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{I. Eve}
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EVE: A starry-eyed insurgent--a woman whose acts of rebellion are catalyzed by the desire to realize her own romantic notions; when she is afraid, she never fails to challenge those who threaten to diminish her--even when her own destruction is an absolute.
CHORUS MEMBER FLORA: A representation of Mother Nature, simultaneously delicate and powerful.
CHORUS MEMBER SERVANTS 1 and CHORUS MEMBER SERVANT 2: Submissive, just as any servant is expected to be.
CHORUS MEMBER DEITY (APHRODITE): Sensual, maintaining the same starry-eyed insurgence as EVE. However, APHRODITE also displays nuances of ethereal grandeur.
Lights up.
EVE stands upstage left, profiled to the audience. To her left, is CHORUS MEMBER FLORA, who stands upon a golden trunk. Her left arm, presumably the arm closet to EVE, is raised above her head, outstretched like the limb of a tree. Her right arm is clasped against her heart. In her left hand, she holds an apple.
EVE: Condemned in the loveliest place conceivable. (She takes in her surroundings with an affectionate whimsicalness.) My Eden...fields carpeted with a riotous green, meadows freckled with flowers--rosemary violets, pansies, daisies. Forests dense in foliage and trees draped in fruit. (She caresses the face of CHORUS MEMBER FLORA with a curious seduction to her movements.) Branches bowing under the weight of pomegranates and oranges and pears and figs and-- (as she speaks, she trails her hand up the arm of CHORUS MEMBER FLORA, reaching for the apple) apples--scarlet, plump with juices. The very nectar of magic.
CHORUS MEMBER FLORA grabs EVE's wrist abruptly with her right hand.
EVE: (Quietly, as if in a trance.) Condemned.
CHORUS MEMBER FLORA considers EVE for a moment, her hand still wrapped tightly around EVE's wrist, as if to warn her of the sin she is about to commit. (beat.) EVE does not relent. CHORUS MEMBER FLORA accepts EVE's choice, releases her grip, and hands EVE the apple. EVE accepts it somewhat hesitantly--but ultimately with satisfaction.
(beat.)
EVE and CHORUS MEMBER FLORA together: Cursed.
Looking defiantly towards the sky, EVE bites into the apple. The sound of thunder booms around her, to which she ducks down behind CHORUS MEMBER FLORA. (beat.) EVE emerges once the thunder has subsided. She places the apple back in the hand of CHORUS MEMBER FLORA, her focus no longer directed towards the magic the apple symbolizes, but her motivation to fight for that magic.
EVE and CHORUS MEMBER FLORA together: (With brewing hostility.) Cursed were the women---
EVE: (Defiantly.) But not by me.
APHRODITE enters stage right, accompanied by CHORUS MEMBER SERVANT 1 and CHORUS MEMBER SERVANT 2. At this point CHORUS MEMBER SERVANT 1 and CHORUS MEMBER SERVANT 2 conceal APHRODITE behind swatches of blue silks that billow with motions similar to that of rippling water.
EVE: For our fate was determined eons before the forbidden fruit. There was a deity.
' The breath of the west wind bore her
over the sounding sea
up from the delicate foam...'
(With lyrical gesticulations, CHORUS MEMBER SERVANTS drop the silks concealing APHRODITE and proceed to tie it around her in the style of a toga.)
NOTE: The above passage can be found among the Homeric Hymns.
EVE: A woman possessing a sublime, unadulterated beauty, she was worshipped by the masses. (beat.) Aphrodite--the Greek Goddess of love.
CHORUS MEMBER SERVANT 1 waltzes APHRODITE towards stage left. Meanwhile, CHORUS MEMBER SERVANT 2 waits at the trunk. CHORUS MEMBER SERVANT 1 twirls APHRODITE into the arms of CHORUS MEMBER TWO who then dips APHRODITE.
EVE: As her descendants, we, the women, have inherited her beauty, her relentless ability to love, (with dark realization) and her tragedy.
CHORUS MEMBER SERVANT 2 and CHORUS MEMBER FLORA help APHRODITE onto the trunk. CHORUS MEMBERS SERVANTS fall to their knees in reverence, each positioned on either side of the trunk. They are profiled to the audience. Meanwhile, CHORUS MEMBER FLORA also falls to her knees in front of the trunk. Slowly, she raises her hands and covers her face in a slow, wilting motion (like a weather-torn tree).
EVE: We too, have been damned by her infidelity.
APHRODITE moans, throwing her head back in an orgasmic motion while falling to her knees; EVE too falls to her knees; CHORUS MEMBER SERVANTS and CHORUS MEMBER FLORA drop their foreheads to the ground in agony (similar to child's pose).
NOTE: These actions MUST be carried out simultaneously.
NOTE: The sound of thunder rumbles softy under EVE's words as she speaks.
EVE: For her affair with Ares, with whom she conceived a child, Aphrodite was punished by her husband Hephaestus. (Both EVE and APHRODITE whip their heads abruptly to the left as if they have both been struck across the face.)
EVE: He cursed the child spawned by Aphrodite's adultery. Her name was Harmonia, and on the night of her nuptials, he gifted to her a necklace, one that would bring grave torment to anyone who dare wore it.
As if in a fanciful daydream, EVE and APHRODITE trace their fingers along their collarbones in unison.
EVE: Spun from the creamiest gold--two serpents intertwined, bodies encrusted with the most prismatic of gems. (beat.) The necklace was eventually burned, or, at least, it was presumed to be. (beat.) For its spirit is eternal.
EVE and APHRODITE together: Every woman born after Aphrodite shall wear its phantoms around her neck like an execution until she too is nothing but an apparition--a fleeting presence lost among the wreckage of her soul.
EVE: Lost, despite the ribbons we tie around our fingers. Then again, perhaps they were never truly ribbons--just nooses knotted in lovely packaging, forever awaiting our downfall.
(beat.)
EVE and APHRODITE together: Condemned.
Thunder rumbles once again.
EVE and APHRODITE together: (Whispering ominously.) Cursed.
There is a bright flash of light--presumably lighting--which strikes EVE and APHRODITE down, killing them both.. EVE lies motionless on the ground, her back to the audience.
NOTE: APHRODITE dies with her eyes open.
CHORUS MEMBER FLORA places the apple in APHRODITE's mouth so that she resembles a slaughtered animal at a feast.
CHORUS MEMBER SERVANTS and CHORUS MEMBER FLORA carry APHRODITE's lifeless body offstage.
{Fin}
Image source:
Lana Del Rey Tropico gif (n.d.). [image] Available at: https://giphy.com/gifs/lana-del-rey-j1SDXl5zYjTYk [Accessed 10 Feb. 2019]
#Aphrodite #Ares #beauty #blogger #blogging #broken #condemned #curse #darkness #death #desire #Eden #emotion #Eve #femininity #goddess #Harmonia #heartbreak #insurgence #insurgent #lonely #lost #mythology #nature #Ophelia #rebel #rebellion #reincarnation #romance #stageplay #theatre #tragedy #women
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