Back to PLAYS page Back to One-Acts page
BEE By Stephen Bittrich
5701 W Slaughter Lane
Suite A130-204
Austin, TX 78749
Tel: (646) 245-4507
E-mail: SBittrich@aol.com
Copyright © 2005,
by Stephen Bittrich
(Draft: June, 2006)
Back to PLAYS page Back to One-Acts page
BEE By Stephen Bittrich
5701 W Slaughter Lane
Suite A130-204
Austin, TX 78749
Tel: (646) 245-4507
E-mail: SBittrich@aol.com
Copyright © 2005,
by Stephen Bittrich
(Draft: June, 2006)
"BEE"
BY STEPHEN BITTRICH
SETTING:
A room cloaked in shadow.
AT RISE:
LEE72 sits on a metal chair center
stage in a razor sharp circular pool of
light. He wears a nondescript blue
jump suit.
After a moment, a bee starts BUZZING
around his head. He tries to ignore
the bee at first, then swats at it, and
finally the bee stings him on the neck.
LEE72
Ow! Oh my God!
(LEE72 swats at the bee, but
misses it, and the bee
continues flying. LEE72 tries
to follow the bee in his seat,
following it's path, perhaps
to kill it. He soon becomes
aware of himself, stops and
looks around, as if having
been caught touching himself
by a parent. He gets up and
walks around the penumbra,
peering into the dark beyond.
Is there a figure sitting in
the dark, just barely beyond
his view?)
LEE72
Hello? Is someone in the corner there? Hello?
(Suddenly...the SOUND of a
massive steel door opening.
Sounds from a large crowded
area outside can be heard.
The massive steal door SLAMS
shut. MING02 enters the pool
of light. She wears a sleek,
cruel blue uniform.)
MING02
Good Day.
LEE72
Good Day.
MING02
I'm called Ming-Oh-Two.
LEE72
Yes, I was told.
MING02
Good. And you remembered it.
LEE72
Of course...it's very memorable.
MING02
Really? Why's that?
LEE72
Eh...such a low number, I suppose....
MING02
Mm-hm.
LEE72
Oh! There's a bee...
MING02
What's that?
LEE72
A caution. A bee stung me on the neck and is still buzzing
around the room.
MING02
Really?
LEE72
I haven't seen one since I was a child, yet a bee is a
prisoner in this room. It's really quite remarkable.
MING02
Yes.
(MING02 circles uncomfortably
around LEE72 looking at his
neck, noting where the bee
took it's Parthian shot.)
LEE72
Yes. And it's very aggressive. You should be careful.
MING02
And why should I be careful?
LEE72
That it might sting--
(MING02 yanks the stinger out
of LEE72's neck.)
LEE72
Ow! What are you--?
MING02
Nothing to fear. Here. Here's the bee's little stinger.
See? What's the fuss? All his/her power right here in my
finger tips. Now the bee is of no more consequence than a
fly.
(Someone sitting in the other
part of the room shifts
audibly in his/her seat.)
LEE72
Who's there?
(pause)
I think.... There's someone lurking in the corner of this
room.
MING02
This room is oval. It has no corners.
LEE72
Very well. Oval. So you say, but nevertheless, someone is
spying on us.
MING02
And if there were someone, would that be of concern, Lee
Seven-Two?
LEE72
I just think they ought, the person ought, to come out and
make himself known, that's all.
MING02
Interesting.
LEE72
Hm?
MING02
You've picked a gender.
LEE72
What?
MING02
How did you manage that?
LEE72
How did I--? I haven't picked a gender, I just....
(thinking better of it)
Yes, you're right. I should have said, "The person ought to
have come out and made him/herself known.
MING02
(addressing the dark)
Observer...what is your name?
(The observer answers in a
distinctly asexual,
emotionless voice....)
SHI57
I am now called She-Fifty-Seven.
LEE72
There is someone in the corner!
MING02
As I told you before, this room has no corners--
LEE72
Oval, oval. Against the wall, whatever, there is someone
against the border of this--
MING02
Yes. Yes, there is. You are correct. It's clear then.
(to the business at hand...)
Now....
(suddenly changing the subject)
By the way, it is my understanding that you invoked a deity
earlier.
LEE72
What?
MING02
Don't you recall?
LEE72
I, eh...no, no....
MING02
(louder, to the room)
Play it back, please...
(There is the scratchy/
screechy sound of something
being played backwards,
then....)
LEE72 (V.O.)
"Ow! Oh my God!"
MING02
Play again, please. Volume decibel nine.
LEE72 (V.O.)
(louder this time)
"Ow! Oh my God!"
MING02
There. Am I clear now?
LEE72
You recorded me?
MING02
We record this room. This is a public room.
LEE72
I was stung by a bee--
MING02
And so...you invoked a deity?
LEE72
No.
MING02
No? I can play it again--
LEE72
I know what I said. I wasn't invoking a deity, per se. I
was surprised--shocked--by the bee. The word simply slipped
out--
MING02
As an expression of shock or surprise...
LEE72
Yes. Not as if I expected All Mighty God--
(MING02 looks sharply at
LEE72: "careful now.")
LEE72
--a deity, to suddenly intervene on my behalf.
MING02
No. No, I suppose not. Well. It's not a serious breech, is
it?
LEE72
Look, if I may, I'd like to know why I've been called here
today.
MING02
Have you got somewhere to go?
LEE72
No.
MING02
At this point, you aren't under any obligation to stay here.
If you'd like, you may go.
LEE72
I may?
MING02
Of course. Would you like to go?
LEE72
No. I'm glad to stay and find out why you've asked for me.
MING02
Good.
(MING02 is in no hurry to
satisfy LEE72.)
