This scene is from the ten-minute one-act drama “Cuts 2” between a man and a woman who communicate from different worlds.

GRANT: We are parting with nothing and our thoughts continue in a world continuing without us Knives work their way into them breaking them apart disorientating them till they no longer make sense to us I’ve looked for your skin in the hands of others and still I can not find you there I can not find the lines or the roads of your body or the leaves that may have left your marks your thoughts your worries ones that made us blind ones that made us wrong ones that made us right You fell once twice and unwilling to fall a third Not with your pride not your eyes smiling down then up and to the side the side where it felt most right tell me I am wrong tell me none of it matters show it to me make me unfeel you till I no longer sense where your shadow left its mark Take me down the alleys I know you’ve trod Let me step into your waters till my eyes are sick of your trials and all that speak of Dawn

A loud drum is heard from a wave crashing against a shore.

BLACK OUT

LIGHTS UP

DAWN: Grant

GRANT: Dawn

DAWN: Where are you

GRANT: Nowhere

DAWN: No sleep

GRANT: Not yet

DAWN: Don’t like your colour

GRANT: Do you see me?

DAWN: Feel you Pale and blue

GRANT: Stop

DAWN: Why

GRANT: You don’t exist

DAWN: I found something the other night

GRANT: What

DAWN: A place

GRANT: What was it

DAWN: Pretty

GRANT: Tell me

DAWN: It was dark I swam there Some bits of light sparks in a tunnel took me to an endless sea The sea was light blue Bright florescent I could hear you Almost You kept calling me closer I kept swimming I saw something that looked like a body I reached out I thought it was you Reached out My fingers reached but nothing Was a mass of seaweed Beautiful still but not you

GRANT: I called you

DAWN: You did

GRANT: I did

DAWN: Without words you called

GRANT: And you answered

DAWN: It was you

GRANT: Voiceless

DAWN: Distant still

GRANT: Carlie was here She left this morning We had coffee some opiate Couldn’t help myself

DAWN: I love you

Dawn hears the distant sound of a boat horn and looks outside the window.

GRANT: It docked?

DAWN: Not yet

GRANT: Where will it be going?

DAWN: Don’t know yet

GRANT: Will I hear from you?

DAWN: Not this time

GRANT: A nice place?

DAWN: It will be

GRANT: Secure place?

DAWN: How’s Carlie?

GRANT: She’s alrite

DAWN: What does her skin feel like?

GRANT: Soft

DAWN: It does?

GRANT: Yes

DAWN: What does she taste like?

GRANT: Like salt Like honey

DAWN: Like the sun on your skin

GRANT: Like the water in your hands

DAWN: A cupped hand of water A stranger once gave me a rose in water cupped by his hands

GRANT: On a train

DAWN: Yes on a train

GRANT: In the night

DAWN: Yes in the night

GRANT: Where are you now?

DAWN: Closer now

GRANT: Dawn

DAWN: Grant

GRANT: You won’t do it

DAWN: I will

GRANT: You won’t

DAWN: I have

GRANT: Stop

DAWN: Black

GRANT: Sun

DAWN: Broken

GRANT: Bloody

DAWN: Cuts you made ’em You carved ’em I feel nothin’ when I don’t think of you I feel free Open Like the sky I feel fire burning the horseshoe Feel like a bird Like an eagle You ever seen an eagle? You know what eagles do? When I was a little girl I wanted a giant tattoo of an eagle My mother’s skin sunk into my own I wanted what I saw in them streets Grant Wide open You shoulda seen ’em The water emerald blue The flag floating inside of ’em Yellow as if the sun had a switch to turn on their smiles Their rhythm Their Red Reds Reddening Like Crimson You shoulda seen ’em We didn’t stop moving Grant the night didn’t exist Now it’s dark stolen cold The night is endless the night never ends I don’t see their smiles I don’t hear their laughs I don’t see you I sense you Sensed you When I sense you I sense you all over I sense you in a world outside of my own Distant Raising Yellow Red Speeding Blue Further Nearer Closer Far Split in two Into two A thousand cuts removed Fallen broken bloody blue and moving still moving like you do Like I knew

GRANT: Still

DAWN: Still

GRANT: It meant nothing

DAWN: Nothing is still something

GRANT: Nothing? Nothing is an end Dawn

DAWN: Don’t be unkind Grant

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Cuts 2, is a ten-minute, one-act drama between a man and a woman. It is the second part of the original one-act play, Cuts. The play takes place in a river boathouse as Grant and Dawn continue to communicate between worlds, facing their past and present. 1 Woman, 1 Man. Drama.

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