A Modern Juliet's Excuse

JULIET has an Elizabethan mask on for the moment. She holds her hands behind her back in a playful nature. She wears ecclesiastical clothing.

Props: A small table with a lace doily over it. A box of jewels. Other circumstantial property to Juliet set on the table.

NURSE CONCH is dressed in a white tunic, what one might call a moo-moo.

*FR -- Front Right

Line from Shakespeare is recited from a hidden part of the stage by two or three people of cast speaking in unison to make it loud,then they say:
'Tis Shakespeare here. And, also, Nurse Conch dear. It did, it did. Alas, the day she did.

As Nurse Conch fusses with Juliet's smiling nature, there is a cue for her to walk out to Center Stage with her as Juliet stands in front of a chair. Leviticus puzzles over the forgiveness of suicide in the FR.

LEVITICUS: Now, tell us about how you greeted the Soldier of Fortune.

THOMAS THE TWIN (Leviticus' mocking ghost or jesting spirit): No, no grisly bear had ever mauled me and no fires were started in my bed so hard was my head. So I was at peace.

A FIGURE OF AUTHORITY: (enters and walks over to Juliet) You! Filthy selfish modern woman! Go!
You are released from this dungeon! (He takes off Juliet's mask. She laughs, then playfully admits her presence.

Two people stroll by, cross stage as they hold hands and embrace once and leave.

LA-LA: Great people as with children, often brood. Come here, Lancelot. In this play we show what we've got.

THE LANCE-LOT: Will she ever be safe? La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la.

Juliet is alone now on stage as Nurse Conch disappears.

From the far right, Leviticus and Thomas The Twin, very amicable with each other enter again.

LEVITICUS: Shall we greet her again?

THOMAS THE TWIN: Yes, she seems to be our friend. Always giving us time to lend.

LEVITICUS: To lend what?

THE TWIN: An ear, of course.

A FIGURE OF AUTHORITY: a stumbling block before the clean of nature who engage in good deeds and keep to practicing the duties of health. Ears hear filthy lies.

Anyway, what is there to offer those who maim the grand illusion of modern society's salvation.
Juliet, ponderable and lazy as a cut-rose, is a flower that has enticed the sugars and herbs in the phantasy that splits infinity, yet returns to earth, somehow eternal.

Muse, muse on. Yes, musing on the precious notions of rigorous illegitimate fanfare is only in the course of things. For me? There is no fee, no price. Appearing twice as unkind as the flight of a bumblebee.

Featuring your manish request to be at ease with rest and forget sins while I am a sentry sent here to account for them (He points to audience with the thought of acknowledgement of praise the audience might give him)oh, let me be never off guard and always on duty and now speechlessly above Juliet's demise. I must confess I am always in service to help finish this game of wilyness and ulterior motives. sit down, Juliet, so that we may be hard with the Bard. So, too, harden your heart and pray, if you beg to swoon. Thomas the Twin will play your tune.

JULIET: When?

FIGURE OF AUTHORITY: Soon.

QUEEN MELLOW: (overweight and magical, in green shimmer-dress, sequins or long, wide butterfly sleeves) My dear Juliet. All the fairies have been with you. It is frightening, amusing and stirring. It causes me to see the antidote of this play. What we need is a 'Mercutio' to warn of each stone's fake. My calendar lists them, each birthday too, and other things gemstones me has with the holidays. (She fondles jewels on table).

JULIET: Fairie! You'll delight me only if you speak of my prince. Now, tell me, what is it I must think on, besides rumor about Romeo?

QUEEN MELLOW: What begins the investigation of Juliet's prattle? How long and with how many happy larks did she sing the tune of the nightingale? And what perhaps was her low-count? The imps of her ideas were aft' all, the doom of her phantasy. The great god in the sky will tell it. She met him, or perhaps if she did not, then . . .where is her idol. Even the neighbor's children saw the light of race and kindness in the foreign city of Paris. Love in Paris. Love in Rome. All's the same, it's history. In the city of Paris it is the late new style to be in Paris , coquette, and be acquiesing to celebrative talk about how the gods who live do take it all in in one sweet breath. All in all, it is the worser of two evils
--to complain about the unfortunate circumstances of dying spirits in sick beds, praying that your own blemishes have been small mercies in the
course of a strong life, or to complain about the illess that comes from life itself.

FIGURE OF AUTHORITY: (Comes in and arranges the table with a vase and puts a rose in it, then picks up a box of candy and offers a piece to Juliet. Juliet looks calm. He begs her silently in mime to stand up and she does and then he wipes her cheek with a puffy handkerchief. Finally, he crosses to Thomas The Twin & Leviticus who have just entered and "Freezes" with the both of them in a trio.)

JULIET: (standing) I will speak with a price. Where are the fairies, can't they arise and speak with me? They don't tell lies.

QUEEN MELLOW: (She walks over to table and sits Juliet down again.) Be still my child.

*FR

THOMAS THE TWIN: *I was six, and went out into the woods and I took a bag of goods with me. The flowers were out, the small stream was running its course, since it was early spring; although, I had my sweater pulled up over my shirt-collar, I caught cold.

