A play by Dingyi Liu ('17)
The Characters:
Santouche (from Mac Wellman's play Harm's Way)
McMurphy (from Ken Kesey's novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest)
Scene: In a government office building, which is surrounded by the sounds of rhinoceroses: "Brrrrrrra….." In the office building, an office desk stands in the middle, a landline telephone on the upper right office desk, and broken window glass on the floor, shattered by the rhinoceros. The door is on the upper left side of the stage.
(Santouche enters through the door, and looks out the broken window.)
Santouche: What the hell is that place? Where am I? Am I in the zoo? Or in a show?
(Santouche notices the landline telephone, but the line has been cut off. Bang! the door opens again, and McMurphy rushes into the room. He looks around the room and sees Santouche.)
McMurphy: Who are you, man?
Santouche: Who are you?!
McMurphy: Oh, well, my name is Randle Patrick McMurphy, you can just call me McMurphy.
Santouche: Well, shithead, what hell are you doing here? What’s happening here?
McMurphy: I have no idea, I remember I was killed by someone. By the way, my name is not shithead!
(Santouche recall his memory)
Santouche: I remember I sank to the ground, I spaced out, and…. I am here.
McMurphy: It seems we are here for a reason, what is your name?
Santouche: Santouche.
(McMurphy walks around the room, and looks outside while he talks to Santouche)
McMurphy: Santouche, my friend, I think we can get out of here, if we can cooperate.
Santouche: You got money?
McMurphy: Money? No.
Santouche: Then I am not gonna help you.
(McMurphy thinks a while)
McMurphy: Oh well, do you want to play a game? If you win, I can give this gold watch to you, if I win, you have to help me get out of here, sound good?
(Santouche stares at the gold watch for a few minutes, and finds that the gold watch still works; it's not broken!)
Santouche: Fair enough. What is the game?
McMurphy: Easy game, a coin-tossing game. Which side will be up?
Santouche: Heads.
(McMurphy toss the coin really high into the air, and then he grabs it using his big hand.)
McMurphy: Congratulations! Tails!
(McMurphy plays a trick in the game, but Santouche doesn’t know he is a gambler, the possibility of the coin game for McMurphy is 100% he will win)
Santouche: Damn it.
(Braa…..Rhinoceros running in cycle around the office building)
McMurphy: Here is the plan. You see the broken window? We can use the table to destroy it completely. Then you jump out, and your job is to run as fast as you can to the right side, and I will go get the car in a few yards. Also, here is the deal, if you can do it, the gold watch is still yours. Don’t let me down.
(Santouche’e eyes fill with money signs.)
Santouche: Deal
(Barrr………………, Santouche jumps out of the window.)
Santouche: Come here, I am right here.
(Santouche runs really fast, but there are too many rhinoceroses. Santouche is surrounded by the rhinoceroses.)
Santouche: Hey, I wasn’t really planning to make you guys angry.
(Braaa…………. Rhinoceroses get closer to him)
Santouche: Damn it.
Chorus: You gonna kill all the rhinos, mister?
You gonna kill all the rhinos, mister?
………
(On the other side, McMurphy jumps out after Santouche diverted the rhinoceros’ attention. A few minutes later, McMurphy gets the car, and goes back to Santouche, but he finds that Santouche died under the rhinoceroses.)
McMurphy: What did I do?
(McMurphy feels it was him that let Santouche die.)
McMurphy: I was just trying to get out of here….
(McMurphy tries to drive away from rhinoceroses, but soon he realizes that he can never get out of this place.)
McMurphy: What can I do?
(A group of rhinoceroses gather in front of the car.)
Santouche died for money. McMurphy wanted to be a hero and save Santouche and himself, but caused both of them to be in a dangerous place. He finally realized how weak he is, but he tried. So hard.