UNCLOTHED BATTLEFIELD
Copyright © 2010 by Rachel McKay
CHARACTERS
MARIANNE JONES – 19, a college student
PETER ROTH – 21, an army recruiting officer
JIM CAVEWALL – 26, underground leader
ANDREW CLEARLY – 28, underground leader
SGT. DASH – 30, commanding officer (offstage, voiced by ANDREW)
TIME May 1970, Night
PLACE A motel room near an army recruitment center, Anywhere, USA
(At rise, we see a slightly darkened motel room. The room is empty and typical of a low-budget, middle American roadside motel: bed, television, bad paintings. There is a light streaking straight across from a window on one side of the room. A sound is heard of jangling keys and a struggle with the door. A man and woman enter the room, the man turns on the light.)
(The woman crosses to a table, sets down the room keys, turns to her companion, eyeing him. She is young, dressed conservatively, but sports extremely long, unkempt dark brown hair. Her companion towers over her physically, and is dressed in army dress uniform.)
MARIANNE
Want a smoke?
PETER
Sure.
(She hands him a cigarette. They both light up. She starts taking off her coat.)
PETER (taking her coat)
Here, let me get that.
(He drops her coat on the floor and starts kissing her.)
MARIANNE (pulling away slightly)
Hey, not so fast, loverboy. Can I finish my smoke first?
PETER (unbuttoning his uniform)
I only wanted to...
MARIANNE
...I know. I just don't want to burn that... handsome... uniform of yours.
PETER
You're tricky, do you know that?
MARIANNE
I'm just not ready yet. Take it easy, soldier.
PETER
I can take it off, if you'd like.
MARIANNE
Mmmm. I would like that. Hey, give me just a sec, will ya?
PETER
Damn girls and their primping.
MARIANNE
Errr... yes. That's it. I need a girl moment. And to finish this cigarette. I'll be back before you know it, loverboy.
PETER
Okay. I'll wait right here. I might just get started without you...
MARIANNE
(rolling her eyes)
I'll be right back.
(She crosses into the bathroom. As she turns on the light, another part of the stage is also lit, revealing two young men standing together behind a table staring at a device. She closes the bathroom door and crouches down a bit, speaking into a radio.)
MARIANNE
Chucksteak, this is Bouncing Betty, over.
JIM
Chucksteak to Bouncing Betty, you with Romeo?
MARIANNE
Affirmative. This shouldn't take long. He's been pawing me all night. You deliver the cherry?
JIM
Negative. We hit a big snag. Keep him busy. We'll keep you posted.
MARIANNE
A snag? It's just a simple boom job. Did someone spot you?
JIM
No, we're just getting the clock to stop with the false starts.
ANDREW
Yeah, you know, Betty, our damn pipe bomb's being a cocktease.
MARIANNE
What happened?
ANDREW
Nothing to worry your pretty head about, Betty. Just keep bouncing on that Johnny Romeo and we'll take care of it. We'll radio when we're done.
MARIANNE
Thanks for nothing, moron.
ANDREW
We'll radio when we're done, Bouncing Betty. Goodbye now.
MARIANNE
Fuck you. Over and out.
(JIM and ANDREW laugh. Lights go down on both bathroom and table. MARIANNE emerges from the bathroom to an almost undressed PETER.)
PETER
You done with your cigarette?
MARIANNE
Affirmative. I mean, yeah. It's kind of cold in here, may I turn on the heat before I get undressed?
PETER
Whatever you want.
MARIANNE
(stepping over to radiator)
Thanks.
PETER
You still not ready?
MARIANNE
I'm ready. I'm just cold.
PETER
But you're all the way over there, sweetcakes.
MARIANNE
I know.
PETER
Why don't you come sit over here next to...
MARIANNE
(interrupting)
… why don't you dance with me a bit to warm me up?
PETER
Okay. I'll dance with you. But I thought you wanted to have a bit of fun.
(MARIANNE turns on some music)
MARIANNE
I do. I'm just cold. See? I'm warming up already.
