Title: “My things control me”.
Author: Silvina Carrasco
3 Characters:
- Gabriel: He feels that the excess of furniture, objects, technology, appliances and things in his home, control his life to the point of exhaustion.
- Caro: Gabriel’s girlfriend. She represents the opposite view of her boyfriend; for her more is better.
- Employee: He comes from the appliance house.
SINGLE ACT
Characters involved in this act: Gabriel, Caro and Employee.
Scenario: An apartment full of electronic devices, appliances, furniture, clocks and things that leave almost no room to move.
Gabriel is sleeping in bed, an alarm starts ringing and wakes him up. The alarm sounds pip – silence – pip – silence – pip – silence – pip – silence – pip… Gabriel wakes up startled.
-Gabriel: (He looks at his apartment crammed with technological elements and household appliances) Another day on the planet ¡¨things¨!
(Gabriel gets up and starts looking for where the alarm is coming from to turn it off).
-Gabriel: (Looks at the radio alarm clock on the table next to his bed) It’s not here. (He gets up)
(The alarm keeps going off with the increasingly frequent sound: pip-pip-pip-pip-pip…)
-Gabriel: (He goes to the table, looks at a cell phone up there) It’s not from here either.
(Gabriel starts to get annoyed by the increasingly loud and constant noise: pip-pip-pip-pip-pip… He walks looking for the source of the sound. Caro enters)
-Caro: Good morning love (Very relaxed, she goes to the microwave oven, presses a button and the alarm stops ringing).
-Gabriel: (Ironic) The microwave, of course. Why didn’t I think of that?
(Gabriel makes himself a coffee and goes to the breakfast bar/peninsula where he can’t find a place because there is a desktop computer, a notebook, a netbook and a tablet).
-Gabriel: Love, wasn’t this bar for breakfast?
(Caro doesn’t answer, she is focused on her cell phone).
-Gabriel: Caro, wasn’t this bar for breakfast?
(Caro still doesn’t answer, concentrating on her cell phone. Gabriel stands up, with difficulty walks among the furniture to the bedside table, picks up a landline phone and dials a number. Caro’s cell phone rings)
-Caro: Hello?
-Gabriel: (On the phone) Caro, wasn’t the bar designed for breakfast on it?
-Caro: Gabby! Why are you so grumpy?
-Gabriel: (hangs up the phone) I can’t live in this place anymore. Things are multiplying, they’re taking over the apartment. The day you least expect it, they’re going to come to life and kick us out into the street.
-Caro: (laughing) How exaggerated!
-Gabriel: You think I’m exaggerating! Every time I want to communicate with you I have to send you an e-mail, like standing in a corner because all the tables are full of stuff. Screens everywhere! Why so many screens?! I can’t find my socks among so many things, but if I look for screens there are screens in all sizes. And clocks? Why do you need clocks on all the walls?
-Caro: To see the time wherever I am.
-Gabriel: And the noises? Every time an alarm goes off I don’t know if it’s your phone or the landline or mine, or the alarm clock or the washing machine or the TV that turned itself on….
-Caro: You should be grateful you have everything you want.
-Gabriel: Thankful? I spend my days trying not to knock down expensive things and paying for expensive repairs of devices that break and can only be repaired by NASA engineers.
-Caro: (laughing at her boyfriend’s witticisms) Oh Gaby, it’s no a big deal!
(Caro sits down at the computer and Gabriel is left talking to himself, dreaming out loud)
-Gabriel: What’s the big deal?! What’s the big deal? We could sell everything we have and buy a big empty house… An empty house! (sighs) What a pleasure… EMPTY!
(The doorbell rings. Gabriel opens the door)
-Employee: Good morning, I’ve come to deliver a stereo.
(Without saying a word, Gabriel looks at Caro. Caro smiles mischievously).
THE END