Waiting for Dogma

Waiting For Dogma

A Play

By Jessica

Characters
Girl 1
Girl 2
Man 1

Scene 1

A Park bench in a lush green grassed park. Girl 1 sits waiting, thumbing through the latest copy of Elle. She chomps and pops her gum, she seems oddly irritated, she rolls her eyes, and sighs heavily. Girl 2 enters stage left and flops down in the empty seat next to girl 1, she brushes off her skirt, looks and smiles goofily at girl 1.

Girl 1: Took you long enough.

Girl 2: Um yaaaaa (looking confused, short pause). Soooo?

Girl 1: Sooo what?

Girl 2: What’s it like so far?

Girl 1: Pretty boring, I’ve been sitting here reading this magazine for over an
hour now and nada.

Girl 2: So he never showed up?

Girl 1: (irritated) Nope! I don’t think he’s gonna if you know what I mean.

Girl 2: Ya, I kinda had that feeling. Just a gut thing you know?

Girl 1: We should have known everything they told us was bullshit.
(Long pause)

Girl 2: At least we’re here together right?

Girl 1: I guess. I don’t know whether to be happy or sad about that. By the way what
took you so long?

Girl 2: You know I really have no idea.

Girl 1: It’s probably the Diva in you. If I know you, there was some sort of lip gloss
emergency that stifled you for an hour or so. (Both girls break into laughter, as if laughing at an inside joke between the two of them).

Girl 2: So how long do you think we’ll have to stay here?

Girl 1: (takes a deep breath in and exhales) I dunno.



Scene 2

A dinning room in a suburban house, two girls sit close together at a long table. The girls are thumbing through an Elle magazine excited over spring fashion.

Girl 1: I love that shirt. (pointing at a picture in the magazine)

Girl 2: And for only $1300 dollars it too can be yours. (Both girls laugh.)

Girl 1: Oh I know! That’s such bullshit. (Shaking head in disbelief, turning the page of
the magazine)

A door slams off stage and the sounds of footsteps are heard as if one is hearing them from a downstairs section of a house. Another door slams and the sounds of water running are heard.

Girl 2: Dad’s up. You better put that magazine away before he flips out on you again.

Girl 1: Oh right, I forgot (Putting her hands up and making quotation marks, speaking in a low yet fierce voice) “purity is not seen in the eyes of the vain and the vain are condemned by the Lord” (girl 2 rolls her eyes and shakes her head in disbelief, both girls laugh).

Girl 2: Umm ya, religious fanatic, party of one, your table is ready. (Both girls burst into laughter)

Girl 1: I’m dying of thirst. Do you want something? (girl one gets up)

Girl 2: Sure. Iced tea, sweetened, no lemon. Please and thank you.

Girl 1: Jeez your highness. (both girls laugh at the sarcasm, girl one exits stage left and
continues to talk to girl 2 off stage) Should we go to that party this weekend?

Girl 2: I dunno. There’s gonna be so much drama there. You know Anna and her
boyfriend will be there, which is such a huge pain in the ass. Their both so frickin high maintenance it makes me sick.

Girl 1: (off stage) Oh my God I know. You know she had… (off stage you hear a glass
break and a loud pop.)

Girl 2: Umm ya, you okay in there dumbass? (giggling as she is shouting stage left)

While girl 2 is preoccupied with the noise and girl 1 stage left, a man enters stage right wielding a gun. He quietly sneaks behind girl 2 and points the gun to her head.

Girl 2: Come on beyatch, I’m thirsty (laughing still look stage left, She hears a noise (the
cocking of a gun) and turns quickly, she screams) NO DAD. DON’T, DON’T.




Man 1: (holds the gun to her head and pulls the trigger, a loud bang is heard, girl 2 collapses to the ground. Man 1 speaks in a loud booming voice) You both were spawned from a whore, from Satan himself. The lord has condemned you. I have seen the errors of Satan’s seed and the death of evil in the lord’s name is righteous; In God’s name, save our souls. (Weeping, the man turns the gun on himself, the lights are extinguished on the stage yet no sound is heard)



Scene 3


Girl 1 and girl 2 are shown seated in the same positions as scene one. Back drop is the same as scene 1, green grassy park.


Girl 2: So this is pretty messed up?

Girl 1: Not at all how I thought I would die?

Girl 2: Ya not so much.


Girl 1: I don’t even know what to think. I mean we all knew he has been sick for a while
and all the Jesus stuff for God’s sake (she says exasperated). Too much religion is bound to make you lose your mind. (they both snicker at that comment)

Girl 2: Which is so funny because here we are dead and we’re on a freakin park bench.

Girl 1: I guess it pretty much turns all those “oh I saw a white light” assholes on their ear
huh?

Girl 2: (girl 2 laughs) Ya for sure.

Girl 1: Maybe it’s just a perception thing. Like this is how we perceive death and
heaven and all that?

Girl 2: I dunno. this isn’t what I thought it would be like. (she turns to girl 1) You
remember that movie Defending Your Life? The one were the guy dies and the afterlife is like this huge metropolis, with all these awesome restaurants that you can gorge yourself on and never get fat?

Girl 1: (tilts her head to the left as if she is thinking, and then nods) Ya I think so.
Meryl Streep was in it I think right?

Girl 2: Ya I think so, anyway that’s my perception. The whole eating thing was what
sold me on that idea.

Girl 1: oh for sure. (agreeing) I’m not even sure I had any perception of death. I mean
when grandma died Mom told us she went to the big bingo parlor in the sky, so I guess I always figured you just sat around and played bingo all day, but then again I thought that was only for older people. I never put much thought into what happened to people like us, like gone before you time types.

Girl 2: it seems to me we should get the awesome after life. For crying out loud we
didn’t want to die, it wasn’t our time and for the love of all that’s good and holy (both girls laugh at that) we were killed by our father. That’s gotta rack up some serious good afterlife points.

Girl 1: (girl one’s face begins to change, she gets a serious look on her face, more
somber) I think I’m going to miss being alive.

Girl 2: (nodding in agreement) ya, me too.


Girl 1: I wasn’t perfect in my life. I didn’t live according to these ridiculous religious
ideas, but I lived life good. I watched out for you, I was good to other people; I was good damn it (getting angry) and I’m repaid with this. Killed by my father and sent to live out my after life in some grassy purgatory. (yelling) It’s not fucking fair. (turning to Girl 2) It’s not fair that we have to be here, It’s not fair that he got to hold my life in his hand. A sick, fanatical, wife beating, fuck of a man got to decide whether I lived or died. How is that right? How can that be the way “God” (quotation mark’s with her hands) wanted it. (sobbing) I just don’t think its right.

Girl 2: (hugging girl 1, crying herself) It’s not right, your totally right, it’s not okay. But
we obviously don’t have a say in what’s going on. If we did we would still be alive. Who knows who or what is in charge of this but it’s not us. We have no control here. We can grieve and cry and get as mad as we can, but it doesn’t change the facts. We can sit here and be thankful that we are, at least, here together and we can wait for the next chapter in the whole afterlife thing.

Girl 1: your right, you really are. I mean what’s the point of wanting things to be
different?

Girl 2: There has to be something else, there just has to. That’s all there is to it.

Girl 1: Ya your right (wiping tears away). So what do you think the “something else” is?
Gonna be?

Girl 2: right now my guess is as good as yours. (both girls sit back into the bench and
girl 2 keeps her arm around girl 1 in a protective sisterly way, after a short pause girl 1 puts her head on girl 2’s shoulder) Everything is going to be all right. You’ll see.

(Lights fade to black)

curtain