Black Box Theatre

Presents

EDGAR

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

Edgar, forty-year-old male, children’s books author, married to Lenore

Lenore, forty-year-old female, housewife, married to Edgar

Raven, black bird, lives in a tree on Edgar’s property

INTRODUCTION 

Music plays thirty seconds of Pachelbel’s Canon in D Major, then fades. 

ANNOUNCER: Good evening, patrons of the arts. Welcome. A reminder that no flash photography or smoking is allowed during the presentation. And now, Black Box Theatre is proud to present for your enjoyment: EDGAR.

SCENE ONE

Curtains open. 

The scene opens in full lighting to a bedroom, featuring a bed in one corner, a fireplace in the center with a small settee facing it, a desk and chair in the opposite corner, with a curtained window behind the desk and chair, and another curtained window beside them. LENORE, shoulder-length brown hair curled around her face, wearing a yellow print dress with a corseted top and full skirt dropping below her knees with beige pumps, enters stage left through the bedroom door, with EDGAR close behind her. EDGAR wears dark grey slacks and black shoes, paired with a white button-down shirt. LENORE carries a picture, and EDGAR carries an oblong box. LENORE walks to the fireplace while EDGAR passes by her to the desk. 

LENORE: (Turns to EDGAR and smiles) Well, that was fun, dear.

EDGAR: (Looks over his shoulder at LENORE) Yes, it was. Attending the estate sale was a grand idea, for sure, my love.

LENORE positions the small picture she carries in her arms atop the mantel, then stands back to admire it. EDGAR sets the small oblong box he carries on his desk, then walks around and sits in his chair.

LENORE: I knew this picture was just what this room needed the moment I laid eyes upon it. Do you agree, dear?

EDGAR ignores her, examining the box on his desk more closely. 

LENORE: Edgar? Dear, I’m talking to you.

EDGAR: The box is even more beautiful up close. 

EDGAR opens the box and removes the quill, then lifts the pen in front of his face and strokes the black feather. LENORE walks to his desk, looking at him as he plays with the pen.

LENORE: It was a grand decision by you to purchase it.

EDGAR: I only purchased it because you badgered me to. (Turns and looks to the audience, and jabs a finger toward LENORE) You have no idea how this one badgers. 

LENORE: (Clears throat) I only suggested you purchase it because you took a fancy to it. I hoped it might help you write again. You cannot continue to call yourself an author if you no longer write your children’s books. Now, go on. (Wipes off dust from his desk with her hand. Pats desk.) Give it a try. 

EDGAR: (Faces audience) I love my wife, but do you see how she pecks at me? Constantly chattering on about me writing again. 

LENORE: (Pats desk again, impatient tone) Well, what are you waiting for? Try it out, dear. The pen that will jumpstart your imagination. Bring about the most fabulous children’s–

EDGAR: (Interrupts) To be precise, it’s a feathered quill pen… (Taps nib on notebook paper in front of him) with an elaborate silver inkwell and nib. And it looks like the feather from a crow.

LENORE: (Looks toward the window) A raven!

EDGAR: Yes, it may well be the feather of a raven. 

LENORE: (Points to the window) No, dear. I meant I see a raven in that tree, staring right at us. How odd, I’ve not seen it before. 

EDGAR turns to look out the window where her finger points. 

EDGAR: How curious. I haven’t seen the raven before either.

EDGAR looks back to the quill in his hand. Moments of silence pass between them. 

LENORE: I know that look. I see the wheels turning. Tell me, what fabulous story do you now have churning inside your mind?

EDGAR: (Shakes his head, frustrated sigh) Please, dearest! Might I have some time alone with my thoughts?

LENORE: (Bounces on her toes, clasps hands together, and smiles) Yes, yes, of course! My dear Edgar, the writer, needs his solitude to create the next bestseller. How wonderful it will be!

LENORE turns and swiftly walks out of the room through the bedroom door, stage left.

