Business as Usual

ACT ONE

Characters
Narrator
Faceless businessmen
young businessman
policemen

(Scene takes place as the morning is coming, starts out dark, while progressively becoming lighter. Well dressed, middle age man, leans on a street lamp on an empty street.)

Narrator: I’m not what I was, because it’s not what it used to be…

(starts to wander down street..)

We hear it all the time… A world of excuses for all the things we are too lazy and afraid to do. We someday could, someday should, but now we just won’t. The present is too difficult, too rainy, too hot, it’s too much money, or too little time…

(sun starts to rise, stage lights fade in, street lights flick off, people begin to join narrator on the street, one man carrying a very large mug of coffee and a hand full of papers pushes past narrator)


young businessman: (rushing from stage right) Sorry, excuse me, (scrambling to pick up dropped papers and pens) oh I’m so late, you know how it is.. have a nice day… (phone rings, exits stage left)

(Busy crowd enters stage right sets up tables, desks, machine noise in background, everyone busy. Narrator keeps getting in the way, pushed to stage right... crowd sets up a door mid-stage right behind narrator. Narrator bursts through it towards center stage… )

Narrator: Life has become too chaotic for original individual thought! Contemplation and awareness of others needs and wants falls to the wayside of production!

(crowd takes their seat, young businessman rushes in still on the phone, looks around, then finds his place.)

Narrator: Is there no time to tap into the knowledge of our peers of the sake of knowing not just as a simply and flatly means of entertainment, distraction or capital!?

Desk clerk: (stands, but does not look up from papers) Hello sir, Can I help you?

Narrator: (shouting) Can we stop being polite and say something!?

(Time clock dings, men at desks look at their watches in the same motions and pull out metal lunch boxes, delayed in his actions, young businessman looks around then follows suit...)

Desk clerk: (looks up, smiles, sits to eat) Sorry, we’re closed for hour. Have a nice day!

(Narrator knocks down all the papers on clerk’s desk, desk clerk looks shocked, but automatically scrambles for them, and narrator keeps knocking them down.)

Narrator: I want more than a nice day! I want to talk to you! Wake up! can’t you see? You’re more than a gear! Do you enjoy rewriting numbers and taking phone calls? Soul? Destiny? Love? Music? ART! Its there! Walk away!

Desk clerk: (looks emphatically) I’m afraid I have to ask you to leave.

Narrator: YES! Lets leave it all!

(Knocks over more papers. Jumps on desks, the men behind the desks frantically trying to catch their things, sirens are heard, a handful of officers parade in. businessmen stop and point to narrator at the same time, except for the young businessman who looks confused and lost, he clings to his over sized coffee.)

Police: You’re under arrest! Get on the ground! (they kick narrator, and start to drag him through the rubble of desks..)

Young Businessman: What has he done?

Police:Him as well! (Pointing to young businessman)

Young businessman: (being dragged away, confused and scared) Wait, sir, What have I done?
Narrator: (struggling) what has anyone done?


(Businessmen’s laughter among the restarting of machine fades in then fades out as the lights go to black)
End scene.