward can not be taken back, and you’ve already started playing.42

Paul: Fine.  I...I spy something beautiful.43

Wallace: Well, really, I’ll bet you say that to all the girls.44

Paul: It’s not you.45

Wallace: Oh.  Well.  It’s the thought that counts.46

Paul: I don’t think that applies here-47

Wallace: Freedom.48

Paul: Eh?49

Wallace: You spy freedom.  Through the window, there.50

Paul: Yes.  I wish we were free... All of us.  But no one is.51

Wallace: Why so?52

Paul: We are all harnessed, can’t you see?  We are the ones who are locked into the upright position and ready for take-off.  Mankind has no free will, we are simply pawns of forces we can not understand.  Blindly, we waltz to a beat we can only faintly hear, our partner barely visible.  We dip, we twirl, we throw, we make eyes with our opposite, but neither dancer sees the other’s face with any clarity.  The devil’s trombone and the angel’s trumpet sing tunes we can only guess the true meaning of.  They create a harmony that both opposes and supports the other, that both weakens and bolsters.  Wallace!  The world is not purely anything.  All of the black and whites that I had once seen so clearly have bled together and become a menagerie grays.53

Wallace: Paul-54

Paul: What is it?55

Wallace: Turn that frown upside down.56

Paul: What did you just say to me?57

Prisoner 1: Good gravy!  Do you even realize half of the crap that’s just been spewed out of your mouth?58

Prisoner 2: It was beautiful.  But disfunctional.  It didn’t have one point.59

Prisoner 3: It had three.  First of all, nobody knows what the fate of the world is.  So what does it matter if we are locked into that destiny?60

Paul: Well, I suppose-61

Prisoner 4: Secondly, you are right in thinking that good and evil support the other.  Without one, we couldn’t have the other.  But that hardly has anything to do with your first point.62

Paul: But-63

Wallace: And last, nothing ever was black and white.  You just couldn’t see the color.  There is a little good in every evil and a little evil in every good.  A Chinese man once told me that.  That has a great deal to do with the second point, but nothing to do with the first.64

Paul: Can’t I express my emotional distress without people analyzing it?  Why can’t I just vent?65

Prisoner 3: What kind of story would this be without themes?66

Paul: A true one.67

Thnder.  Enter the Three Witches.68

Paul: Not these three again.69

First Witch: Hush, good friend!  We come to your aid!70

Second Witch: We seek to free you, and our efforts t’b’repaid.71

Third Witch: We can break through these chains, by mortals made.72

Wallace: Look, ladies, we appreciate the gesture, but we don’t want to be associated with you anymore.  It’s not that we don’t like you, its just that we’re in deep shit.73

Second Witch: We need your assistance once more, its true!74

Third Witch: We need you for something only you can do.75

First Witch: We need your aid!  My name is Sue! (all look at her, she shrugs: “I couldn’t think of anything else”)76

Prisoner 5: I know you three!  You convinced me to protest the feudal system of government!  That’s what landed me in here!77

Prisoner 4: Yeah.  I remember them, too.78

Rest of Prisoners (flurry of unrest): Yeah!  They were there.  I remember that much.  They gave me the idea to challenge the system.  That’s why I’m in here.  I wouldn’t have thought of it without them.  Why are they free and we’re not?79

First Witch: You all shall be set free, if you aid us today.80

Third Witch: We have the keys, we have the way.81

Second Witch: All you have to do is help.  Then you’ll be away.82

pause83

Prisoner 1: Fine I’ll help.  I don’t know about the rest of these bastards, but I want out of here.84

Second Witch: All or none, old fellow.  A part of the plan.85

Third Witch: We will need every single man.86

Prisoner 8: Fine.  I’ll help.87

Prisoner 4: Me, too.88

Prisoner 3: Might as well.89

Prisoner 2: All right, I’m up for it.90

Prisoner 5: Let’s go, ladies.91

Prisoner7: Okay.  I’ll do it.  Just as long as nobody sues.92

Prisoner 6: Well, I’m not going to prevent anybody from being free.  Let’s do it.93

Three Witches (chanting):94

Spirits black from Earth, the womb95

Of life itself, and death’s black tomb,96

Break the binds of these here men,97

That we might break the Crown again.98

Lead us in battle against the Light,99

That bleaches bones and burns out Night.100

Praise the chaos of nature’s law,101

Praise the dischord of tooth and paw.102

The chains instantly fall off of the prisoners, and they slowly stand for the first time in ages.  Many jump and dance.  Paul and Wallace embrace eachother warmly and happily.103

