The Faery And The Pornographer

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

ANTHONY - mid thirties, but dresses like he is in his mid twenties. All in black, clinging long sleeved T-shirt, slim-fit jeans and trainers. An ill fitting suit jacket and sunglasses. He is a 'photographer'.

TABATHA - early twenties, or younger in appearance, or older in how she carries herself. She is dressed in a Leather biker jacket slightly too big for her, with shocking bright pink hair. Her overall look is like goth/punk never went away, but seems to have collided with a romany gypsy. She has large black boots. She is a faery.

CORA - A girl in her early teens, barefoot and dressed in a simple pure white shift that reaches her ankles, with matching blindfold. Her hair is loose, she wears no make-up.

NESTIS - A woman in her late twenties or early thirties, wearing sandals tied up to her ankle. She wears a deep crimson dress, tied close to the waist, that reaches her knees. Her blindfold is also crimson. Her hair is tied up away from her neck in an elaborate style.

CARIA - An older woman, in her fifties or older, she wears long grey robes over a white shift similar to that of CORA, and her blindfold is a mottled mix of grey white and red. She is also barefoot. Her hair is tied back, but only simply.

MAN - Wears only a simple piece of cloth tied around his waist, like a classical loincloth or kilt. He is analogous to ANTHONY in age and general appearance.

SCENE 1
The stage is barely lit, ANTHONY stands leaning against a wall, his 'art' photography is projected as though hanging on a wall behind him. There are sounds of a typical party hub-bub, all clinking glasses and over the top music and voices. As the lights fade up, TABATHA comes onto the stage and glares at him from across it, she has a drink in each hand.

ANTHONY
Hello. You here for a job? What do you think of the pictures? You're probably going to have to join a queue...

ANTHONY is trying to impress TABATHA, who he see's as another nubile piece of flesh for his lens and perhaps other things. He is in charm offensive. This is his art show after all.

TABATHA
I'm not here to model. Gods no. I'm here for a free drink. People like you tend to make me need rather a large one...

ANTHONY
Oh god. You're not one of those left wing feminazist journalists are you? I've told your kind before, my work is ironic, its actually empowering if...

TABATHA
I'm not one of those idiots either. And your work isn't ironic.

TABATHA starts guzzling one of the drinks she is carrying, and putting the glass down, sniffs the other one before sipping at it.

ANTHONY
Its a post modern...

TABATHA stops drinking from her glass somewhat sharply and wheels about to wave an arm to encompass the work on show. Interrupting ANTHONY's words.

TABATHA
Post Modern? That's just poncy talk for 'we don't have any imagination anymore, so we'll just borrow someone else's, then excuse it with bullshit'. This isn't even post the modern. I think I can see that one's lunch by the way.

TABATHA points at one of the more explicit images.

ANTHONY
There's nothing to be prudish or ashamed of, its just where we all came from in the end...
ANTHONY turns to gesture at his work, moving a little closer to
TABATHA.

TABATHA
Yes, but that's not what that's about is it?
She waves her glass at the image, having filled her mouth with another gulp, swallowing it pulling a face.

That's about you wanting to get back in it. No way is that about birth, and no way is she a mother of anything. Unless her children are the ping-pong balls you've got in the next shot.

ANTHONY looks at Tabatha sideways for a moment. He is still trying to figure her out.

ANTHONY
I think you fail to appreciate the irony of presenting what would be traditionally considered pornographic images in the context of art and contemporaneous...

TABATHA splutters and practically spits her drink at him, as she interrupts him.

TABATHA
Bollocks. Not that there are any in the pictures. 'Presenting' something as art doesn't make it art.
You like naked women. Great. Lots of people do. Don't tell me, however you dress it up...or not as the case is, that this is the art that they inspire you to.

This is not art. Its thinking about being it in one or two of your photos. But your libido blocks it mate.

Even now you're trying to figure out how to get into my pants, and hoping that getting me in front of your lens will work. Shift your focus.

ANTHONY is starting to get annoyed, not least because TABATHA see's through him.

ANTHONY
Shift my focus? I suppose that was some god-awful pun. What are you, some sort of stuckist? A Fine Art fundamentalist? This is the twenty-first bloody century.

