Better This Way (2007-23-07)

Better This Way 2007-23-07 (a work in progress by Deliberate Motion) I. [Projected video of PERSEPHONE. Music: CCC w/ Vocals] VOICE Today’s Lesson: The earth is not a chocolate covered cherry Materials: 1 chilled chocolate covered cherry 1 paper towel 1 serrated knife 1 diagram of the earth’s layers Step 1: Spread paper towel and carefully place chilled chocolate covered cherry on it. Do not eat it. Step 2: Using your knife, cut the cherry in half, as neatly as you can. Use a sawing motion to prevent the total collapse of the candy’s shell. Dissecting a chocolate cherry is very messy business, work slowly and carefully. Step 3: You may now eat one half of your candy. Step 4: Examine the Outer Chocolate shell. It is thin and brittle and easy to break like the earth’s crust. Beneath the crust is the mantle, sticky sugary goo that keeps the cherry in place within the crust. Step 5: Examine the cherry. Dive your way through the dense but malleable fruit of the outer core. Beneath this layer is the pit. The hard iron core of the earth. Carve delicately into the pit, because entering it is a dangerous undertaking. Step 6: You may now eat the other half of your chocolate covered cherry Step 7: Next explain in your words, how the Earth is NOT like a chocolate covered cherry and how you know this to be true. HADES Fishing. I cast my line my line into the water. There is a worm at the end of the line, a juicy blind worm, earthworm, called bait. The line and the bait are in the water. Wet. A trout or bass or carp or goldfish or Nemo or some other fish. My bait is still in the water. And the bobber—that’s the red and white ping pong ball type thing attached to the line—it’s still floating. And now… TINA Gorgeous isn’t it? HADES Isn’t what? SHANNON The World. [Walk music begins.] HADES How do you know?

SHANNON How do I know what? HADES You can’t see most of it. SHANNON I can only judge what I see. HADES That’s a fairly dumb answer. SHANNON Well you don’t have to listen to me. HADES If I don’t, will you keep talking anyway? SHANNON Feel free to keep walking. TINA But don’t you at least think it’s gorgeous today? HADES I’m withholding judgment. TINA Why bother? HADES I don’t like to be wrong. TINA Well then I guess you don’t say very much, huh? HADES Well I just know a lot. TINA I bet. HADES Ask me something. SHANNON Why? So you can impress me with your vast knowledge? HADES Well it would just be a shame for someone so beautiful to be so stupid.

TINA You’re an asshole. HADES See? You’re getting smarter already. SHANNON I guess so. HADES So did you ever think about what you can’t see? SHANNON What do you mean? HADES What you can’t see. SHANNON I’m not deaf, thanks. Are you talking about like the thousands of bacteria swarming all around the air and my body, or are you talking about a realm of reality beyond my senses. HADES The latter. TINA So you’re asking me if I think about the things I can’t sense, have no way of sensing, may or may not exist, and have no way of affecting anything I will ever do? HADES More or less. TINA Why would I bother? HADES You have no interest in why things happen? TINA No. HADES Oh. SHANNON As long as my world continues to behave as it does, what do I care if an unseen force is pulling the strings? HADES Well, what if it’s not a benevolent force? What if it’s a sinister one?

SHANNON It’s been pretty good to me so far. HADES Fortunes change. SHANNON And what do you have in mind? HADES What are you doing right now? TINA I’m talking to you. HADES I mean generally. SHANNON Tending to my garden. HADES Oh. SHANNON Why? HADES You know, I thought maybe you’d want to take a walk with me. TINA Okay. HADES And now, a tug. The bobber goes under. I feel a tug. Wow. A tug. I pull and pull and pull, well reel and reel and reel and pull a little. Something’s stuck. Feels stuck. Reel’s stuck. Stuck. So I pull and…unstuck, reel reel reel. Something’s breaking through the surface. Something. Coming up. II. [Music “Righteous” begins. SHANNON sings. TINA and HADES walk/dance.] SHANNON I’m cold. HADES [Steps towards her] Better? [Steps again] Better? SHANNON

I’m cold. HADES Stand here. [Moves SHANNON] I meant here. [Moves TINA.] SHANNON What’s this? HADES It’s your induction. SHANNON Induction into what? HADES Would you mind passing me that tape. TINA Oh sure. Here. HADES No, not the box tape. The painter’s tape. TINA Umm. Here? HADES That’s the aluminum tape. Electrical tape. Masking tape, Packing tape. TINA Isn’t that the same thing as box tape? HADES No, box tape is brown … like a box. Packing tape is clear, for use on things like bubble wrap, or a white box. TINA You’re an idiot. HADES Wait you had it. Just to the left. Yes. Yes. Give it to me. TINA Why should I give you my tape? HADES It’s not your tape. TINA I don’t see you holding it. HADES

