The Plays
Orestes 2.0 [sample]
by Charles L. Mee
WILLIAM
Do you think forgiveness is possible?
JOHN
Uh, primarily, uh, uh, the, uh, the...primarily the question is does
man have the power to forgive himself. And he does. That's essentially
it. I mean if you forgive yourself, and you absolve yourself of all,
uh, of all wrongdoing in an incident, then you're forgiven. Who cares
what other people think, because uh...
WILLIAM
Was this a process you had to go through over a period of time. Did you
have to think about it?
JOHN
Well, no. Not until I was reading the Aquarian gospel did I, did I
strike upon, you know I had almost had ends meet because I had certain
uh you know to-be-or-not-to-be reflections about of course what I did.
And uh...
WILLIAM
I'm sorry, what was that?
JOHN
Triple murder. Sister, husband. Sister, husband, and a nephew, my
nephew. And uh, you know, uh, manic depressive.
WILLIAM
Do you mind my asking what instruments did you use? What were the
instruments?
JOHN
It was a knife. It was a knife.
WILLIAM
Knife?
JOHN
Yes.
WILLIAM
So then, the three of them were all...
JOHN
Ssssss...
(points to slitting his throat)
like that.
WILLIAM
So, uh, do you think that as time goes by, this episode will just
become part of your past, or has it already...
JOHN
It has already become part of my past.
WILLIAM
Has already become part of your past. No sleepless nights? No...
JOHN
Aw, no. In the first three or four years there was a couple of nights
where I would stay up thinking about how I did it, you know. And what
they said...they told me later there were so many stab wounds in my
sister and I said no, that's not true at all, you know. So I think I
had a little blackout during the murders, but uh...
WILLIAM
I'm sorry, they said there were many stab wounds....
JOHN
Well, uh, they said there was something like thirty stab wounds in my
sister, and I remember distinctly I just cut her throat once. That was
all, you know, and I don't know where the thirty stab wounds came from.
So that might have been some kind of blackout thing. You know, I was
trying to re- re- re- uh, re- uh, uh, resurrect the uh, the crime—my
initial steps, etc. You know, and uh, and uh, I took, as a matter of
fact, it came right out of the, I was starting the New Testament at the
time, matter of fact I'm about the only person you'll ever meet that
went to, to do a triple murder with a Bible in his, in his pocket, and,
and, listening to a radio. I had delusions of grandeur with the radio.
Uh, I had a red shirt on that was symbolic of, of some lines in
Revelation, in the, in the New Testament. Uh I had a red motor...as a
matter of fact, I think it was chapter 6 something, verses 3, 4, or 5,
or something where uh it was a man, it was a man. On a red horse. And,
and, a man on a red horse came out, and uh, and uh uh, and he was given
a knife, and unto him was given the power to kill and destroy. And I
actually thought I was this person. And I thought that my red horse was
this red Harley Davidson I had. And I wore...it was just, you know, it
was kind of a symbolic type of thing. And and and uh, you know, uh
after the murders I thought the nephew was, was the, was a new devil or
something, you know. This, this is pretty bizarre now that I think back
on it. I thought he was a new devil and uh, uh. I mean basically I love
my sister, there's no question about that. But at times my sister
hadn't come through uh for me. You know and I was in another, one of
these manic attacks. And uh, and uh, uh, uh, you know, uh, I was just
uh, I was just you know, I mean I was fed up with all this you know one
day they treat me good and then they tell all these other people that I
was a maniac and watch out for me and etc. and like that. And uh, uh,
so I went to them that night to tell them I was all in trouble again,
you know, and could they put me up for the night, you know, and they
told me to take a hike and uh so uh, believing that I had the power to
kill, uh you know, that was that for them. You know. I mean when family
turns you out, that's a real blow. You know. But uh, back to the
original subject of forgiveness. If I forgive myself I'm forgiven. You
know that's essentially the answer. I'm the captain of my own ship. I
run my own ship. Nobody can crawl in my ship unless they get
permission. I just (he nods) "over there." You know. "I'm
forgiven."
You know. Ha-ha. You know. (Laughs.) It's as simple as that. You know.
You're your own priest, you're your own leader, you're your own
captain. You know. You run your own show, a lot of people know that.
NOD
What do you think of the soaps?
JOHN
What?
NOD
The soaps.
JOHN
You mean the daytimes?
NOD
Right.
JOHN
They're OK.
NOD
I think they're wonderful. I think the clothes could be better, and
they could use some comic relief, you know, but otherwise I think
they're wonderful. Although, of course, I guess they could use some
more fantasy. You know. In times like these, we need a little more "I
wanna be," and not so much "I am."
JOHN
Unh-hunh.
NOD
I think it's incredible how much excellence you see in the scenes.
JOHN
Unh-hunh.
NOD
Although I think they could have more minority representation.
And I think they should move faster. You know, they should have shorter
stories--beginning, middle, end, like that, and not just have the same
story go on for a year or something. I mean they get lost in the past,
they don't quite catch up with the times. You know, I like to see some
stuff going on, I don't just want to watch my next door neighbors.
Do you think they're too believable?
JOHN
No.
WILLIAM
Yes, I do. That's what I would say.
NOD
I'm a little tired of seeing spouses coming back from the dead all the
time and plots with missing babies. I think that's a little too
obvious.
JOHN
To me, my only complaint would be that most shows are overly lit.
NOD
Too bright.
JOHN
Exactly.
