31 Plays in 31 Days: #23 - "Lie Down and Die"

This piece attaches to the very first one I wrote for my 31 Plays 31 Days challenge, which comes from an idea for a play about a model who must cope with rebuilding her life and identity after being horrendously disfigured in an assault. This section has a psychiatrist tell her she still has a life ahead of her and insist that she get busy living, or get busy dying.

Incidentally, I submitted piece #1, Pretty is Power, for a "one page play" call. You may be amused to know that the theme was "Heroine." That section alone is a bit horrific out of context, and perhaps even a bit disgusting when you think of it as relating to theme of "Heroine," but I kind of like the awful turnabout of it. I think deep down I am a creep.

Day #23 - "Lie Down and Die"

(Former supermodel CHRISTINA MORAY lies around on a chaise in a bathrobe. Her face is completely covered by bandages and a mask.)

(A professional middle-aged woman, DR. MAUREEN BELL, enters at a respectful distance.)

DR. BELL: Miss Moray?

(CHRISTINA sits up and spins to face away from her.)

CHRISTINA: Who’s there?

DR. BELL: Dr. Maureen Bell. Your assistant let me in.

CHRISTINA: Who the hell are you?

DR. BELL: I’m the psychiatrist your primary care providers referred you to. You were supposed to call me, but you never did.

(CHRISTINA stands and moves off.)

CHRISTINA: So you just barge in here?

DR. BELL: Dr. Gorman was concerned about your mental state, so when I didn’t hear from you I thought it might be prudent to check in in person.

CHRISTINA: Ah, because I’ve become a crazy shut-in.

DR. BELL: It is a fairly significant behavioral change.

CHRISTINA: Oh, yeah, huge red flag!

DR. BELL: Of course, it’s understandable. You have suffered an enormous trauma.

CHRISTINA: Ha!

DR. BELL: That’s the sort of thing a person needs help to deal with.

CHRISTINA: Help? You’re going to help me do what?

DR. BELL: Process what happened to you, and move forward from it.

CHRISTINA: Move forward? You’re going to help me move forward?

DR. BELL: That’s my hope.

(CHRISTINA turns around to stare her down.)

CHRISTINA: Didn’t anybody tell you what happened to me, doc?

DR. BELL: Yes. You were horrifically assaulted.

CHRISTINA: Assaulted? Nobody stole my goddamn purse! Nobody jumped out of the bushes and raped me! Let me make it perfectly clear to you— some freak threw hydrochloric acid at me and melted my entire face off! How the hell do you move forward from that?

DR. BELL: You have to do something to take care of yourself, or you’ll be destroyed.

CHRISTINA: Are you kidding me? I’m already destroyed! I was the most beautiful woman most people would ever see, and now I have to consider myself lucky that I can even still talk! Forget my fucking career! I don’t even look like a person anymore!

DR. BELL: But you are. You’re still a person.

CHRISTINA: No, I’m not!

DR. BELL: You can still have a life.

CHRISTINA: What life? My life is over! I’m not who I was! Everything over! There’s nothing left! I don’t want to move forward, I want to fucking kill myself!

DR. BELL: Then why haven’t you?

(CHRISTINA freezes, looks at her, then collapses on the chaise.)

DR. BELL: Yes, your old life is over. So you’ve got to make a new one. Unless you really do want to lie down and die.

(She turns and starts to exit.)

DR. BELL: I’ll see you tomorrow at two o’clock. We’ll get started then.