EDGAR: (Softly) Yes, that would be wonderful. 

RAVEN lands on the windowsill, drawing his attention. 

EDGAR: (Cocks his head with RAVEN, then chuckles) If you’ve come for your feather back you can forget it. It’s in use — helping me write the next bestseller. (voice trails off) According to LENORE. 

EDGAR closes his eyes, deeply inhales and exhales a few times, then quickly scribbles something in the notebook. Then, stands the notebook on its end and mouths the words he’s written before letting the notebook fall flat on the desk again. 

EDGAR: My goodness, where did that come from? Hardly suitable for small children to read.

EDGAR glances back at the window, and the RAVEN caws and then flies back to the tree. 

EDGAR: (Speaks to the audience, speaks slowly, deeper voice) What dreadful things I just wrote. How could something so lacking in decency emerge from my mind? (Drops quill and rubs temples and groans, then places hands back on his desk) I’m just tired. That’s it. A good night's sleep is all I need. 

EDGAR picks up the quill and carefully lays it back in the box and slams the lid shut. 

Scene fades to black. 

SCENE TWO

The Scene opens in the bedroom/office. Soft lighting highlights the bed. EDGAR and LENORE are in bed. LENORE wears a frilly pink sleep mask. Scratching sounds play. EDGAR stirs and sits upright. Looks over at LENORE, who is still sleeping. Scratching sounds continue. He lies back down, covering his head with his pillow. Scratching sounds grow louder. EDGAR tosses the pillow on the floor and bolts upright again. He gets out of bed wearing grey pinstripe pajamas.  

EDGAR: (Points to wife, looks to the audience)  That woman can sleep through anything. Can’t you hear it? That incessant scratching?

EDGAR paces the room, cupping his ears. Kneels to look underneath the bed. Scratching continues.

EDGAR: (Looks to the audience) It’s quite maddening—this scratching. You do hear it?

Lighting dims over the bed, and lighting highlights EDGAR as he walks to peek inside the fireplace. The scratching continues. He walks to his desk and picks up the box with the quill. 

EDGAR: It couldn’t be… 

Turns to the audience and puts it to his ear, then drops the box onto the desk, jumping back away from the desk. 

EDGAR: It is! But how?

EDGAR walks around his desk twice, with his eyes on the box and gripping his hair with his hands. The scratching continues. He sits in his chair and picks up the box, looking at the audience. 

EDGAR: (talks faster, frantic) Do I dare? But the noise. It’s driving me mad. I must… 

EDGAR opens the box, and the scratching stops. He carefully removes the feathered quill.

EDGAR: (softly) It is but a quill. 

Rachmaninoff’s The Isle of the Dead, Op. 29, plays in the background as EDGAR opens a notebook on his desk and begins writing. He writes a while, then stops, and lifts the paper to read it. Drops the paper and writes again, slowly, face down close to the paper, then more feverishly while the music plays. EDGAR repeatedly pauses writing, looks over at LENORE in the bed, then writes again faster, faster. Light slowly brightens from the windows as lighting highlights the rest of the room. The music stops. LENORE stirs in the bed. She sees EDGAR writing and climbs out from under the covers. She slips on gold fuzzy slippers by the bed and walks to EDGAR in her purple satin pajamas. 

LENORE: (Stretching her arms over her head) Good morning, dear. My goodness, how long have you been up writing?

EDGAR: (Head’s down, keeps writing, clipped tone) All night. 

LENORE: All night? Well, dear, that’s wonderful. What is your new children’s book about?

LENORE moves behind the desk to peek over EDGAR’s shoulder, and EDGAR slams the notebook shut. 

EDGAR: It’s not finished. 

LENORE: (Playfully grabs notebook) Oh, come on now, just a peek.

EDGAR: (Yanks notebook out of LENORE’s grasp) I said, it’s not finished!

LENORE: (Frowns and walks back around to the front of the desk) Goodness, you haven’t had enough sleep. You’re never this grumpy. I’ll make you a pot of coffee, dear.

