1. I-2-1
ACT I
Scene 2
SETTING: Central Park. A path lined with benches by the
Lake, between Bow Bridge and Cherry Hill.
AT RISE: It’s a few minutes later. EDGAR is crouching
behind his cart, which is leaning to the side. He
stands, holding a wheel which has fallen off it.
EDGAR
Never to have suffered is never to have been blessed.
(He begins to repair the
cart as he pretends to talk
to RUFUS)
Sir, I will not inconvenience these good people now, but
rest assured that I will meet you at a time and place of
your choosing where we shall settle this matter as men.
(LIZA enters, unseen)
I was a soldier, and have been trained in the pugilistic
arts...
LIZA
Hello!
(EDGAR jumps)
Hi! Hello, Mr....Poe? Can I help you with that?
EDGAR
No, thank you, Miss...Abel.
LIZA
Oh, call me Liza. I wanted to tell you before, I thought
your show was brilliant. So stupid of that man to spoil it.
Did you know him?
EDGAR
I let him upset me. I shouldn’t have. It was what he
wanted.
LIZA
Well, you were great. I didn’t know a lot of what you were
talking about. I read The Raven in school...
EDGAR
Who didn’t?
2. I-2-2
LIZA
...but mostly, I read plays. I’m an actress, I think I told
you...
EDGAR
My mother was an actress, a great one. I tried writing a
play once. Must get back to it one of these days.
LIZA
Was your mother in the movies? Would I have seen her in
something?
EDGAR
She and my father died in a Theatre fire in Richmond quite
some time ago. I doubt you would’ve had the opportunity.
LIZA
I’m sorry.
EDGAR
Thank you. It was quite some time ago.
LIZA
Oh, I know a Poe quote! “I wish I could write as mysterious
as a cat.”
EDGAR
Augh! I had nothing to do with that...ungrammatical
hairball of a sentence!
LIZA
Too bad, I always liked that quote; and since I’m batting a
thousand here, let’s get down to business. Henry tells me
you’re homeless. It’s okay. Happens to a lot of undeserving
people.
(She starts to dig through
a very large bag that she
carries on her shoulder.)
I have a thing...a, pamphlet, brochure, for the Advocacy
Office where I work. We can get you started on job search,
maybe get you into a shelter...
(Keeps digging)
I will need your real name though...
(Looks at EDGAR)
Social Security number...?
3. I-2-3
EDGAR
My name, Miss Abel, is Edgar Allan Poe.
LIZA
Well, you sure have him down, but since he died something
like...
EDGAR
One hundred and sixty five years ago.
LIZA
Right
(Looks through some papers)
This audition was...a thousand years ago.
EDGAR
Before my time.
LIZA
(short laugh)
Right. Look, Mr...Whatever, all joking aside, I think I
can help you, but I can’t if you waste my time.
EDGAR
Unless I’m mistaken, Miss, it was you who imposed yourself
upon me, interrupting my very important work. Good day.
(EDGAR resumes work on his
cart)
LIZA
You’re right. I didn’t mean to be rude. But seriously,
let’s get this straight. You really think you’re Edgar
Allan Poe, for real?
EDGAR
But write it rather Edgar, a Poet, and then it is right to
a “T”!
LIZA
And everything you said about...coming back from the dead
wasn’t just an act?
EDGAR
An act of God, perhaps. It seems he does, in fact, work in
mysterious ways.
4. I-2-4
LIZA
I always thought that...Poe, was an atheist, for some
reason.
EDGAR
Have you not read Eureka, or Mesmeric Revelation?
LIZA
Yours...ah, Poe’s? No, I said...
EDGAR
I have written extensively on God, his universal
machinations, and his relationship to us; like Augustine,
though without his following. The boundaries which divide
life from death are, at best, shadowy and vague. Who can
say where one ends and the other begins?
LIZA
Scientists.
EDGAR
Science, is a double edged sword. No one alive today can
possibly appreciate its benefits more than I, possessing,
as I do, a certain perspective which others lack.
LIZA
Sure.
EDGAR
Modern medicine, for example, has eradicated maladies which
took millions of lives, only yesterday, it seems to me.
Consumption; tuberculosis, you call it, which gave my
mother, my wife, and many more of my loved ones a ghastly
death, is nearly gone. A human miracle worthy of God.