LEE72
So then...
MING02
Yes?
LEE72
Why...have you called me?
MING02
It's concerning some wording we've been made aware of...a
notable arrangement of words...on your personal station.
LEE72
My personal station?
MING02
Yes.
LEE72
You have access to my personal station?
MING02
Of course. This is thoroughly disclosed. Certainly you
carefully discerned all the documentation when you accepted
your personal station?
LEE72
I looked over it.
MING02
Ah. It is a common theme. "I looked over it." And yet when
these situations arise, one wishes one had done more than to
"look over" the documentation.
LEE72
Well, I needed a personal station. One needs a personal
station to shop, to communicate, for entertainment.
MING02
You're very lucky, then, to be afforded one for free!
LEE72
Yes. Not like I have a choice. One needs a personal
station, and there's only one place to acquire one, only one
place that makes one. Here.
MING02
One is hardly without choice. There are those who "work" for
their food. You are not prohibited from working.
Communication and entertainment are luxuries. Humans don't
require them. Housing is provided by the company, for all
people, regardless of their position in the Class Lottery,
whether they choose to have a personal station or not.
LEE72
Yes.
(pause)
I still don't understand why I'm here today.
MING02
(louder)
Play back the curious wording, please, October Fifteen, Two
Oh-Four-Five...
(An asexual computer voice
reads the following speech)
COMPUTER (V.O.)
October Fifteen. Two-Oh-Four-Five. Dear Lan33, I saw you
through a window tonight.
I was on my way from Meditation, and I happened by a window
of a restaurant where you were dining...with another. With
another. Lan33, your recent good fortune in the Class
Lottery does not preclude you from seeing me, from being with
me, and yet most hurtfully, most hurtfully, you've chosen
someone else. Only two weeks ago we were physically
conjoined, Lan33, and I am at a loss as to how you can
manipulate your feelings so easily...
MING02
This is something that you wrote?
(No answer.)
MING02
Did you write these words, Lee72? If you deny that you wrote
them, you should be made aware that sharing your passcode is
a serious infraction of the Consumer's Code, Four-Four-Seven
B, and you could face a sentence of no more than two years,
yet no less than--
LEE72
I wrote it. Yes...I wrote it.
(The bee can be heard BUZZING.
LEE72 swats at it,
haphazardly.)
MING02
Don't be afraid. He/she's lost all power, this one.
LEE72
The bee is a female, Ming-Oh-Two. Most likely a soldier bee
or a worker bee, not an emasculated drone.
MING02
Good then. She. She. Dead already, she is. I wonder if
she knows it.
LEE72
Dead?
MING02
Yes....bzzzzzz-zzzzzz.
(pause)
Can she be aware, with her tiny little consciousness, that
she's sealed her own fate? Does she have the instinct to
know what she's done? One has to wonder. When she took her
revenge on you, she caused her own end. When a bee stings,
it leaves too much of itself, too much of its own abdomen
behind to survive. It dies. And so, this tiny bee, by
giving in to her nature, to her need for revenge, she's
caused her own demise.
LEE72
Revenge?
MING02
Yes.
LEE72
It wasn't revenge.
MING02
No?
LEE72
She can't reason like that. It was instinct. She was
protecting herself.
MING02
Was she? How could she be protecting herself? She's ended
her own life. If it's instinct, then her instinct has
betrayed her.
LEE72
Well, it's her job. Usually, a bee, a soldier bee or a guard
bee, is protecting the hive. It's her job to sting when
necessary.
MING02
In the primitive animal world, they have need of soldiers, we
can agree on this, and if this is the bee's calling, her
purpose, it is a justifiable sacrifice...but this bee was
alone. She had no higher calling, other than to...
sting...you. Perhaps she should just have flown away...and
lived.
(louder)
Continue to letter December Twenty, Two-Oh-Four-Five...
(Computer voice reads:)
COMPUTER (V.O.)
...Dear Lan33, I don't understand...I don't understand a
promise broken. A promise of love is a contract, not to be
lightly tread upon, and yet you flaunt your new companion
willfully in my face. Let me ask you...have you physically
conjoined yet? Why do you always appear up where I am? With
him? With him. Everywhere you go, you torture me. Lan33,
are you following me? Are you following me? Am I
following...am I following...am I following...you.
(Silence. The bee BUZZES.)
LEE72
Die! Why won't you die, and be done with it?
(SHI57, wearing a lose white
uniform/gown has made his/her
way to the edge of light.
Just part of his/her lower
body can be distinguished.)
MING02
In good time, she'll follow her course. Ignore her.
(louder)
Continue to letter January--
LEE72
No more letters! I know what I wrote. You know what I
wrote.
MING02
Yes.
LEE72
I never sent them. I never sent them! How can I be held
responsible for thoughts? For feelings? How can you
monitor...how can you monitor...my dreams?
MING02
Lee-Seven-Two. Where is Lan-Thirty-Three?
LEE72
How should--how should I know?
MING02
Where is Lan-Thirty-Three?
LEE72
I'm not responsible! I didn't do anything!
(SHI57 comes into the light.
SHI57 is a woman, albeit an
androgynous one.)
SHI57
Lee...
LEE72
What?
SHI57
Lee...
(LEE72 turns, for the first
time to see...)
LEE72
Oh my God...
SHI57
Lee...Lee...
LEE72
How can you be? How can you be? How can you...?
(HE falls to the ground in a
pile and begins to weep, to
wale. Ever so slowly, moving
jerkily like a movie in
reverse, SHI57 retreats to the
shadows, until she is gone.
LEE72 continues to cry softly
as the lights slowly fade to
black.)
(END OF PLAY)