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carlblong
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Posted: Sun Mar 9th, 2008 11:28 pm |
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Hi folks, I'd like to ask a favor of you. I want to submit this piece this week, and I've come across two potential snags.
The first is a minor one -- I've said that Sophie is 11, and Heather is 8, but without knowing any girls that age, I'm not sure if maybe I was off.
Secondly, I worry about the pacing of the piece, mostly toward the end of the last scene.
The play probably runs about 20 minutes or so (5 scenes). I'd really appreciate comments if you have the time, but I understand if you don't.
Thanks! You're all my heroes!
CarlLast edited on Sun Mar 9th, 2008 11:40 pm by carlblong
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carlblong
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Posted: Sun Mar 9th, 2008 11:29 pm |
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Cast of Characters
JERRY: A mathematician around 38.
PAM: His wife, about the same age.
SOPHIE: Their daughter, 11.
HEATHER: Their other daughter, 8.
Scene:
Their dining room. There is one door, which leads to the kitchen, and perhaps another way to the living room, etc.
Time:
Present.
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carlblong
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Posted: Sun Mar 9th, 2008 11:35 pm |
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Scene 1
AT RISE: JERRY sits at the dining room table. It is covered with papers and books. He has been working all night, and is asleep. PAM enters from the kitchen, sees JERRY asleep, and exits again, to return a moment later with a cup of coffee.
PAM: Morning, honey.
(She stirs him.)
I made you some coffee.
JERRY (waking up):Huh? Oh, good morning.
PAM: Have some coffee.
JERRY (sitting upright): Thanks.
PAM: I need you to get the kids while I go shopping.
JERRY: Okay.
(pause)
Where are the kids?
PAM: They spent the night at the Feigenbaums.
JERRY: Okay.
(pause)
Can’t I go shopping?
PAM: No.
JERRY: I like going shopping.
PAM: You buy the wrong things.
JERRY: Like what?
PAM: Like crunchy peanut butter.
JERRY: What’s wrong with crunchy peanut butter?
PAM: Sophie hates it.
JERRY: Well what about Heather?
PAM: She hates it, too.
JERRY: I think crunchy peanut butter is good for the soul.
PAM: Jerry, I bought crunchy peanut butter for you two months ago, and you haven’t touched it. Everyone else in the family likes creamy.
JERRY: I made that one sandwich.
PAM: When?
JERRY: Two, three weeks ago.
PAM: You used creamy, because I was making the kids’ lunches.
JERRY (recollects for a moment): Oh, yeah.
PAM: And if I’m not back from the store, Heather has soccer practice at eleven.
JERRY: At the school?
PAM: At the park.
JERRY: Park.
PAM: Any luck?
JERRY: Maybe. I fell asleep working on manipulating some of the roots, hoping for a chaotic pattern.
(pause)
I lost you, didn’t I?
PAM: I’m sorry.
JERRY: It’s alright.
PAM: I understand the prime number part.
JERRY: At the park, right?
PAM: What?
JERRY: Sophie has practice at the park.
PAM: Heather.
JERRY: Heather. Right.
PAM: And she knows where it is.
JERRY: What time am I supposed to pick them up?
PAM: About fifteen minutes.
JERRY: Okay.
PAM: I need to go to the store now. I’ll try to be back by 10:30 to take Heather to soccer.
JERRY: Alright. But if you’re not back, I’ll to it.
PAM: Good. See you later.
(kisses him on the cheek)
JERRY: Bye, Pam.
PAM: Love you, Jerry.
(She leaves.)
(JERRY looks back at the papers scattered in front of him, then stands up and paces around the room, muttering some prime number sequences – 41,43,47,53,57, for instance. Suddenly, as if he is struck with divine insight, he rushes back to his chair and starts rummaging through his papers, violently, looking for the one piece that will take him to the next level. He finds it! Looking at it, his eyes dim, and he sets the page back on the table. He puts his head in his hands, having lost the battle.)
JERRY: “I understand the prime number part.”
(He looks at his watch, then back at the piece of paper, then turns and leaves to get his daughters.)
END OF SCENE
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carlblong
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Posted: Sun Mar 9th, 2008 11:39 pm |
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Scene 2
AT RISE: JERRY and SOPHIE enter from outside, having just taken HEATHER to soccer practice. JERRY sits down to work.
SOPHIE: Dad?
JERRY: Yeah, Sophie?
SOPHIE: What’cha doing?
JERRY: I’m working, sweetheart.
SOPHIE: I know. But what are you doing?
JERRY: I’m looking for patters in the prime numbers.
SOPHIE: Okay.
JERRY: Don’t you want to go play or something?
SOPHIE: No.
(Pause.)
JERRY: You want to watch me work?
SOPHIE: Yeah.
