Characters
- Yoni: Two characters: One lies in bed in a vegetative state, the other (Yoni’s conscious mind) is locked in a cage
- David: Yoni’s friend from the army
- Abigail: David’s wife and Yoni’s nurse
- Assi (Assael): Yoni’s friend from the army
- Malka: Yoni’s mother
- Dor: Son of David and Abigail
Set
In front of the curtain, on the right hand side there is a cage in which Yoni’s conscious is locked, on the left hand side there is a writing table and a chair. On the main stage, on the right hand side we see Yoni’s room in the hospital with Yoni’s bed and behind it a closed window. The left hand side of the stage is the corridor outside Yoni’s room’ with an open window on the left hand side. All Yoni’s monologues are sung by Yoni’s conscious in the cage (it is possible to use a doll for Yoni in the bed, but since vegetable stage is not a static condition it is better that an actor/dancer will portray Yoni in bed).
Prologue – Unknown time after year 2001
(The desk in front of the curtain is lit. David is sitting behind the desk and writes. Then he reads from the paper).
David: “All that was left from you is a black stain on the wall of the toilets, between dirty inscriptions. Tomorrow the wall will be painted and the stain will also disappear. How long have you waited in this stinking cell, hoping that we will notice your absence? When the kitchen sergeant called to notify us that you didn’t arrive for a duty, bitter taste spread in my mouth. I knew”.
(The light on the desk goes down and Yoni’s cage is lit).
Yoni: Mother! Today I thought that I woke up.
I lay in my bed at the army base when I heard two knocks on the door. When I opened the door I couldn’t see anybody. A huge field appeared in front of me, surrounded by green hills and the skies were painted in postcard’s colors.
I saw you waving to me from afar. I recognized you, papa, David, Assi and other guys from the army. You waved and called me to join you.
I couldn’t walk! My legs were stack to the earth. I shouted: “Come here! Help me!” but all in vain, you continued to wave happily.
Suddenly I felt sharp pain in my forehead. A branch popped out of my forehead, blossomed with white almond-tree flowers, and turned into a trunk that covered my whole body, blocking my screams.
You opened picnic tables under my shadowing branches. I screamed and you talked, laughed.
Then I woke up to this reality. In the cage…
(All lights go down)
(During the three first scenes the light is on the room, the corridor and Yoni’s cage)
Scene 1: December 31st 2000, late afternoon
(Malka is in Yoni’s room, talking to Yoni)
Malka: Nearly ten years have passed and nothing has changed. I am punished not you.
(Abigail goes into the corridor with Dor)
Abigail: Dor, wait here, papa will be here soon to pick you up.
Dor: I want to stay for the party.
Abigail: You can’t stay. You are still too young. You have school tomorrow.
Dor: But mom, yesterday you told me that I am a big boy. So why can’t I stay for the party?
Abigail: Because! Talk with you father. I don’t have the time right now.
(Abigail goes into Yoni’s room and kisses with Malka. Dor sits down and plays his game boy).
Malka: Abigail! I don’t like the party idea. Celebrating near Yoni’s bed, it is not adequate
Abigail: Why “not adequate”? It won’t hurt us to have some fun. Forget our daily troubles.
Malka: But why do we have to celebrate here, near Yoni? Something might happen.
Abigail: Will the music wake him up? For ten years we tried everything and nothing happened…
Malka: Something did happen. We almost lost him.
Abigail: Today the situation is different and you know that. Today the celebration is for us. If something occurs it will be for the best.
Yoni: Celebrate under my branches.
Malka: No way! If you do that I’ll…
Abigail: What can you do? Fire me? You already tried to do so, remember? All my substitutes were unable to cope with you… Malka, calm down, everything is going to be ok. Now, go home, dress nicely and be back here before midnight.
Malka: I can’t, it is hard. Every day, waiting here at the bedside, hoping that something will happen, that Yoni will return to me. You have no idea how is it to come back to a lifeless house, to a husband that watches television all day. I am punished not him.
Abigail: Do you think that it is easier for me? David does not help. Sometime I think that he is staying late in work just to avoid seeing us.
(Cellular phone is ringing. Abigail answers and talks with David)
Abigail: Hello
Abigail: Your son is waiting for you here! Nothing will happen if you return once early from work for a change. Tonight is Sylvester eve and we celebrate!
Abigail: Bye
(Hangs up the phone)
Abigail: David, David, What will become of you?
Malka: What do you expect? Couldn’t you see that when you married a guy ten years younger than you?
