CAST LIST
ALAN. Actor should clearly have some distinguishable British or French accent. Ash-blond man of younger age, but not naive. Newly settled in to the injustices of the world and newly coping. Visibly sallow, perhaps even plagued with insomnia. Despite this, looks quite happy. He has smile lines and dimples. He has lived an otherwise fulfilling, though not exciting, life.
KONSTANTIN. Actor's face is not visible in scene, but should be visibly scarred. Around the same age, if not slightly older-looking. Suspicious, skeptical, but not aggressively so. Heavy-set, shorter than the other two, but muscular and strong.
[NASH is sitting in a row of pews. Organ music is playing. Spotlights filter through stained glass windows, casting beautiful shards of rainbow onto the floor, refracted tapestries distorted by their unfortunate life as a reference to something else. Lilies and carnations sit neatly in arrangements in copper pots. It is clearly a Catholic-style church, but liberties can be taken with the exact style of it. There are many golden idols of various saints, and 3 candles are lit on the racks of prayer candles. One man is seated in a pew in the middle, filling out a paper prayer. The other is sitting in the front with his head bowed. A casket is open where the cross of Christ should be.]
Hello?
[The man filling out a paper prayer turns, slightly frightened by how his voice echoes. He has broken the delicate silence in the room.]
Hello?
[His voice is hollow and slightly hoarse, as if he hasn't spoken in quite some time. NASH quickly spots him and walks over.]
Hello.
Hi.
[They both stare, as if fascinated that others besides them exist. This goes on for a few seconds, before NASH gestures to the seat besides ALAN.]
Can I sit?
[snapping out of his haze]
Oh, uh- yeah, go ahead. That's fine.
[taking the seat to the left of ALAN]
Thanks.
Yeah, of course.
[ALAN resumes filling out his prayer, kisses it, and then places it in his pocket. NASH tries not to watch, but does. Their backs are turned to the audience.]
[after a beat of silence]
So, uh... what do you do for work?
Oh. I'm, uh... I'm a professor.
Really? What subject?
Computer science. I did some work in operating systems before that.
Oh, wow.
Yeah. I run a tea shop now, though. I'm retired.
You're lucky to retire early.
[ALAN trails off in nervous chuckles. This is obviously not the case.]
What do you do for work?
I'm an electrical engineer.
Oh, really?
Yeah. I did some... large systems, stuff like that.
You're good at physics, then?
Uhh, a little. Not too much. I never really understood momentum, but I got the voltage stuff just fine.
[small chuckle]
I was terrible at it.
Aww, don't say that.
No, really. I was better at maths. I originally wanted to be a computer engineer. I always got the theoretical stuff, but I totally blew it when it came to applications.
What did you teach?
Kind of a wide array of classes. Object oriented programming, computational theory, operating systems...
What'd your students think of you?
I tried to make it easy for the both of us. You can't please everyone.
[NASH laughs and pats ALAN on the shoulder. As soon as his laughter reaches back to him, he is suddenly acutely aware of the space he's in and where he's at. He sobers up quickly.]
[cutting himself off with a cough]
So, uh... whose funeral is this?
[turning towards him, with a whisper]
You don't know either?
No.
[ALAN lets out a sigh of relief.]
Okay. Okay. I'm not happy someone's dead, I'm happy I'm not the only one who's in the dark here.
[standing up]
Why don't we just go find out?
[Before ALAN can stop him or do anything, NASH walks up towards the front and peers into the casket.]
What the...
[NASH turns around and gestures for either of them to come look. ALAN and KONSTANTIN make their way to the front of the room and peer into the casket.]
[reaching into the casket]
What the hell?
[ALAN and KONSTANTIN watch passively as he plays with a ball of matted yarn. Steadily, he unhooks it, knot by knot, until the last knot remains. When he unties it-]