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Agrippina by A Agrippina By A. Giovanni Affi nito greenroompress.com AGRIPPINA By A. Giovanni Affinito Copyright © MMIV by A. Giovanni Affinito, All rights reserved. CAUTION: Professionals and amateurs are hereby warned that this Work is subject to a royalty. This Work is fully protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America and all countries with which the United States has reciprocal copyright relations, whether through bilateral or multilateral treaties or otherwise, and including, but not limited to, all countries covered by the Pan-American Copyright Convention, the Universal Copyright Convention and the Berne Convention. RIGHTS RESERVED: All rights to this Work are strictly reserved, including professional and amateur stage performance rights. 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COPYING: Any unauthorized copying of this Work or excerpts from this Work is strictly forbidden by law. No part of this Work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, by any means now known or yet to be invented, including photocopying or scanning, without prior permission from Green Room Press, INC. GREEN ROOM PRESS, INC. P.O. BOX 248 • CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA 52406 TOLL FREE (888) 350-5005 • FAX (319) 368-8011 2 AGRIPPINA AGRIPPINA By A. Giovanni Affinito SYNOPSIS: Powerful women take center stage in this classic story of ambition, lust, and betrayal. Agrippina is the widowed mother of the Emperor Nero, and she will do just about anything to have her way. The problem is that everyone else in the Roman court is just as willing to back- stab, betray, seduce and manipulate in order to get into a position of power. Relationships are tested, lies are told and blood is spilled in this epic tale of ancient Rome. CAST OF CHARACTERS (3 female, 7 male, 1 either) AGRIPPINA (f) ....................... The dowager empress of Rome. A woman in her forties or fifties. (146 lines) DELIA (f) ................................ AGRIPPINA’s personal slave, intensely loyal to the empress. (16 lines) PALLAS (m) ............................ AGRIPPINA’s lover and Minister to NERO. PALLAS is a graying, muscular man in his forties or fifties. (89 lines) BURRUS (m) ........................... NERO’s former tutor, grave and Iago-like. A man in his fifties. (97 lines) OTHO (m) ................................ Minister to NERO, an ambitious, vain dandy in his thirties. (64 lines) AGERINUS (m)....................... Slave to AGRIPPINA. (9 lines) NERO (m) ................................ Young emperor of Rome. A superstitious, paranoid man in his twenties. (183 lines) HERCULEIUS (m) .................. Minister. Awkward and bumpkin-like, but dangerous. (58 lines) BY A. GIOVANNI AFFINITO POPPEIA (f) ............................ OTHO’s wife in name only. A beautiful, deceptively sweet woman in her twenties. (43 lines) BRITTANICUS (m) ................ Step-brother to NERO and the true heir to the throne. Early teens. (21 lines) FOODTASTER (m/f) .............. The royal food-taster, male or female. (6 lines) AUTHOR’S NOTES Agrippina is easily produced with minimal props (i.e. a pillar depicting a chamber, etc.) and the usual battery of lights. The many scenes are fused by music, chosen at the discretion of the director(s) and played on several areas of the stage. Costuming is of the mid-first century in Rome. IN MEMORY OF EMILE This perusal script is for reading purposes only. No performance or photocopy rights are conveyed. 4 AGRIPPINA ACT ONE AT RISE: A room in a house on the island of Pandataria off the Campanian coast of Italy. AGRIPPINA, the dowager empress of Rome, a handsome woman in her forties, is sitting motionless on a couch. DELIA, her personal slave, stands upstage, anxiously looking toward the right wing as though through a large window. The room is indicated only by furniture props set before a dark curtain. AGRIPPINA: Do you see anything? DELIA: A boat has docked . but it isn't one of yours. It can't be him. AGRIPPINA: Still no news of him? DELIA: Not last night. Not today. The German guard went out to find him. (Turns to her.) They never came back. AGRIPPINA: Someone has come, out of love or out of hate. But they've come. DELIA: What could have happened? AGRIPPINA: Perhaps he's dead. Killed by a street gang. DELIA: (Begins to sob.) Oh, Augusta! The guard is gone . some of the servants . and tonight . AGRIPPINA: Tonight? Tonight, what? DELIA: I saw the cook leave. What does it mean . why are they all leaving us? AGRIPPINA: They're not leaving, Delia. They're following. They think authority has gone from here, and they follow its scent like a pack of dogs. DELIA: To the emperor? AGRIPPINA: To my son. Do you want to leave me, too? DELIA: I shall never leave you. AGRIPPINA: Why not? Agerinus should have returned by now. Something has clearly gone wrong. Aren't you afraid? DELIA: Only if you are. I've been a slave all of my life and have had nothing of my own except mirrors of your joy, your grief, even your hate. But I've never seen your fear. If I thought you were afraid, I would run out there into the sea. DELIA starts to dress AGRIPPINA's hair. This perusal script is for reading purposes only. No performance or photocopy rights are conveyed. BY A. GIOVANNI AFFINITO AGRIPPINA: Things used to frighten me. Things I've never told anyone. Not even Pallas. Don't bother with my hair. It doesn't matter how I look. There's no one here to notice. PALLAS comes in quietly. He is a graying, muscular man in a long cloak. PALLAS: Someone might. AGRIPPINA: (Rising.) Pallas! How did you get in here? PALLAS: Easily. There's no one at the pier or in any corner of this prison. I thought Nero had shut you up for all time. AGRIPPINA: Then you know I've been exiled . barred from this feverish new society and no longer allowed to roam the royal whorehouse. PALLAS: Have you been allowed visitors? AGRIPPINA: There was a brief visit from my son, accompanied by his crowd of freaks . a quick dutiful embrace and they all took flight like birds after a thunderclap. PALLAS: As I shall. AGRIPPINA: Why are you here, anyway? PALLAS: To see you again. AGRIPPINA: Then you had better go. PALLAS: I came to say goodbye. AGRIPPINA: Again? This is becoming a habit with you. PALLAS: I've been ordered out of the palace too. Deposed. AGRIPPINA: So. He means to take all from me. PALLAS: Then you do care about my leaving? AGRIPPINA: No. But not by his order. PALLAS: Listen, Agrippina. He's not your boy any longer. Did you never think he would discover that the world had shapes other than the rounds of your breasts? That the world isn't bounded by the pillars of your legs? He's a man. This perusal script is for reading purposes only. No performance or photocopy rights are conveyed. 6 AGRIPPINA AGRIPPINA: Hah! Men. How you all hang together with puffed-up chests and flexed muscles. Humanity's seed pods, marching around shouting, WE ARE MEN! Well, WE are the women who nurture your seed. I made Nero. He's MINE! Alright then, Nero is a man. Now that you've given me this good piece of news, why don't you say your goodbye? PALLAS: What will I do with my life? AGRIPPINA: You're rich. As Minister of Finance you had virtual control of the treasury. Count your money. That should fill your days. PALLAS: What about my nights? AGRIPPINA: What shall I say? You think all a woman has to do is say yes to a man and everything will be fine? Should I rot away in exile on this dull island like a senile hag? Nero and Poppeia have beaten me . for now. But I'll never give up to a whore. PALLAS: You talk like the monster everyone says you are. AGRIPPINA: And you, as usual, are a bore.
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