14 April 2005

the one act

since we're getting title suggestions, i thought it might be a bit helpful to let people know what the thing is actually about.

open on a guy on a ledge, threatening to jump for reasons unknown to us. on the sidewalk below are 2 people, one trying to convince him not to jump, one trying to convince him to take that leap into oblivion. they begin by trying to convince him (but minus the part where they actually try to figure out why he wants to jump), then they try to convince each other, then they start arguing with each other, and finally one of them gets upset and leaves. the other one, having in his mind won the argument, leaves, and our poor suicidal fellow is still on the ledge.

7 comments:

Jo Custer said...

wouldn't it be great if the guy wasn't actually suicidal at all (i know i've sometimes laid in bed for several hours wishing God would strike me dead. that's what constitutes 'suicidal' for me. no fun, but no mess)

but for some reason, this guy walks out on this ledge, and the two fellas just start their spiels and after a while listening to them, the guy actually starts to feel suicidal?

(seriously, who wouldn't?)

that'd just be great. now i'm breaking my own tiny rule, tho':

leave the writer alone til its' done.

billiam said...

sorry mattathias...

"Jump!" reminds me of that song... "Jump!" by a no name band

"Jump it!" makes me think of the rejected nike slogan

"Fly" seems ok. but i am a bastard.

after reading the synopsis of the begining, all i can think of is Camus' "Myth of Sisyphus"

haha... "The Man and His Ledge"

Lucas said...

while i like the idea of the guy not being suicidal at first, it's a bit late in the game for that, and i think it's probably a different play alltogether.

"jumper" reminds me of the third eye blind song.

milo's right, "jump it!" does sound like a nike slogan, but "the man and his ledge"? honestly, chap...

Illuminated Script said...

Since "dpress" is involved, I assume there will be a humorous element, thus I like "Sissyfoot," as a title inspired by Billiam. Since, I hope, he is not going to jump, and he is fighting Camus' (universal) desire to commit suicide (I only know this second hand, so I may be wrong about Camus).

Chesterton says, somewhere, that suicide is not about killing oneself, but about killing the world--people commit suicide because they cannot handle reality anymore. Thus, I too like the idea that he is bothered by his annoying surroundings and this prompts the thoughts to jump. But, I realise it is too late for that.

Jo Custer said...

(when someone simply makes up her mind to do a 180' attitude change, well, you can be sarcastic, but I really don't see the point.)

Illuminated Script said...

bill:
Van Halen is the only no-name band i'll listen to. ("Jump!")

billiam said...

first off-

i was being sarcastic with the man and his ledge.

secondly-

i wanted to put that qoute that matt put in- but i thought i would be too pretentious.

thirdly-

i am just hoping that everyone knows i was being sarcastic about Van Halen being a no name band.