Mr. Burns and Other Plays. Anne Washburn
A little bit of scattered light cricketing.
They’re looking through the tombstones, they are looking for something; PT is reading aloud.
PT: Lizzie Hale McKee
Cornelius Foster
Emma Ogden Jessup
These are really old names.
Amos W. Harvey
EMILY: Maud J. Dollard
PT: Joseph G. West
Samuel Chester Dodsworth
You’re sure they’re still putting people in here?
EMILY: I checked with the county.
They continue. After a bit:
PT: Ida and Lulu, twins.
Salome Vreeland
Bit of a pause. Still checking.
If it’s night time, shouldn’t it be cooler? Or something. Five degrees. Whatever. Some concession should be made. To the fact that it’s night. And everything is supposed to be different.
EMILY: I think it’s hotter, actually.
PT: Okay. Do you know what I think? Okay I know this is crazy. But get this: actually, okay, this is great: because (Flicking his flashlight around) they look like teeth, right? So get this: it’s like being in someone’s mouth.
EMILY: What?
PT: It’s like being in someone’s mouth, right? There’s the teeth, and it’s hot and wet and you know really weirdly quiet. Oh hey speaking of which I had my first older married woman last night. There should be guilt, right? It has not sunk in!
He shrieks. He has flicked his light onto a piece of statuary.
(Which is an actor, posing as a fabulous biblical gestures angel.)
Emily laughs.
Jesus.
She flicks hers onto one.
EMILY: A mouthful of angels.
PT: Crap.
She reads the inscription on the monument:
EMILY: And I bore you on Eagles wings
and brought you to myself
He flicks and illuminates another angel. Reads the inscription:
PT: Death came one bright summer’s day
and took our dearest friend away
EMILY: Very pleasant hast thou been unto me
thy love to me was wonderful
PT: Until the day break and the shadows flee away
EMILY: Morning is here
earth’s flooded with light
gone are the storm clouds
vanished with night
PT: Death is swallowed up in victory
EMILY: Won is the glory and the grief is past
PT: For me to die is to gain
Silence.
They continue, sobered.
Enoch Howard
EMILY: Sylvia Amelia Fry
PT: Edward J. McCullough
EMILY: Arabella Longstreet
ANGEL A: Lyndon Bartholomew Emery
PT: Angela M. LaCrosse
ANGEL B: Rupert Peter Dodge
EMILY: Molly John Schwartz
ANGEL D: Jorge Fernando Diaz
PT: Anatole Moritz
ANGEL E: Eddie T. O’Conner
EMILY: Gina Fratelli
There is an irregular spatter of sound as each Angel speaks a name not quite simultaneously:
ANGEL A: Ignatius Agnello
ANGEL B: Leo D. Nakamura
ANGEL E: Jaleh Afary
ANGEL F: Calvin Barton Upton
ANGEL G: Thomas A. Da Mota
ANGEL H: Amy Joan Nesbett
ANGEL I: Eunice Angela Adler
ANGEL J: Shannon T. Babcock
The Angels name again, again a cacophony:
ANGEL A: Kevin Andrew O’Keefe
ANGEL B: Martine Karin Zhao
ANGEL E: Ali Al-Jumaily
ANGEL F: Valerie A. Phelps
ANGEL G: Patrick Adam Ranier
ANGEL H: Ebenezer O’Brien
ANGEL I: Laurence Calderon
ANGEL J: Gregory M. Amadeo
Again:
ANGEL A: Michael Thomas Sweeney
ANGEL B: Fanny Foster Hoskins
ANGEL E: Syed Salman Abad
ANGEL F: Thomas A. Song
ANGEL G: Esperanza Ramierez
ANGEL H: Fabian Dawson, Jr.
ANGEL I: Ginger La Fevre Adams
ANGEL J: Tatania G. Szurlowski
There is a pulse of sound as each Angel speaks together:
ANGEL A: Takashimi Yoshida
ANGEL B: David Glenn Haas
ANGEL E: Vincent Fallon
ANGEL F: Elmer George Hammond
ANGEL G: Douglas L. Douglass
ANGEL H: Ching T. Kang
ANGEL I: Maria Fowler Keller
ANGEL J: Richard J. Naples
And again:
ANGEL A: Max Walcott Wagner
ANGEL B: Anthony Favuzza
ANGEL E: Julio Salas Portillo
ANGEL F: Bonnie Ruth Kaplan
ANGEL G: Glenn James Washington
ANGEL H: Liddy N. Abrahamson
ANGEL I: Hector Marshall Simmons
ANGEL J: Dierdre Wakefield
Then all together:
ANGELS: Roy Elliot Edmunds
Rachael Linda Edwards
Cecilia Luz Gutierrez
Peter Samuel Roth
James Dillard Takahashi
Aditi Amy Ranadivay
George Martin Lewis
EMILY (Delighted): Oh! Bingo. This one’s very small. This one hardly lived at all
The Angels whisper with her:
EMILY AND ANGELS: Monica
Alicia
Perry.
Flashlight out.
CHAPTER 8
BARUCH: At first it was only the faintest rain
D: I know that first bit. After you make that