TABATHA
No. I'm a faery. Very few of us left now.

TABATHA twirls and walks to reach for another drink. ANTHONY interrupts her actions with his words.

ANTHONY
I'm sorry, but I really don't believe in such nonsense. Or fairies.

TABATHA turns and lunges, not for another drink, but for ANTHONY, grabbing his shoulders and shoving him against the wall, thumping him against it repeatedly.

TABATHA
Clap your hands you bastard, take it back right now or so help me I'll cut...

TABATHA is wracked with a coughing fit, falling to the floor she drags herself away from ANTHONY, who looks at her stunned. She is rocking backwards and forwards, starting to cry.

TABATHA (quietly)
For we are such things as dreams are made of

For we are such things as dreams are made of

TABATHA is sobbing as she repeats the words now, getting louder each time.

For we are such things as dreams are made of

ANTHONY steps back, scared, then forwards, about to attempt to comfort her, though he is unsure why or how. Before he can touch her she jerks her head and shouts at him.

FOR WE ARE SUCH THINGS AS FUCKING DREAMS ARE MADE OF.

TABATHA breathes slowly and stares.

Only one now. Alone. So alone. I'm sorry Mother.

ANTHONY backs up staring at her, as though seeing her for the first time.

ANTHONY

What the hell..are you..
ANTHONY shakes his head as though shaking off something he can't see

Look I don't know what's wrong with you, but there's nothing for you here...

TABATHA
Nothing but nothing, and something comes from nothing, and nothing is where you are going, all is back to nothing, and nothing can be made again. No rest for the wicked, and no peace for the good, and there's no use in pretending that love is in your blood.

TABATHA stares up at ANTHONY
ANTHONY moves towards her, angrily grabbing her arm.

ANTHONY
You're getting out of here, right now..

TABATHA screams and both she and ANTHONY freeze in place as the back of the stage unfolds and the art gallery background parts to become a forest. At the back, behind the frozen figures of ANTHONY and TABATHA are three women. The CORA the NESTIS and the CARIA. All three are spotlit from above and are blindfolded. All three speak at once, though not over each other, making the words confuse into each other.

CORA

I am innocence and wonder, I am all that has potential to be, but does not yet see that future. I crave experience, yet fear the future, and do not know what is to come. I inspire yet do not create, and cannot know what is to pass, as I will forever remain young and free, to me all things are possible, and I will never know limitation. I am that which breathes, and brings the spring, I am the potential in hearts to love, and know not what it is to destroy, for only I can see everything as it is new, and alive.

I am youth and I cry out for protection, as ambition and curiosity pull me forwards into the path of all things, for I can never know enough, and I hunger for a future, and thirst for all change.

I am beauty and ambition without thought nor limit, and I will never know failure, but nor can I know success, for once succeeded I can only be change, and if flush of youth is changed, how can it ever be regained? Youth can be never be recaptured, never be regained.

NESTIS

Mine innocence is tempered, no longer the reed that sways in the wind. I am strong and know experience, and I will protect all. I know what is mine, and need take no more, for my joy is to know who and what and where I am. I am experience, and love, and joy. I am contentment and I make the future. It is mine to nurture and protect. I no longer hunger nor crave, though I know lust not as that to be feared but as that to be tasted again. I take what is and what will be, and using the past I fashion the balance in all things, that all may know what is and take comfort in it.

I fear nothing save losing that which is precious, and want nothing more than for the future to involve. I am warmth and I am home, and I know you, as I myself am known.

I move forwards and shield potential, I am all that ever needs to happen, though not all that ever will. I am truth in which life can be hidden. And my song will never end.

CARIA

I have seen all there is, and all that will ever be. Mine is not to make again, but to make sure all is remembered. For only in the forgotten is anything ever lost. I am aware of the transience of all things, most especially my own, yet I will guard against it til another rises in my place. I am guarded not for fragility, but for value, for only from me does one moment trace to the next.

Forget me not, for I do not forget you, and though I ensure that nothing ever ends, I myself will not continue.

I am in all things, and all things reside in me. For I have known all things, and will never see their like again. Though my paradox is to be surrounded by the familiar, for how can I not be?

My words are as ancient as cannot be named, and yet I will wear many faces.

