My First Play — Till Death Do Us In?
This is my first attempt at playwriting!
Venus Cassandra aka Nick Manley
Creative Writing 1
19 November 2007
Your one act play OR your last writing assignment.
One Act Play – Till Death Do Us In?
(The scene takes place in a bustling cafe)
Act 1
{At curtain rise: the stage is filled with people eating and drinking at the cafe. A short time goes by before two people enter. One of them is a very tall woman while the second is a fairly tall woman. They are both dressed in hippieish skirts. They sit down at the nearest table from their entryway. They begin to speak.}
Venus: Quite the busy place in here. Is it really the best place to speak of…well, you know what I am thinking of.
Natasha: No. Care to enlighten me?
(Venus leans over to whisper in her ear.)
Venus: Is it really the best place to speak of getting into tax resistance? You never know who is listening these days.
Natasha: As far as I know, the NSA isn’t staking out every cafe yet. They haven’t been smart enough to decide to put a listening device in every potential meeting place for resistors yet.
(Natasha says the above without whispering.)
Venus: And we can only hope it remains that way. Even if it didn’t, I’d still have the pleasure of knowing I am not paying for it.
Natasha: As would I, and our friends would be able to take delight in it too.
Venus: Indeed. By the way, where are Aster and Victoria? Weren’t they supposed to meet us here?
Natasha: They couldn’t make it but they are quite on board with the idea of tax resistance.
Venus: Good to hear, we may bring the warfare state to its knees yet.
Natasha: Laughs not by ourselves though.
Venus: Of course, of course.
Natasha: Well, I have to get going but ring me if you want.
(The scene shifts to an apartment room where Aster and Victoria are meeting. The apartment room was rented by Victoria and Aster is visiting)
Aster: Would you like to sample this green tea? I’ve had it sent from a very special tea business out of New Zealand.
Victoria: Quite kind of you! I’ll have a spot of it.
(Aster pours a meager amount of tea into a lavishly decorated pink and greenish glass and then hands it to Aster)
Aster: Always wonderful to have good tea around when you’re discussing troubling topics in dreary times.
Victoria: Indeed. Shall we get down to “business” now? It’s getting close to my bedtime
(Aster gives a hearty and deep laugh) Aster: Your such an early bird when it comes to settling down. What will you do when the revolution requires you to be up for nights at a time?
Victoria: Look, I am going to coin a new saying here: it’s not my revolution, if I can’t hit the sack early enough, and you can quote me on that.
(Aster gives a refreshing smile) I’ll have to include it in my future little black book of anarchically inclined statements. But enough talk of future best selling books for now. It’s imperative that we talk about whether or not we’re going to join Venus and Natasha in their tax resistance campaign. That’s part of the strategy for a peaceful taking down of the present system. It’s a good rule of thumb to avoid violence in these types of things when you realistically can.
Victoria: Isn’t that the truth! No need to repeat the bloodthirsty purges of past revolutions. I hope there are no future Lenins among us.
Aster: You always have to watch out for people like that. They’ll stab you in the back faster then you can say viva le revolution.
Victoria: I’ve always dubbed it the changing the guard at the entrance to the concentration camp phenomenon.
Aster: Speaking of which, do we want to disrupt the day of the present guards? By refusing to fork over further cash for continued global mass murder? Plenty of other people are doing it.
(In a clearly tired voice) Victoria: That’s never been a reason for you to do something before. What happened to your arch-individualism?
(Aster gives a big smile) Aster: You know me all too well, Victoria. Sometimes, it’s good to go along with what others are doing when you have a good reason to do so.
Victoria: Well, these are revolutionary times, and it would be wonderful to do something that could help the decay of the Federal regime in Washington accelerate. You do know that the warfare tax resistance movement is still only about 5 to 10 percent of the population, don’t you?
Aster: I hadn’t heard those figures before, but they don’t surprise me. Look, I know they are cracking down left and right, but there must be some kind of struggle that would be effective. The IRS and other assorted agenicies of statist destruction can only process so many cases at a time. And if the going gets too tough, too emotionally shattering, or just futile; we can always pack up and leave. I have tickets for 4 one way trips to New Zealand, so we could always head there.
Victoria: All that exotic flora and fauna…it would certainly be a treat to live there.
Aster: Quite true, but do you want to head there or make a stand?
Victoria: Oh god, I have no clear idea, but I am leaning towards just leaving this godforsaken tyranny.
Aster: Where have your ideals gone? So many people are partipcating in the revolt these days. Why not join them? Why not put more pressure on the system?
Victoria: What type of effect will there be? How can you expect an oligarchy engaged in direct exploitation of nations abroad to care about the loss of 30 million people or so refusing to furnish them with revenue.
Aster: People will be angry enough eventually. They will see how these imperial adventures affect their livelihood at home and lead to the quashing of their liberties. They cannot remain entirely apathetic forever. An egoist tide will wash over them when they realize the destruction is directly affecting them. And having said that, I must return to my household. We shall meet again tomorrow with both Venus and Natasha. I’ll see you at the cafe!
Victoria: Rest well, Aster.
(The scene shifts to the cafe where Venus and Natasha first met. An anxious looking Venus is waiting at a table for the rest of the group to show up. Natasha enters with Victoria and Aster coming in shortly afterwards)
Venus: Welcome! Please order what you would like to drink. The bill is on me.
Natasha: Not much time to talk, I have a meeting to get to around 11:30 A.M. or so.
Aster: As do I and Victoria.
Victoria: I have become an advocate of fleeing rather than trying to do anything to change the current situation here.
Venus: Just yesterday, I discovered my phone line being tapped and would not want to continue either. I feel that a new sense of life has overcome me, so I want to save my own skin, and realize my potential in a safer place.
Natasha: How can you desert our friends when they need you more than ever? How can you leave them here to die at the hands of the American state? We have to try to do something.
Aster: There will still be things we can do to help the rebels here while we live in New Zealand. I will to continue to write about events, and provide my contributions to the development of strategy from afar.
Natasha: Then let us depart tomorrow. I must go off to my meeting of secessionists now.
Natasha | Fiction, LeftLibertarian.org, Personal