PETER
Then why is that dress still covering your sexy body?
MARIANNE
I'll just have to take it off then. It's getting really warm in here.
(She starts taking off her dress as they move together.)
PETER
That's much better.
MARIANNE
Why don't we go to the bed now?
PETER
Good idea.
(They linger for a bit at the edge of the bed. He touches her hair almost distractedly throughout the pause. She pulls away.)
MARIANNE
Y'know, I've been watching you for a long time.
PETER
You've been watching me? You mean, in this room?
MARIANNE
No, around town. You kind of fascinate me.
PETER
How so?
MARIANNE
You just seem more... with it. Like you know what's down.
PETER
Are we going to talk, or are we going to fuck?
MARIANNE
I'm just admiring you, is all.
PETER
It's okay, it's just, god, I want you so bad right now...
MARIANNE
Then take me.
PETER
For real this time? No jive? Please?
MARIANNE
No jive this time. I want you to fuck me.
(Lights go down over the hotel room. Lights come up over the table section of the stage. JIM and ANDREW are crouched down facing away
from each other, leaning over radios.)
JIM
Chucksteak to Captain Calamity, over.
ANDREW
Chucksteak, this is Captain Calamity. Dropping the cherry. Wait for the boom.
JIM
T minus thirty and counting.
ANDREW
Affirmative. Right on.
JIM
So what's the story with the Betty?
ANDREW
You mean the skirt?
JIM
Yeah. Why did she sign up for this?
ANDREW
I dunno, maybe she's more hip to the revolution than we thought.
JIM
No, why did she sign up to fuck G.I. Joe?
ANDREW
We had to keep him busy somehow. I mean, we are incinerating his office.
JIM
What a shame. That poor sap.
ANDREW
Hundreds of thousands of draft records up in a puff of smoke as soon as this little timer goes to zero.
JIM
All for the revolution! Boom goes the dynomite!
ANDREW
But we're not heartless, we didn't want to kill an innocent pig. No casualties, no prisoners.
JIM
Well, she's, ah, taking her post very seriously, I imagine.
ANDREW
Sure. She's whoring for the cause.
JIM
You shut your piehole, soldier. What the hell's your problem?
ANDREW
It's nothing.
JIM
You know she's crucial to the operation, asshole. You're just jealous.
ANDREW
Hey, man, I guess you could say that on the unholy battlefield against the swine of imperialism, not all wars are waged with guns.
JIM
Yeah, just most of 'em.
ANDREW
She's just fighting with her clothes off.
JIM
While the unsexy among our ranks do the gunning.
ANDREW
Or, in our case, homemade bombs and Molotov cocktails. Some glamorous shit.
JIM
Just doing our part to crumble the institution brick by brick.
ANDREW
You ever think sometimes that maybe it's just not working, man?
JIM
What's not working?
ANDREW
This goddamn revolution. We're not waking anybody up, we're just making the pigs paranoid as hell.
JIM
Maybe they should be paranoid.
ANDREW
It's just... we keep preaching that we're out to totally disrupt the very fabric of this society, out to smash this social order and all that bullshit. But the social order keeps smashing us.
JIM
Not this again, damn it!
ANDREW
We're blowing up parks and raiding universities.
JIM
Very expensive capitalist parks and universities.
ANDREW
There's nothing to be said that we haven't already said.
JIM
Every time, man, every time we blow something up, we let those pigs know that we are solid and united.
ANDREW
We don't fuck around.
JIM
We're just building our army to bring the war home.
ANDREW
Yeah, yeah. This time it's something big, though. Real big.
JIM
Real big. Fucking huge. They wake up tomorrow, Johnny's not going off to war.
ANDREW
No, sir.
JIM
(singing)
Walk on your tiptoes
Don’t try “No-Doz”
Better stay away from those
That carry around a fire hose
Keep a clean nose
Watch the plain clothes
You don’t need a weatherman
To know which way the wind blows
(Blackout on JIM and ANDREW)
MARIANNE
Have you ever been high?
