Dead Animal or The Order of Being

Dead animalORthe Order of Being

Scene 0

This can be played while the audience is coming into the hall ideally. Even have the actor walking around the crowd. Just take care with the dramaturgy of the actor speaking to people while they enter as it might be much to break the fourth wall so heavy duty.

Scene 1

A call or cry in the dark. A figure rises slowly from the ground, getting taller and taller. A figure of strength. It rises with a light right behind it, and begins to turn. We see the face of the figure, disfigured as if blinded by the noon sun. And as it turns back, it falls. Quivers. Shakes. Shoulders start to move. Click click. And it rises again, limb by limb. And as it stands we see it now deformed. It’s face in self-loathing and distrust. It turns to look up at the sun. And screams.

Scene 2

Sampati remembers conversations with his brother.

Jatayu Sampati. Do you ever dream of flying?

Sampati Do you?

Jatayu I do. Sometimes.

Sampati So do I.

Jatayu I dream of it all the time.

Sampati I do too.

Jatayu So why don’t we?

Sampati Our wings our too new and our feathers too soft to hold the wind.

Jatayu But I can’t wait anymore.

Sampati Learn this.

Shows him a move. JATAYU practices it.

Scene 3

A monkey is on stage. He is wearing a formal blazer.

Monkey The banana is the most dangerous fruit. It’s name itself is portending an unthinkable tremor(he repeats banana to himself). Oranges, on the other hand are stable. Apples lusty, and pomergrantes, bloody.

We are what we eat. You see, a monkey, like me, perhaps is akin to a banana. Not physically, no. But our characteristics. The funny thing about a banana. You peel it, the peel comes of like silk. And the funny thing is this, you eat it (he swallows the banana whole, chomps a bit) and when it comes out the other end (produces another banana from his backside, as though by magic), the shape is unchanged.

While eating.

Monkeys too are like that. You oppress us, make us move mountains, jump the seas, put us through emotional turmoil, or simply dress us up silly and make us beat a drum. We always come out monkeys.

It’s why we can jump. You squeeze a banana it jumps. You squeeze a monkey, he jumps. Simple.

You know, if you jump far enough, you’re flying - like a Vulture.

I’m not bald. And I’m very clean. Not like those bald birds. Thermoregulation, bah! I’ll tell you what they do to keep cool. They SHIT on thier legs. SICK SICK SICK.

Eats the banana.

Anyway, back to bananas. So much nicer. The only way to avoid the effect of bananas is to make chips. Banana chips. Hot chips. Uncle chips. Lick your lips. Magic tricks.

Pause

Lights go dim and contained.

It is said that stories that begin with bananas or flying mountains have monstrous outcomes.

Scene 4

The actor speaks.

This scene can be used to do business - rearrage a set / manage musical instruments etc.

My brother used to save baby owls. A pet hobby, maybe. Our mother hated this. Owl-mothers abandon their babies if they’ve been touched by some other, so there would be many stranded little owls in our neighborhood. You could find them in roofs and lofts, construction sites. Anywhere up high.

So my brother would take these baby owls. You know they’re called owlets. Baby owls. But I’m going to call them baby owls.

Anyway, so my brother would take these baby owls find them a nice warm cardboard box, and stuff it with old razais. And our mother would be horrified when her razais would end up covered in owl shit.

My brother would then feed them nuts and seeds, stolen from the kitchen of course. And my mother would be amazed at how much cashew my brother could eat.

After some time, when the owl babies got big enough, he would start on his pet project. His real pet project. Teaching them to fly. He’d pick one up.

Picks up an imaginary owl.

Hold it by its wings. Spread the wings out, and start flapping them. Gently at first, then harder, harder, then would run and throw them into the sky.

And as though in slow motion, the owls would go up in perfect Euclidian geometry. Perfect parabolic harmony. Then THUD!

They’d fall. And shit a little bit in thier panic.

But my brother would carry on undeterred. And every morning throw them up, into the sky, phataphataphataphata – thump.

Again and again and again. Up, into the sky, phataphataphataphata – thump. Up, into the sky, phataphataphataphata – thump. Phataphataphataphata – thump. phataphataphataphata – thump. Phataphataphataphata phataphataphataphata phataphataphataphata.

And one day they would fly.

One day my mother saw this whole thing. She finally understood where her precious dry fruits were going. It’s not like she was any less horrified. She never spoke of the owl-babies again, she never learned to like them. But live with them around – she could.

Scene 5

Jatayu Sampati. Will you ever fly again?

Sampati No. My wings are burning.

Jatayu I am burning them.

Sampati The sun is burning them.

Jatayu I am burning them.

Sampati They are burnt. The sun burnt them.

Jatayu They are burnt. I burnt them.

Scene 6

Jatayu taunts ravana. @todo / Should be workshopped.

Scene 7

Monkey Hello. Yesterday after I saw you, I fell. I was walking and I fell. Just like that it made me think of all the things that fell. That way monkeys don’t fall, but I fell. And now I will tell you about all the other things that fell.

Breaks into song

Mountains fell.
Columbia shuttle fell.
Skylab fell.
Shooting stars fell.

The sky fell on top of our heads even.

Lucifer fell.
The two towers fell.
Adam fell.
Eve fell.

Jerusalem fell. Twice even.

Doctor fell.

Should I go on?

Doctor fell.
The roman empire fell.
The third reich fell.
Soviet union fell.

The apple fell on newton’s head, even.

Song ends.

I fell. You fell. Eifel Tower. Even.

Fell is a lovely word. Fellatious, Fellatio, Felt Hat, Fellow. Ahahahaha. Almost as good as banana. Which can make people fall. Banana. Fell.

