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A Brief History of Why My Only Husband Drowned Himself in a Full Suit of Armor

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A Brief History of Why My Only Husband Drowned Himself in a Full Suit of Armor A Brief History of Why My Only Husband Drowned Himself in a Full Suit of Armor by Stephanie Grilo Name Address Phone Number Agency Information CHARACTER NAME BRIEF DESCRIPTION AGE GENDER Elizabeth A widow. An actress. A playwright. 28 F A suffragette. George A drowned man in a suit of armor. 32 M Also an actor. Edwin Booth An honest and kind man of the 53 M theatre. Very much like his father, in talent, but not in looks. Henrik Ibsen Self important but still a Great. 48 M Helena Modjeska/ A Polish actress, in love with Leslie. 25 F Marion Lea/ Part of Edwin Booth's touring troupe. Young Woman Marion, a rowdy Colorado woman 31 F now turned London Suffragette and actress. Leslie Wright An African American actor in the late 24 M 1800's. Part of Edwin Booth's touring troupe. Elizabeth's dear friend. The Kid/1st Baron Frederick 10-15 Non-Binary Pethic-Lawrence/Train Conductor SCENE ONE. A Woman, a Suffragette, a Daughter, but never a Wife--at least not for long--enters. She rolls an overhead projector along with her. She notices us like from a distant star, but carries on her way. The projector is plugged into an outlet along the barren upstage wall. Its health-class glow illuminates her in a way that immortalizes her. She positions the laminate slide just precisely. Everything she does is precise. The slides appear in grand scale . Slide #1: A young couple in a daguerreotype photograph. Slide #2: The man on a gaslit stage in velvet doublets and breeches. Slide #3: The woman alone on a boat with a parasol. Slide #4: A Victorian Home covered in Spanish Moss. Slide #5: A close up of the woman staring blankly into the camera lens. Slide #6: The man adorned in full stage armor. Slide #7: The close up of the woman once more. Slide #6: A lake, same as the boat and parasol scene, only this time at night. Suddenly the light of the projector clicks off, the stage becomes the image projected. From off we can hear the CLANK CLANK CLANK of an-armor-clad-something-approaching. The Woman freezes. 2. Shadows of the armored figure sweep past the stage. And then, just as the Woman follows the traces of the shadow with her eyes, The MAN in ARMOR enters. This is GEORGE. The woman, ELIZABETH, watches him. He watches her. He moves a little, encumbered by his armor, and yet insists. She mimics his movement. GEORGE Elizabeth. ELIZABETH George. He moves again. She follows/ GEORGE Elizebeth. ELIZABETH George. He hesitates. She calls his bluff, he moves, she mimics/ GEORGE Elizabeth! ELIZABETH George! They are children in this moment. They square off. ELIZABETH You always were a terrible dancer. 3. GEORGE And those moves got you kicked out of the only troupe who’d have you. ELIZABETH I wanted to get kicked out. GEORGE Bologna. ELIZABETH His brother killed a president, did you know? GEORGE I heard. Tragic. ELIZABETH ... GEORGE What? ELIZABETH Nothing. GEORGE What? ELIZABETH I hate that word. GEORGE And? ELIZABETH Ever since/ GEORGE AND? ELIZABETH Your story has become mine. GEORGE That was the point. 4. ELIZABETH That was the point? GEORGE Yes. ELIZABETH I thought it was because you were a drunk. GEORGE And that. ELIZABETH Yes, and THAT and now my life’s story cannot escape your life’s exit. GEORGE ... ELIZABETH What? GEORGE Nothing. ELIZABETH What? GEORGE You’ve changed/ ELIZABETH I’ve changed. I’ve changed? I’ve changed! I have changed. GEORGE You have. ELIZABETH I was forced to. GEORGE You’re changing has nothing to do with my exit. It has everything to do with/ ELIZABETH Do not tell me what my change was changed for. My change was a change for many! My change was necessary. 5. GEORGE And that’s how you have changed. You’ve evolved. ELIZABETH George, do not compare me to a moth emerging from its cocoon. I have simply moved on. I am not a spring hen, and I am certainly not a moth or a butterfly or anything else that transforms. GEORGE (referring to the projector) What’s that for? ELIZABETH A documentary. GEORGE About? ELIZABETH Insects. GEORGE What’s it really about? ELIZABETH You. GEORGE ... ELIZABETH What? GEORGE Nothing. ELIZABETH GEORGE! GEORGE Am I flattering in it? ELIZABETH Hardly. 