Marjorie Conn (Actor/Playwright/Ventriloquist) made her acting debut with the late, greyt Ethyl Eichelberger as his leading man playing Aegisthus to his Klytemnestra with her lover, the late, incomparable Katy Dierlam as Electra. She was given an award by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force for her contributions to Queer Theatre in Provincetown, MA. She founded the Provincetown Fringe Festival in 1994, which relocated to Asbury Park, NJ in 2007. Currently she is a full-time New Yorker living in Hell's Kitchen with a plethora of rescue animals. 

P-Murt

Characters:.

2 people (A and B) can be any age, any gender.

A has greenish tinted hair or just a lock of green hair.

Setting:

Anywhere

Time:

The present

A
Pax et bonum.

B
Shalom.

A
Salaam.

B
Peace. More important than truth.

Silence.

A
If your dog doesn’t like someone, you probably shouldn’t either.

B
The more people I meet, the more I like my cats.

Silence.

A
Written any poems lately?

B
Yes.

A
Can I hear one?

B
(closes eyes and looks upward and speaks fervently) Oh, sky!

Silence.

A
Lovely. I have to remember that one.

B
Thank you.

Silence.

A
Don’t you feel guilty?

B
Why?

A
Doing nothing. Watching and wondering.

B
Maybe more guilty than those perpetrating the disasters.

Silence.

A
What if the waters of the ocean were red and the sky yellow?

B
What if your hair were green?

A
It is greenish.

B
Exactly my point.

Silence.

A
What’s the impact of a dollar upon the heart?

B
What’s the impact of a million dollars?

A
Stephen Crane.

B
Oh.

A
What does it mean?

B
Beyond me.

A
But you're the poet.

B
Sorry.

Silence.

A
Maybe I should just leave.

B
It’s funny. I was thinking the same thing.

A
What about the cats?

B
Right. I can’t leave. What about your dogs?

A
Right. I can’t leave either.

Silence.

B
Do you think we should start all over again?

A
We could. But then we’d have to rewrite everything.

B
I didn’t think of that.

Silence.

A
The Great Depression..

B
Rigged elections.

A
9/11 fabrications.

B
Gosh, that rhymes.

A
Resigned despair.

B
Good one.

Silence.

A
P-Murt.

B
Huh?

Silence.

A
Economic justice.

B
Unemployment!

A
Homelessness.

B
Economic injustice.

A
Anti-American.

B
The American dream.

A
Bigotry.

B
Homophobia.

A
Racism.

B
War.

A
Corporate greed.

B
Can a whisper become a roar?

A suddenly stands and starts yelling out slogans fervently.

A
Protecting the people from the powerful. Free speech is our First Amendment right! Bust big banks. Smash the two-party state. What freedom? America is corrupt. More betterness, less grossness. If money equals speech, then debt equals censorship. I can't afford to get sick. Real eyes realize real lies. We are the working poor. Unionize now. One life. One world. One chance. New bottom line. I am not alone! There's nothing American about corporate greed. Stop the greed. Do it for your kids. BBB. Bankers behind bars. Give me my ecosystems back. All our grievances are connected. America, home of the highest incarceration rate in the world. Passivism makes you complacent in murder. Poverty is the worst form of violence. Hatred and speaking freely about it. Keeping people who are other, out.

The wind goes out of A and A sits.

Maybe you should write more poems.

B
Maybe.

A
I cry all the time.

B
Suddenly I feel so old.

A
Decades and decades of protests.

B
Women’s rights in the 20’s

A
Homelessness in the 30’s.

B
The Holocaust in the 40’s.

A
Political oppression in the 50’s.

B
Civil rights in the 60’s.

A
The Vietnam War in the 70’s.

B
Gay rights in the 80’s.

A
Animal rights in the 90’s.

B
To name a few.

Silence.

A
What’s after the 90’s?

B
The new millennium.

A
2001.

B
I saw that movie. Stoned.

A
Me too. Stoned.

B
9/11/2001.

A
My abused greyhound rescued me in September of 2001.

B
Really?

A
Really!

B
So now what? We are going backwards.

A
P-Murt.

B
Huh?

A
Bigoted, cocky, stupid, uninformed, racist, shady, corrupt, stuck-up, to name a few.

B
Huh?

A
Hates Muslims, hates Mexicans, makes fun of disabled people, judges women by their physical appearance, admires dictators, to name a few.

B
Oh. I see. P-Murt.

A
Yes. P-Murt.

B
We are going backwards. Backwards or forward. What’s the difference?

A
What’s that saying? Think globally. Act locally.

B
The township plans to euthanize a feral cat colony.

A
Yeah. I read that in the paper.

B
I could send the woman who feeds, neuters and spays them 50 bucks.

A
It’s not much but it’s something. (makes the V peace sign with arm raised in the air and speaks in a peaceful way) Love! Not hate! Makes America great.

B
(makes the fist protest sign with arm raised in the air and speaks in a protest way) Hey, hey! Ho ho! P-Murt has yet to go.

A
(imitates B making the fist protest sign with arm raised in the air and says the word in a protest way) Hey, hey! Ho ho! P-Murt has yet to go.

B
(imitates A making the V peace sign with arm raised in the air and says the word in a peaceful way) Love! Not hate! Makes America great.

They slowly lower their arms. Silence.

A
What was that poem you wrote again?

B
(closes eyes and looks upward and speaks fervently) Oh, sky!

A
Really lovely. I have to remember that one.

B
Peace. More important than truth.

A
Salaam.

B
Shalom.

A
Pax et bonum.

Blackout.