Everything here belongs to me, whether I’m holding it or not. SHANNON Not everything. HADES Everything. The tape. Now, whatever you do, don’t move. TINA Okay. [HADES tapes floor. TINA tapes wall.] SHANNON What are you doing? HADES Can’t you see I’m working? SHANNON Looks to me like you’re taping the floor. HADES Well you wouldn’t want it to fall out from under you. SHANNON Then thank you. HADES Don’t thank me. SHANNON Why? Because you are so selfless that you do these things just because. HADES I don’t know. I think I’m a pretty deliberate person actually. I mean really, does anybody do anything just because? SHANNON Why else would I do anything? Because God makes me? HADES What God? TINA Exactly. HADES No, I was asking which God you were talking about. TINA Oh. Well, I was talking about the being above Zeus.

HADES Me? TINA: No. What’s his name … Jesus. HADES Ah. So here’s a question. TINA Shoot. HADES Would you care if you were cut off from it? SHANNON Cut off from what? HADES A higher power. SHANNON Like if I were excommunicated? HADES Like if you lost your faith. SHANNON Well I think I’d have to have faith to be able to lose it. HADES I think you should have faith in me. TINA Oh, really? You? HADES I have a deep faith. TINA Do you ever go to church? HADES No. I don’t. TINA Do you pray often? HADES Certainly not. SHANNON

I don’t want to be the reason for your faith. HADES You’re a smart girl. SHANNON But I suppose you consider yourself a man. HADES I am certainly no man. SHANNON Then what do you consider yourself? HADES Well, what do you think? TINA What do you mean? HADES About the floor. SHANNON Oh it’s very black and shiny. Clean. HADES Thanks. But I was asking about my taping job. SHANNON Oh, um, it looks pretty decent. Not really a square though. HADES I wasn’t really aiming for a square. TINA Well then good for you. You’ve succeeded. HADES It’s a Hexagon. SHANNON Great. HADES Well, I really appreciate this. SHANNON Appreciate what? HADES Binding you.

TINA Who’s binding me? HADES I already have. TINA Why? HADES I don’t want you to go. TINA You don’t want me to what? HADES Get hurt. Get hurt. I don’t want you to get hurt here. So I’ve bound you so that nothing can get in. SHANNON You’ve put me in a box – HADES Hexagon SHANNON Whatever. So I can’t be hurt? TINA But I can’t get out either. HADES I’m afraid that’s the drawback of it. TINA Then how are we going to do anything? HADES I can enter the box. [HADES puts hand on SHANNON’s neck and lowers her to the floor inside the square. Earthquake video and whisper music plays. TINA tapes her way to the microphone.] TINA (microphone) there is an empty face an empty place in my future mine where is the family? too many things going on at once or one long complicated thing why do i complicate things

easier to believe that people love that people care that things matter easier less frightening to believe that community exists what does that mean? stop questioning yourself or don’t stop? i can’t can’t stop it’s impossible why? see no use in it is there use in anything anyway? do you ever think about jumping in front of a car when it passes you or running head first into a wall or jumping or being shot not to die not at all to die but to live to feel alive the thrill of life right before death the feeling of becoming unstuck from the ultimate glue life which is what keeps us stuck more than anything we are stuck with life until we die stuck with being stuck the ultimate act of attempting to become unstuck is to attempt to die but to die—is to become stuck again stuck in death which, come to think of it, is stickier than life is there, after all, any way to become unstuck from death? [HADES rips up the tape trail until he is directly behind TINA. He reaches for her.] SHANNON [shouting] Don’t touch me! />TINA Wake up!

SHANNON I’m in the dream again. TINA Well, wake up!

SHANNON No. I’m at that part – It’s going to happen again and I need to fix it. I can change it this time if I just do it again. TINA Over and over and over and over…. and you think it will be different? SHANNON Maybe if I scream, maybe if I scream…. TINA Wake up! SHANNON I had a dream. There was a man. TINA I remember this one. SHANNON The man had a family.. a wife… TINA A wife and daughter. SHANNON And one day he took them to a ball at an old stone mansion off the coast of Nova Scotia. TINA It was the largest and last extravagant party in the Northern Hemisphere. Thousands of guests were invited, each sent a unique mask. The husband dressed up in a crescent moon mask, the wife wore a stark white shell of a face. The child was given one of those skinny little masks. Like … you know what I’m talking about? SHANNON Like the Lone Ranger mask. TINA Right. SHANNON Or the Hamburgler. TINA Anyway, the family arrived at the mansion and were promptly given three names. The man was dubbed Mr. Winks. The mother was renamed SHANNON The Wraith

