[ ]

by

Jue Yang

ACT ONE

Scene 1

Herman and Olga walk together silently until they start an argument.

HERMAN

You seem pissed.

OLGA

By what?

HERMAN

I don’t know. I am just sharing my observation.

OLGA

Your observation or your opinion?

HERMAN

Now I think you are pissed.

OLGA

You think. So you agree that was an opinion.

HERMAN

Sur… Why does this matter? I just…

Olga interrupts Herman silently.

HERMAN

Never mind. You are being weird.

OLGA

I am weird.

HERMAN

What’s wrong?

OLGA

Nothing.

HERMAN

What’s wrong?

Not getting an answer, Herman looks up.

We are here.

OLGA

No, we are not.

HERMAN

What’s the matter with you? Why do you have to disagree with everything I say?

OLGA

Oh now I lose my freedom of expression?

HERMAN

No. It’s not about your freedom. I am not talking about your freedom.

OLGA

Good. Because I care a lot about it.

HERMAN

I don’t understand.

OLGA

What don’t you understand?

HERMAN

Why are you upset?

OLGA

I have the right to have emotions.

HERMAN

But why? I am asking for the cause, not questioning your action. Or emotion, whatever.

OLGA

Can you stop prodding me for one second?

HERMAN

I am tired.

OLGA

I am tired.

HERMAN

What?

OLGA

Nothing.

HERMAN

Why don’t you just say it?

OLGA

Stop.

HERMAN

No. Say it.

They enter a room with a grand piano.

HERMAN

You’re afraid.

OLGA

The concert is starting. Can we talk about this, or anything, later?

HERMAN

You are afraid.

Olga doesn’t respond. A female pianist comes on stage. She is affectionate, happy to see Herman. Pianist sits on the piano chair.

HERMAN

to Olga

I love you.

Pianist gives Herman a look, then plays the piano for an entire four minutes. Herman and Olga sit still. With unease soft as the whistle of a rock and blinding as the bedside lamp at midnight, they start to dance.

Remorse spreading across the pounding heart, Herman stops and watches Olga move by herself.

He was once a believer.

Olga comes back. They dance together, only this time Herman knows that he has lied - to himself and so many times.

He has forgotten the truth, which now comes back like a slashing rain. Truth is not something stagnant, unchanging.

But to Olga, such distinction between truth and change and lie does not exist.

Pianist finishes, walks up to Herman. Away from Olga, they enter a different space.

PIANIST

Well. Do you want to hear the answer?

HERMAN

I do. I do except that… It doesn’t matter anymore.

PIANIST

Are you sure?

HERMAN

Am I sure… Of what?

PIANIST

You know. What you just said. Of being in love. Or rather, of being in the state of…

HERMAN

interrupts

…love. Yes. I am sure - it doens’t matter anymore.

PIANIST

That’s unfortunate.

HERMAN

Well.

PIANIST

Why did you say it then? Why did you say it to her?

HERMAN

I thought I would feel better.

PIANIST

And you called that love?

fishes in her pocket

Want some chocolate?

HERMAN

Sure. I…

Herman makes attempts to explain, but Pianist stops him by playing a note on the piano every time he tries to do so. Finally, Herman gives up. Pianist and Herman eat chocolate in silence until Pianist starts a poem.

PIANIST

Little by little, and also in great leaps,

life happened to me,

and how insignificant this business is.

These veins carried

my blood, which I scarcely ever saw,

I breathed the air of so many places

without keeping a sample of any.

In the end, everyone is aware of this:

nobody keeps any of what he has…

Herman, knowing this line, joins Pianist.

HERMAN & PIANIST

…and life is only a borrowing of bones.

HERMAN

I’m not happy.

PIANIST

Of course you’re not.

HERMAN

I was afraid of a broken heart.

PIANIST

Answer me this. Do you love her?

HERMAN

…I did.

PIANIST

You did.

HERMAN

points at the chocolate

Can I have another?

PIANIST

Last one.

HERMAN

I wanted to keep what I had. Not to watch them fade. Vaporize. Disintegrate.

PIANIST

Are you keeping any of it, at all?

Pianist says as she goes back to the piano chair. Herman walks back to Olga.

Olga

to Herman

Oh. I…

Pianist starts to play another piece. Herman and Olga dance.

Burdened by the waves of words, Olga stops and watches Herman move by himself.

She is reminded of the ocean, from which she has always kept a distance. It is too beautiful and fierce that she cannot imagine an encounter without surrender. She’d like to think that the two entities, the ocean and herself, admire and bypass each other.

Herman comes back. They dance together, only this time Olga knows that she would never be able to utter a word to the ocean - the response would swallow her, too loud and too deep.

Music stops abruptly with a violent separation of the two.

OLGA

I can’t.

HERMAN

You…can’t.

gets up

You can’t?

OLGA

What are you doing?

HERMAN

YOU CAN’T.

OLGA

Stop being such a child.

HERMAN

I am a child? You are a coward.

Pianist looks at them. The ocean washes over them. People murmur.

“You are disrupting the concert, sir,” says a voice from afar.

OLGA

You ruined it.

HERMAN

I need to leave.

Herman walks out. Murmur submerges. Pianist resumes playing by starting the last piece from the beginning.

Olga dances alone.

She thought she would get to keep the blueness, at least, like a silent stone rounded by the flipping of a book. But there is nothing blue, or green, or black, anymore. There is no longer the smell of the slightly salted wind. There is no wind.

She sits again. Herman comes back and sits next to her.

Pianist finishes, pauses.

OLGA

I don’t want to hurt you.

HERMAN

I want to know.

OLGA

I was waiting.

HERMAN

I was waiting.

OLGA & HERMAN

For you to say -

OLGA | HERMAN

no | yes

OLGA

I am sorry.

Music starts. Pianist leaves the piano and joins their dance. One by one, they leave the stage. First Olga, then Pianist. Herman remains on the stage.

HERMAN

I am sorry.