Something Different By William Spear

This is something TOTALLY different for us. When I read this I was almost surprised at how easily it "read" in contrast to many plays I've seen. Yes, you read that correctly, a play! Enjoy, and let us know what you think. Mr. Spear has had several plays produced, including this one. Perhaps you've seen this performed. If so, let us know what you liked about the production and this format.


THE WAGER
By William Spear

Cast (in order of appearance)
1. Old Geraldine Downes-Excitable
2. Terry Moores
3. Young Geraldine Downes-Excitable, arrogant, wealthy
4. Helen Lofted
5. Sal Rubell
6. Pat Chains

Production note:
1. Old Geraldine is frightened and fearful of the bet
about to be paid and its impact on her remaining
wealth. Young Geraldine is reckless and nearly
invincible in her wealth.
2. As wager progresses Geraldine's contempt and hatred
for Pat grows.

Casting notes:
1. Pat requires a distinctive style and pace of
speaking. Old Geraldine imitates it late in play.
2. When reading note, Pat's distinctive speaking style
is tempered and humbled from experience.
3. Old Geraldine needs character and narrator voices.

Background notes:
1. Adapted from Anton Chekhov's "The Bet".


MUSIC: UP AND ESTABLISH: QUAINT CHAMBER PIECE. UNDER
TO BED.

OLD GERALDINE: It was fifteen years ago this very
night. I had a party for bankers and investors-men
and women of considerable wealth-and academics and
intellects-men and women of considerable learning.
One of the academics-Terry Moores-said capital
punishment was out of date...

OLD GERALDINE and TERRY: (OVER BED) ...immoral...

TERRY: ...and unsuitable for the United States.
(EMPHATICALLY) The death penalty should be replaced
by imprisonment for life.

HELEN: Here here. Well said Terry.

YOUNG GERALDINE: I don't agree with you. I've not
tried either the death penalty or imprisonment for
life. But the death penalty is far more moral and
humane than imprisonment for life.

SAL: Well put Geraldine. I quite agree.

HELEN: How can anyone come to that conclusion?

SAL: Capital punishment kills a man at once but
lifelong imprisonment kills him slowly. The
executioner who kills in one moment is more humane
than the one who drags life out of you for years.

TERRY: Both are equally immoral. Both have the same
object-to take away life. The State is not God. It
doesn't have the right to take away what it cannot
restore.

ALL: (SPIRITED ARGUING) "Death penalty." "Life
imprisonment." "Better to be killed at once." "Stay
alive...by all means."

TERRY: (OVER ALL) Pat you've been quiet on the issue.
What does your young mind say?

PAT: The death sentence and the life sentence are
equally immoral. But if I had to choose between the
death penalty and imprisonment for life I'd choose the
second. To live under any circumstances is better
than not to live at all.

SFX: YOUNG GERALDINE SLAMS FIST ONTO TABLE THREE
TIMES.

YOUNG GERALDINE: (EMPHASIZE SFX) No...no...no.
That's not true. I bet five million you wouldn't stay
in solitary confinement for five years.

PAT: If your offer's genuine than I accept the bet.
But I wager fifteen years not five.

YOUNG GERALDINE: Fifteen years? Done. Ladies and
gentlemen I stake five million dollars.

PAT: Agreed. You stake your millions and I stake my
freedom.

MUSIC: UP AND ESTABLISH: DRAMATIC AND CHURNING FROM
PREVIOUS DIALOGUE. UNDER TO BED.

OLD GERALDINE: Supper was a lively affair. I-smug in
my hundreds of millions-taunted Pat. Loudly I
counseled the inexperienced ideologue saying...

MUSIC: QUICKLY OUT: BED.

SFX: BED: SILVERWARE, PLATES, GLASSES: SOUNDS OF
DINNER.

YOUNG GERALDINE: (OVER SFX) Think better of it Young
One while there is still time. To me five million is
nothing. A rounding error by my accountant. But you
are losing four or five of the best years of your
life. You will not last beyond that.

SAL: What Geraldine says is true. And do not forget
that voluntary confinement is a great deal harder to
bear than compulsory. I wager another five million
you do not last the fifteen years.

TERRY: I'll put up five million on Pat's behalf.

HELEN: Count me in for the other five.

YOUNG GERALDINE: The thought that you have the right
to step out into liberty at any moment will poison
your whole existence in prison. (BEAT) I am sorry
for you.

