4.18.2010: The Chair of Forgetfulness (My friend, you cannot look behind)

Theseus and Pirithous, the best of friends. They are in the underworld, at the Chair of Forgetfulness.

THESEUS
it's alright.

PIRITHOUS
No.

THESEUS
I'll be here. I promise. I'm not going anywhere.

PIRITHOUS
Absolutely not.

THESEUS
We've talked this through. There's no surprise. You sit in the chair...

PIRITHOUS
The Chair of Forgetfulness...

THESEUS
Yes. You sit in the chair, and it all goes away. Everything.

PIRITHOUS
Everything.

THESEUS
The pain. The disappointment. The failure.

PIRITHOUS
Everything.

THESEUS
And I'll be standing here. Right here. Waiting for you once you're ready to go.

There's a pause.

PIRITHOUS
I'm scared. I'm sorry, I know I shouldn't be. I know we've gone over this. but I'm scared. I sit in the chair, and it all falls away -- all the terrible miserable awful things I don't want to carry another moment -- but what if when they fall away, so does everything else -- all the good, all the joy, music, memories, my loves, you...

THESEUS
This is my promise to you, my friend.
This place,
this myth,
this is ours.

This space that was created
without you in it
now seems much richer and fuller
and more alive
with you in it.

So in this space,
this space that I keep alive
for almost no one else but you,
I promise that the only thing you forget
when you sit in that chair
are the things you want to forget.

Everything else is yours.

It's a fiction, yes,
but it's all I can do.
And I want to give you a space
where there is no sadness
and the world is exactly what you want the world to be.

So sit.
Forget.

And when you're done,
the world is yours to make.

It's a meager gift, but it's the best he can do. Theseus motions for Pirithous to sit. And Pirithous does. And the burden he carries melts away. Only the bad parts. Because in this play, the myth is what I make it.

Pirithous is happy. The world is well.