We’ve Tried Everything, Haven’t We?
A period drama scene from the one-act eplay A Shade or Two Darker explores family, race and ambition between parents and son.
LYNDON: We’ve tried everything, haven’t we?
GERTRUDE: He should have gone to Cranbury with your parents for the summer. That’s what I wanted him to do.
LYNDON: He can’t run away from his problems.
GERTRUDE: It would have given him time.
LYNDON: Time…there is no time…we have to go on living, until we run out of time. Loathing about is not what I want to see my son doing.
Lights reach full capacity, but the room
remains dimly lit.
GERTRUDE: He’s suffered a great tragedy.
LYNDON: That’s because he goes on with the most unruly boys from the other side of the tracks. What possesses him? What gets into his mind that he wishes to travel across town and mix up with those barbarians?
GERTRUDE: We can’t discount what he witnessed.
LYNDON: If our son learned to mind his own business, he never would have seen the lynching. I warned him!
GERTRUDE: He told me he didn’t want to see it, but that they forced him to see it.
LYNDON: Forced him? Who?
GERTRUDE: He doesn’t know exactly.
LYNDON: Didn’t they know he’s my son?
GERTRUDE: We need to allow him to recover from—
LYNDON: Recover! Had he listened to me, he would have never–
GERTRUDE: Are you that detached?
LYNDON: Detached? (exploding) If I were detached I wouldn’t be so Godforsaken angry!
Pause. 30 seconds.
LYNDON (softly): We provide him with everything he could ever want, right here. What’s wrong with the young gentleman who attend his school? Why can’t he seem to find any activity with them?
GERTRUDE: He calls them dull.
LYNDON: Yes, I suppose he does…
GERTRUDE: Yes.
LYNDON: That’s because he doesn’t see the difference between what is dull and what is intelligent.
GERTRUDE: But, how are we to get him to see otherwise?
- To read the full one-act ePlay, find purchase link below:
A Shade or Two Darker is a one-act eplay about a family that confronts their own inner weaknesses with one another in the face of society. 1 Woman, 2 Men. Drama.
Monologues from Plays