EDGAR: (Snarling) No! (Softly) I’ll get it myself. 

EDGAR leaves the room through the stage left bedroom doorway. Lenore walks back behind the desk and opens the notebook. She gasps and turns the page, then quickly reads the following few pages. EDGAR walks back in the stage left bedroom doorway, holding a cup of coffee. Seeing LENORE with his open notebook, he rushes to the desk and yanks the notebook away from her. 

LENORE: (Stuttering) Edgar… did you… did you write these horrible things? (Shakes head) What mind could write this?

EDGAR: (Pauses. Serious tone.) My mind wrote it. 

LENORE: (Gasps, covers her mouth with her hand) You wrote of a husband who despised his wife. Edgar, the horrid way you described her. You wrote he grew tired of his wife’s never-ending needling. So tired that he tied her to a chair, gagged her, then sealed her alive behind a brick wall. (Quivers) You… you wrote that?

EDGAR: I did. 

LENORE: (Somber tone) Edgar, tell me… what is the wife’s name in your story?

(EDGAR picks up the quill on the desk, and looks away from LENORE, out the window. RAVEN flies to the windowsill, cawing.)

LENORE: (Yells) What is her name?!

EDGAR: Lenore. (Turns to face her) Her name is Lenore.

LENORE charges EDGAR, reaching for the quill. EDGAR wrestles LENORE for it. EDGAR growls while LENORE screams. Then, EDGAR repeatedly stabs LENORE in the side of the neck with the quill. LENORE stumbles backward, covering her bleeding neck with her hands. EDGAR gasps, drops the quill, and reaches for LENORE.

Scene fades to black. 

SCENE THREE

The scene opens in the bedroom/office with Chopin's Nocturne Op. 72 No. 1 in E Minor playing while EDGAR sits in the chair at his desk, looking toward the empty, unmade bed. 

After several minutes, the music fades and EDGAR rakes his hand through his hair, then turns to face the audience and speaks with a low, exasperated tone.

EDGAR: It’s futile to distract myself from my misery. (Jabs finger at the audience and yells) It’s not my fault, don’t you see? It was the quill! (Holds the quill toward the audience, then sets it back on the desk. Sighs) Or was it me? (Covers face with hands, then speaks quietly) If I cannot refocus my mind, either the guilt or my longing for her will consume me. 

EDGAR selects a book from a pile on his desk, leans back in his chair, opens it, and pretends to read for several moments, then slams it shut.

EDGAR: (Talks to the audience) Can’t you see me trying, yet failing to read the words on this parchment? (Turns the pages toward the audience, and points to the words on a page) My eyes deliberately travel left to right, line by line, but it's no use; my mind starts to replay the events of the last day—events both fruitful and tragic. (Pauses) If I’m honest. 

There’s a rap, rap, rap sound. EDGAR looks around the room. He rises from his chair and walks to the window beside his desk, and yanks the curtains back. RAVEN sits perched on the windowsill. 

EDGAR: You! What do you want? 

RAVEN cocks its head to the side and caws. 

EDGAR: (Flails his arms toward the bird) Go away, beastly bird!

RAVEN stubbornly sits. EDGAR opens the window, but RAVEN doesn’t move. EDGAR collapses into his chair, his head tilted back against the headrest. He looks toward the audience, then back at RAVEN. Puts the quill back in the box.

EDGAR: (Looks at RAVEN) You were there. You saw. It was the quill. 

RAVEN cocks its head again to the side.

EDGAR: (Cries) I see the pity upon your hideous black face, Raven, but she will be back! This is all a bad dream. Somehow, she will be back. 

RAVEN stares at him. EDGAR throws the book at RAVEN. The book misses RAVEN, and RAVEN still sits unmoving.

EDGAR: (Cries, facing RAVEN) Have I truly lost my dearest Lenore?!

RAVEN: (Crows) Evermore.

Scene fades to black. 

The curtains close.