First Witch:104

All right, boys, now bring it in.105

Here are your scripts, now read them well.106

Most have no lines, so its a sin107

To screw them up.  Us three can tell.108

Second Witch:109

Costumes in back, get dressed quick,110

Your names are next to your characters put.111

Our goal is to make the patron sick,112

So, if you’re a spirit, cover th’face in soot.113

Third Witch:114

Hustle, hustle, hustle!  We haven’t time to chat!115

It’s God’s turn to pitch and Nature’s to bat.116

General chaos insues and various characters are running about everywhere.  Eventually, all becomes quiet, and the stage is empty.  Thunder.  The three witches enter.  In the middle, a cauldron boiling.  First witch takes out a script, looks it over briefly with a pair of reading glasses, tosses the book into the cauldron, then starts.117

First Witch: Thirce the brinded cat hath mew’d.118

Second Witch: Thrice and once the hedge-pig whined.119

Third Witch: Harper cries:- ‘Tis time, ‘tis time.120

First Witch:121

Round about the cauldron go;122

In the poison’d entrails throw.-123

Toad, that under cold stone124

Days and nights has thirty-one125

Swelter’d venom sleeping got,126

Boil thou first i’the charmed pot.127

All:128

Double, double toil and trouble;129

Fire, burn; and cauldron bubble.130

Second Witch:131

Fillet of a fenny snake,132

In the cauldron boil and bake;133

Eye of newt, and toe of frog,134

Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,135

Adder’s fork, and blind-worm’s sting,136

Lizard’s leg and howlet’s wing,-137

For a charm of powerful trouble,138

Like a hell-broth, boil and bubble.139

All:140

Double, double toil and trouble;141

Fire, burn; and cauldron bubble.142

Third Witch:143

Scale of dragon; tooth of wolf;144

Witchs’ mummy; maw and gulf145

Of the ravin’d salt-sea shark;146

Root of hemlock digg’d i’the dark;147

Liver of blaspheming Jew;148

Gall of goat; and slips of yew149

Sliver’d in the moon’s eclipse;150

Nose of Turk, and Tartar’s lips;151

Finger of a birth-strangled babe152

Ditch-deliver’d by a drab,-153

Make the gruel thick and slab:154

Add  thereto a taiger’s chaudron,155

For th’ingrediants of our cauldron.156

All:157

Double, double toil and trouble;158

Fire, burn; and cauldron bubble.159

Second Witch:160

Cool it with a baboon’s blood,161

Then our charm is firm and good.162

By the pricking of my thumbs,163

Something wicked this way comes:-164

Open locks,165

Whoever knocks!166

Enter Macbeth167

Macbeth:168

How now, you secret, black and midnight hags!169

What is’t you do?170

All:171

A deed without a name.172

Macbeth:173

I conjure you, by that which you profess,-174

Howe’er you come to know it,- answer me:175

Though you untie the winds, and let them fight176

Against the churches; though the yesty waves177

Confound and swallow navigation up;178

Though bladed corn be lodged, and trees blown downl179

Though castles topple on their warders’ heads;180

Though palaces and pyramids do slope181

Their heads to their foundations; though the treasure182

Of nature’s germens tumble all together,183

Even till destruction sicken,- answer me184

To what I ask you.185

First Witch: Speak.186

Second Witch: Demand.187

Third Witch: We’ll answer.188

First Witch:189

Say, if th’hadst rather hear it from our mouths,190

Or from our masters?191

Macbeth:192

Call ‘em, let me see ‘em.193

First Witch:194

Pour in sow’s blood, that hath eaten195

Her nine farrow; grease that’s sweaten196

From the murderer’s gibbet throw197

Into flame.198

All:199

Come high or low;200

Thyself and office deftly show!201

Thunder.  Paul appears as the First Apparition: an armed head.  He has very little idea what he is doing.202