MUSIC: SEGUE. UNDER TO BED.

OLD GERALDINE: "Ten million" was wagered against Pat.
Mere pennies to Sal and me. Unimaginable riches to
Pat.

MUSIC: LET BED BREATHE.

OLD GERALDINE: But what was the object of the bet?
Why should Pat give up fifteen years of life? Why
should we throw away ten million? Could we prove the
death penalty was better or worse than imprisonment
for life?

MUSIC: LET BED BREATHE.

OLD GERALDINE: No no. It was all nonsensical and
meaningless. Simple greed motivated the shallow
youth. Mindless folly born from a rich and pampered
life propelled me.

MUSIC: SEGUE BED TO "GALLOWS" MOOD.

OLD GERALDINE: Pat's imprisonment began that evening.
He was confined to a small cottage on the furthest
reaches of my estate surrounded by woods. Sal read
the terms.

MUSIC: BED: OUT.

SAL: A watchman will supervise the cottage at all
times. You are prohibited from seeing or hearing any
human being. Neither newspapers nor magazines are
permitted. You may not have a television or radio.

TERRY: (ALARMED) No radio? Have mercy on him. A
radio might spare his mind.

SAL: No radio. (RESUMES TO PAT) You may write
letters but may not receive any. You may smoke, drink
wine, read books, play music, or look out the window.
But you must not leave the cottage.

SFX: CLOCK BEGINS STRIKING TWELVE TIMES. BED UNTIL...

YOUNG GERALDINE: Your term of imprisonment is exactly
fifteen years starting from midnight tonight. If you
break these conditions-if only two minutes before the
end-we are released from our obligation to pay you ten
million.

MUSIC: LET BED BREATHE.

OLD GERALDINE: With those words-and the closing of the
heavy wooden door-...

SFX: CLOSING AND LOCKING OF HEAVY WOODEN DOOR.

OLD GERALDINE: ...the imprisonment began.

MUSIC: UP AND ESTABLISH: QUAINT CHAMBER PIECE. UNDER
TO BED.

OLD GERALDINE: During the first year Pat's notes
detailed his loneliness and depression. He played the
piano constantly.

MUSIC: PIANO PUNCTUATES DIALOGUE THROUGHOUT...

OLD GERALDINE: He drank no wine and smoked no tobacco.
He read mostly light novels or sensational
adventures.

MUSIC: LET PIANO SOUNDS BREATHE.

OLD GERALDINE: In the second year he stopped playing
the piano.

MUSIC: BITE CUE: STOP PIANO.

OLD GERALDINE: He read only the classics. (BEAT) In
the fifth year he played the piano again.

MUSIC: UP AND ESTABLISH: ROILING PIECE. UNDER TO
BED.

OLD GERALDINE: Often the watchman heard Pat talking to
himself late at night...

PAT: (OFF MIC: ANGRILY) "How could I have done this
foolish thing. I'm stupid...greedy..."

OLD GERALDINE: ...or crying in the early morning.

PAT: (OFF MIC: OVER MUSIC: SOBBING)

MUSIC: LET BED BREATHE.

OLD GERALDINE: In the sixth year the prisoner devoured
languages, philosophy, and history. He requested new
books each week and we struggled meet his requests.
He consumed six hundred volumes in the next four
years.

MUSIC: LET BED BREATHE.

OLD GERALDINE: In the tenth year he wrote this letter
to us.

MUSIC: BED: OUT.

PAT: (OVER BED: FILTERED) My dear Jailers. I write
these lines in six languages. Show them to people who
know the languages. Let them read them. If they find
not one mistake I implore you to fire two shots over
the cottage.

SAL: (BITE CUE) That violates the terms of the
confinement.

TERRY: It violates nothing. He has simply asked if
his efforts are academically accurate.

SAL: The terms of his imprisonment call for solitary
confinement. He asks us to cheat for him.

HELEN: He asks for nothing of the sort.

YOUNG GERALDINE: (PACING LIKE OLD GERALDINE) Listen
to the rest.

PAT: (FILTERED) Those shots will show me that my
efforts have not been thrown away. The geniuses of
all ages and of all lands speak different languages
but the same flame burns in them all. (BEAT) If you
only knew what unearthly happiness my soul now feels
from understanding them.