JERRY: Why?
SOPHIE: I dunno.
JERRY: Okay.
(Pause as JERRY works, scribbling. After a moment, SOPHIE leaves, then re-enters with a can of soda pop.)
JERRY: I thought you left.
SOPHIE: I just went to get a drink.
JERRY: Are you allowed to drink pop?
(SOPHIE nods, and sits next to JERRY again.)
SOPHIE: So what are you doing?
JERRY: I’m looking for patterns in the primes. Do you know what a prime is?
SOPHIE: Of course. It’s any number that can only be divided by one and itself. You taught me that, like, five years ago.
JERRY: Oh. Okay. Then what are the prime numbers between one and ten?
SOPHIE: 1, —
JERRY: 1 doesn’t count.
SOPHIE: Why not?
JERRY: Because it’s a unit.
SOPHIE: So? What’s a unit?
JERRY: It’s any number that if you take the inverse, you still get a number.
SOPHIE: Okay. What’s an inverse?
JERRY: For the real numbers, it’s 1 over that number.
SOPHIE: So 1 over 1 is the inverse of 1?
JERRY: Yes.
SOPHIE: That’s just 1.
JERRY: Right. What’s 1 over 2?
SOPHIE: ½. But ½ is a number.
JERRY: But not a whole number. I’m only looking at whole numbers. Otherwise, there aren’t any primes.
SOPHIE: I see.
(JERRY goes back to work. PAM enters unnoticed with a grocery bag. She stands in the doorway and watches them.)
SOPHIE (takes a slight moment at each number):
So the primes between 1 and 10 are 2, 3, 5, 7, and that’s it?
JERRY: Yeah. So how about between 10 and 20?
(He figures this will take her a moment, and starts working again.)
SOPHIE: Can I have some paper and a pencil?
(After searching briefly, JERRY gives her an unneeded piece of paper and a pencil.)
SOPHIE: Thanks.
(She works for a few moments.)
Okay. 11, 13, 17, and 19.
JERRY: Right. Do you see a pattern anywhere with the primes between 1 and 20?
(SOPHIE writes the first primes down on the paper, and looks for a pattern for a little. JERRY looks at her, rather than going back to his own work.)
SOPHIE: Nope. It looks like almost every other number, but not 9 or 15.
JERRY: Right. It gets stranger. For example, there aren’t any primes between 200 and 210.
SOPHIE: Wow.
JERRY: Nobody has ever been able to discover a pattern that says which numbers are prime and which aren’t.
SOPHIE: Is there one?
JERRY: I’m looking.
SOPHIE: You haven’t found one?
JERRY: Not yet.
SOPHIE: What if there isn’t one?
JERRY: Isn’t a pattern?
SOPHIE: Yeah. What if nobody found one yet because there isn’t one?
JERRY (long pause):
Well, nobody has ever proved there isn’t.
PAM: Sophie, honey, will you help me unload the groceries?
SOPHIE: Sure, Mom.
(SOPHIE and PAM exit. JERRY stares ahead, obviously troubled.)
END OF SCENE
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carlblong
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Posted: Sun Mar 9th, 2008 11:43 pm |
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Scene 3
AT RISE: That night. Black. JERRY enters, turns on a light, and sits down. He hasn’t slept, and he cannot work. He stays there a while before PAM enters.
PAM: You alright?
JERRY: I don’t know.
PAM: What’s the matter?
JERRY: What if there isn’t one?
PAM: Isn’t one what?
JERRY: A pattern.
PAM: Is that what’s troubling you?
JERRY: I’ve been wasting all this time.
PAM: It was really nice that you worked with Sophie today.
JERRY: Okay.
PAM: She adores you, you know.
JERRY: She does?
PAM: Can’t you see that?
JERRY: I dunno. I guess.
PAM: Well, she does. And it really meant a lot to her that you spent some time with her.
JERRY: Yeah.
PAM: Did she understand anything?
JERRY: I guess so.
PAM: What do you mean?
JERRY: I dunno. She picked it up really fast.
PAM: You were doing well.
JERRY: Okay.
(Pause.)
PAM: Don’t let it bother you.
JERRY: How?
PAM: Don’t think about it?
JERRY: I have to.
PAM: She’s eleven years old.
JERRY: That just makes it worse.
PAM: How so?
JERRY: It’d be one thing if one of my colleagues said something like that. Even maybe a graduate student. But she doesn’t know anything! She’s just a kid!
PAM: She’s an extremely bright kid. And she takes after you.
JERRY: Me?
PAM: She certainly doesn’t get this innate understanding of numbers from me.
JERRY: What if she’s right?
PAM: Jerry, you see things that most people can’t see. I look at a page of numbers, all I see are numbers. Heather, too, probably. Sophie sees something else. But you — I don’t even know what you see.
