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Graveyard Tale

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Graveyard Tale

Act I: The Fiend Act
Act II: Alone Together
written and performed by Hannah Bonilla, Yuka Matsunami, and Claire Tolentino
directed by Gwethalyn Williams & Chris Gregory
under the influence of Suzan-Lori Parks

The Frankenstein Father As The Monster:
“I condemned the creature and the creature condemned me.”
(rest)
I see by your eagerness, and the wonder and hope which your eyes express, my friend, that you expect to be informed of the secret with which I am acquainted; that cannot be.
(Rest)
“I condemned the creature and the creature condemned me.” Gwhh.
(Rest)
“Black marks, like a morbid necklace, a choker.”
What he gave his victims with his large deformed fingers”
(Rest)
The Creator, a scientist by trade. A wealthy tragedy struck man.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I became myself capable of bestowing animation upon lifeless matter.”
(Applause)
I was smart. A scientist. A doctor. Genius. I collected the instruments of life. I infused the spark of being, I pulled the lever. Flipped the switch. i. i. i. me. Me. Me. Yes. It was i. all me.
(rest)
STEP RIGHT UP!
(Frankenstein Father lays down on table and becomes Monster. A Man enters)
A Man: Are you ready?
(Rest)
Here goes.
(Scientist flips switch.
SOUND: LIGHTNENING
Monster “rises to life”.)
Monster: Mnoah
Scientist: It Lives! My Monster LIVES!
(Rest)
Hmmp
(A Man Exits)
The Frankenstein Father: (Speaks in Mnoah)
A lot of them use that line, Hollywood movies and all. That’s what they think The Creator said on the day of his greatest mistake. They also like to shout, “I’ve done it!”
(rest)
He has been scared since he first finished his experiment, how terrifying his creature looked and that he had to leave him away, but it has been always nightmare and he felt that the creature was chasing him. The creature, well, I could call him the monster, started to look for his creator, just like the nightmare.
(Rest)
“WHEREEEE IIIIIIIIS HEEEEEE?”
(Rest)
However, to the creator’s surprise, all the monster wanted was the bride.
“What would happen if those creatures keep producing more creatures?”
The creator broke his promise. Then, the creature became the perfect scary monster.
(Rest)
“Cursed, Cursed creator”
(Rest)
I once sparked it to life. Mmhmm. A being. A fiend. I could tell you a tale but it’s not my story they pay to see. STEP RIGHT UP.
(B Man Enters and flips switch down. Monster goes limp and is dead on the table)
B Man: Life, give my creation, life!
(Scientist flips switch.
SOUND: lightning
Monster “rises to life”.)
Monster: Mnoah!
B Man: I am a golden god!
(Rest)
Uwww That’s the worst I’ve ever done it.
Frankenstein Father: I think you did well.
B Man: Thank you.
The Frankenstein Father: Will you be back later then?
B Man: Yes.
(B Man exits.)
The Frankenstein Father:
He comes here twice a day, always yells that same thing. He doesn’t observe the famous Hollywood lines or dear Mary Shelley.
(rest)
Step right up and seeee the spark of life bring a lost soul back from the dead. Be mystified by the horrible sight of the living dead. Step right up! Flip the Switch.
(rest)
A man’s gotta make a livin’ somehow. This wretched mess I’m in. How I wish you would listen to my story.
(rest)
I was happy once. Yes. Yes. I was.
I…
STEP RIGHT UP!
(rest)
So
(rest)
I ran.
(pause)
I travel with this now, taking my talents on the road. People will pay to see just about anything unusual, a simple man’s not enough and a man’s gotta make a livin’ somehow. (A Woman enters.)
A Woman: Oh, you’re alive?
Frankenstein father: Only for the moment, if you’ll kindly flip the switch down, I’ll die.
(Scientist flips switch. Monster goes limp on table. He is dead.)
A Woman: Uwww
(Scientist flips switch.
SOUND: lightening
Monster “rises to life”.)
Monster: Mnoah
A Woman: The world is my uterus!
(A Woman Exits)
(rest)
He should have engaged the Creature in “mortal combat.”
(rest)
But, instead, the Creator, ran from the Creature. Perhaps the Creator’s fiancée would have cried out “You’ve created a monster!” One minute warning about his own sad fate-the next dead as his Fiancée.
(Rest)
“Come one come all! Simply flip my switch and defy god himself! Be a master of life! Just pay a penny and become, for a few seconds, the most powerful person in the world!”
(Rest)
Left his family, came back, and he’d created the Creature. Left his family, came back, and a maid was dead. Left his best friend, came back, he was dead. Left his wife, came back, and she was dead.
They comforted him in his ravings, his dead friends. He would then leave them, to go right his wrongs. Once all he loved were dead, the Creator went into the business of entertainment.
(Frankenstein Father lays down on table and becomes Monster. B Woman enters and flips switch down)
B Woman: I’ll give you life!
(B woman flips switch
SOUND: lightening
Monster rises to life)
B Woman: Fiend!
(Rest)
FIEND!
(Rest)
FIEEND!
(Rest)
FIIEENNDD!
The Frankenstein Father: Are you done?
B Woman: Fiend!
(B Woman Exits.)
A little numbness in the pelvic region-not that I’m using it much these days anymore. No, not, too bad.
(Rest)
Not too bad at all.
(Rest)
“He condemned the creature and the creature condemned him.”
(Rest)
The Creator searches for the Creature no longer.
(Rest)
I wonder what the next one will shout.
(Frankenstein Father crawls back in his hole. Lights out,
SOUND: sound of electricity echoes.)