ALL: "Send the shots." "He's cheating." "That's not
cheating."

MUSIC: UP AND ESTABLISH: SOMBER CHAMBER PIECE. UNDER
TO BED.

OLD GERALDINE: Later-when everyone had left the
mansion-I crept out to the watchman's hut and fired
two shots.

SFX: FIRST PISTOL SHOT. BEAT. SECOND PISTOL SHOT.

OLD GERALDINE: At the same time the stock market moved
against me. My fortune-once grand and in the hundreds
of millions-was halved. "Just a bit of bad luck" I
told Sal and Helen. But I prayed my luck would
change.

MUSIC: BIG CHURCH AND RELIGIOUS MUSIC.

OLD GERALDINE: In his eleventh, twelfth, and
thirteenth years of confinement Pat sat as still as a
cross and read only the Gospel. The six hundred
learned volumes previously mastered were discarded for
the thin easily comprehended text of Gospel.

MUSIC: BIG CHURCH AND RELIGIOUS MUSIC MORE DYNAMIC AND
RUGGED.

OLD GERALDINE: But if his new Chosen Text was easy to
understand the stock markets were not.

ALL: (BED) "Buy." "Sell." "Buy."

OLD GERALDINE: The value of my investments halved
again and teetered between recovery and further
disaster. Small gains on one day were wiped out by
losses on the next.

ALL: (BED: FRANTICALLY) "Sell." "At any price."
"Sell it all."

OLD GERALDINE: I grasped at long shots doubling and
tripling my positions only to watch my wealth
disappear faster.

MUSIC: BIG AND MORE DYNAMIC AND RUGGED. UNDER TO BED.

OLD GERALDINE: In the last two years of confinement
the prisoner lurched from the natural sciences to
Byron and Shakespeare to chemistry medicine and
novels. The man plunged from philosophy to theology
to history. He raced along clutching for intellectual
pieces amidst his emotional wreckage to keep himself
afloat.

MUSIC: BED: LET BREATHE.

OLD GERALDINE: My investments-once gaudy and buoyant
as an ocean liner-had nearly sunk. Minor rallies
occasionally lifted my wealth only to dash it again.
At length the date and time of the final crushing wave
surged before me.

MUSIC: RISE FOR PASSAGE OF TIME. OUT.

OLD GERALDINE: The date was fifteen years to the day.
Eleven fifteen at night.

SFX: OFF MIC: CLOCK STRIKES ONCE (11:15).

OLD GERALDINE: Sal-my co-conspirator of "The
Wager"-joined me. As did the prisoner's friend Helen.

SAL: In forty-five minutes it'll be twelve midnight.

HELEN: Pat'll win the bet. Incredibly stupendously
he'll win the bet.

OLD GERALDINE: And I'll be ruined. Finished.
Bankrupt forever.

HELEN: It's not that bad.

SAL: You must've set some aside.

OLD GERALDINE: No. I've doubled and tripled for
years. My losses are many times what you've suffered.
(TO SELF) Cursed bet. Why didn't he die?

SAL: Pat'll not let the bet ruin you.

OLD GERALDINE: He'll take my last penny and marry.
He'll enjoy life and gamble on the stock market. All
the while I'll look at him with envy-like a beggar.

HELEN: He'll help you.

OLD GERALDINE: That's even worse. He'll say the same
thing every day (IMITATING PAT): "I am indebted to you
for the happiness of my life. Let me help you." (OWN
VOICE) No it's too much.

HELEN: (OFF MIC) Come back.

SAL: (OFF MIC) Where'll you be?

OLD GERALDINE: (CALLING TO THEM) In my chambers
contemplating my financial death.

MUSIC: UP.

OLD GERALDINE: My words were only partly true. I
"was" going to my chambers but the death I foresaw was
the prisoner's not mine. It was the only means of
saving myself from bankruptcy and disgrace. (BEAT) I
retrieved the key to the cottage.

MUSIC: LET BREATHE.

SFX: BED: EXTERNAL: RAIN AND THUNDER. CLOCK STRIKE
ONCE (11:30PM).

OLD GERALDINE: Eleven-thirty. One half-hour
until...the rain battered the trees and froze my
bones. The woods were dark except for one small
light.

SFX: BED: RUSTLING OF FOOTSTEPS ON LEAVES.

