Bokeh (audience interactive) ONE ACT - second draft

Released over 2 years ago

	*Avant-garde meta-theatricality. Breaking down the "fourth wall" between performer and audience. From an actors point of view, it's open to total improvisation. The idea is that this is about a recorded image, the photograph, and i like the idea of the audience recording a play about the recorded image, in a tragicomedic sense. Bokeh is an absurdist tragicomedy inspired by Samuel Beckett, Tom Stoppard, Jean Genet and Eugène Ionesco and many others of the Theatre Of The Absurd. It is absurdist in the most experimental sense, a play open to improvisation and audience interaction. Bokeh (pronounced bo-keh) is the aesthetic quality of a blur in a photograph. The play focuses on two men, their ages ranging between late-twenties to early thirties. In the opening scene we discover that they are stuck in a mid-handshake position. They are able to blink and talk and gradually they are able to use their left arms and hands. They discover small mirrors in their suit pockets. This enables them to put a face to the blur (the bokeh) they can see in the corner of their eye. The “bokeh blur” being the audience. These two men do not remember their names at first, but gradually become aware and are able to move certain body parts as the play progresses. They discover that they are in a photograph and they realise they have become sentient within a microsecond. The play itself can be seen as a microcosm and the audience - who are photographing the actors with their eyes every mini-second - can be seen as the macrocosm. Is my play existentialist? I would say so. Both characters don’t know who they are, where they are or where they are going - but they certainly would like to know. A person having an existential “crisis” questions the very foundation of their lives. My two characters are questioning every aspect of their being, they have been born into an alien environment, just as we are born into an alien environment with a clean slate and veil pulled over our eyes. If one of the goals of our lives is to lift that veil then my two characters have the same goal. Cordially, Ben BOKEH ACT ONE The stage is dark. A bright flash momentarily illuminates two men. The stage then becomes totally illuminated. The two men are standing like statuettes mid-handshake. Both are in their late twenties to early thirties. MAN#1 is handsome, youthful looking and is wearing a suit and tie. MAN#2 wears the same but has a more genteel appearance. MAN#1 becomes aware. He blinks for a short while, glaring at MAN#2. MAN#1 Uhhh… excuse me. He clears his throat. MAN#1 Excuse me sir. MAN#2 becomes aware (short pause). MAN#2 Who are you? MAN#1 I can’t move… where are we? MAN#2 I can’t move either. MAN#1 I can’t move a thing. MAN#2 Not even a limb? A pause. MAN#1 Not even a twinge. A pause. MAN#2 Not even a twitch? A pause. MAN#1 Not even a tic. Long pause. MAN#2 Not even a spasm? MAN#1 Not even…a pang They look at each other confusedly and self-conscious. MAN#2 Not even a… stitch? MAN#1 Not even a cramp…or a single ache to be found anywhere… They continue to glare at each other confusedly and self-conscious for a short while. MAN#2 (matter of fact) I can blink. MAN#1 So can I… what is your name? Seeing as we seem to already be in a… solidified handshake salutation. MAN#2 My name is, my name is, my name is… my name is, my name is, my name is, my… name…is…my name is? you know what?