(Lights up on motel room. PETER AND MARIANNE are sitting across from each other on the bed, both wrapped in bed sheets.)
PETER
Yeah, we used to get high in 'Nam all the time. It's what kept us in that god forsaken jungle.
MARIANNE
Not this kind of high, I bet you haven't. This makes all that feel like eating candy.
PETER
What is it?
MARIANNE
You'll see the entire universe spin past you. It's amazing. It opens up your very soul.
PETER
(examines drug)
Why do they look like sugar cubes?
MARIANNE
Because it shoots you to the moon.
PETER
Okay, then, let me try one.
(He takes drug, then leans in to kiss MARIANNE again. He opens his eyes quickly and pulls back away from her. He starts touching her hair.)
I've been watching you too.
MARIANNE
What do you mean?
PETER
You said you'd been watching me. I knew who you are for a long time.
MARIANNE
Errr... I'm still not sure what you mean.
PETER
You go to Charlie Miller University. You play in the orchestra. I watch you play.
MARIANNE
Oh. Wow. Yeah, you have been watching me. That's odd.
PETER
You wait tables at a place downtown.
MARIANNE
Also true.
PETER
You remind me of this girl I used to know.
MARIANNE
I do?
PETER
Yeah. Except your tits are way bigger.
MARIANNE
(looking down, laughing)
Thanks.
PETER
She was a girl who lived in 'Nam. She had your eyes and hair. Well, sort of. She had slanted eyes.
MARIANNE
Had?
PETER
She's gone now. Long gone.
MARIANNE
Oh, wow. You mean...
PETER
Yeah. I'm about to go back in that hellhole in a couple of months. I just don't fucking care anymore. About this war. About my life.
MARIANNE
I hate this war. Imperialist bullshit is what it is.
PETER
That's not really what I meant.
MARIANNE
Don't tell me you really like all this senseless violence?
PETER
Sure as fuck. I get paid to kill people? It's a rush!
MARIANNE
I think I should be going now...
PETER (suddenly laying his head in her lap)
The drugs were the best, though. I remember one guy who would get us opium from the village. We mixed it with our rations and flew all day. We did some fucked up shit on it, though.
MARIANNE (trying to crawl out from underneath him)
I don't think you should be telling me this.
PETER
It's no sweat, really. I remember going into this rice paddy once, and just shooting up a bunch of farmers. Kill anything that moves, we were told.
MARIANNE
That's really sick.
PETER
Isn't it, though? We got souvenirs off them, strung 'em up like lights at Christmas.
MARIANNE
How could you do something like that?
PETER
Don't you think they deserved it?
MARIANNE (putting her clothes on)
You don't really mean that.
PETER
I do too. I... wow, this stuff is really starting to work.
MARIANNE
Good. You starting to float?
PETER
Yeah. I'm floating away, sweetcakes. You better catch me.
MARIANNE (aside)
Wow, now I know you're really high.
(She crosses to the bathroom)
PETER (laughing)
Mhpohffflunkf. Ha ha that's funny.
(Lights back up on bathroom and table area.)
MARIANNE
Chucksteak, this is Bouncing Betty.
JIM
Bouncing Betty, this is Chucksteak. What the hell do you want?
MARIANNE (broadly)
I just wanted to inform you that Private Roth and I have had a smashing time and I would like to know when you plan on starting the fireworks.
ANDREW
We're at T-minus 25 now. Did you really have a good time, Bouncing Betty? Did you fuck him real hard? Did you give him a good one for us?
MARIANNE
Not that it's any of your business, soldier, but yes. And now he's high as a kite and will have no idea what happened to his precious office until tomorrow morning. Your welcome, men.
JIM
Thank you, Betty.
MARIANNE
He's a real whack job, though. I'm about to cut out.
ANDREW
Not having fun with Romeo anymore? Aw...
MARIANNE
Over and out, assholes.
(Lights come down on bathroom and up on motel room.)
PETER
What did you put in this stuff?
MARIANNE
I didn't. Some friend of a friend did. It's called LSD. I only do it when I can trip all day with no one to bug me.