(Malka understands she said something inappropriate)
Abigail: OK Malka, go home. We will have a blast.
Yoni: Mom, I thought that you would be more understanding. It is easy to cry, listening is hard.
(Malka leaves the stage)
Scene 2: December 31st 2000, just before evening
(Abigail decorates the room)
Abigail: Maybe Malka is right. You were only 21 years old when we got married. A sweet, shy and loving boy.
Since than, everything has changed, even you, Yoni. I remember the time you arrived. I was so excited when I washed you for the first time. Watching the water dripping along the folds of your abdomen muscles. Feeling you hardening to the touch of my hands. Wiping off your golden rear.
Your muscles have dwindled; your pale body is decorated with reddish wounds.
Yoni: Nothing has changed.
Abigail:
Vegetable state, coma
should be moved right and left,
prevent bedsores
Degenerated bodies
I am your delegate
Infusion to your veins
blood tests pass in silence
no complaints
Motionless bodies
I am your savior
Being apathetic
only you do not disguise
superiority to the living
Motionless bodies
I am your queen
Ha! Ha! Ha!
(Abigail continues dancing and singing. David arrives to the corridor, seeing Dor playing he enters the room, surprising Abigail)
David: Abigail! Are you ok?
(Abigail stops dancing)
Abigail: I just loosened up a bit
David: OK. I came to take Dor.
Abigail: David, please wait for a moment.
David: Please, I had a rough day at work. I have no patient for more complaints.
Abigail: I just want everything to be as it used to. That you will come back early from work, that you spend quality time with Dor.
That you will visit me during night shifts.
I don’t understand you any more.
David: You have never understood me. What I want…
Abigail: What?! It is always about what you want! When you wanted to study engineering I had to take another shift.
David: And I cleaned staircases, and sometimes waited tables. For yours and Dor’s sake.
If I could study quietly, and maybe beforehand, travel to the east or to South America.
Abigail: But we traveled to the east!
David: Once for two weeks, once for three. If only could I travel for a year.
Abigail: You never said a thing. Did you expect me to guess?
David: You could have asked. You never ask me, you just do. You got pregnant because you wanted to.
Abigail: It was an accident. You know that.
David: You are right. I’m to be blamed with, as always. I could have worn a condom. I could have decided not to marry you.
Abigail: Right. But you are here, with me and Dor. And I thank you for that. I want your happiness. So, what do you want to do now? Please tell me.
Yoni: What do you really want? I’ve never could understand. I’ve never could figure it out.
(David is reflecting for a moment)
David: I don’t know.
(Silence)
David: Enough! I don’t want to talk about it anymore.
(Silence)
Abigail: OK. Arrive fifteen minutes before midnight. Sylvester eve is tonight. Today we shall celebrate.
(David goes out to the corridor)
David: Come on Dor.
Dor: But I want to stay. I’m a big boy.
David: Come on. There’s no time.
(Dor unwillingly follows David. They leave the stage).
Scene 3: December 31st 2000, 11pm
(The room is decorated and Abigail tries to find a socket to connect the mini-stereo system.
Assi enters the room)
Assi: What is going on? Partying without me.
Abigail and Yoni: Assi!
Abigail: What are you doing here?
Assi: I’ve been a good lad; an early release I’ve got.
Abigail: You are not allowed in here!
Assi: I came to see Yoni.
Abigail: You’ve seen him; now you’d better go away. Please.
(David enters the room)
Assi: Abigail. I missed you too.
David: I’m going out to call security.
Assi: So you are still around, I though you’ll be long gone.
Abigail: David, wait a moment, if the security guys arrive they’ll call the police. Assi, for your own sake, go. We’ll talk some other time. Soon, Malka will arrive. She won’t tolerate your presence; she does not forgive you for trying to disconnect Yoni from the life-saving machines.
Assi: We’ll talk. We’ll talk. You stopped visiting years ago. With David – talk, perhaps he will clear your conscious.
You blamed me in a murder attempt, and left Yoni to suffer.
Abigail: Enough! You betrayed our friendship. I trusted you, I allowed you to watch over Yoni. You disconnected the cables in order to put an end to your agonies.
Assi: I’m leaving. But just before I go, this is the moment I’ve been waiting for, I have a present for you, David.
Do you remember we met in Yoni’s room just after the suicide? You searched for something.
David: The diary! Yoni burnt it.