I had nothing but soup and crackers for a week for to be so bold it was two more days and I couldn't go out. The breeze was strong. I remember that day, my lunch bag blew away.

LEVITICUS: Chasing after beasts, grabbing their tails and calling them names, it has no foresight.
Go into the den of a lion, or stalk a leopard. All for a crying cat, just as bad. Give too loud a command at a barking dog, with a bone to pick. Such mean remarks! If I were to prefix passion, I would dream, that madmen wrestle snakes. What a pity!

FIGURE OF AUTHORITY: (He speaks out arrogantly): Wars of fame? Of love's glamour? What complacency in the drift of so many exciting moments! The instant Juliet was given the reward of good living, she took the spoils for a ruse. The conquest of looking never looked any worse, as when the jewels she holds dear were mistaken for vulgar imitations. Just as jewels, her cheeks were as rewarding in colour and substance. For her, frail thing, the truth to all lies would only be throwing meat to the dogs. A fickle ingrate mess. Fickle honesty will be the death-trap to her story. Her eyes live in the clouds, and it is the fire that escapes within them, which makes her a restless creature. If I were to take time here, to be excrutiating about the wrongs and rights of being one, Juliet, I might dangle with a proverb of old. Know Thyself. Did what took place add alarum to the value of keeping herself a pretty picture? Know that my eyes are meek, to look again at her.

All exit but Juliet. Nurse Conch enters.

NURSE CONCH: If there be a jug of water and a tree and a window, there be a Juliet. In every dangling faint sigh you have an apron-stringed moan. So I see. Is she a princess? A young maiden with jewels to blush for? In the first place, the day unrolls like the sun existing on a beautiful day.If she be inside, and waiting to come out to see the light, her direction causes her to lose a clear course and the underbrush catchs her struggling. Where is the vision of reality? It is calling out, from above, pledging that order will return. Now, the minute she runs streaking into the dazzling sun's rays, the view becomes grand and overpowering. She forgets about the tea she had with me, in the mornings.
Now she is absent. What a child! She is asking herself why must I go? I don't want to and now that I am, I want to stay.

Ah, society! I should have clenched my fist at the dark monster who sailed the day she did! She seeks him in the morning and she's stuck for luck.

JULIET: Is it time yet?

NURSE CONCH: (Looks back at her, then returns to talking with the audience with a "No" by shaking her head furiously). The funny uncommon notion that her life has no place and she can only walk like a robot in space is not so. The rain will end and the color will glisten from the top of the gazebo, and a rainbow will appear.

Ah! Don't let her look at one she loves. Let her look at one she hates! Does it make sense to you, I'm asking that question. Oh what irritation at the complexity of words.

The shameful lesson of the past. Think of forget-me-nots. The grapes of Romeo's lotion's, his daisied scent. You stall your exit, Juliet.
In comes another chance, there ,look, a handful of men. Quick, the ice is a melting face. Look there.
(Four or five men stand at the back of stage and whisper to each other, then exit.) Hey. Their faces tell the tale. The game is her own. How close she comes to throwing in the towel, every time.

The evenings that she was a rose in her texts is the passion of my amused gaze.

(She goes to Juliet and kisses her cheek, then extends a handshake.) Peace be with you. And with peace I go. It's a sign of understanding. I will now trill my careful plan with the notes of your fiery notebooks, Juliet. Romeo's decaying lettres are only a memory. Your beauty will shine, but mine will not.


They both exit.

QUEEN MELLOW: Oh question the insanity of my child's ways. But please keep in close touch
with the forgiving portion of our judgments.

SICARIOUS THE SAILOR: (Is dressed in a sailor's outfit). The sins of premature passion,
will fly like the raven,
and the flowers,
breathing-dust wither.
This: that I fear the mad-woman's cock-eye
that will feast on her own inocent chastity.
Her inventions which claim the drunken daze of many nights all come before Juliet's Topaz--the reflecting beauty in her eyes.
The unfortunate happening of racing through the wreckage of other's private goodbyes was inevitable. Her ill-fate gave her reason to claim secrets that are destined to be only her own.
Always in the midst of thinking of Romeo, the thought comes to me that a woman wronged is a woman caged by all the incidents which make her accountable to her Maker. She will say constant penance.

One must say, she never denied love.
She has danced the dance
of love,
always coming close but
when the plunge,
the plunge twice it comes,
sometimes the
wrestle of two misfits
tossing and turning in the evening
comes with no scruples. Thus, is her
downfall.
Come out, come out, Juliet.

JULIET reappears on stage.

SICARIOUS THE SAILOR: I say to forgive.(Picks out Topaz stone from jewel box and shines it up and then holds it to the light, and finally pockets it, chuckling.)

Thus, Queen Mellow, Nurse Conch and other smaller cast members make an entrance to say "We forgive you, Juliet."

Finally, Nurse Conch and Juliet leave the stage and the stage becomes empty.

END OF PLAY