Riveting One-Act
Drama
Jan Henson Dow & Robert Schroeder
First
Place Winner
of the Henrico Theatre Company
National Playwriting Competition
and
Chosen as a finalist in the
1999 George Kernodle National Play Competition
and
Chosen for San Juan College National Contest, NM
and
Chosen
for Love Creek Productions
Festival of One-act Plays, New York City
Chosen for Playwrights' Center of San Francisco
A moving journey from life to death
In a stark desert landscape five soldiers are on patrol. One is a female reservist, and of the four males only the Sergeant is a career Army Regular.
An improvised camouflaged awning provides the only protection from the glare of the desert sun. The patrol detail’s humvee vehicle is just offstage. Upstage right, a dune rises from the windswept barrenness.
Despite the wartime anxiety and alertness of the patrol, its humvee is suddenly found to have become inoperative. In turn, the radio, the clocks and watches, and even the compass are discovered to be no longer functional. Have the enemy’s boasts of a secret weapon been true?
Just as suddenly – first one, then in turn others of the soldiers begin to envision and experience reunions with loved ones. In eventual response, and despite the Sergeant’s every effort, one after another of the patrol detail disappears over the hill. Finally, only the female reservist and the Sergeant are left.
She now realizes that the patrol has been experiencing a passage from life to death – a transition centered on a joining with those one loves. When she speaks of this to the Sergeant and then turns to go, hearing her own children calling, he allows himself to be drawn into her realization for only a moment – then his concept of duty (or is it fear?) requires him to reject her understanding and acceptance. He dutifully aims his rifle at her back as, rebelliously, she departs over the hill.
But when he pulls the trigger, it only clicks harmlessly. His rifle, too, has become inoperative. As the lighting fades the Sergeant has stationed himself alone at his post, stoically standing guard.
(Simple set, 4 m., 1 f.)
