Sunday, November 25, 2007

Condemned Audition Text

The main character is in solitary confinement waiting to die. The only person he can talk to is the warden, who never talks back. These are some of his thoughts as he spends his last days on earth:

The main character has just admitted to being lonely and been given chocolate by the warden. The next time he speaks to the warden he says the following:

Prisoner: “You know, the second best time I ever had chocolate was in Belgium. It was truly exquisite chocolate bought in a little café actually attached to the chocolate factory. We sat out front and drank chocolate milk with chocolate truffles. It was an exquisite moment. That was the second best time.”

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The main character is being punished for doing something wrong. He says the following:

Prisoner: “You want me to feel sorry, you want me to feel guilty; but the system has already taken that away from me. By condemning me to death you no longer leave any need for me to feel bad about what I’ve done. We feel guilty because ultimately we want to be redeemed, but there is no redemption for me. For my crimes I will either face oblivion or hell fire. Your actions will make me feel cold, hungry, angry, vengeful, irritated and more, but they will never awaken my guilt!”

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The main character is sitting with his back towards the door. On the wall he can see a part of the shadow of the warden. He says:

Prisoner: “I never realised this, but I can actually see a part of you. Like in Plato’s cave, your shadow has become my reality. You know, scientists – thousands of years after Plato’s death – have come to realise that we’re really in a sensory cave. There is so much more out there to ‘see’; in radio, gamma, ultraviolet, sonar, infrared.”

“And then there is memory. Every time we remember, we alter the memory; filling in with our imagination what we can’t recall, yet never realising our own self-deception. We’re walking through life blinkered and short sighted; believing that what we see is what we get.”

“We mistake the map for the territory and murder each other over semantics.”

“You might be depriving me of sensory stimuli, but I am convinced I now see more than you ever will. You deprive me of my senses, but it is you who’s blind!”

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Please show, in seated position (no movement) complete psychological surrender. Show a man who no longer cares about whether he lives or dies, whether he’s dirty or clean, or whether it is night or day. He is in many ways catatonic.

2 comments:

  1. be careful of bootleggers, peanut...

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's not the whole script. Consider this like advertisement.

    ReplyDelete