The Mural
by Sheri Grutz
The Mural (an all silent play)
Lights up on a stage with one huge wall
of a Starry Night Van Gogh mural, holes in the wall, where faces are
sticking out of it, painted like the painting, making a living mural.
They have their mouths open. Enter from the side stage 3 people who
approach the wall, and each of them feed the mouths some kind of
hostess or Twinkie treats. The faces chew it, then each one
separately makes a wide eyed, oh Wow expression, then bad after taste
expression, then a pouting expression, then a broken face fake crying
expression, then each of them closes their eyes and falls asleep.
The 3 people walk off stage. Lights out.
Lights back on, this time, in the same
wall are different people's faces sticking out of the holes without
face paint, and they are terribly angry, silently ranting and raving
and cursing. The same 3 people walk up to the wall, and they tack
paper bodies underneath their head, with each body having a zig zag
pick up sticks in red and white connecting what looks like stars but
are body implants. Each of the 3 people untape the pick up sticks,
then the stars and make each body wear an American flag. The anger
and ranting and raving and cursing stops, then the faces just smile
slightly. The 3 people walk off stage. Lights out.
Lights back on, and the same faces that
are painted into the mural are back sticking out of the wall, without
the body flags on them, and this time they move their heads from side
to side, and this time the 3 people come from side stage and they
tack on what looks like a casino game of trying to match fruit, and
one person matches two, the other has all different ones, and other
has all 3 pears in a row. The faces leave the holes, and there is
obvious scuffling from behind the wall, then 3 different places
determining who wins. A woman comes from side stage carrying a large
bag of coins, or tokens, and she places it by the wall under the face
of the winner. He gets wide eyed. He comes to front of stage on all
4's and takes the bag of mouth between his teeth, then crawls off
stage. The woman and the 3 people walk off stage, the other faces in
the wall look mean and mad. Lights out.
Lights back on. The holes in the wall
have been covered with cardboard painted in line with the mural of
Starry Night. Enter the 3 people who's faces are painted, the one
man with the coins, had them in his pocket, but there's a hole in his
pocket, and the coins are falling out the bottom of his pant leg, and
the other two are picking some of them up, they each take a look at
the wall, then they huddle together with heads pressed against each
other. Enter the 3 people who were in the wall without faces
painted, and the 3 huddled together jump back from each other, then
they spit on the chests of the other 3 with American flags on them.
The 3 being spit upon have wet cloths they take from their back
pockets and they wipe the faces of those who are painted. When they
do, the ones painted, take a deep breath, then pass out each at
separate times. Enter the same 3 people who were doing the work, and
they drag each of the 3 painted faces off stage. Remaining are the 3
unpainted faces and they line up facing the audience, showing their
American flags. The woman who gave the one the bag of coins or
tokens walks up to each of them, and with a finger gun to the head,
she shoots each of them, and they fall to the stage. She walks off
stage slowly. Enter the 3 people who did the work, and dragged off
the bodies of the painted faces. Now, they drag off the bodies of
the unpainted faces.
Lights up on mural. Enter the woman
who gave the coins and did the shooting, and she's got half her face
painted like the mural, and the other half not. She punches out the
cardboard in each face hole, then she takes a corner side of the
paper attached to the mural, and she rips it straight down, then she
stands right where she ripped it, with her painted side of face in
the mural, and the unpainted side, just showing a blank wall. Enter
the 3 people who did all the work, and the come out, very happy and
jolly, and they proceed to throw bean bags into each hole in the
mural, and the woman standing there has no expression, until she
takes a small American flag from inside her jacket, and she waves it
slowly while walking slowly off stage. The 3 people that made the
bean bags, look at her and throw their arms like, What the heck? We
just won! The woman turns back and looks at them and says, “I'm
not a fair lady.”
She walks off stage slowly. The 3
people look questioningly at each other. They pick up the bean bags,
and walks happily off stage, patting each other. Lights up on the
mural, nearly mutilated. The man who won the money saunters on
stage, squints his eyes at the mural, then aggressively knocks it
over with a crash. He nods his head, and then slowly walks off
stage.
Lights out. The end.
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