Stage Direction / Blocking used in this scene:
CS (Center Stage) – The middle of the stage
SL (Stage Left) – from the performer’s perspective (the audience’s right)
SR (Stage Right) – from the performer’s perspective (the audience’s left)
DSL (Downstage Left) – The front left area of the stage (audience’s right)
FOURTH WALL: The invisible wall between the stage and the audience
ACT 1 – SCENE 1
STAGE IS BLACK
A DEEP, MENACING NOTE drones in the darkness.
Lights come up dimly to reveal THREE HOSPITAL BEDS spaced evenly apart. One bed is positioned SR, one CS, and the other SL. The two outside beds are angled outward at 45 degrees.
On each bed is a TEENAGE PATIENT. Their movements are subtle, hinting at their agony, intense and silent in the shadows.
A PIANO begins a REPETITION OF NOTES. As the drone fades, the piano continues, relentless as a ticking clock. A PLAINTIVE VIOLIN adds a HAUNTING MELODY across the inexorable march of time.
NURSE LISA is there in blue scrubs, going from bed to bed, gently tending to the patients.
THREE BLANK CREAM-COLORED FLATS loom behind the heads of the beds. The spaces between the flats are hung with BLACK SCRIM/VEILS. These are passageways to Beyond, the thin place between Now and Eternity.
CHRISTINE CAREY (CHRIS), a stern-faced medical doctor in her early forties enters SL, clutching a clipboard tightly to her chest, as if the documentation and data can somehow shield her from the inevitable loss of her patients. She stands DSL in her white lab coat almost motionless — slender, straight, and stalwart, staring through the FOURTH WALL, realities and memories in her eyes. It’s as if things are only happening in her mind. Pensively she begins to sing.
CHRIS
The sound of your voice
The beat of your heart
Life’s own serenade
I watch them fade away from you
As hard as I try
As long as you wait
The myst’ry still remains
Our search has been in vain for a cure
As the music quickens, PAIN BOY, in the bed SL, begins to writhe in agony. He struggles to get out of bed, his pleas for a swift end to his sufferings expressed in his screams of despair. While he sings, a DIM GREEN LIGHT comes on behind the veils revealing SPIRIT TEENS in hospital gowns walking back and forth. They represent patients who have already died and symbolize the mystery of Beyond.
PAIN BOY
Carry me across the river
I wanna leave this pain behind
Bury me across the river
I’ll take a chance on what I’ll find
Ah-h-h-h! Ah-h-h-h!
Ah-h-h-h! Ah-h-h-h!
You can take your years of hours
Stroll through life and feel so free
I can’t take another minute
The time I have left is hell to me
Ah-h-h-h! Ah-h-h-h!
Ah-h-h-h! Ah-h-h-h!
Pain Boy falls back onto his bed.
HEAVEN GIRL, in the bed CS, tries to stand but barely has enough strength to sit up.
HEAVEN GIRL
I can tell my time is near
Will I worry or have no fear?
I have done the best I could
Been forgiven and lived for good
I know I’ll be in heaven
I’ll be right there in heaven
Loved ones I must leave behind
Don’t you cry for me, I don’t mind
I have lived and laughed with you
Now I’m going to somewhere new
I will see you in heaven
I’ll be waiting in heaven
I’ll be right there in heaven, heaven…
Exhausted, Heaven Girl collapses back onto her pillow.
LIVIN’ BOY’s voice rings out as he valiantly struggles out of his bed SR and stands defiantly on his feet.
LIVIN’ BOY
I plan on livin’ for a long, long time
I’m not givin’ up. I’m not givin’ up
That shadow man ain’t no friend of mine
I’m not givin’ up. I’m not givin’ up
I’ve got hopes and I’ve got lots of dreams
I’m not givin’ up. I’m not givin’ up
It doesn’t matter how bad it seems
I’m not givin’ up. I’m not givin’ up
As pain overcomes him, Livin’ Boy stumbles back against his bed.
LIVIN’ BOY and PAIN BOY
Ah-h-h-h! Ah-h-h-h!
Ah-h-h-h! Ah-h-h-h!
Pain Boy and Livin’ Boy repeat their verses in counterpoint to one another.
Spirit Kids add their voices as they enter through the veils and gather around the beds of the dying teens. Their voices rising in a crescendo with the patients’ last words.
HEAVEN GIRL and ALL
I’ll be right there in heaven, heaven…
The ticking-clock piano returns.
The teens lie still on their beds.
A SPIRIT goes to Heaven Girl and offers her hand. Heaven Girl takes it and rises from bed easily without weakness or pain. The spirit puts an arm around Heaven Girl and walks with her through the veil.
Other Spirit Kids escort Pain Boy, who is no longer in agony, through the veil.
Livin’ Boy is last. Spirits accompany him to the veil and pass through before him.
Nurse Lisa goes to each empty bed, gently and lovingly pulling the sheets up as if covering the teenager who has just died.
Still staring through the fourth wall, Chris begins to sing, sadly now, as if she knows without looking that each of the teenagers is gone.
CHRIS
The sound of your voice
The beat of your heart
Life’s own serenade
I watch them fade away from you.
As Chris sings her last line, Livin’ Boy, who has just reached the veil, hesitates, looks back wistfully one more time, then steps through into Beyond.
MUSIC FADES
STAGE TO BLACK