JERRY: I see numbers. They multiply together and form other numbers. Some of those numbers can be reached in different ways. Numbers are related to each other. I could draw you a family tree of the numbers. They have personalities. A 2 is different from a 3 in so many ways. But they’re still related. They’re all related. I see the relationships. I look at, say, 3844, and I see 62 squared. I see so many things, I don’t know everything I see.
PAM: Not many people see all that. Do you think Sophie does?
JERRY: I don’t know.
PAM: I don’t.
JERRY: No?
PAM: I think maybe someday she will. She’ll take after you, and she’ll see 62 squared, or whatever. But not now. She’s young. And bright as she is, she doesn’t have the experience to see things the way you do.
JERRY: Really? You think so?
PAM: Yes. I do.
(Pause.)
Let’s go back to bed.
(JERRY gets up and leaves. PAM turns off the lights behind him and follows.)
END OF SCENE
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carlblong
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Posted: Sun Mar 9th, 2008 11:47 pm |
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Scene 4
AT RISE: The next morning. HEATHER enters in pajamas, sits down at the table and looks at the papers, trying to decipher them. After a moment, she picks up a pencil and starts to draw. PAM enters. HEATHER continues to draw as PAM talks to her.
PAM: Hi honey.
HEATHER: Hi, Mom.
PAM: You’re up early.
HEATHER: Uh-huh.
PAM: What are you doing?
HEATHER: Drawing a picture.
PAM: For Daddy?
HEATHER: Uh-huh.
PAM: What are you drawing?
HEATHER: Dad and me playing soccer.
PAM: Dad doesn’t play soccer.
HEATHER: I know.
PAM: Okay.
HEATHER: He’s kicking the ball.
PAM: I see.
HEATHER: And he gets a goal.
PAM: He does, huh?
HEATHER: Uh-huh.
PAM: Good for him.
HEATHER: Yeah.
PAM: You want something to eat?
HEATHER: Okay.
PAM: Pancakes?
HEATHER: Okay.
(PAM kisses HEATHER on the forehead and goes into the kitchen. JERRY comes in, after having just woken up.)
JERRY: Heather?
HEATHER: Yeah, Dad?
JERRY: What are you doing?
HEATHER: Drawing you a picture.
JERRY: On my papers?
HEATHER: Uh-huh. It’s you playing soccer.
JERRY: That’s my papers.
HEATHER: And you get a goal.
JERRY: You know not to touch my papers! They’re off limits!
HEATHER: But I drew you a picture!
JERRY: You drew right on top of my work!
HEATHER: It’s not that important.
JERRY: Not important?
HEATHER: Dad, it’s just a bunch of stupid numbers!
JERRY (fuming): . . . Just . . . Get out!
HEATHER: God, Dad! Who cares about stupid stuff like that?
(She storms out. PAM enters.)
PAM: What happened?
JERRY: She drew all over my work!
PAM: Jerry.
JERRY: She knows better than that!
PAM: She meant well.
JERRY: Drawing on my papers?
PAM: She was trying to do something nice.
JERRY: How is that nice?
PAM: Jerry.
JERRY: That’s important work!
PAM: Jerry, she didn’t know. She was trying to draw you a picture.
JERRY: How could she not know? What a stupid kid.
PAM: She’s not stupid, Jerry.
JERRY: Yes she is. She’s dumb!
PAM: Jerry, goddamnit! That’s your daughter!
JERRY: What was she thinking? Sophie would know better than that!
PAM: Sophie is three years older. And she had nothing to do with this.
JERRY: I expect that my own daughter would understand that my work is important!
PAM: Heather isn’t perfect!
JERRY: Like 6.
PAM: To hell with 6! Jerry, Heather is a human being. Human beings make mistakes! Get out of your goddamn mathematical paradise and come back to reality for a while. Heather is —
(realizes what she has just said)
I’m sorry, Jerry. I didn’t mean to . . .
(leaves the house)
JERRY: Pam?
(He stands there for a moment. SOPHIE enters.)
SOPHIE: What did you say to her?
JERRY: I don’t know. She just left.
SOPHIE: Who?
JERRY: Mom.
SOPHIE: I’m talking about Heather. She’s in my room crying. What did you say to her?
JERRY: She drew all over my papers.
SOPHIE: So what?
JERRY: That’s my work. It’s very important.
SOPHIE: As important as Heather? As important as me?
JERRY: This math problem is . . . No, of course not, sweetheart. Of course it isn’t.
SOPHIE: Then why did you do that? Why did you have to yell at her?
JERRY: She should have known better. It was a surprise. I lost control for a minute. I’m sorry.
(pause)
Is she okay?
