Facevalue
A one-act play
By Julia Méndez García
CAST OF CHARACTERS:
OLIVE JONES, 26, abandoned wife.
ARCHIE JONES, 30, Olive’s brother in law.
JOAN THE SECRETARY, 28, Mr. Jones’ secretary.
NARRATOR, any age, any gender, as long as they can read.
SETTING: A park bench, and everywhere else. Everywhere else may or may not be in a blackout. Depends on the situation (but most likely yes).
TIME: Now-ish.
Directing Note:
OLIVE is always wearing sunglasses.
When a line ends with “--” it means that they get interrupted. Rhythm is very important.
SCENE 1
An empty park bench. Night but not yet, not really. NARRATOR enters.
NARRATOR
The streets were dark with the lack of hope of a city who has found itself and then given all it has to the newspapers. Mr. Jones and his boys had eaten through everything. They had left in their bright red cars and had not been seen since. Someone said they saw Jones crossing the border months before, had not been heard from since. And his boys? Vanished alongside the hopes and vegetables of the city. How can you rebuild from dust and chewed up newspapers?
SCENE 2
ARCHIE sits on the bench, reading an old newspaper. It has a date that says something like “3 years ago”.
OLIVE enters. She wears sunglasses. She sits on the bench. She reads a book. She takes her time sitting comfortably on the bench. No position truly works. When she finally settles, she pretends to read but can’t.
OLIVE
Is that a first edition?
ARCHIE
A third, they don’t print firsts anymore.
OLIVE
Don’t you get tired of reading the same news?
ARCHIE
Just because there are no new ones, it doesn’t mean it’s the same every day.
OLIVE
I would get bored.
ARCHIE
No one’s asking you to read.
OLIVE
Good.
ARCHIE
What do you want?
OLIVE
I need to talk to you.
ARCHIE
Okay.
OLIVE
They took it.
ARCHIE
What?
OLIVE
They stole it.
ARCHIE
Have you heard from him?
OLIVE
No.
ARCHIE
And the boys?
OLIVE
No one’s heard anything for months.
ARCHIE
And how are you?
OLIVE
How do you think I am? They left me, all of them.
ARCHIE
What do you need?
OLIVE
Can you help me find it?
ARCHIE
Why would I?
OLIVE
Because they left you too.
I miss him, Archie, I really do.
ARCHIE
I don’t have to help you.
OLIVE
No, you don’t.
ARCHIE
What makes you think I will?
OLIVE
Part of you loves me. It always has.
ARCHIE
You don’t trust me.
OLIVE
I don’t have a choice.
ARCHIE
If we were to find it, how would we… uuuh… reassemble it?
OLIVE
We’ll find a way.
ARCHIE
We better.
Olive?
OLIVE
Yeah?
ARCHIE
When did you realize, it was stolen?
OLIVE
It took a while, it was bit by bit. Almost cell by cell even. Every night I woke up in a cold sweat. At different times, sometimes more than once. 2am, 3:04am, 4:26, 5:12. Everynight it took me a long time to go back to sleep. I never woke up feeling rested. It was like I was sleeping but going somewhere else while I slept. Into a different kind of sleep, a sleep that belonged to someone else. A few nights ago, I woke up and it was gone. It’s been entirely stolen, and I fear I may never find it.