Lodestar Quarterly

Issue 4 • Winter 2002 • Featured Writer • Drama

Half-Light Dances

Brian Thorstenson

A beginning: up for the view

A beginning: up for the view

DARYL
My place is near by.
Would you like to come up? For the view?
I can fix us a drink out on the porch.

DEREK
And look at the city? The flickering lights?

DARYL
If you like. The view is impressive.

DEREK
You're very sure of yourself.
Would you like to come up. For the view.

DARYL
Look at me.

DEREK looks at DARYL

You want to come in. I can tell.

DEREK
And look at the city? The flickering lights?

DARYL
I've been watching you. For weeks.
Waiting for the right time. The perfect moment.

DEREK
Would you like to come up. For the view.

DARYL
You can tell me a story. About a first meeting
or a last goodbye
and look at the city, the flickering lights.

DEREK
I've told all my stories too many times.

DARYL
I like a man with an assured voice.
You'd like to come up. For the view.

DEREK
And look at the city? The flickering lights?

pause

DARYL
Well...?

DEREK
I'd like...

A trumpet plays the first bar of "What'll I Do."

Silence.

DARYL
I... I...

DARYL exits.

DIAMOND and DEREK look after DARYL.

DEREK starts to follow DARYL.

DIAMOND
No. I'll go.

DIAMOND exits.

DEREK stares at WINIFRED.

Silence.

WINIFRED
It's Derek, isn't it?

DEREK
Yes.

WINIFRED
There seemed to be some confusion earlier. Or possibly I was confused. Or the situation was confusing.

DEREK
Yes.

WINIFRED
Derek. Good. That much I know. Winifred. I'm Winifred.

DEREK
Winifred.

WINIFRED
Bit old fashioned, my name. Winifred. Wonderfully so though, don't you think?

DEREK
I hadn't thought about it one way or the other.

WINIFRED
Yes, well. Wonderfully old fashioned. From my mother's side of the family. The old fashioned side. Wonderfully old fashioned.

DEREK
That accounts for the shoes. And the handbag.

WINIFRED
I suppose it must.

DEREK
They're really horrible.

WINIFRED
They're not all that bad.

DEREK
They are. Trust me. You should get new ones.

WINIFRED
Such a busy schedule, you know. Never time for shopping.

DEREK
Take a leap, Winifred.

WINIFRED
Notes to edit, books to finish. Lecture tours, meetings, field work.

DEREK
You know what I'm talking about.

WINIFRED
You and I come from very different backgrounds. Very different. I can't see any possible point of connection between the two of us.

DEREK
Oh, but there is Winifred, there is.

DARYL enters. DEREK exits.

DARYL

to DEREK

Where are you going? I thought you were...

to WINIFRED

What did you say?

WINIFRED
Nothing of import.

DARYL
What happened?

WINIFRED
We had a brief conversation. That's all.

DARYL
About what?

WINIFRED
Obtaining the correct name.

DARYL
Derek.

WINIFRED
Yes, I know.

DARYL
So why did you need to ask?

WINIFRED
A point of clarification to dispel a temporary morass of confusion created by your endless beginnings.

DARYL
Be more careful with your note taking.

WINIFRED
Is he a good dancing partner?

DARYL
The best I've ever had.

WINIFRED
And he feels the same? About you?

DARYL
Of course. Why?

WINIFRED
A question, that's all.

DARYL
Any other questions?

WINIFRED
No.

DARYL
Good. We're sticking...

WINIFRED
Wait. This is a day?

DARYL
No.

WINIFRED
Oh, thank god.

DARYL
It's a night.

WINIFRED
Of course. And round and round we go, tramping north from the equator with our native guide till night falls. The muck darkens, the grains of sand pile high in the eternal hour glass, oh...

singing

Sunrise, sunset. Sunrise, sunset...

DARYL
Are you finished?

Lights shift

WINIFRED
Apparently not.

***

Next Page:   A beginning: descent   (page 10 of 13 pages)

All Pages:   See the entire play on one page

Table of Contents:   Half-Light Dances

Brian Thorstenson lives in San Francisco. His first play, Heading South, received a Bay Area Critics Circle Nomination and was part of the 1996 Berkeley Art Centers' performance series. His play Summerland was selected for the 2000 Bay Area Playwrights Festival and the 2000 Z Festival of New Performance, and opened in New York City at Wings Theatre Company. The play is included in the anthology Plays and Playwrights 2002. His poetry has been published in Transfer and Six Thousand Five Hundred. Brian has received writing fellowships from the Djerassi Resident Arts Program and Blue Mountain Center. He currently is a lecturer in playwriting at San Francisco State University and Santa Clara University.

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