SOPHIE: She’s crying, Dad.
(JERRY doesn’t move.)
SOPHIE: You’re weird, Dad. All of my friends dads are, you know, they do stuff. You just spend all day playing with numbers. They’re more important to you than your own kids.
(she leaves)
END OF SCENE
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carlblong
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Posted: Sun Mar 9th, 2008 11:50 pm |
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Scene 5
AT RISE: JERRY still at the table. PAM enters.
PAM: Jerry.
(no answer)
PAM: Jerry, I need to talk to you.
JERRY: Go away.
PAM: No, Jerry. You need to listen. I love you, Jerry. For so many reasons. One of them is your work; your passion for math. It’s your . . . pleasure dome; your Xanadu. And I understand that you need it, and, to some extent it needs you, too. You’ve always been in that world, Jerry, the world of numbers. I don’t know exactly what you do there. It’s beyond me, I know. But sometimes you can get so lost in it that . . . It’s frustrating, Jerry. I’m sorry what I said before. About reality, I mean. That you’re not in it. I was angry, and the words just came out. And I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it. But it’s frustrating sometimes, to have you so wrapped up in numbers. There’s part of you that I know so well, and, um . . . part of you is always off in Never-Neverland. And I’d like to think I can reach that part of you sometimes. But I’m not perfect, Jerry. I’m not a 6.
JERRY: No.
PAM: That frustrates me, Jerry. That you’re always there. Even when we’re talking alone, on the couch, or lying in bed — wherever — I can tell that part of you is exploring the patterns in the room. I don’t know.
JERRY: I just see them. I don’t mean to —
PAM: I know. I know.
(pause)
When we decided to get married, I knew it was going to be frustrating. That there would be times when I wanted to separate you from the math, that I would want you all for myself. And I knew that I wouldn’t be able to.
JERRY: Pam.
PAM: I knew that my life would be different from . . . I don’t know, anything I had thought about. I didn’t grow up thinking that my husband would be a mathematician, and that it would be like this sometimes, where I would need to pull you back. But Jerry, if I had to choose to marry you again, if I knew then what I knew now, I would make the same choice. I would do it all over. I’m glad to let you have your time with math. When you see something in those numbers, Jerry, it’s magical.
JERRY: Yes.
PAM: It’s very . . . heartwarming, to see you bounce around the world of numbers and patterns. And I knew that there would be some frustrating times, but.
JERRY: I’m sorry.
PAM: Don’t. Not for me. The girls.
JERRY: Sophie and Heather?
PAM: Yes. They love you. They really do.
JERRY: How?
PAM: They look up to you. Sophie wants to be like you, and Heather sees you as this . . . Superman, this guy who can do anything. They adore you. They’re fascinated by you.
JERRY: But Heather drew on my papers.
PAM: She was giving you a present, Jerry. She was sharing something with you, trying to be a part of your life. She has to find other ways of . . . getting to you, being able to spend time with you. She can’t express herself through numbers.
JERRY: And Sophie?
PAM: What about Sophie? She can. Like you can.
JERRY: She put this idea in my head that what I’m looking for doesn’t exist.
PAM: Jerry.
JERRY: What if she’s right?
PAM: Do you know whether she is?
JERRY: No, I don’t.
PAM: Then keep looking. Keep looking, Jerry.
JERRY: Gödel proved that some things can’t be proven. Even if you add another assumption, there’s something else you can’t prove. So you keep adding assumptions, and there’s still things you can’t prove. On to infinity. And what Sophie said, well, what she hinted, was that maybe the primes are like that.
(SOPHIE and HEATHER have appeared at the doorway.)
JERRY (an epiphany): Maybe the primes are like that.
SOPHIE: Dad?
JERRY: Because that’s how we know the primes are infinite anyway. You keep adding one to the set, only to find you need another one — ad infinitum!
SOPHIE: Dad.
JERRY: Yes.
SOPHIE: Heather has something to say.
PAM: Jerry.
JERRY: What is it, honey?
HEATHER: I’m sorry I drew on your math problem.
JERRY: Come here, Heather.
(She goes, and he sits her on his lap.)
JERRY: I’m sorry, too. I didn't mean to yell. Here. Here’s a blank piece of paper. Draw on this.
(PAM takes the earlier picture from the table)
PAM: Sophie, let’s hang this on the fridge.
(SOPHIE and PAM exit. HEATHER stares at her paper, unable to think of anything to draw. JERRY stares at his, his train of thought, too, is gone. They sit in silence for few moments, capable of nothing, and the lights go black.)
THE END
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Mary Alice
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Posted: Mon Mar 10th, 2008 12:46 am |
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I'm liking it as is, gentle and curious. The kids are great.
Mary Alice
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Current time is 07:34 am | |
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