TINA Right. And the child was called– SHANNON Hamburgler. No. TINA It is in my dream. SHANNON I should be telling the story. TINA You are telling the story. SHANNON The child’s name was Raccoon Face. So Mr. Winks, The Wraith, and Raccoon Face quickly got separated in the thickening crowd of the main ballroom. However, none seemed to mind until close to three AM when a shriek went up from the main kitchen of the 8th dining hall. It was the Wraith. She was dead. TINA Murdered. SHANNON Brutally. TINA She was repeatedly stabbed in the neck with a sterling melon baller. SHANNON It was very gruesome. TINA Because the melon baller is so blunt. SHANNON Raccoon Face was first on the scene. TINA Stepping out of the shadows from behind some sort of ancient blue and yellow hanging tapestries she rushed over to her dead mother. She began to tilt back her own mask, but was pushed back down by the huge hand of the host. SHANNON Sometimes when I have the dream, the host doesn’t reach her in time. TINA She takes off her mask and the guests tear her to pieces. SHANNON How often do you have the dream?

TINA Often enough. SHANNON It doesn’t matter. TINA It was the Host himself that always impressed me. SHANNON You don’t know that it was a man. TINA You think he was a woman? SHANNON For all we know he could have been a beast. TINA But his voice … SHANNON Was guttural at best. TINA He always wore large black gloves to fit with his rather formal all black attire. SHANNON But the maskTINA Yes, his mask. You never said what happens to the child. SHANNON In my dream you never find out. TINA The Host carries her away. But his mask – SHANNON Yes. TINA It’s a human face. V. [HADES removes SHANNON from the box. Music plays. He lowers her to the floor and begins examining her legs. TINA stretches and strikes sexy poses in the box to get HADES’ attention.] SHANNON

Why are we so strange? HADES I don’t think we’re strange. We’re just interesting. SHANNON I gotta admit, this is kind of boring. HADES I can see that, if you don’t know what’s coming. SHANNON Well … HADES What? SHANNON What’s coming? HADES Secret. SHANNON: Are you going somewhere with this? Why won’t you tell me what’s going to happen? HADES I don’t want to ruin the surprise. SHANNON How long do I have to wait? HADES A little while. SHANNON Can we … can we do stuff in the meantime? HADES Like what? [Music: Piano. SHANNON and HADES breathe and make love in flickering light. TINA watches video of herself in the boat yard.] VI. HADES Arm transplant. SHANNON Excuse me?

HADES I need an arm transplant. I need a new arm. TINA What’s wrong with the one you have now? HADES Thin wrists. SHANNON So? HADES They’re girly. SHANNON It’s true. HADES I don’t think they’ve reached that level yet, though. SHANNON Who? HADES Doctors. TINA They’ve transplanted a hand. HADES I’m not saying the technology’s not there, which it’s not. But we’re even farther away from cosmetic arm transplants, morally speaking. It probably won’t happen in my lifetime. SHANNON Well, then you’ll have to get used to them. HADES I only want one done. SHANNON Why? HADES If I get both done people will think I was born that way. TINA So, isn’t that what you want? HADES

I want people to know the insufferable hardship I lived through. SHANNON You’re an idiot. HADES You know you think I’m funny. TINA Do I? HADES Yes. SHANNON Why are we so strange? HADES Who says we’re strange? SHANNON I don’t know, we just are. HADES I don’t think we’re strange. We’re just interesting. SHANNON Interesting to whom? HADES To each other, I hope. SHANNON Of course you do. HADES Of course I do what? SHANNON You hope I find us interesting. HADES Maybe. But you’re just as pathetic. SHANNON Why is it pathetic? HADES Oh, I don’t know. I suppose it’s not. [HADES flops down in the box like a pouty child.]

TINA (to Shan) Stuck. I’m stuck. SHANNON Tape stuck? TINA Glue stuck maybe, or super glue stuck. SHANNON Quicksand, wet cement. TINA I’m in deep. SHANNON I’m the left foot and you’re the right. TINA If I stay put, we’re running in circles. HADES (interrupting) Do you think it’s fate that we met? TINA No. (Pause.) HADES Then what? TINA I don’t know. Are you asking do I think we’re meant for each other? HADES Kind of. TINA I love you. HADES I know. (Pause.) HADES But do you think we had a choice? SHANNON Of course we did.

