Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Genesis, but after Peter Gabriel (scene 2) DRAFT

ACT I, Scene 2

[Enter Narrator]

NARRATOR: Another fine day finds fabulous fellows frolicking freely in fields of flowers, frivolously fleeing faculty. Fiendish females frown fervently for fool hearty former fiancés who find feckless functions. Or something like that. Alliteration can be hard, and the letter F is fucking  difficult to use.  To spell it out of you, Adam is wandering the garden naming animals.  And he comes across one in particular who may very well change is entire life.

[Enter Serpent. After reaching center stage, he lounges into a chair and begins to sunbathe.]

SERPENT: Oh. My. God. Now this is the life. Just me, a bottle of tanning oil, and an endless paradise.  [Swats at mouse.]  And it's catered.  Alas, poor Yorick, I knew you well, and I'll know you better as you slowly digest.  [Swallows mouse.]  What a wonderful day.  You know what? It's the beginning of time.  I can afford to start cliches. "What could possibly go wrong?"

[Enter Adam with several animals]

ADAM: Now what names should you like to be called.  I have named you a duck, and you shall be the beaver.  [Looks at platypus.] Yeesh! Er... We shall decide on you later, I think.  This will be a cow and you, my furry little friend, you are much like the dog, so you shall have a fun name.  [Scratches cat on the belly and instantly recoils from cat's claws.] And quick like your temper. You will be a cat.

[Adam comes across the Serpent lounging.]

ADAM: Ah, hello my friend.  I do not believe I have had the pleasure of coming across one of you in the Garden so far.

SERPENT: And you'll never meet another like me, sweetheart.  I am one of the kind, absolutely, positively, super duper original me!  So, what you up to, hot stuff?

ADAM: Well, I was asked... I was told by my wonderful, beautiful, perfect wife, Eve to go out and look for a job.  But what rotten luck, nobody is hiring.  So instead, I have come to this glade and decided to name the animals for fun.

SERPENT: Nothing on Netflix?  Been there.  Well, lay it on me, big man.  Hit me with your best shot.  Fire away.  What are you going to call little old me?

ADAM: Hmm... I think I will call you... Snake!

SERPENT: Yuck!  No way, honey. I'm sorry, but I think we can both do better than that.

ADAM: What is wrong with a snake?  I think "snake" is a great name.

SERPENT: Yours truly is a one hundred percent bonafide reptilian hunk.  I never have been and never will be a "snake".  Snake sounds like something that slithers on its belly.  Do you see these sexy, muscular arms?  Check out these legs, baby.  I am no snake!  I do like that hisssss though.  We should keep that.  Let's work on it.  Hisssssssss... Hmm. Sardonyx?  No, too rocky.  Snail?  Definitely not.  Shi... Shar... Shad... Shatner?  Too spacey.  Silky, snippy, spud, stud?

ADAM: Oy vey!  You are truly one very sassy animal, my friend.

SERPENT: You're damn right, I'm a regular Sasquatch!  Wait!  Don't you dare call me a Sasquatch.  In fact, never call anything a Sasquatch.  Or a porcupine for that matter.  Now let's see.  Hissss  Santa?  I don't have claws.  Scalos, Stripple, Satan, Sugar, ah-hah!  I've got it.  Call me Stanley!

ADAM: Stanley?  I like it.  You will now be known as Stanley.  Wait, no, I think I already named a Stanley.  How about just Stan?

SERPENT: It's Stanley or bust, sweetheart.

ADAM: I see we will never reach an accord on this.  Perhaps a different name?  If you are so set on the letter "S", I came up with a good one this morning, but nobody wanted it.  How do you feel about "Serpent"?

SERPENT: Serpent?  Serpent... Ser-Pent.  It rolls off the tongue.  SSsssserpent.  I.  LOVE IT!  I can't wait to tweet about this to everyone.  Selfie time.  Smile!  Oh, this is so going up on my news feed.  I have a name.

ADAM: L'chaim!

SERPENT: You ain't too bad, Adam.  You ever need help with anything, the Serpent is your guy.  Yup, absolutely nothing sinister or foreboding about me.  You need advice, you just ask your old pal, the Serpent.  Well, I've got a long day of sunbathing ahead of me.  Toodles.

[Exeunt Adam and Serpent]

NARRATOR: And so it was written and so I am reading it, word for word, without embellishment of any kind that such a fateful meeting that very day would bring about the end of innocence and everlasting bliss.  Who could have foreseen the events to come?  Certainly not the Serpent with his sinister and foreboding words.  Certainly not Adam who was, according to his wife, a few peas short of a pod.  And certainly not Eve who wasn't even in this scene.

Saturday, April 2, 2016

Genesis, but after Peter Gabriel (scene 1) DRAFT

Dramatis personae

ADAM the first man, considered lazy by his wife, voiced with a Yiddish accent
EVE, Adam's second wife, resents her husband, also voiced with a Yiddish accent
LILITH, Adam's ex-wife, a bit of a snob
SERPENT, really cool, at least he thinks so, loves his limbs to the point of obsession, for some reason Scottish?
GOD, God
NARRATOR, Swears he's reading from the Bible, but I call bullshit


PROLOGUE

NARRATOR: In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth, but it was all very boring so let's skip ahead to the good bit.  A good six days into things, God decided it would be a very smart idea to make people, so He did, and here's account of all the follies to follow, which just goes to show that any idea, no matter how pure in intention, is still really stupid when handled by an incompetent nincompoop.

ACT I, Scene 1

[Enter God, Adam, and Eve into the Garden of Eden]

GOD: Of every tree of the garden though mayest freely eat, but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.

ADAM: What? Can you repeat that? I'm a little hard of hearing.

EVE: He said don't eat the fruit. What are you, verkakte?

ADAM: Eat the fruit, don't eat the fruit, so long as you cook it, why would I eat it?

GOD: [sighs] Thou listen! Henceforth, that tree, the one in the middle of the forest, don't eat from it.  Don't even touch it. Just... Just forget about it, okay?

ADAM: Okay, okay, you don't have to yell. I'm right here. Who does this guy think he is? God or something?

EVE: Of course, he thinks he's God.  He is God!  Where you been, mister high-and-mighty first man?

ADAM: You hear this? This is what I get for wanting a wife. She's ribbing me again.

EVE: Ribbing you?  Ribbing you?  Of course I'm ribbing you.  I'm your rib.

GOD: You know what?  Forget it.  I've been working six days straight here. My overtime is out of control.  As of right now, I'm on vacation.  Do what you want.  Stay away from the tree.  I'll be back in the office on Monday.

[Exit God]

ADAM: What was his problem?

EVE: I don't know, but it was probably your fault.

[Exeunt Adam and Eve]

NARRATOR: And so it came to pass, Adam and Eve set about exploring their new garden home, which was a very up and coming neighborhood that would probably gentrify over the next couple years until market values skyrocketed.  Eviction surely loomed in our couple's future, but for now, these were the halcyon days where Adam was unemployed and Eve nagged and both were happy to be miserable with each other.