As the three are speaking their lines, a man enters wearing nothing but a cloth around his middle. He walks to each of them in turn as they speak looking into their sightless eyes. They now speak separately and in turn.
CORA
I am the muse that whispers in your ear, and I am so afraid that I will be forever lost if he takes me.
NESTIS
I cannot protect what I do not have, and without nurture I am barren. Don't steal what is mine by right, what is done can never be undone. I am the land, from whence you came and whence you go, and I am broken and weeping and gone.
CARIA
All is lost, and now I too forget as I am forgotten. For in losing what once was, then so lost is all that ever shall be. I do not know who I am any more, and in passing thus alone, all will ever be nothing.
The man steps forward and touches each in turn, the CORA at her throat, the NESTIS at her stomach, and CARIA at her forehead. All three die, and are left unlit, only shadows on the stage as the man is lit. The man steps forward.
MAN
What need have I for what has been. I stand alone, and take that which I desire. Do I not demand adulation? For I have killed the poison of the unknowing, destroyed the false truth of belief, and laid low all that came before me.
He stoops over the CORA, embracing her roughly and taking her blindfold. Then he approaches NESTIS slowly, tentatively snatching hers away. He stares with contempt at the body of CARIA before lifting her blindfold away and staring at it in disdain. He drops CARIA's blindfold to the floor and steps on it as he moves up the stage to stare at ANTHONY's face.
MAN
We take. We use. We demand recognition and praise.
The man ties the CORA's blindfold around TABATHA's wrist, and then binds the NESTIS's crimson one around ANTHONY's. He walks to the back of the stage and it reverts to its former art gallery setting, all but ANTHONY and TABATHA hidden. They are lit as they unfreeze, ANTHONY stumbling backwards away from TABATHA. TABATHA stands staring at him.
ANTHONY
What the fuck? You put something in my drink!! My god...too much of the party. And you... you..
TABATHA stares him down, stepping towards him even as he backs away.

You twisted my head with your bloody propaganda, a man killing female archetypes? How cliched. Nice evil man holding down poor defenceless woman... That's why I should never listen to your lot...
TABATHA raises her fist as if she is about to strike ANTHONY, who flinches away. She is however raising the wrist around which the CORA's blindfold is tied. She starts to laugh uncontrollably, holding the bound wrist high.

Oh Christ...don't...Oh Christ...
ANTHONY stares in horror at the binding then lifts his own open hand in front of his face, revealing the NESTIS's blindfold tied around it.
TABATHA
All you see is what you want to see. And the man was only a man because you are. Allegedly. Politics are a human frailty, not in your soul.
ANTHONY is pulling at the cloth round his wrist, but he can't untie it. As he pulls at it, his hand is covered with the crimson colour of blood. He screams and falls to the floor. TABATHA reaches and touches his shoulder, kneeling beside him. Both are frozen once more as the gallery stage again parts to reveal the forest, but this time the trees are dead. The three women stand there again lit from above. This time however, the CORA is wearing the crimson of the NESTIS, with a shorter skirt, the NESTIS wears the grey of CARIA, while CARIA herself is hunched over, near naked on the floor. All three wear mottled blindfolds identical to that originally worn by CARIA.
Cora
My greed is insatiable, and I want all I can get. Have you got it to give it me? I know all the secrets. I'm lost but I don't care, because I take all I can and I want more. Even if I can't take it anymore. I want it even if it hurts. And I don't care who it hurts, it hurts me most of all sometimes. Sometimes I want to die, but then I want everything. Do you want me?
NESTIS
I care for me, why should I care for anyone else, the young never listen, and I am betrayed. Take what you can get, and look after yourself first I say. I want to be young again, and if I feed myself to lust some more, maybe I can get it. So many mouths, but I don't care. I am about myself and holding on to things that aren't mine. I don't need anyone but myself, and sometimes, sometimes I wonder who will notice when I die.
CARIA
Look at them now. I was never like that. I never was. I don't even know that I am. I hate them all, I hate you all. And I am forgotten and alone. I'll be gone soon, and then you'll be sorry. Who am I again? That's nice, but it wasn't like that in my day that never was.
The man walks onto the stage, but something is wrong, he walks as though in pain, and all but collapses between CORA and NESTIS.
MAN
I've had it all you know. Her and her, and you, and you never knew it and neither did they. And now there's none left you see...and..and now this is all I can be. I so want to be someone else, something better. But I can't because there's nothing left to be. No questions to answer, innocence is nothing but a myth. It was I that destroyed it, but I could find it I would take it and keep it safe. I would preserve it. Its only precious when its gone. All gone. I shouldn't care, I had it all and took it to enjoy. I have those memories, but even those are only mine. Nothing to share. I still want you to praise me, and give me my adulation, but now I am not sure why...what was it I did? Nothing is made anymore. Its all for now, all for want. I still want it...but can you tell me what it is? Nothing matters, I should enjoy it, because we are all going to die. Its my right after all. To die. To kill. All is my right. And nothing is left. No beauty, no truth, nothing is created any more, only endlessly recycled, the same over and over...life is empty.
NESTIS and CORA move to him, NESTIS kissing him and CORA falling to his lap as the stage goes dark, leaving only CARIA lit. She shivers and looks about her in the dark, even from beneath her blindfold.
CARIA
I've forgotten how it used to be. And soon it shall be that it never was. I worry sometimes, that I made things how they are. That something somewhere I did meant that now I can't remember doing it. I think I may be gone soon. And after me there is nothing. But I don't care. There's nothing left for me. Something ate away at everything...consumed it...what did I say? Hello? I've forgotten how it..how it..