HADES I don’t know. It’s like we are what we are because of all our experiences from birth. SHANNON Plus your genes. HADES Right. So your very first experience decides what your second is, and your third, and so on. So we kind of never have a … TINA Do I have food on my cheek? HADES Yes. TINA Where? HADES There. TINA Here? HADES No, uh, farther … (TINA creeps closer to HADES) TINA Here? HADES Not quite. Uhm … TINA Show me. (They kiss.) HADES I kissed you. SHANNON I know. HADES But seriously, you have to do something about that food on your cheek. It’s really not attractive. SHANNON (wiping herself)

Oh. Right. Sorry … Gone? HADES Close enough. HADES But you know what I’m saying? SHANNON About what? HADES Have you been listening to this conversation at all? TINA Yes! Fate. Choice. HADES Well? SHANNON Well what? HADES What do you think about it? SHANNON I honestly don’t care. HADES How could you not care? SHANNON Because we’re together and we’re happy. Why does how matter? HADES If we didn’t have a choice then it’s not special. SHANNON So? HADES If it was meant to happen, then it’s not unique. TINA I don’t care if we’re unique. HADES If we didn’t decide to have the relationship, then we don’t get to decide when it ends. TINA

Kiss me again. HADES Why? [SHANNON seduces HADES into the tape box TINA makes. Both PSEFs seduce/mock-bind HADES. He plays along for awhile before getting fed up and ripping up the tape and storming off.] TINA Kiss me again. HADES Why? SHANNON Do you have to have a reason for everything? HADES I don’t know. We’re just talking. TINA Coward. HADES Fuck you. (Silence.) SHANNON Isn’t that why you hide down here? HADES No. SHANNON Then why? (Pause.) HADES Because this is my home. (Pause.) TINA Maybe I should go home for a while. HADES What are you talking about? SHANNON

You’re not enjoyable to be around right now. HADES Well, I’m not happy. SHANNON Thanks for the tip. HADES You’re just going to abandon me? TINA What do you want me to do? HADES What if I kill myself while you’re gone? TINA You can’t. You live forever. HADES No shit. This is a hypothetical. SHANNON I’d be upset. HADES Would you feel guilty? SHANNON Probably. HADES Then don’t leave. SHANNON If I leave, then it’s just what I was meant to do, right? HADES You’re not meant to leave. SHANNON How do you fucking know? TINA You can’t always have what you want. (Pause.) HADES Do you want anything?

(Silence.) TINA I don’t want you to change for me. (Pause.) HADES I can’t. SHANNON I know. HADES I know you do. I think you’re a liar by the way. SHANNON Took you long enough to figure it out. HADES But it wasn’t what you said that gave it away. TINA No? HADES No. TINA Maybe you know me too well. HADES No.(Pause.) I think you’re a very confused god. SHANNON But I am still a god. HADES So am I. TINA Even without me? HADES Especially. SHANNON Then I should leave for your sake too. HADES You don’t get it.

SHANNON I do get it, though. (Pause.) HADES I’m very aware. (Pause.) HADES Have you already made up your mind? SHANNON Why are you so unhappy? HADES I’m not the only one. But at least I can put it into words. SHANNON Just whisper it to me. HADES I have to go. TINA Why? HADES I’m bleeding. TINA Where? HADES My hands. It doesn’t matter. Just don’t leave. (Pause.) HADES I’ll be back. TINA There was a time before— SHANNON —this moment. TINA One sun, one sky, one road— SHANNON —One voice—

TINA — One road. SHANNON I walked down to the water— TINA — Looked out over the edge. SHANNON I saw something. TINA There was something in that water. SHANNON Look deeperTINA — The divide. SHANNON The me that sees. TINA The water. SHANNON And I dove in. TINA I fell. SHANNON I couldn’t forget— TINA —I didn’t want to remember— SHANNON The divide. TINA The dive. SHANNON There was the water. TINA And the road. SHANNON I wanted the surface.

TINA But I went deeperSHANNON Deeper. I couldn’t face— TINA [overlapping] —That face, that face— SHANNON But it followed me down. TINA The echo. SHANNON Hello? TINA Hello? SHANNON Followed me down. TINA Pulled me back. SHANNON Pull me back. IX. TINA you can’t fall out of love you crawl stretching your hands your arms as far as they can stretch stretching them away every muscle tightening and then going limp to breathe then tightening again stretching reaching each finger breaking pulling away from the shoulder stretching away from yourself from love

grasping for anything that is in front of you anything something that could work it should work you’ve reached so far so hard that it should work but it doesn’t and you can’t explain why except to say that you can’t fall out of love like you fell into it you have to crawl out while being pulled back pulling yourself back [TINA and SHANNON exit from opposite corners. A moment later, HADES reenters. Seeing she has left, he begins slowly pulling up the tape on the floor while video of the two PSEFs plays in the background. He exits, tape trailing behind him as he goes.]