Assi: I burnt some pages. Do you remember the fuss when all other soldiers ran in order to see Yoni in his glorious moment? I figured out what was going on. I ran to the room, and found the diary hidden deep in the kitbag. I saved it from the military police’s scrabbling hands, protecting us.
David: Us? You were only protecting yourself.
Assi: What about you? Read it yourself, and Abigail, I warmly advise you to read it, too. You may find out, at last, who is under your supervision and who your husband really is.
(Assi gives the diary to David)
Assi: Enjoy.
(Assi leaves, walks out and moves in front of the stage reflecting. David turns over some pages in the diary, reaches a paragraph that Assi has marked and reads loudly.)
David and Yoni:
’So many
minutes, hours
till Friday
I can’t wait
”Do you want
to go out with me this weekend?”
he whispered in my ears during lunch.
a warmth has spread in my cheeks
and everybody laughed
did they guess?
I had fears
maybe he laughs at me
maybe I didn’t understand him
but I accepted
and still am afraid
So many
minutes, hours
till Friday
I can’t wait’
Assi: Yoni:
Since the age of sixteen
I knew
love does not exist
everything that is
are pubs, parties
I thought I thought
you are another fuck that I’ll get disappointed again
you took me by surprise you took me by surprise
Yoni, Assi and David:
So this is love
it doesn’t matter if the day was good
or bad
a warm hug
even hidden
and I’m happy
(Assi leaves the stage; David turns over few more pages)
David: ‘And David…’
(He continues reading quietly, but Abigail snap the diary out of him and reads loudly)
Yoni and Abigail:
And David,
what’s going on with David?
Yesterday he told me
”Yoni, we do not talk
like friends
anymore”
Assi says that he is
jealous of me…
(Malka enters and Abigail quickly hides the diary, Malka notices her strange behavior).
Malka: What is it? What are you hiding there?
Abigail: Nothing, a booklet.
Malka: May I see it?
Abigail: Oh, watch the clock, it is midnight.
(Abigail turns on the radio)
Abigail, David and Malka:
Ten, Nine, Eight, Seven, Six, Five, Four, Three, Two, One
(They clap their hands, the music starts, Abigail kisses with David and then kisses Malka, and she hands everyone a glass of wine)
Abigail: Cheers to the New Year and to us.
Abigail, David and Malka: Cheers.
(Abigail turn on the tape, dances, David and Malka join in)
(All lighting is turned off except for the lighting on the cage)
Yoni: Now, that you have read the diary, you know what happened. Why don’t you let me go out of here?
(Thinks)
However, what do I need you for? Why don’t I try to push the door out?
(Yoni opens the cage door, the lighting follows him, he goes to Assi who appears at the front of the stage and dances with him)
Yoni: I forgive you for you selfishness. I release you. Go find love.
(Yoni moves into the room, approaches David and dances with him)
Yoni: I accept your inability to decide. I release you. Go and be complete with yourself.
(Yoni approaches Malka, and dances with her)
Yoni: I forgive you for you self-pity. I release you. Get a life.
(Yoni approaches Abigail and dances with her)
Yoni: I thank you for your devotion. I release you. Cure your wounds.
(Yoni climbs the open window frame)
Yoni: Freedom and happiness are here. I just need the courage to jump and fly.
(Yoni flies out of the window off of the stage. The stage lighting goes out completely.)
Epilogue: 2001 and onward
(Assi, Abigail and Malka are in front of the curtain, with light on them. David sits behind the writing table. Instead of the cage there is a grave.)
All: Thirty days have passed and you are just a stain in our memory. We are left to deal with ourselves.
Assi: Tomorrow, I will go to the club to find another shag in the backroom. Love is a dream for fools.
(Assi’s light turns off)
Abigail: Accidents, terror attacks, there’s plenty of. Vegetative state, coma, motionless bodies are superior to the living. I’m your savior.
(Abigail’s light turns off)
Malka: For the rest of my life, everyday for me is to remember you till I join you.
(Malka’s light and the light on the grave turn off. David is sitting behind the desk writing and then reading.)
David: “I yearn to see you once more. To hug you warmly and whisper in your ear, I love you. I imagine you blushing, a thing that used to happen to you when you were embarrassed, but gently caressing my back and saying so do I.
We have failed. The black stain on the wall will be covered with paint tomorrow, but the black stain inside my heart will stay till the day I die as a reminder to the price of cowardice.”
(Abigail goes into the room and hugs David)
Abigail: David, come on. Yoni and Assi are already here; we are waiting just for you.
(They go off stage).