THE LIBRARY AT MARIANAT

THE LIBRARY AT MARIANAT

ACT ONE

Scene One

The show curtain is a colorful rendering of our solar system. We have all the known planets, in addition to the Sun and Moon---with this exception. Between Mercury and Venus there is a tenth planet, approximately the size of Mars. A single spot falls first on this planet and then on the Earth. If we could see the rotation, we would be aware that the Earth is now revolving in an opposite direction to the one in which it revolves today. But what we can see is the section of the Western Hemisphere. North and South America are now ocean and the Atlantic and the Pacific are pretty much covered by land.

At rise, we are in the living room of a house several centuries in the future. It is more a representation of a living room, and it is like no other living room we have ever seen. Everything is not quite what we know of today. The furniture is strangely shaped, at curious angles, and in odd fabrics. On the wall is a single photograph of an immensely muscular creature with the head of a bull. He wears a leather vest and a leather thong beneath which is a spectacular erection. At the same time, he has mammoth breasts jutting forth beneath the vest. Above his head rests a halo. MOTHER sits at a table munching on raspberry-colored chips. SHE alternates between separating money into piles and amusing herself with a hand-held rectangle which shows still pictures. She is dressed in a revealing leather outfit not too different than the photo on the wall. The money, like everything else, is unusual in shape and color. Near her stands her son, DEEDELUS. He wears an outfit to give the impression he is a six-year-old. But we can tell he is a sturdy, muscular young man, reasonable good-looking, but, possessing, like his mother, particularly bad skin. On his chest is tattooed a cone-shaped symbol.

DEEDELUS

(beginning to sing in a strange language)

Denka, dam ak a foon ta,
Dam ak askan tu?

(as he sings, the lights dim quickly, then come up brighter, and the language is translated into English)

Mama, why is the sky green?
Why is the grass blue?
Why am I me?
Why are you you?
Why do I wear a cone
Tattooed on my chest?
Why does the sun set in the east
And rise in the west?

MOTHER

(without looking up)

I don't know.
How am I supposed to know?
You'll find all the answers at
The library at Marianat.

DEEDELUS

But where is that?

MOTHER

It's somewhere near the Straights.

DEEDELUS

Just where are the Straights?

MOTHER

                              Oh, go and lift your weights. (DEEDELUS reaches behind the chair nearest him and pulls up a set of dumbbells, proceeding to do curls. Lights dim, come up in the same setting. DEEDELUS is now in his mid-teens. MOTHER is still at the table munching chips and counting currency.) DEEDELUS         Mama, why do the birds scream?
        Why do the deer screech?
        What is a sea?
        What is a beach?
        Why do we worship at
        The shrine of the Beast?
        Why does the sun rise in the west
        And set in the east? MOTHER I don't know.
How am I supposed to know?
You'll find all the answers at
The library at Marianat. DEEDELUS                               But where is that?

MOTHER

It's not around these parts.

DEEDELUS

And just where are these parts?

MOTHER

Go do your martial arts. (HE executes a few swift movements that are a combination of karate, tae kwon do and kung fu. Lights dim and rise again. Scene is the same as before only now DEEDELUS is in his late teens, still pumping iron and exercising.) DEEDELUS

Mama, how do you know if
It's a lake or a brook?
What is a map?
What is a book?
Why is it everyone
Gets excited by size?
Why do we eat nothing but chips
And burgers and fries?

MOTHER

I don't know.
How am I supposed to know?
You'll find all the answers at
The library at Marianat.

DEEDELUS

But where is that?

MOTHER It's where the peacocks run. DEEDELUS But where do peacocks run?

MOTHER

Oh, go and shoot your gun.
(DEEDELUS pulls out a strange-looking revolver and begins target practice by aiming it out the window. We hear a few human yelps, then thuds. In a moment, a bullet flies through the window and shatters a ceramic vase on the shelf. DEEDELUS ducks.) MOTHER (rising and angrily moving toward him)
Get away from that window. If I told you once, I told you a hundred times: it's all right for you to shoot at them, but it's not all right for them to shoot at you. (Second bullet. It hits her directly in the chest. SHE keels over.) BLACKOUT