OLD GERALDINE: I moved toward the light and it grew
constant and larger. The shadowy outline of walls
dimly rose around the light. It was the man's
cottage. Lights blazing-triumphantly expectantly
richly. All was lost.

SFX: BED: RAIN, THUNDER, AND FOOTSTEPS ON LEAVES.

OLD GERALDINE: I crept to the watchman's hut but he
wasn't there. I suspected he'd gone to sleep in the
warm dry greenhouse. Now was my chance-if I
killed...no; if the prisoner died-the watchman would
be blamed. He's responsible for the prisoner's
safety. The prisoner would be found dead and it would
be the watchman's fault.

SFX: BED: RAIN, THUNDER, AND FOOTSTEPS ON LEAVES.

OLD GERALDINE: I circled around to the window. He was
seated at a table with his back to me. Books lay
everywhere. On the chairs...the table...the floor.
He didn't move.

SFX: OFF MIC: CLOCK STRIKES ONCE (11:45PM).

OLD GERALDINE: One quarter of an hour separated me
from ruin. I crept to the window and tapped on it.
Nothing...I tapped again. Nothing. I delicately
eased the key into the wooden door and released the
lock.

SFX: METAL GRATING SOUND WHICH ECHOS.

OLD GERALDINE: My heart sank as the ancient spring
announced my presence. I stood stock-still for three
minutes but nothing happened. I went in.

MUSIC: BUILD TENSION. UNDER TO BED UNTIL.

OLD GERALDINE: He was asleep. His hair was long and
shaggy with streaks of silver. His skin was taut and
he looked like a porcelain skeleton.

MUSIC: LET BED BREATHE: RATCHET UP TENSION. UNDER.

OLD GERALDINE: Now was my chance. I'd throw him to
the floor and suffocate him with a pillow. He
couldn't resist and the finest medical examiner in the
county would say he died in his sleep.

MUSIC: LET BED BREATHE: RATCHET UP TENSION. UNDER.

OLD GERALDINE: With the pillow in my left hand and my
right hand ready to throw him to the ground I readied
for the task. That was when I saw his note. I
stopped to read his words.

PAT: (FILTERED) Tonight at midnight I regain my
freedom. But before I leave this room it is necessary
to say a few words to you. I despise freedom, life,
health, and all that your books call the "good things"
of the world.

MUSIC: REVELATION. ESTABLISH THEN UNDER TO BED.

PAT: For fifteen years I have been intently studying
earthly life. Your books have given me wisdom. I
know that I am wiser than you.

MUSIC: LET BED BREATHE.

PAT: You may be proud and fine but death will wipe you
off the face of the earth as though you were no more
than mice burrowing under the floor.

MUSIC: LET BED BREATHE.

PAT: You have lost your reason and taken the wrong
path. You have taken lies for truth and hideousness
for beauty.

MUSIC: LET BED BREATHE.

PAT: To prove you how I despise all that you live by I
renounce the ten million of which I once dreamed of as
paradise. I shall go from here before the agreed
time-midnight tonight.

MUSIC: BED SWELLS AND GOES OUT.

OLD GERALDINE: His words shamed me and I left the
cottage. Never-even while foolishly betting millions
on the Stock Exchange-never had I felt such loathing
for myself.

SFX: OFF MIC: CLOCK BEGINS STRIKING TWELVE TIMES.

OLD GERALDINE: I slipped back to the mansion unseen by
the others and hid in my chamber. It wouldn't take
long for...

SFX: OFF MIC: CLOCK FINISHES STRIKING TWELVE TIMES.

MUSIC: UP AND ESTABLISH: QUAINT CHAMBER PIECE. UNDER
TO BED.

OLD GERALDINE: A few minutes after midnight Sal and
Helen burst into my chamber.

SAL: (EXCITEDLY) Geraldine come at once.

OLD GERALDINE: What's the matter?

HELEN: Pat's gone.

OLD GERALDINE: Are you sure?

HELEN: The watchman saw him climb out the window and
run into the woods. You must come.

MUSIC: TRAVELLING FROM MANSION TO COTTAGE.

OLD GERALDINE: We went to the cottage. The door was
open and everything was as I'd seen it a few minutes
earlier. Sal and Helen searched the woods. (BEAT) I
quietly pocketed Pat's note renouncing the ten
million.

#30#--The End