The Wall: A Play in 5 Acts

Dana N. Sayre, Issue 07

CHARACTERS

WOMAN 1 - Wears a WWI-style green helmet and holds a gun. Clothes are black and nondescript.

WOMAN 2 - Wears a WWI-style green helmet and holds a gun. Clothes are black and nondescript.

SETTING

A battlefield.

ACT ONE

Lights up. A cinderblock WALL divides the stage. It doesn’t have to be extraordinarily tall but should be taller than either actor, so that neither can see over it. There are sandbags and actual sand, and occasionally the sound of bombs dropping in the distance.

A woman sits on either side of the wall, but at first, neither notices the other or knows the other exists. 

We don’t know whether the women are on the same or opposite sides of the battle, and ultimately, neither do they. 

WOMAN 1 on stage right begins to hum softly.

WOMAN 2 hears and moves closer to the wall out of curiosity. She presses her ear to it and listens.

WOMAN 1 stops humming.

WOMAN 2 returns to her original spot.

After some time, WOMAN 2 glances at the wall, then stands, then walks over. She stares at the wall, uncertain of what she wants to do. 

She checks for loose cinderblocks and finds one. Pulling a knife from her pocket, she slowly works it loose.

On the other side, WOMAN 1 has fallen asleep.

WOMAN 2 removes the cinderblock and peers through the wall. 

She watches the other woman sleep. 

Some time passes.

WOMAN 2 returns the cinderblock to its hole, returns her knife to her pocket, and returns to her original spot and sits again. 

Some time passes.

WOMAN 1 wakes and begins humming softly again. WOMAN 2 glances at the wall.

Lights Out.

ACT TWO

Lights up. Both women still sit on opposite sides of the wall. Far away, we hear the intermittent sounds of battle and bombs. 

WOMAN 1 cleans her gun. WOMAN 2 sits looking at the wall.

WOMAN 2 stands, walks to the wall, and pulls out the loose brick she freed earlier. 

Hearing the sound, WOMAN 1 startles. She jumps back from the wall, quickly puts her gun together and cocks it.

WOMAN 1

Who’s there?

WOMAN 2

Please don’t shoot!

WOMAN 1

Friend or foe?

WOMAN 2

Friend… I hope.

WOMAN 1 doesn’t put down her gun, but takes her finger off the trigger and slowly moves back toward the hole.

WOMAN 1

Let me see your face.

WOMAN 2 complies. 

But WOMAN 1 can’t tell just from the helmet whether she is telling the truth. She’s not sure what the enemy uniform looks like, and that helmet could have been stolen from the body of a friend.

WOMAN 1

Why should I believe you?

Tense silence.

WOMAN 2

I don’t know.

Lights Out.

ACT THREE

Lights up. The hole in the wall is considerably larger, with a stack of cinderblocks stage left, next to their two helmets.

Both women sit stage right, arms around each other, WOMAN 1’s head on WOMAN 2’s shoulder. WOMAN 2 hums a lullaby while WOMAN 1 slowly falls asleep.

In the background, bombs still drop, but for the moment they are safe, and that is what matters.

Lights Out.

ACT FOUR

Lights up. WOMAN 1 sits on her side of the wall, alone, hugging her knees to her chest.

She stares longingly at the hole in the wall and the pile of bricks.

WOMAN 2 is nowhere in sight.

Far away, we still hear the sound of bombs. Perhaps the sound is closer than before; it’s hard to tell for sure.

WOMAN 1 begins softly humming the same lullaby WOMAN 2 sang in Act Three, swaying slowly from side to side.

Lights Out.

ACT FIVE

Lights up. WOMAN 1 has stacked some of the bricks from the wall on stage right and is painting a mural of a garden on them.

WOMAN 2 enters, and watches her from afar. WOMAN 1 doesn’t see her and WOMAN 2 doesn’t speak.

After a long silence, WOMAN 2 walks over, picks up a brick, and reaches out to place it on the top of the stack. WOMAN 1 looks up.

WOMAN 1

I didn’t think you’d come back.

WOMAN 2

I know.

WOMAN 1

I don’t know if I forgive you yet.

WOMAN 2

I know.

A long silence. WOMAN 1 returns to painting.

Eventually, WOMAN 2 sits, and WOMAN 1 doesn’t stop her.

WOMAN 1

I can’t just pretend nothing happened and go back to how things were before.

WOMAN 2

I know.

WOMAN 1

(Angrily.)

Can’t you say anything else?

A long pause.

WOMAN 2 grabs WOMAN 1’s hand and looks into her eyes.

WOMAN 2

I’m sorry.

Another long pause.

WOMAN 1

I know.

WOMAN 2 smiles a pained smile. They laugh. They hug.

WOMAN 1 returns to painting the mural.

WOMAN 2 begins softly humming.

Lights Out.