Theater Plays. Valentin Krasnogorov

the exit.)

      GIRL. Where are you going?

      HUSBAND. You said, “See you later.”

      GIRL. (Stopping him.) I was talking to myself. I swear, you are crazy.

      HUSBAND. I’m completely normal. Maybe a bit old-fashioned, that’s all.

      GIRL. That is crazy. But we’ve talked enough. Now it’s high time to do something! We live in a time of action. If you’re not always running to keep up, you’ll fall behind.

      HUSBAND. (Anxiously). Who can outdo me?

      GIRL. Anybody! You talk, talk, talk, and meanwhile someone will come and snatch me from under your very nose.

      HUSBAND. (Scared). Will you leave with him?

      GIRL. If someone takes me, I’ll leave. I’m a young, inexperienced girl, I don’t know how to resist.

      HUSBAND. Please – don’t leave!

      GIRL. Well, alright. You said that we have to have some kind of foreplay. Let's play then. Pretend this is not the first time we’ve met, but the second.

      HUSBAND. And then what?

      GIRL. When we meet the second time, we don’t necessarily have to talk. The formalities are over, and we can get right to the main act.

      HUSBAND. No, I can’t do it. Sex is an art, an act of creation …

      GIRL. So let’s procreate!

      HUSBAND. But at least tell me something about yourself first. What’s your name, what are your interests…

      GIRL. I don’t have any interests. I’m a young, inexperienced girl – pure, enthusiastic, and romantic – who is interested only in sex.

      HUSBAND. And nothing else?

      GIRL. What “else” is there? (Thinks.) Maybe, also math.

      HUSBAND. Mathematics?

      GIRL. I once calculated that at any given moment at least ten million people in the world are having sex. Think of that! While we’re talking now and wasting time, at this very moment five million couples pairs all over the world are doing what you and me are not doing. If you laid them all out in a straight line six feet apart – the width of a king-size bed – they would form a chain over five thousand miles long! Can you imagine that? A cosmic process! A factory! It takes my breath away!

      HUSBAND. Mine too.

      GIRL. So let's join them!

      HUSBAND. Right here?

      GIRL. Right here, right now. Hurry! We don’t have much time, you know!

      The HUSBAND hesitantly approaches the Girl, but suddenly shudders and listens in fear.

      HUSBAND. Hush!

      GIRL. (Frightened). What?

      HUSBAND. Somebody’s coming!

      Both listen.

      GIRL. I just knew that this would happen!

      HUSBAND. Hush!

      Both listen. Silence.

      GIRL. There is no one coming. Hurry, let’s do it! Otherwise it will be too late.

      HUSBAND. Maybe later? Not now and not here?

      GIRL. Are you afraid?

      HUSBAND. Aren’t you?

      GIRL. To tell the truth, I am. But you have to take the chance sometime. You have to prove sometime that you have the right to do what you want.

      HUSBAND. Maybe tomorrow?

      GIRL. And tomorrow you won’t be afraid?

      HUSBAND. I’ll never stop being afraid. I’m afraid all the time. I’m afraid to make a mistake. To say sometime wrong. Take the wrong bus. Shake the wrong hand. Take the wrong side. Bet on the wrong horse. Everybody is climbing, climbing, climbing, and I’m afraid I can’t keep up. I don’t have the elbows, claws and teeth to make my way through the jungle. I’m afraid of tomorrow. I’m afraid of next Friday. I wait in fear of next month. I’m afraid I’ll lose my job. I’m afraid I’ll get sick. I’m afraid of women. I’m afraid of old age. I’m afraid to die. And even more afraid to live.

      GIRL. Calm down.

      HUSBAND. And this damn money. Money, money, money! It’s all anyone thinks, talks and cares about. Wives don’t want love from their husbands, just money. That alone is enough to drive you crazy.

      GIRL. Aren’t you afraid to always be afraid?

      HUSBAND. Of course I am. Don’t you see what’s going on all around? Every day is the same, without purpose and without hope. Nothing changes, and if it does change, then it’s only for the worse. We are caught in a net and flop around like fish; we open our mouths to scream, but nothing comes out; nobody hears. We keep running just to stay in place – round and round in the same wheel, in the same cage, today just like yesterday, tomorrow just like today, the day after tomorrow just like always. We struggle to make our way up, up, up. Up the down escalator. All the time we have no time. We want to have time to do everything we want to do, to make all the money we want to have. We reach out, clutch hold and scramble up. We’re almost there, so close, just one more step, just a little more effort – grab it, take it! But there is nothing to grab because you can’t hold on to happiness. That’s how we spend our lives; you can never get those years back. And what is it all for, what for? You want to run away from this life, run as fast as you can. But you just don’t have the strength to do it. You start to get out of breath; you stop, look back and think. You get scared, and then you start running again. So let's run away. There’s no time left!

      GIRL. You think too much. You shouldn’t think. There is no tomorrow. There is only today. Don’t think, OK?

      HUSBAND. You think that we shouldn’t think?

      GIRL. I think we should run away, that’s all.

      HUSBAND. Where to?

      GIRL. The important thing is not where to, but where from. Away from the place that we hate, away from here. Here where nothing is possible, where everything is forbidden, everything has to be by the rules and according to schedule. We’ll escape to a better world, where everyone is free, where nothing is forbidden, where there’s not a ceiling overhead, but a big high blue sky with big white clouds floating by. Where people laugh; where they’re happy, and sing and dance; they’re cheerful and never sick, and nobody tells them how to live or what they have to do.

      HUSBAND. Is there really such a world?

      GIRL. Yes, it exists! It’s a world where no one is afraid, where everybody goes to bed whenever they want to, with whomever they want to; where there is plenty of sun and plenty of sex. Where no one is boss and everyone is happy.

      HUSBAND. And where will we live without money?

      GIRL. Wherever we want! We’ll live on a bench. In the bushes. On a soft green meadow. In a boat. Yes, in a boat! We’ll lie in it, embracing, and it will rock gently and carry us away, always to somewhere new. A brass band will meet us on every pier, and the music will ring out, and they’ll shower us with flowers, and we’ll drift and drift and have sex, and we’ll go so far that nobody will ever find us.

      HUSBAND.… Nobody will ever find us.… OK, let’s do it!.

      GIRL. When?

      HUSBAND. Right now.

      GIRL. Perfect. Wait here for me. I’ll go get a glass of water, take a tranquilizer, and then we’ll be ready to go.

      HUSBAND. Just come right back, otherwise I’ll start thinking again.

      GIRL. And what then?

      HUSBAND. I’ll start having second thoughts and change my mind.

      GIRL. I forbid you to think. You understand? Follow my example.

      HUSBAND. I’ll try.

      GIRL. Sit here, don’t move, don’t do anything and don’t think. I’ll be right back,