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A pdf copy of the play can be downloaded for reading purposes only. Please do not distribute or perform without my authority. I trust you. DOWNLOAD
A 20 minute conversation piece for one female and one male. The play also exists in a five minute version and a ten minute version. These have been produced at Stagecraft Theatre and Corner Theatre.
DON: Husband of Jan.
JAN: Wife of Don.
SCENE: A lounge or other suitable location at night.
SET: A minimum set would be two sitting appurtenances, one for each character.
There should be no black-outs during the course of the presentation. Where the word SILENCE appears in the script there should be a substantial SILENCE during which the actors do not move about the stage, although they may move about either before or after the SILENCE (which is possibly the best place to.) It is up to the director to define appropriate moves and lighting plot.
The astronomical details are accurate.
A happily married couple sit in their lounge at night looking at the stars and talking about their life. Nothing much happens.
DON IS SITTING IN A LOUNGE CHAIR READING A NEWSPAPER, BOOK OR MAGAZINE. JAN IS LOOKING FROM THE WINDOW.
SILENCE
DON: (LOOKS UP) Is there something exciting happening outside?
JAN: (TURNS BACK) Exciting? No.
DON: I'm not missing a fireworks display am I?
JAN: No. It's just the night. It's very dark.
DON: Quite clear and still is it?
JAN: Yes. (PAUSE) I've been watching a star. It's been moving.
DON: Moving?
JAN: There's a twig that makes a V with a branch of the magnolia tree. The star has moved from one side of the V to the other. Now it's behind the branch. I didn't know that stars moved. I thought they were fixed in the sky.
DON: Stars don't move. It is the Earth that moves.
JAN: Really?
DON: The stars and the sun appear to move, but in reality it is the Earth that moves. It rotates on it's axis.
JAN: How did you know that?
DON: I read it. In a book on astronomy.
JAN: Do you think there would be people there?
DON: People? Where?
JAN: On the star.
DON: You couldn't have people living on a star. A star is like the sun. Anybody living on the surface of a star would be instantly vapourised. The temperature is over five thousand degrees. It is even hotter at the centre.
JAN: Five thousand degrees? Fahrenheit or Centigrade?
DON: I can't remember.
JAN: Surely the stars are smaller than our sun.
DON: No. Some of them are smaller, but some of them are much larger. The radius of some stars extends as far as from the sun to the earth.
JAN: But they look smaller.
DON: That is because they are a long way away.
JAN: And a star is like our sun?
DON: A star is just a ball of incandescent gas. If you flew a spacecraft at one it would fly right through.
JAN: I thought you said it would be vapourised.
DON: I am assuming the spacecraft would be resistant to heat. (PAUSE) There are many types of stars. The types are given the letters O,B,A,F,G,K,M,N and S. Our sun is a type G star.
JAN: How could you possibly remember that series of letters?
DON: Because of the phrase: "Oh Be A Fine Girl, Kiss Me Now. Smack!".
JAN: Scientists are childish. If stars were suns they could have planets around them couldn't they, like our Earth goes around our Sun?
DON: I don't know.
JAN: Didn't your astronomy book tell you about other planets?
DON: I don't think the scientists have seen any planets around other stars. The telescopes aren't large enough.
JAN: But they could be there, even though they can't be seen.
DON: Possibly.
SILENCE
JAN: I think that star was shining the night we first met.
DON: I'm sure it was. Stars never go out.
JAN: You aren't in a very romantic mood tonight.
DON: No. I'm in a scientific mood.
SILENCE
JAN: I'm sure I saw it shining, in the sky. I remember, I asked the taxi to stop at the gate, because the night was so still and warm. I walked up the drive to the house. I remember the friendly feeling of growing things all around. I could smell the earth and the plants. I knew that Marjory grew roses, but I could not smell them. Wasn't it you that told me that the aroma of roses is most redolent when the sun is on them?
DON: I think it was.