ACT II
ALONE TOGETHER
(graveyard)

SOUND: Lightening storm-thunder.

Elizabeth- hear the storm?
(rest)
Clerval- electricity!
(rest)
e- no, lightening.
(rest)
Monster- will she be pretty?
(rest)
c- she could be.
(rest)
e- I need an arm
(rest)
c- what would he have done?
SOUND: (echo of thunder)
c- almost like god’s flippin’ on a switch.
(rest)
m- you knew him?
(rest)
e- he was my husband, but he was always quittin’ on a whim.
(rest)
c- we traveled together, he was a friend.
(rest)
He quit me too.
(rest)
m- I want her to be pretty.
(rest)
e- why?
(rest)
m- It is necessary for my being.
C - we’re going on a hunt, a hunt. We’re going on a hunt.
All: We’re going on a hunt, a hunt. We’re going on a hunt.
E - Hhhhh.
C - What?
(rest)
E- looks like he already got to this one.
(rest)
m- that must be were my arm came from
(rest)
She can have the other one!
e- I thought you wanted her to look pretty.
(rest)
c- I found a good finger
e- keep looking
(rest)
c- hersay he was making company with a traveling circus
(rest)
e- what do we have so far?
c- we’re only missin’ a foot.
(rest)
m- I want her to have a dainty foot, like you had, before I wrapped my fingers around your neck and gave you that black necklace.
(rest)
e- what necklace?
(rest)
m- the one I gave you
(rest)
c- what’s that bruise from?
(rest)
e- yes, from the hand of a friend.
(rest)
A fiendish friend
(SOUND: echo of lightening/thunder)
e- he’s always quittin’ what he’s startin’
(rest)
c- I found the foot.
(rest)
m- She’ll be my happy revenge
(rest)
e- he was always runnin’ out on what he started.
(rest)
m- is she ready?
(rest)
c- we still ain’t knowin’ how he done it
(SOUND: lightening echo)
(rest)
c- zat him?
(rest)
e- no.
(rest)
m- where is he?
(rest)
e- never know for sure.
(rest)
m- can she be pretty?
(rest)
e- he sent me a letter once, addressed from Edinburgh, said he was running away from his troubles, joined himself a circus, making money off his miseries now.
(rest)
m- where’s he now?
e- never know for sure.
(rest)
c- we went from town to town, country to country. Seems like he was running from something.
(rest)
e- you find that foot?
C- Unhmm, Elizabeth, I found dat foot.
E – He was always trying to do e-ver-y-thing himself.
C- Woah-WOAH!
M- Find something, Clerval?
C- A pretty hand!
E- I thought that we already had a hand, two hands.
C- We do, but this one’s a better hand
(SOUND: Echo of Thunder)
Come one and all, to be the rival of god hisself! Flip the switch only cost you a penny! Come ONE AND ALL!
e- You say something Clerval?
(rest)
E-That’s a nice head you’ve digged up. He’da liked to use that head.
C- I was his best friend.
E- I know.
C- I traveled with him-wherever he wanted.
(Rest)
Laughed with him and cried for him.
E- So did I, I am his wife.
C- I don’t remember that.
M- You were young then.
(Rest)
C- I was young then.
M-Does he always quit the ones he loved?
E- Always quitted the ones he loved? Maybe. He was our friend then, our fiendish friend.
C- He could be somewhere cold. Running thunder through his body. ‘It’s alive! I’ve done it! It’s ALIVE!”
E- Peace Clerval, calm down.
(SOUND: Thunder echo)
There it goes again.
(Rest)
Have we found all the parts?
C-Yep
(Rest)
Just ain’t found him yet.
(Rest)
Come on up! One and all!
E- Quiet Clerval.
C- You hear something?
E- Zit hard to tell, could just be a memory.
C- His memory.
E- No.
C- Oh.
M- I want her to be pretty, I, am so ugly, and never held anything beautiful.
E- I was beautiful
M- Yes you were.
c- Elizabeth Lavenza, whom everybody adored.
(SOUND: Thunder Echo)
C- Is that him?
E- Could be; keep diggin Clerval, he’da kept diggin till the creature was dug.
All – He’da kept diggin’ till the creature was dug. He’da kept diggin’ till the creature was dug.
C- Shit.
M- What? Did you dig something up?
C- No, it was a memory.
(Rest)
E- Of him?
C- Yep of him.
E- Best to put it away, for later.
C- He was our friend, wasn’t he?
E- Yes, back then, he was.
(Rest)
He left me for two whole years; then again on our wedding night. Came back and this time it was me who left him. Dead-as-a-doornail!
C- We got all the parts we need.
(Rest)
Shit.
M- What is it Clerval?
C- Just thinking about the memory. He quitted me and I haven’t seen him since. Hearsay tells us that he’s traveling in a circus. Come one come all!
(Rest)
I hate him.
M- I wandered and wandered alone for so long. His hate, come one come all. Fiend, daemon, creature, monster. Monster. MONSTER! MOOONNNNSTERR!
(Rest)
I hate him, too.
E- I am his wife.
M: found the hand.
E: Dear, we don’t need the hand any more.
C: Last time we found something was three months ago and he could be any kind of place in Europe.
(Rest)
E: It was the horrible, terrified, and scary experiment all over the world and we all were the unhappy victims of the experiment in some way.
(Rest)
M: where is he?
(SOUND: Thunder)
C: is that him?
E: no. we still don’t know where he is now.
M: WHEREEE IIIIIS HEeeeEEEEEEe?
(Rest)
e- time to put her together
(rest)
m- don’t tear her like he did.
(rest)
c- he left me for dead.
(flash of light,
SOUND: echo)