LIZA
Didn’t your mother die in a fire?
EDGAR
(ignoring her)
Yet, Man is now only more active, not more happy, nor wise,
than he was six thousand years ago. You have allowed
invention to become your master, marching to a mechanized
drummer whose gears are spinning faster and faster, till
you have no choice but to become machines yourselves.
Science has dragged Diana from her car and taken wonder
5. I-2-5
EDGAR (Cont.)
from your lives. Well, it’s a happiness to wonder. It’s a
happiness to dream.
LIZA
Scientists dream...
EDGAR
But nothing is sacred to them, not even God! And perhaps
that’s right and good. But God exists. God is necessary.
It’s only up to us to understand Him. Doubly so, since, I
firmly believe that we and God are one, both consisting of
matter, but with God’s of an unparticled nature...
LIZA
Nope. Lost me.
EDGAR
Tsk. Hie thee hence to the library, young lady! But, no
matter. I’ve come to believe that, in the end, God is
unknowable, by design. We may light a million candles yet
the darkness stays as deep.
LIZA
“A man’s reach should exceed his grasp, or what’s a heaven
for?”
EDGAR
Indeed.
LIZA
I forget who said that.
EDGAR
A shame.
LIZA
Yeah. But I don’t believe in God, any god.
EDGAR
Why not?
LIZA
Too much evidence against it.
6. I-2-6
EDGAR
Then you simply can’t see the forest for the trees.
LIZA
Well, it’s getting late. I’ve got a rehearsal.
(She digs in her bag again)
But from what I’ve seen, personally and professionally, God
either doesn’t exist, or should be put on trial for crimes
against humanity.
EDGAR
Hubris. That means...
LIZA
I know what it means! I am not being arrogant! That’s the
last thing I feel knowing there’s no magical father making
sure we’re okay. We’re on our own. And this is our one and
only life, “Edgar Poe”. We’d better make it a good one!
(Takes a calming breath)
We have to love and help one other. We have no choice.
We’re all we’ve got.
(Pause)
I wish I could explain it better.
EDGAR
No need. There’s an eloquence in true enthusiasm.
LIZA
Thanks, I guess.
EDGAR
When I wrote Eureka, I believed it to be my finest
creation. Now, I think I was distracted from my real
purpose by the venial pursuit of Truth. This is not the
prime purview of the Poet.
LIZA
(smiling)
I’ll bite. What’s the “poet’s prime purview”?
EDGAR
Beauty; the pleasurable elevation of the soul. Poetry is
the rhythmical creation of beauty in words. It is the
reason for poetry’s existence, and a poet’s.
7. I-2-7
LIZA
“Beauty is truth, truth beauty. That is all ye know on
earth, and all ye need to know.”
LIZA AND EDGAR
(together)
John Keats
EDGAR
Fine poet. Fine man.
LIZA
Did you know him? Never mind.
EDGAR
Impressive, Miss Abel, or is it Mrs.?
LIZA
It’s Liza, Mr...
EDGAR
It’s Edgar.
LIZA
“Edgar” it is.
(Digs in bag)
My friends call this “The Black Hole”. I can never...
Wait! Wait!
(Pulls out a pamphlet)
Here! This has all of our services and you can always reach
me at this address.
EDGAR
(taking the pamphlet)
Thank you. I hope I...did not offend. I am not of the merry
mood. “When I was young and dipped in folly, I fell in love
with melancholy.”
LIZA
It was a pleasure to meet you, “Edgar Poe”. Now, I have to
run. I am so late. Wait! What about your cart?
EDGAR
My trusty steed has thrown a shoe. A pin slipped out that I
need to replace. I’ll be fine.
8. I-2-8
(LIZA pulls a bobby pin from
her hair)
LIZA
Will this do?
EDGAR
Yes. For now, admirably. My thanks, for everything.
(LIZA smiles and starts to
go, but EDGAR puts his hand
on her arm)
“So with the world thy gentle ways,
Thy grace, thy more than beauty,
Shall be an endless theme of praise
And love-a simple duty.”
LIZA
Thanks, Edgar. Good night.
EDGAR
Good night, Liza.
(LIZA hurries off)
(BLACKOUT)
(END OF SCENE)