(She steps toward the door. He absentmindedly blocks her exit.)
PETER
Is it weird that I see lights?
MARIANNE
Not at all. Your mind's expanding. You'll hear colors too.
PETER
I hear something, all right.
MARIANNE
Then it's working.
PETER
Yeah? I like it. I can almost see my real hand now.
MARIANNE
Your real hand?
PETER
Yeah. I chopped off the other one in the war. Didn't need it any more. It was slowing me down. I charred the damn thing when I zapped a Viet Cong.
MARIANNE
You're lying.
PETER
Sargent Dash went ape when I showed him.
MARIANNE
I don't believe you.
PETER
No, I really did. Feel right there. All plastic.
MARIANNE
You're a twisted fucker.
PETER(grabbing her shoulder)
I may be a twisted fucker, but you liked it.
MARIANNE
Let go of me!
PETER (pushing her towards the bed)
You wanted it so bad.
MARIANNE
What the fuck are you talking about?
PETER
You're a fucking slut, Ha^ng Yen!
MARIANNE
Who's Ha^ng Yen?
PETER
You'd fuck any man who'd give it to you, wouldn't you? You like it when they fuck you. That's why.
MARIANNE (pushing him away, onto the bed)
Why what? What the hell is wrong with you?
PETER (laying, motionless)
I feel sick.
MARIANNE
You're having a bad trip. This is insane.
PETER
Don't tell me what's insane, Ha^ng Yen. I know what's insane.
MARIANNE
I'll get you some water.
PETER
I got the taste of blood in me. The more I kill, the more I fly. I can't. I won't...
(MARIANNE returns from the bathroom with a glass of water and her radio, which she is trying to stash in her dress. PETER pulls out his gun from his uniform, approaches her and absentmindedly knocks the glass out of her hand, not realizing where he is.
MARIANNE
What the hell?
PETER
Where did you go, Ha^ng Yen? I couldn't find you.
MARIANNE
You're sick. There is no Ha^ng Yen.
(She tries to open the door. He slams it shut.)
PETER
Things weren't the same after you died. But I had to.
(MARIANNE runs around the bed, struggles to open the window.)
PETER
I had to. I followed you into the woods. You let them fuck you, you dirty whore.
MARIANNE
Who is Ha^ng Yen?
PETER
When I killed them all, you were the only one left. You did a bad thing, Ha^ng Yen. You made me do it. You made me.
MARIANNE
Get the fuck away from me!
(A knock on the door is heard. MARIANNE runs towards the door, PETER blocks her exit. PETER'S attention turns away from the door, although his body seems bolted in place. The sound of the knock changes into a thud, and the wall next to the door seems to move and throb)
SGT. DASH
On your feet, soldier! You're caught with your pants down again!
PETER
But, sir! Sgt. Dash, I was just...
SGT. Dash
You're a disgrace to this man's army! You're a fucking coward! You let your guard down. They got us this time!
PETER
Yes sir!
SGT Dash
I want to see you in my tent at 0600 hours! Wash the damn blood off your face!
(MARIANNE struggles with the door, finally wrenching it open from PETER. He turns to her, struggles again trying to pull her back inside. Her radio clicks on.)
JIM
T minus two minutes! Captain Calamity, get ready for liftoff!
MARIANNE
No! No, no, no, no no!
PETER
You fucking slut! You betrayed me!
MARIANNE (running to window)
No, I didn't mean...
PETER
You did this! It's all your fault!
(PETER shoots MARIANNE in the leg. MARIANNE screams)
MARIANNE
No! Please! I'm sorry!
PETER
It's too late for sorry, Ha^ng Yen.
(MARIANNE opens the window, though panicking and bleeding . She climbs through. He aims the gun at his own head. The stage goes black as PETER pulls the trigger. A thud is heard over the darkened stage. A
pause, then bright light pours through the window, and the sound of an explosion.)
JIM
Kablooie!
ANDREW
God damn, that's beautiful. Bright burning imperialism.
JIM
Chucksteak, over and out.
(Full Blackout)
THE END
