TOWERS (TOWER version the second)

TOWERS is the first revision of TOWER in an attempt to make it less of a complete downer and to incorporate the two other rules set down for the project: 1) use of a mandolin and 2) "future building as a theme." Rule 3 was to use a character who was silent but present, but I nailed that the first time. I love rules!

TOWERS

Scene 1
Lights up. SAMMY, alone on the stage, is looking straight up. He is carrying a sack lunch. There is a distant yelling that gets closer and closer as the lights fade. And then, in darkness, the sound a body makes when it hits the pavement after falling a few miles.

Scene 2
Lights up. Mandolin music starts quietly. There is a broken body face up almost exactly where SAMMY had been standing. The body reaches his hand up to SAMMY. SAMMY is looking down at the body. The mandolin music gets louder and louder. SAMMY bends down to the man and tries to hear what the man is saying but the mandolin music is too loud. Lights fade but music does not.

Scene 3
Lights up. SAMMY is facing the audience as far away from the body as the stage will allow. The mandolin music quiets slowly until it is a soft hum.

MAN 1 enters with a briefcase that he
immediately drops and goes to the body.

MAN 1
Oh my god Oh my god. Hey man. Hey are you alright. Oh god you're not alright. You're not alright. Alright what do I do? Ummmm...hey you you there hey! Call 911. Hey you! Oh shit oh shit.

MAN 1 approaches SAMMY. Mandolin music gets louder.

MAN 1
Hey. Hey! Somebody call someone! Where's that music coming from!

The body reaches his hand up to MAN 1. And MAN 1 leans down to listen to the body.

MAN 1
What? I can barely, what? No I can't...what? Turn that damn music off!

SAMMY closes his eyes and concentrates really hard. The music dims.

SAMMY
In the middle of the street there is a man.

MAN 1
Shhhhhh. He's saying something! Somebody help!

SAMMY
And that man's my father. Who I haven't spoken a word to in thirty-three years.

MAN 1
He's trying to say something. You're his son? Get over here!

SAMMY
And he wants to tell me all that he didn't tell me when he was alive.

MAN 1
He's not dead yet!

SAMMY
But he can't.

MAN 1
Help!

WOMAN 1 enters with a purse from which she has pulled a cellphone.

WOMAN 1
Omigod what happened?

MAN 1
He just fell. He fell from the sky.

WOMAN 1
What?

MAN 1
Just call someone.

WOMAN 1
I'm calling, I'm calling. Jesus Christ Jesus Christ.

SAMMY
He didn't fall from the sky. He fell from his tower.

MAN 1
What? What? I can barely hear you. Sammy. Are you Sammy? Sammy's here. Sammy's here. What? I know. He won't come. Should I make him come?

SAMMY
He fell from his tower.

MAN 1 goes to SAMMY

MAN 1
Hey man, you gotta get over there your dad he's/

MAN 1 grabs SAMMY and the mandolin music bursts so that MAN 1 is blown over. SAMMY tries to help catch him.

SAMMY (shouting over the music)
I'm sorry. When I was seven I swallowed a mandolin. My dad's mandolin.

WOMAN 1
Hello? 911? Yes there is man in the middle of the road.

Mandolin music begins to quiet.

SAMMY
I swallowed it because I thought he loved it more than he loved me.

WOMAN 2 enters with a grocery bag leading CHILD by the hand.

CHILD
Mommy look.

WOMAN 2
Don't look sweety.

CHILD
He's all flat. Did he fall.

WOMAN 2
Sweety I said don't look.

SAMMY
He asked, Sammy where's my mandolin and I lied and said that it had run off with mom. But then mom came home and then the mandolin started to play in my stomach. So he knew I was lying.

WOMAN 1
Yes. In the middle of the road. Where? Where? I don't know where? Where are we?

MAN 1
Corner of 5th and 2nd.

WOMAN 1
At the corner 5th and 2nd. No I'm not hurt. No, nobody is hurt except the guy lying in the middle of the road. No he's not drunk he's dying!

SAMMY
But he wasn't mad. He smiled. But it was a sad smile and that's when I realized that I had eaten my dad's best friend because my dad talked very little because he hated talking. Or he was bad at talking my mom said. He got uncomfortable talking because he was a brick-layer and that was solitary work.

WOMAN 2
He's asking for a Sammy.

MAN 1
That's that guy over there.

WOMAN 2
We should go get him.

MAN 1
No. No.

SAMMY
And after I ate his mandolin, he didn't have anything to do so he started building his tower. He would leave at sunrise and come back late into the night. Mom blamed me. She hated me for a long time. But dad was happy.

WOMAN 1
The ambulance we be here in 3 minutes.

MAN 1
I don't know that he has 3 minutes.

WOMAN 2
He's asking for him.

MAN 1
That Sammy guy won't come over.

WOMAN 2
Well, how do you know if you don't ask him.

MAN 1
I asked him.

WOMAN 2
Well, I'm going to ask him.

SAMMY
He'd say hi to me and pat me on the head on his way up to the bedroom. He would walk straight into the shower leaving a trail of his dirty work clothes. I'd watch him sometimes and sneak out when he was toweling off.

WOMAN 2
Hey your dad's over there and/

SAMMY is taken by surprise and the mandolin music bursts from him. The groceries spill every where. He rushes to help her pick them up apologetically.

SAMMY
I'm sorry. I can't control it. Whenever I'm startled or nervous or sad or...well anything.

CHILD
Mommy? Mommy? Hey mommy.

MAN 1
Hey man cut that out!

WOMAN 1
Hello? Hello are you still there? Yes can you send the police too? Oh they're already coming great. Great. There's a man here...yelling music at people. I don't know...yelling music. I don't know if he is drunk or not? He might be.

SAMMY
And every day I would come here and bring him lunch. My mom would make it and I would carry it down and he would come down and pat my head and grab this sack and go back up again. I would get so nervous I couldn't say anything to him. Just, music.

CHILD
I think he's dying.

WOMAN 2
Get away from him.

WOMAN 1
He is dying.

CHILD
Do something.

WOMAN 2
We have to wait for the ambulance.

CHILD
Why?

MAN 1
Because we don't know the right thing to do.

CHILD
We could ask him.

WOMAN 2
Sweety leave him alone.

SAMMY
Every day for 30 years.

CHILD
Hey mister. What can I do? Huh? Sammy? Oh is that your son? He's real mean. He's yelling at everyone.

SAMMY
I’d meet him at this spot.

CHILD
What? You have to tell him something. Well can you tell me? I don't think he's coming over. I don't know, were you mean to him?

SAMMY
It’s about 3 miles high by this point. He’s a local hero.

CHILD
I’ll write it down if you want.

CHILD writes.

SAMMY
My dad.

CHILD goes to SAMMY and hands him paper. SAMMY reads. He looks down at CHILD and then he concentrates as hard as he has ever concentrated in his life. If the actor can make his nose bleed, that seems to be the current visual cue to indicate concentration. The mandolin music becomes more manageable and then it is just a hum and SAMMY goes to his father and leans down.

END OF PLAY