Macbeth:203

Tell me, thou unknown power,-204

First Witch: (hushes him)205

He knows thy thought.206

Hear his speech, but say thou nought.207

Paul:208

Macbeth!  Macbeth!  Macbeth! beware Macduff;209

Beware the thane of Fife.- (anxiously) Dismiss me:- enough. [descends]210

Macbeth:211

Whate’er thou art, for thy good caution, thanks;212

Whou hast harpt my fear aright:- but one word more,-213

First Witch:214

He will not be commanded: here’s another,215

More potent than the first.216

Thunder.  Enter Wallace, as the Second Apparition: a bloody child.217

Wallace:218

Macbeth!  Macbeth!  Macbeth!-219

Macbeth:220

Had I three ears, I’d hear thee.221

Wallace:222

Be bloody, bold, and resolute; laugh to scorn223

The power of man, for none of woman born224

Shall harm Macbeth.  [descends]225

Macbeth:226

Then live, Macduff: what need I fear thee?227

But yet I’ll make asssurance double sure,228

And take a bond of fate: thou shalt not live;229

That I may tell pale-hearted fear it lies,230

And I sleep in spite of thunder.231

Thunder, Macbeth jumps.  Enter Paul as Third Apparition: a child crown’d with a tree in his hand.232

Macbeth:233

What is this,234

That rises like the issue of a king,235

And wears upon his baby-brow the round236

And top of sovereignty?237

All:238

Listen, but speak not to ’t.239

Paul:240

Be lion-mettled, proud; and take no care241

Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are:242

Macbeth shall never vanquisht be, until243

Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill244

Shall come against him. [descends]245

Macbeth:246

That will never be:247

Who can impress the forst; bid the tree248

Unfix his earth-bound root?  Sweet bodements! good!249

Rebellion’s head, rise never, till the wood250

Of Birnam rise, and our high-placed Macbeth251

Shall live the lease of nature, pay his breath252

To time and mortal custom. -Yet my heart253

Throbs to know one thing: tell me,- if your art254

Can tell so much, -shall Banquo’s issue ever255

Reign in this kingdom.256

All (including prisoners, who peek out their heads from the wings):257

Seek to know no more.258

Macbeth:259

I’ll be satisfied: deny me this,260

and an eternal curse fall upon you!  Let me know:- (the cauldron begins to sink)261

Why sinks that cauldron? and what noise is this? [hautboys]262

First Witch: Show!263

Second Witch: Show!264

Third Witch: Show!265

All:266

Show his eyes, and grieve his heart;267

Come like shadows, and so depart!268

The eight prisoners enter from offstage, wearing kingly garb.  Each looks very much like the other.  The last holds a glass in his hand.  Banquo’s ghost follows.269

Macbeth:270

Thou art too like the spirit of Banquo; down!271

Thy crown does sear mine eyeballs: -and thy hair,272

Thou other gold-bound brow, is like the first:-273

A third is like the former.  -Filthy hags!274

Why do you show me this? -A fourth? -Start, eyes!-275

What, will the line stretch out to th’crack of doom?-276

Another yet? -A seventh? -I’ll see no more:-277

And yet the eight appears, who bears a glass,278

Which shows me many more; and some I see279

That twofold balls and treble sceptres carry:280

Horrible sight! -Now I see ‘tis true;281

For the blood-bolter’d Banquo smiles upon me,282

And points at them for his. -What, is this so?283

First Witch:284

Ay, sir, all this is so: -but why285

Stands Macbeth thus amazedly?-286

Come, sisters, cheer we up his sprites,287

And show the best of our delights:288

I’ll charm the air to give a sound,289

While you perform your antic round;290

That this great king may kindly say291

Our duties did his welcome pay.292

Music.  The witches dance about Macbeth, then vanish, along with all of the apparitions.293

Macbeth:294

Where are they? Gone? -Let this pernicious hour295

Stand aye accursed in this calendar!-296

Come in, without there!297

Macbeth exits, opposite where he entered.  Silence permeates the stage.  Paul and Wallace peek their heads from the wings, Paul’s head above Wallace’s.  The sigh and enter freely.298

Paul: Will we ever understand what the purpose of our presence is?299

Wallace: I thought that we decided that.300

Paul: It’s quickly becoming apparent to me that we are not.301

Wallace: So now what?302

Paul: We move forward.303

Wallace: Why?304

Paul: What do you mean, why?305

Wallace: We always move forward.306

Paul: So?307

Wallace: Haven’t you realized?  Ever since we can remember, we’ve moved forward.  Along the path, through this wayward land, everywhere.  But where has it gotten us?  We’ve expirienced murder, violence, mayhem, chaos!  What good is moving forward if we don’t go anywhere worth being?308

Paul: What are you trying to say?309

Wallace: Sometimes you have to move backward to get where you want to go.  Sometimes the way forward is simultaneously the way back.  We are not infalliable.  We are not perfect.  Our feet do not always take us where we want to go.  Our first instinct does not always coincide with what is right and what is good.  We have to get back to the path.  Everything will be clear then.310

beat311

Paul: But we don’t know where it is.312

Wallace: All we have to do is walk back to where we came from.  Out of the dungeon, away from the castle, through the battlefield, and then we will find our way back.313