6. GEORGE Are you? ELIZABETH What kind of question is that? Of course I am. GEORGE Well that’s your first mistake. ELIZABETH If you’ve come back to tell me that I was the reason why you ended up in the bottom of that GOD FORSAKEN LAKE, SO HELP ME GEORGE I WILL SCREAM! GEORGE ... ELIZABETH George... GEORGE You weren’t not NOT the/reason. ELIZABETH (screams) During Elizabeth’s screaming, George finds his way to the projector, slowly climbs atop it and begins shattering it to bits. There is something primal, untethered and also incredibly immature and unsettling about it. Once she’s finished screaming, Elizabeth just looks on. After some time. GEORGE There. ELIZABETH There? GEORGE How will you document it now? 7. ELIZABETH I suppose I won’t. GEORGE You won’t? ELIZABETH How can I? You’ve destroyed my only means to. GEORGE You have a second one of these surely. Lying around backstage somewhere. You always did have tricks. That’s the kind of actress you were. Nothing real, just tricks. ELIZABETH I thought you were a beautiful performer. A shared look of suspicion. GEORGE ...I had my successes. ELIZABETH Your last performance was your best. GEORGE I’d rather you didn’t speak of my/ ELIZABETH Not that one. The real one. What I mean to say is the real-fake one. The stage one, George. That was the best performance you ever did. It’s why your story is entangled in mine. The public really loved you, George. I wish you knew that. GEORGE You mean it? ELIZABETH They won’t stop talking about you. Even now. GEORGE What do they say? ELIZABETH They mostly speak of your brilliance. 8. GEORGE I can settle for that. It is a little vague, but not half as bad as I imagined. (beat) Wait. You’re lying. You lied. Of course you did. ELIZABETH What was my tell? GEORGE That lock of hair--the one just above your left eye--it falls out of place. Every. Time. Drove me crazy. ELIZABETH Drove you crazy? Imagine what it does to me. I could never gamble--Why are you here George? GEORGE Same reason you are I suppose. ELIZABETH No that cannot be the reason. Because if it were the reason, it would simply further my argument that you, George, are trying to sabotage my successes even in the afterlife. GEORGE Who’s to say I’m not? ELIZABETH I’m telling the real story. GEORGE And which is that? ELIZABETH The one where you stole everything from me. GEORGE Oh stop being dramatic/It was just your career. ELIZABETH That was once what you said you loved about me. GEORGE Well I lied. 9. Elizabeth begins hastily picking up the pieces of the broken projector. ELIZABETH And that is the very reason why I MUST tell this story the way it was MEANT to be told! GEORGE You can’t fix it, it’s broken. I broke it. ELIZABETH I can! That’s what I do! I fix. You break. I woman. You man. Waitwaitwaitwait--I fix. You break. You woman. I man. No. Wait. No. I break woman, you fix. NO! You broke man, you fix! She continues piling the pieces of plastic into her cradled arms. It quickly becomes an impressive tower that she balances like a circus act. GEORGE Elizabeth. ELIZABETH George. She now tilts her body sideways continuing to balance the tower. She is now VERY impressive. GEORGE Elizabeth... ELIZABETH George... In the midst of her tilt she now tries to switch the tower from one hand to the other-- GEORGE ELIZABETH! Elizabeth jerks her head toward him. ELIZABETH GEORGE! The pieces of the tower come crumbling down. 10. A strong silence. They both stare at the wreckage. Elizabeth slowly turns to us and acknowledges us for the first time since the beginning of the play. ELIZABETH (to audience) George’s armor is fake everyone! GEORGE No it bloody/ is not! ELIZABETH That’s right! It’s fake everyone! In case you were gaining sympathy/ for him by this point in the story, don’t bother. Because it’s ALLLLLLLLL fake! GEORGE Sympathy?! Sympathy?! What do you think that little act of yours was just now?? If that wasn’t pulling at heart strings, then I don’t know what is. You rascal. You are one dirty/ little rascal. ELIZABETH You’re a reenactment actor. GEORGE What? ELIZABETH If I do tricks, than all you do is reenact. You’re no better than me. GEORGE (he turns) You’re right. ELIZABETH ... GEORGE ... ELIZABETH ... 11. GEORGE ... ELIZABETH ...are you? GEORGE Am I what ? ELIZABETH Are you crying...? GEORGE No, I am/ not crying! ELIZABETH You are! You’re pouting. I can’t believe you’re pouting right now! GEORGE (beat) I have to go , Elizabeth. ELIZABETH ... GEORGE This has been/ ELIZABETH Don’t. GEORGE You have been/ ELIZABETH Don’t, George. GEORGE Without you I am/ ELIZABETH Dead. 12. A fog of silence pressurizes the stage. Blue light, layered with crystalline swirls, beams from where George entered the stage before. He take s one last look at Elizabeth. She turns her back to him.
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