WIP Assignment 2: Home is Where the Hearth Is.

​HOME IS WHERE THE HEARTH IS
The stage is empty aside from an elevated fireplace center-stage. A fire glows. It appears to be hovering in the middle of the room. The stage is dimly lit. Various items clutter the floor surrounding the fire. At times, light catches bits and bobs illuminating them. We glimpse the chipped leg of an aging mannequin, a hunting gun that has been in disuse for years, a large framed painting etc. There is a sharp flash of light and in bustles a mysterious figure. Stooped but fast, tall but excessively lean and draped in a large luminescent purple cloak. The luminescent cloak glitters and creates an interesting image when contrasted with the glowing hearth. The figure throws something onto the fire, removes the cloak to reveal a beautiful woman and drapes it on the floor before sitting on it, cross-legged. She addresses the space surrounding her.
BEAUTIFUL WOMAN
(entering)
You may think me rude. Just barging in on you like this. When you were having an intimate moment. But this is a matter of urgency. I was just at the shop and it struck me. It struck me suddenly. I missed you. Yes, you’re big and often changeable but you’ll always be my first one. My first home. 
(She begins to roll around on the floor. Another sharp flash of light and a couple enter. A man and woman. They are wide-eyed. They stare at each other and begin babbling.)
MAN
Who are you?
WOMAN
Eye.
MAN
How did you know? But, not me. You!
WOMAN
I’m eye. What about you? You not I.
MAN
Yes you. I asked you first. But, if you must know, I am eye.
WOMAN
I’m eye. But enough about me. Now how about you, not I?

(BEAUTIFUL WOMAN stops rolling and stands up sharply. Sternly.)

Oh for goodness sake, you have me rolling around like a lunatic. You’re both eyes. The pair of you. You go everywhere together, side by side. But one of you isn’t very reliable and sometimes can be downright dodgy. 
(Both of them blink dramatically.)

I summoned you here because I want to know what you see when you look at my childhood home. I can’t see anything at all. I needed a fresh pair of eyes.
MAN
Well, that’s a bit sad because nobody sees your home as you see it. And if you can’t see anything at all, I think it may be due to some type of trauma.
BEAUTIFUL WOMAN
Maybe, but I don’t really want to talk about that now. If you can’t be specific, please tell me what you see in general.
MAN
(Holds hands with WOMAN)
I see laziness. I see open doors, misplaced cushions, empty jars of nutella with a conspicuous stained spoon wedged into an awkward crevice nearby. 
BEAUTIFUL WOMAN
That’s better. That’s fabulous. What about over there? In the darkness.
(Points.)
MAN
(Quietly)
I see you.
BEAUTIFUL WOMAN
(Matching his tone)
What am I doing?
MAN
It looks like you’re aching.
BEAUTIFUL WOMAN
Why would I be doing that?
MAN
It looks like you’re aching from growth. You ache because you’re growing into the adult you would become and growing out of the adult that you would never be. 
BEAUTIFUL WOMAN
(Hushed)
Why would you say that?
MAN
(Apologetic)
You asked.
BEAUTIFUL WOMAN
No, I did not. I asked what you saw.
MAN
And, I told you.
BEAUTIFUL WOMAN
No, that’s speculation. Eyes are supposed to see things for what they are. They are supposed to observe. Not to speculate. Eyes aren’t emotionally sentient. They don’t empathise.
MAN AND WOMAN
That’s incorrect. People often see things that they would like to and not the things that are actually there. Illusions, hallucinations, lust, intoxication, abstract art, wishful thinking... religion. Call it what you want. There are a number of circumstances where eyes see what they would like to as opposed to what they are presented with. For example when I see you, I see a beautiful woman. But we are your eyes and beauty is in the eye of the biased beholder.
Beat.

You might be really ugly but we just can’t tell. You might look like a diseased boar. You could-
BEAUTIFUL WOMAN
Okay, fine! You think you can see me ache but can you see what I’m actually doing?
WOMAN
You are writing in your diary. That diary that you always carried around. The book that kept the thoughts that you became progressively more afraid to share with others as you aged.
BEAUTIFUL WOMAN
Can you see what I have written?
MAN
“Will I ever love you as much as I loved you when I was tiny and never knew that anybody else existed?”
BEAUTIFUL WOMAN
Who is that addressed to?
MAN AND WOMAN 
To yourself.
BEAUTIFUL WOMAN
OH FOR GOD SAKE!
(BEAUTIFUL WOMAN runs to the area they are discussing and the light follows her. She sees a little girl cradling a bear and kneeling over an extremely worn down notebook. She picks the notebook up, screams and flings it into the fire.)
WOMAN
We all love ourselves most when we are at our least educated. Then books and knowledge fill us with insecurities and self hatred. Maybe we would be better off without any books at all.
BEAUTIFUL WOMAN
I don’t want you looking at me anymore and presenting these judgements. What else is in my home?
WOMAN
There’s a painting of your Grand Uncle Joseph before he went away to the War.
(Spotlight appears on a large framed painting. The painting is of an overweight bearded man, with red cheeks, a white beard and a sideways grin.)
BEAUTIFUL WOMAN
Ah-ha! I knew you were full of crap. Everybody knows that Grand Uncle Joseph was insane. He was always harping on about how he was in the War when he was never even in the army. He was always trying to fill us with false beliefs about his bravery. Sometimes battles he had fought, often sporting events he claims to have won ...towards the end he would even boast of crosswords he had defeated. Defeated very quickly and without an ounce of fear.
MAN
That doesn’t make us full of crap. That makes him full of crap. And maybe you too, because he was your Uncle and, you know, genetics.