Paul: You make it sound so simple.314

Wallace: It just might be.315

pause316

Paul: Well, let’s get going.  Shall we have a drink first?317

Wallace: (brings out the old martini kit)  Sure.  I have everything right here.318

Wallace hands Paul the ingrediants to the martini to add to the shaker.  He shakes it, pours it into two glasses.  Wallace adds the olives.  They drink.319

Paul: This might be the begining of a beautiful friendship.320

Wallace: I’ll say.321

Thunder.  Enter the Three Witches, in a hurry, carrying the cauldron.322

Paul: Look who it is.323

Wallace: I got just the thing for them.324

Wallace sticks out his foot and trips the witches.  Their cauldron spills all over the place, including the script.  The witches give them a dirty look, but hurry along, and exit.  Paul and Wallace high-five eachother.  Then, enters Sergeant.325

Paul: Uh oh.326

Sergeant: I just can’t keep you two from causing trouble, can I?  I try to split you, but you stay together.  I jail you, but you escape and assist in a seditious plot.  There’s only one solution left.327

Enter Duncan, the two dead attendants, Lady Macbeth, and Banquo.328

Sergeant: Sieze them!329

Paul: What?  But we were just about to leave.330

Sergeant: I’m afraid your plans must be forstalled.  Eternally.  Justice must be upheld.  You understand.331

Wallace: No, we don’t!  We never have!332

Sergeant: Well, isn’t that a shame.  Bring out the nooses.333

Nooses are brought out to the upper portion of center stage, and Paul and Wallace are fitted.334

Wallace: No!  We don’t deserve this!  What’s our crime?335

Sergeant: Haven’t I already told you?  You meddled where you shouldn’t have.  This is the ultimate punishment.  I would advise you to make your peace with your deity, if you have one, right about now.  You have, oh, say, thirty seconds.336

Paul and Wallace kneel.  Time seems to stand still.337

Sergeant: All right, time’s up!338

Paul: That wasn’t thirty seconds!339

Sergeant: We’re running low on time.  (they string up Paul and Wallace) We’ve got to keep busy, you know!  Let them have it!340

The two are dropped from the upper part of center stage, hung.  The lights go low.  Make the audience think the play’s over without turning on the house lights.  Spot light on Paul.341

Paul: A number of things went wrong recently.  Number one, we lost the path.  Number two, we didn’t go back to find it.  Number three, we were hanged.  I think I might have been the problem in all of those things.  I just might have been the cause of all of our dischord.  Wallace just did what I told him to.  Most of the time.  Looking back, I was just so... stupid.  Why I thought the things that I did, I’ll never know.  Maybe, after a certain amount of time, I’ll be able to figure it all out.  All I need is time.  And I think, for once, I’ve got plenty of it.342

Spot light dims on Paul and opens on Wallace.343

Wallace: You might say that things didn’t turn out all right for me, in the end.  But I did get to see a beautiful country, although I never did find the name of it.  I got to wrestle with Paul, and that was quite fun.  It’s funny: we were on the brink, on the very precipice of change, and then our past crimes took hold of us and dragged us under.  If only we had known from the start what would happen.  But we couldn’t have, could we?  We didn’t have the knowledge.  It’s too bad really, but now everything is nice and quiet.  Lots of time for reflection.  One question, though: what happens next?344

The lights dim on the stage and all exit, both left and right, both up and down stage.  The script is left on stage.  Enter William Shakespeare, from downstage left.345

William Shakespeare: Where am I?  Hmmm.  I don’t remember this place.  Is anybody here?  No?  Well, it’s better like that.  I can’t think with people around.  And boy, do I have to think.  I have to find a new idea for a play.  Oh, all those comedies were fun to write, but I really love tragedies.    Othello really got the blood flowing.  There’s nothing in the whole world like writing a blood, love and rhetoric piece.  And it’s so much easier to make people cry than to laugh! (he sits down center stage and finds the script)  Hello, what’s this?  “The demise of Macbeth, king of Scotland.”  I’ve never heard of this one before.  Maybe its one of Marlow’s...  Hmm.  It’s well written.  Ooh!  That’s good.  Very good.  I like it.  I like it a lot!  (he looks at the cover, looks cautiously around the stage, then bolts offstage)346

Lights out347

Fin348