Despite Paradise: An Existentialist Play

By Angel L.G.

A dispute plays out in the most unlikely situation as there are three voices ringing throughout the large white room with which their impassioned arguments can be heard. One voice is youthful, and as such the voice is tinged with a kind of optimism even in the face of such extraordinary circumstances. The other voice is wearisome, the experience of living a life endowed with reason and science, the end result being complete and utter disenchantment even in the face of the most fantastical and wondrous phenomena the human imagination can experience. The third voice is one whose power is accustomed to being lent to help others. Such is the case here, as they hope to effectively mediate the two voices in opposition with one another. All the while a luminous white door looms in their view almost as if it was a silent observer that happened to be privy to the words that boom throughout the room.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Feb 18, 2017
• ISBN: 9781365768897

Book preview

Despite Paradise: An Existentialist Play

Despite Paradise

Narrator: A dispute plays out in the most unlikely situation as there are three voices ringing throughout the large white room with which their impassioned arguments can be heard. One voice is youthful, and as such the voice is tinged with a kind of optimism even in the face of such extraordinary circumstances. The other voice is wearisome, the experience of living a life endowed with reason and science, the end result being complete and utter disenchantment even in the face of the most fantastical and wondrous phenomena the human imagination can experience. The third voice is one whose power is accustomed to being lent to help others. Such is the case here, as they hope to effectively mediate the two voices in opposition with one another. All the while a luminous white door looms in their view almost as if it was a silent observer that happened to be privy to the words that boom throughout the room. This place is supposed to be the setting of mankind’s innermost yearnings and desires, yet it is a feeling of despair among these three women and their interactions with each other, that sees the strongest persistence. As they are stuck in this room together and they try and make sense of how they got here and the lives they left behind, one is left to wonder if the despair can be dispelled…or if it will continue to drag them into the muck of human misery.

ACT I

Ameera: [wakes up from a long sleep] where am I?

[A Guardian stands over her]

Guardian: Hello, ma’am. Welcome to….

Ameera: I have an idea where I am. But am I stuck here forever?

Guardian: I wouldn’t say stuck but I would say forever.

Ameera: Forever sounds unperceivable right now

Guardian: Well you just got here, ma’am.

Ameera: [looks around] Is this room all of it?

Guardian: No this is just one of many shared dormitories.

Ameera: Shared? Shared with whom exactly?

[A bright blinding light shines in the room, another bed appears and it is filled with a body]

Ameera: Whoa!

Guardian: [walks over to stand by the new arrival] Hello, ma’am. I am a Guardian. Welcome to…

Crystal: [jumps off the bed and shouts] Yes! Yes! I’m here! I made it! I knew I would!

Ameera: [Ammera looks over at the woman who appeared along with her bed on the right side of the room] you seem overly ecstatic to be here.

Crystal:  Well shouldn’t I be!? This place is great!

Ameera: My name is Ameera. I am a respected physician. A doctor if you will.

Crystal: You mean you were a doctor. I’m Crystal. And it doesn’t matter where I came from as long as I’m here now.

Ameera:  Alright, well Crystal, it’s nice to meet you.

Crystal: It’s nice to meet you too. Do you have a name Mr. Guardian?

Guardian: I won’t be here long. Please continue to introduce yourselves before the next one arrives.

Ameera: A third person?

Crystal: [shouts in a spunky manner] Ooh! We’ll have another roomy!? Great!

[Another bright light appears along with a bed on the left side of the room from Ameera’s perspective the Guardian walks over to stand by the second woman’s bed side]

Guardian: Hello, ma’am. Welcome to…

Kaitlyn: [rises up from bed and humbly addresses Guardian] I am truly honored to have the privilege to come here.

Crystal: [looks over to the woman with glee and shouts] Welcome roommate! I’m Crystal!

Ameera: [shrugs a little from Crystal’s high pitched voice and retorts to the new woman] Hello. My name is Ameera.

Kaitlyn: And I am Kaitlyn. It’s nice to be in the presence of the two of you.

Guardian: [looks over them all one by one and then says] Well now I shall leave you be. Outside you will find a large corridor and beyond that there’s another door but then beyond that there’s……you should know.

Crystal: [jokingly states] Ooh! I know! The beyond!

Ameera: [looks down and nods her head in shame]

Guardian: Blessed be.

Crystal: Blessed be.

Kaitlyn: Hmm, yes. Blessed be. Indeed.

Ameera: ………………..

[The Guardian leaves the room but does not close the door on the way out]

Ameera: [stares out the door from her bed side and wonders]

Crystal: This room is so……white.

Ameera: What exactly do you mean by that?

Crystal: White walls, white floor, white beds, and even our robes are white.

Ameera: Ah, yes. All white.

Kaitlyn: Well shall we all follow him out the door to see the rest of this place?

Crystal: Ooh! Yes! Yes!

Ameera: Wait a minute!

Kaitlyn: Hmm?

Ameera: Aren’t you curious as to why we were all brought here? And why they stuck us together?

Kaitlyn: Not at all.

Crystal: No.

Kaitlyn: Order of entry, perhaps.

Ameera: Maybe, but I still want to know who you all were before you ended up here. If you don’t mind me probing that is.

Crystal: I mind!

Ameera: Umm. Okay.

Crystal: Just kidding! Ask away!

Ameera: [snickers at Crystal] Ok I’ll start with you Crystal. What were you doing just before you got here?

Crystal: Driving.

Ameera: Oh ok. To where?

Crystal: Someplace. I can’t remember.

Ameera: Alright. What about you Kaitlyn?

Kaitlyn: I was also driving.

Ameera: [shockingly asks] Wait, what?