He sees something in the distance. And mimes seeing the object in the sky - flying through the air and seeing it slowly fall to the ground.

A loud sound is heard with the fall - perhaps even a kind of doppler effect, ending with a loud sound. The monkey jumps at the loud sound.

(whisper) Something fell. And who are those two men walking towards it?

Fade to black

Scene 8

Jatayu talks to Rama and Lakshmana

Jatayu I saw her being abducted against her will. I rushed to her rescue and fought with the rakshasa. I am sixty-thousand years old, but the rakshasa is young. He was mounted on a chariot, clad in a coat of mail and armed with a bow and arrows. His golden earing glittered and his twenty eyes turned red with rage. I wanted to pluck him from his chariot, like a fruit from a tree. He rained his iron tipped arrows upon me. But I, king of the birds, I caught them all.

I destroyed his chariot which lies there on the ground. I wounded him several times with my talons and beak. I shattered his bow. I bit off the head of his charioteer and the heads of the pisacha-faced donkeys that were yoked to his chariot. I threw myself at him. I dug my talons into him and mauled him. I rode him as if he were a rogue elephant. I bit off his ten right arms with my beak. He attacked me with his fists and feet. I fought harder and harder but i grew tired and he cut off my wings and my feet with his sword. Wingless, I fell to the earth, scarely a breath left in my body.

You don’t have to shoot me. The rakshasa has already killed me.

Scene 9

Monkey Did you know mountains used to have wings. Of course it was a long time ago. One of those once-upon-a-time things. Imagine, they used to just fly around, wherever, whenever, from place to place, and like you know, like other things that can fly, they got mischevious. They’d land wherever they wanted to, they’d land heavily, not like the sweet little thud of the baby owls, they’d land on top of things. Flattening thousands upon thousands of I don’t know - people, houses, monkeys.

Well that wasn’t working. So Indra, he of the mighty thunderbolt, had to cut off thier wings for thier refractory and troublesome behaviour. Which is why mountains as we know them, are flightless. Thats great, gives us something to climb, right? Everest, K2, Popocatapetl, Nandi hills.

Vultures, on the other hand, don’t have a once-upon-a-time, they still have wings, they are not flightless. We cannot climb them. They have wings because they are not stubborn and refractory. And I can tell you that they are not stubborn and refractory because of what they eat. We are what we eat.

Vultures eat carrion. Carcasses. No carcass is troublesome. No carcass is refractory.

You know all that business about fine feathers make fine birds. Well… vultures are bald. Not glamorous.

For the longest time orinithologists thought that vultures were bald because a featherless head is easier to keep clean. Bloody carcasses, feathers. PYUCK.

However, new research tells us that a featherless head helps in thermoregulation. A featherless top radiates heat much better than a fine feathered top.

You know, it’s really hot up there. The sun is so close. So close.

Scene 10

The scene is played out with many breaks. Sampati’s body is in a figure of contraction. As the scene progresses the actor’s body tries to snap itself into normality.

Sampati Pain.

I cannot rise. These wings are too heavy now, these joints crumbling from disuse. I must get up. I must fly.

The heat seared me here, and here. The hot air picked me up and let me down. It twisted my sides. As I fell, those cold soft clouds parted and formed sediments. Hail cut me here. And here. And here. The sun still saw no need to stop burning me. Cauterising my wounds and burning them open again –I finally hit the ground. It was cold. So very cold. And I began to burn from the inside. And everything around me is cold.

I need the rays of the sun again. I need them to heal my skin, to tan my bald brow, to purge my soul. To rid me of the fever he cast me into. I look to him every day. My healer in the sky. He laughs at me.

SCENE 11

Monkey I’m stuck here now. Stuck in cliché … that devil, the king, and the deep blue sea. And this fucking beach has nothing but sand. I haven’t eaten for days. I’m going mad with hunger. Mad mad mad bad cad shad fad lad bad bad bad egad sad sand sand sandwich. Sandwich.

I need food. I’m hungry.

I’d kill for a meal. I’d shave my hair for a morsel of bread. I’d give my nose for a lick of clean pure water. My ears for just one seed of corn. My legs for rotten fruit. My tail for a banana.

O! For a banana what I would give!

Monkey sees his toe.

A banana! Yelakki, i think. (He tries to peel it. He tries to gouge his nail. Finally he gives up.)

It’s only my toe! What am I doing? If only I could find that woman, I would go back over those hills to the king. He would feed me. How he would feed me.

A woman! I need to find a woman. I can just say it’s her. He won’t know the difference that stupid monkey who is king. I’d just have to make her an accomplice. I’ll promise her riches, but I have none. I’ll give her bananas. But I don’t want to part with them.

He hallucinates that the woman is his leg, and talks to her

A woman! Aha! Now I am saved!

You! Come with me. We must go to the King. Tell him you are her. Or else.

In a high pitch No No. I can never do such a thing! I don’t even look like the woman you are looking for.

Come with me! Come with me! I’m taking you there whether you like it or not.

He tries to stand on one foot, but falls

It’s only my leg. It’s only my leg. I’m doomed. I am finished. I might as well kill myself. What is this suffering with no banana and no food and no water and no banana.

I need deliverance.

A sound is heard, like that from the end of the first scene. Monkey looks behind him and sees a shadow of a cripple.

Sampati I thought this was my lucky day when i saw this beach covered with monkeys. I thought the gods had sent me food. But I can’t eat you. You are alive.

The monkey stares.

Note monkey needs more transition

Scene 12

Sampati I hear that he lies bleeding.
His wings have been cut off.
Bone shows through.
I have no wings. Only blackened stumps.
I have no wings. I don’t remember what it is to have wings.
I have no wings.
If I had wings I might fly to be by bleeding Jatayu’s side.\

But I have no wings.