Script Sample:  Revolutionaries

DELILA

(Half lowers the gun)

Not all policeman come in white goon suits.

 

ESHU

Then how do you know I’m not one of ‘em?

 

DELILA

‘Cause of what you said.  About Eve.

 

ESHU

She wasn’t no white woman?

 

DELILA

Nobody on the police force would DARE say something like that.  Every last one of ‘em’d cut out his own tongue before he’d blaspheme against the state.  Sycophantic bastards!

 

ESHU

Or the chief would have him killed first.  It’s hard to get away with anything, between the police and official government surveillance.

 

DELILA

(Forgetting him for a moment)

True enough, I guess.  Anyway, the police aren’t concerned with me.  That’s the last thing the government wants...

 

Suddenly alarmed that she may have revealed something to him, she trains the gun on him and advances toward him as she speaks, stopping with the gun inches away from his nose.  ESHU’s widen the closer she gets.

 

DELILA

A-HAH!  I see your game.  Trying to gain my confidence...get me to spill my guts, maybe figure out how I think so the Rabid Women can get the jump on me...

 

ESHU

(She’s more cagey than he thought)

Now it’s you on the government payroll.  Takes big bucks to get the drugs you must be taking.

 

 

Outside, the RABID WOMEN can be heard shrieking “Caw!” “Caw! “Caw!” in a wild staccato.

 

Alarmed by the sound, but keeping the gun on him, DELILA stealthily slides to a window, keeping out of sight of anyone outside.  She partially pulls back a curtain and looks for the source of the calls.

 

DELILA

Hear that?

 

ESHU

What?  Some tropical birds?

 

DELILA flips the lights off, and the stage lights go down by half.  She is not really paying attention to him anymore.  The real threat is the source of the calls.

 

DELILA

Lights will only attract them.

(Slides back near ESHU)

Birds, SHIT!  How many tropical birds do you suppose there are in upstate New York?  Those are the Rabid Women.

 

From another position downstage and off, the shrill “Caw!”s come again.

 

ESHU

Rabbit women?  What’s that?  Mutants?  Ex-playboy bunnies?

 

DELILA

RABID.  As in RABIES.  BERSERK!  Something--or someone--has driven them stark raving mad...given them the fever....  You must know the story.  Women of African decent come home from the beauty parlor, change into their BEST clothes and jewelry.  Then, for no apparent reason, up and run off to the hills.  But there is a reason.  And they never go back...

 

ESHU

You speak...you speak...in RACE...

 

The sound of the quickly approaching heels of the RABID WOMEN comes offstage right and upstage.

 

DELILA

(Dives to the floor, fiercely whispers)

Quick!  Get down!

 

ESHU follows her example, covering his head with his hands.  The RABID WOMEN rush by the windows outside, their heels sounding loudly.  The sound disappears in the distance.  DELILA gets up slowly, brushes dirt off.

 

DELILA

(Goes to the window, checks on the RABID WOMEN)

That was close.  A scout squad.  Three or four.  There are thousands of them.

 

ESHU

(Stands slowly, brushing himself off)

RABID women, huh?

 

DELILA

(Illustrating as she describes)

Of course.  Everybody ALIVE knows about the Rabid Women.  Something, anyway.  Hordes of berserk women uprooting trees, razing shopping malls with their bare hands attracts no small attention.  Now I know you’re lying.

 

ESHU

Sounds like those freak tornados.  You know how they are.  Come down out of nowhere, rip through a town and disappear just like that.

 

DELILA

Bullshit!  Didn’t you hear them just now?  Racing by in a blind fury?  THAT was not tornado.  It’s the strangest thing.  They’ve got this superhuman strength, you know, but they can’t see straight.  That’s right.  They could look right at you, for instance, and see you.  but put on a pair of glasses, just a regular pair of glasses--presto!--they might not know it was you they were looking at.  I’m telling you.  Freaky blind.

(Incredulous)

You never heard of the Rabid Women before today?

 

ESHU

No.  I’m telling you.  I’m an outcast.  A total loner.  I’ve been hiding.  I’m...I’m wanted by the police myself.  A little juvenile activity a few years back...

 

DELILA

You must think I’m a complete and utter fool!  Hordes of crazed African-American women ripping buildings apart with their bare hands?  The police have no other priority...

(Pause)

So you don’t know...why they do it?  What makes them roam wild in the hills for years on end, eating vegetation and dirt?

 

ESHU

I don’t even know what you’re talking about.  Natural disasters caused by a bunch of crazed women?

 

DELILA

Exactly.  Now you don’t seriously expect me to believe...

(She pauses, cocks her head sideways, listening, then suddenly)

HIT THE DECK!

 

ESHU dives to the floor.  DELILA remains standing.  She waits a minute, watching him stoically.

 

DELILA

False alarm.