4.4.2007: Exegesis

The Chair of Forgetfulness. Pirithous sits here.

The Guy and The Fella, apart.

PIRITHOUS
Repeat.

THE GUY
I can’t see you anymore.

THE FELLA
Why?

THE GUY
This has been great and all. But I’m moving back in with him.

THE FELLA
But you broke up.

THE GUY
I know.

THE FELLA
You broke up. You moved out. You’re dating me.

THE GUY
I know.

THE FELLA
Why are you doing this?

THE GUY
I have to. It was five years…

THE FELLA
But you have me now. This is going well. I thought this was going really well.

THE GUY
I know.

THE FELLA
Then why are you doing this?

THE GUY
Because I have to do this. I spent five years with someone. This has been, what? A few months? One officially. I can’t just undo all of that so easily. I need to make sure.

THE FELLA
But you’ll turn you back on this.

THE GUY
I know.

THE FELLA
You’ll turn you back on me.

THE GUY
I need to make sure. I’m sorry.

PRITHOUS
Repeat.

THE GUY
I can’t see you anymore.

THE FELLA
Why?

THE GUY
This has been great and all. But I’m moving back in with him.

THE FELLA
But you broke up.

THE GUY
I know.

THE FELLA
You broke up. You moved out. You’re dating me.

There’s a moment. The Guy seems to make a shift. He pulls away from the Fella. He moves downstage and speaks to where The Voice of the Playwright can be found.

THE GUY
Stop this. I can’t do this anymore. I can’t keep going over and over this one moment. This one failure. And I have been playing it over and over again for months. Because this one choice. This one single choice. It gnaws at me. It persists. It yells at me down hallways and it will not let me go.

I feel like this has set every other thing on its course.
And every course is uncertain.
This one misstep has sent the whole mechanism out of whack.
There was a road to be followed, and I opted not to follow it.
Now I’m wandering down some uncharted path.

Sometimes I am too scared to move.
I’m always looking over my shoulder.
Why am I always looking over my shoulder?
What’s been lost is lost, and you can’t get it back.
Stop replaying this one thing.
This one error.
This one choice out of thousands of good ones you’ve made in your life.
Let this go.

PIRITHOUS
Repeat.

THE GUY
No.

PIRITHOUS
Repeat.

THE GUY
No. I won’t. I won’t continue this anymore.

The Fella turns to him.

THE FELLA
I may never look at you again the way I looked at you that night.
I wanted you to choose me.
You didn’t.

That’s what has happened.
Either accept it, or erase everything.
But you cannot go back.

The Guy hears this. He makes a decision.

He moves to the Chair of Forgetfulness. Pirithous stands. The Guy takes the position to sit down in the chair.

He looks at the Fella. He tries to memorize him.

He sits in the Chair. He closes his eyes.

A moment passes. The Guy’s face clouds over. Things disappear from it. Trouble evaporates from the features of his face. He relaxes. Calm.

He opens his eyes.

The lights go down.