|
once upon a river.pdf Size : 534.137 Kb Type : pdf |
A Play - Once Upon A River
This play is based on a true life event but with artistic licence used to add dramatization.
It can be downloaded and read on most e-readers
CHARACTERS
SELENA 40 years old. Married and divorced young, single until she married Benedict eleven months before. She is an attractive, confident woman, an artist, imaginative, flamboyant, colourful, animated, an extrovert. A non- conformist with a desire to push into taboo areas of life to challenge herself. She shocks many people, feeling they are too stuffy, puritan and judgemental.
BENEDICT 40 years old. Married for the first time to Selena. He is a successful business man with a desire to maintain the status quo. He is sober, serious and conservative with something of a college boy appearance. An intellectual, well spoken and refined, educated in a Catholic boys school he is a puritan, stuffy and judgemental.
ROMANO the maitre de. A handsome 30 year old Spanish man. He speaks English well with a strong accent. Extremely conscientious about his job, he was one of the many of Selena’s lovers, ten years before. He kept in contact and now has returned to this country to claim her as his own.
MUSICIAN plays music in the restaurant throughout the evening.
LADY a diner in the restaurant.
The following make very brief appearances, suggest one female
plays.lady and flower seller, one male plays owner and stripper.
RESTAURANT OWNER 55 years old short, rotund and serious.
FLOWER SELLER
MALE STRIPPER appears as a strip-o-gram for one of the guests.
It is Selena’s birthday and Benedict is taking her to dinner and then on to see a play.
Int. House early evening.
The friendly sitting room come art studio of a smart upmarket house, designer décor. Selena’s paintings hang on the walls, colourful pictures of people and flowers A sideboard stands on the back wall beneath a mirror. Three vases of flowers and birthday cards stand on the sideboard. A painting on an easel stands in the corner covered by a white sheet. A sofa is on the right hand wall, a small round table with a telephone, two books and a handbag stands centre stage. A sound system is against the left wall. The door is on the left which leads to the rest of the house. There is large clock on the wall.
“I’m In The Mood For Love” plays. As the saxophone starts playing Selena walks on stage slipping into her dress. She moves about gracefully, goes to sound system and turns up the music. Crossing to the mirror she fusses with her makeup, tries on two sets of earrings, undecided, she puts them both back on sideboard. She sings along with the chorus, I’m in the Mood For Love, looks down to her shoes, scrunches her face and goes out the left door she came from and returns a moment later in another pair of shoes, walking about the room trying them out. Again she goes to the mirror, fussing with her hair. She stops fussing and peers into the mirror.