It used to be. And now nothing is. Nothing has been made for so long, and now there is just so much nothing that it hurts. Dirty. Broken. Twisted into..into...
CARIA pulls of her blindfold and leaves it on the floor as the lights fade down. When they fade up, TABATHA is sitting looking at ANTHONY who is holding the crimson blindfold, as it is now removed from his wrist and the blood is gone.
TABATHA
Its not a dream...well it is...but its one you people used to go to. Often. Call it a collective unconscious, call it a creative gestalt. Call it faery. But your modern world has brought its taint to it...
She reaches out and rests her hand on his head. ANTHONY is sobbing. TABATHA looks at him but also past him into the audience.

You don't know who you are anymore. And because none of you do, neither does it. Your world is broken, and so is mine. Until you fix yours and uncover your eyes, then mine can never heal. You need to know who you are, and why you are, and where you are. The arrogance of your kind is destroying this world, and all beauty is fast disappearing from it.
ANTHONY
You say it like its so simple. But you aren't even one of us..
TABATHA stands up and walks away to stand opposite ANTHONY.

That man was me, and he was lost, and broken...but he did it to them. He broke everything.
TABATHA
He wasn't you. He wasn't even a man, like I said before. That's just because it was you finally seeing. If its any consolation, I showed that place to a woman recently...she was like you...and she was more vicious. She tore out their tongues and silenced them forever. But it wasn't her own fault, any more than it is yours. You are both just part of a system. And now you need to change that system.

Dreams have a habit of becoming real...its what humans used to do. You need to start putting beauty back into the world... not trapping it and destroying it. You need to know what it is to create again. Before it costs's you all your soul.
ANTHONY stands up, and stares at the crimson blindfold before folding it and putting it in his pocket.
ANTHONY
I didn't make the system you know.
TABATHA
No. But you took from it, and used it to further yourself. It took its pound of flesh without you even knowing your heart was gone.
ANTHONY
I'm just one though...how can I..
TABATHA
No one is just one. The sooner you lot notice that the better. And its not about unifying or making your voice heard, or any of that human political crap you dress it up in. Its about being true to yourself, and putting that into the world. One person at a time is never just one. Stop thinking only of yourself or yourselves. Be what you are, not what you think you should be.

Its time to move on.
The lights fade down, then up again, and we see ANTHONY blindfolded with the crimson blindfold, taking down the photographs in the gallery. He turns to the audience and slowly starts clapping. The lights fade down again. At the rear of the theatre, CORA, NESTIS and CARIA stand, in their original costumes.
CORA
Protect me and cherish me, for when I am gone I will never come again.
NESTIS
Don't forget me, don't abandon me, never forget where you came from.
CaRIA
For one day you will be me, and when you are, you will not want to be alone.
The three link hands and leave.

END