… I can’t recall my name. How about you? MAN#1 Well, my name is…(a long think) something. MAN#2 Oh dear. MAN#1 Yes. MAN#2 seems perturbed. MAN#2 Wait…I can see a blur to my right. MAN#1 And… I can see a blur to my left. MAN#2 What ever is this obscurity? I sense presences. Long pause. MAN#1 Where could we possibly be? MAN#2 Well, we don’t seem to be made out of wax or have any kind of…apparitional appearance…yet… it does appear that we are in some kind of… twingeless…twitchyless… inexplicable… realm… of… inexplicable… occurrences.. Of… MAN#1 Calm down, friend. For now… this is too intangible an experience… for us to add any sense or meaning to it. MAN#2 Yes, not a good time for semantics, agreed. MAN#1 All we know, is that we’re in a place where…we can’t recall our names…we can’t twinge or twitch… or pang or stitch…and there is a blur to my left…and a blur to your right… which seems to have a human presence… A pause. MAN#2 I can move my left hand. MAN#1 So you can… MAN#2 What do I do with it? MAN#1 Wave at me. MAN#2 waves at MAN#1 MAN#2 I’m going to point in the direction of the blur to my right. MAN#1 That is impressive. MAN#2 I am going to put my left hand in my pocket. (rummages in his pocket) What’s this? He takes out a small shaving mirror. MAN#1 A mirror. How convenient. MAN#2 looks in the mirror. MAN#2 Oh my… MAN#1 What do you see? MAN#2 I see… people. MAN#1 People? MAN#2 Yes. MAN#1 What are they doing? MAN#2 I see faces…and upper bodies… sitting in seats. Some look amused, one looks like Aleister Crowley… MAN#1 Do they look as perplexed as we do? MAN#2 Well, they… they can…they seem to be able to twinge and twitch and blink… Long pause. MAN#1 And pang, stitch…. MAN#2 Cramp, ache, yes, I’d imagine they have their tendons in usage… MAN#1 I’m too afraid to converse. MAN#2 I can hear them, but we must remain composed… Long pause of the two men glaring at each other confusedly. MAN#1 Anyway, the blur reminds me of something… it reminds me of the blur In photographs… you know… there’s a name for it… I’m sure you know what I mean. MAN#2 Sort of. MAN#1 Doesn’t it look like that to you? MAN#2 Yes…yes it does. MAN#1 starts to move his left arm and hand. MAN#1 Aha, I can move my left hand. MAN#2 Excellent. MAN#1 checks his pocket. He takes out a mirror. MAN#2 Interesting… MAN#1 (looking in the mirror) My god, you are right. People. Faces that can twinge, twitch and blink…and Aleister Crowley… MAN#2 Yes…It’s nice to put a face to a blur isn’t it? MAN#1 It so is. MAN#2 Wow. MAN#1 What? MAN#2 I seem to be able to clench a buttock. MAN#1 Really? Left or right? MAN#2 Right. MAN#1 I see… MAN#2 I have to say… this is a wonderful discovery… MAN#1 What good is a buttock clench going to do in our situation? MAN#2 Well, maybe other parts of our bodies will start to work. MAN#1 Aha! As soon as you said that… I can feel a tingly feeling in my right bum cheek. MAN#2 This is very exciting. Long pause. The two men look at each other with eyebrows raised. MAN#2 I do believe we are being watched right now. MAN#1 I am too afraid to engage with them. MAN#2 Me too. MAN#1 Yes… MAN#1 takes a look in his mirror. MAN#1 I just saw…a flash…coming from the audience… MAN#2 Just one flash? MAN#1 Yes. MAN#2 A camera? MAN#1 Yes. MAN#2 What was it you were saying about photography earlier? Darkness. Then a bright flash illuminates them. They solidify in their position. THE END.

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Sparra recommended Bokeh (audience interactive) ONE ACT - sec... on September 13, 2010

tammysara recommended Bokeh (audience interactive) ONE ACT - sec... on March 30, 2010

Ziggy

RE: Bokeh (audience interactive) ONE ACT ...
Ziggy remarked on March 01, 2010

Thanks robertmeeks. If i can get 2 good actors, a theatre, or atleast the illusion of a theatre, an audience of at least 15-20 people and three dv cameras (one for the audience reactions, two for the actors) i'd shoot my play as an improvised one-take short film. A frame within a frame metatheatre/cinema piece kinda thingy majiggy.

ntheon recommended Bokeh (audience interactive) ONE ACT - sec... on March 01, 2010

robertmeeks

RE: Bokeh (audience interactive) ONE ACT ...
robertmeeks remarked on February 28, 2010

Amazing script..looking fwd to creating something of it, i will let you know if so =]