SMILES By Adam Ethan Berner

Sponsor: Mrs. Tara Quellhorst Canterbury School of Florida 990 62nd Avenue NE St. Petersburg, FL 33702

Thespian Troupe 4637

The only proof he needed for the existence of God was music. -Kurt Vonnegut September/12/2013 Final Draft

SYNOPSIS

SMILES. By Adam Ethan Berner. (2M, 2F) (Gender is not definite

though) In a dystopic alternate future, an intern at a company which produces a happiness producing substance, known as SMILES, is kidnapped by two rebels who seek to destroy the substance so the world can begin to heal from all the damage it has undergone.

Character List SMILES

1: ACTOR: (Business Executive at SMILES)

2: 3: 4:

CHARLES: (Excited young intern at SMILES) LILITH: (Leader of rebellion against SMILES) CLARA: (Scientist and member of rebellion against SMILES)

Scene 1 Lights open to ACTOR in the basement area of an under kept industrial building with a grate in the center of

the stage, and a metal pole on stage right. There should be a short flat near and at a 45 degree angle to the pole. On the flat, there should be a poster saying, SMILES Making The World A Happier Place with a large yellow smiley face over the words. Bubbling sounds should be playing right now, and the bubbling noise will fade in and fade out at various points throughout the scene. After a few seconds, circus theme music should start playing. ACTORs face is almost completely defined by the eerie and monstrously large grin on his face, but his eyes are empty and soulless. ACTOR should be humming with the circus music that is being played. CHARLES walks in from stage right, he also has that same monstrous grin. Throughout their interactions with each other ACTOR should give off a corporate feel, and CHARLES should show extreme excitement and eagerness. As CHARLES approaches ACTOR, he should wave and tilt his head. CHARLES: Hello, sir. How are you doing? ACTOR: Im very happy, thank you. How are you, 574LA? CHARLES: Im very happy too. Did you want to see me? ACTOR: Ah, yes I did. I have a job for you. CHARLES: Of course, what do you need? ACTOR: I want you to watch over the water supply for the day. We dont want anything to go wrong. CHARLES: Oh no sir, that would be awful. So many people would be unhappy. ACTOR:

Youre absolutely right. Can you handle this? CHARLES: Yes, sir! ACTOR: I knew I could trust you. Ill leave this in your hands. CHARLES: Yes, sir! ACTOR: Have fun. ACTOR starts to walk off stage right, humming with the circus music. He stops and turns around. ACTOR: Oh and if anyone unauthorized comes down here, please kill them for me. CHARLES: Yes, sir! ACTOR: Good boy! ACTOR exits. CHARLES should stare and look around at his surroundings, never dropping his unnerving smile. CHARLES also starts to hum with the circus tune that is still playing from before. After a few seconds he starts to talk to himself, which is not an uncommon circumstance. CHARLES: Oh SMILES, what would we do without you? I mean, I was watching the war today and they were all smiling as they shot each other. Even the blood couldnt hide their grins. It was just so wonderful. All of a sudden, noises of shouting and running can be heard from stage right. CHARLES turns to look at the direction of the disturbance. Suddenly LILITH and CLARA burst into the room from stage right. They both have black masks over

the faces, and they are holding assault weapons. Both CLARA and LILITH are carrying small black backpacks on their backs. LILITH: Grab him! CLARA grabs and pins down CHARLES. Despite his predicament, CHARLES does not struggle and merely continues to smile and hum to the circus tune. CHARLES: Oh, hello. Its a pleasure to meet you. Are you authorized to be here? CLARA: Yes, were definitely allowed to be here! LILITH: (Into a transmitter) Weve got a hostage in case they find us. CHARLES: Oh, Im a hostage now. This sounds fun. CLARA: Theyre still chasing the others, at least they dont know that we made it inside the building. LILITH: Lets keep it that way. Chain him to that pole. CHARLES: Oh, no worries. I can do it myself, thank you. CHARLES skips merrily to the metal pole on the stage. He puts his hands around the back of the pole and his back to it so that he can be easily handcuffed. CHARLES: Here you go. CLARA puts her bag on the ground. She pulls out a pair of handcuffs from her bag and chains him to the pole, his face

should still audience. CLARA: Ill never get used to them.

be

visible

to

the

LILITH: If everything goes right then you wont have to. CHARLES: Im happy to help you out with anything else you need me for. LILITH: Seal the door, its the only way they could follow us. CLARA nods and goes off stage right. CHARLES: Are you two looking for SMILES? I bet you are. LILITH: We dont want any. CHARLES: Really? Are you sure? It will make you very, very happy! LILITH: (Under her breath) I bet. CHARLES: Why not? LILITH kneels down in front of CHARLES. She takes off her mask and her face is dead serious. CHARLES is shocked that she is not smiling, but his own grin does not waver. CHARLES: (Confused and surprised) Why arent you smiling? LILITH: Whats your name? CHARLES: (Thinks about it for a couple seconds) Charles Winston. Who are you?

LILITH stands up. LILITH: (Softly) The people who are going to save you. CHARLES: Oh...well thats nice. LILITH shakes her head and walks off stage right. CHARLES shrugs and starts to playfully wiggle back and forth as he continues to hum. LILITH and CLARA return from stage right. They take scientific equipment out of their bags. CLARA takes out a small syringe. CLARA: (Flicking the syringe) Ill take care of him. LILITH: Right we cant risk him attacking us. CLARA stands up and moves to CHARLES, who is still humming and smiling. She kneels down. CLARA: May I see your arm? CHARLES: Of course. CHARLESs reaches out his arm and CLARA injects him with the syringe. CLARA takes the needle out and goes back to LILITH. CHARLES: Is everything alright? LILITH and CLARA remain silent. At first nothing happens, but slowly the music begins to fade out. CHARLESs smile begins to twitch. He begins to become confused. It falters even more and more,

and eventually his smile vanishes for the first time in the entire scene. CLARA: Alright then, he shouldnt cause any trouble now. LILITH and CLARA go back to work. CHARLES becomes more and more confused at his lack of happiness. He begins to experience waves and waves of repressed emotions. CHARLES: (Angrily) Whats going on? What did you do? Stop it! Stop this! Stop this right now! CHARLES struggles to break out of his bonds, but he is unsuccessful and in his attempts he only hurts his hands. Eventually he gives up. His emotional roller coaster goes own for a short while longer, and then ends at sadness. He begins to cry softly. Lights turn off of LILITH and CLARA as they exit stage left. A spotlight turns onto CHARLES. He has stopped crying now, and he is taking many deep breaths. Slowly he looks up and he begins to feel what it is like to be human. He looks around and he begins to truly think. As he does this, the song Window by The Album Leaf begins to slowly play and it grows louder over time. CHARLES begins to cry again as hes creating this song, but this time he is crying out of beauty. As the song ends, the lights on the entire stage turn on. LILITH and CLARA walk back onto the stage and go back to working with the chemicals and lab equipment. LILITH occasionally looks over at CHARLES, her gaze lingering on his form, and after a few glances she speaks. LILITH: (To CLARA) I think he made something. CHARLES: (Softly)

What did you two do to me? CLARA: (Looking up and nodding) You should go to him. LILITH goes and sits down in front of CHARLES. LILITH: Charles, my name is Lilith. CHARLES: (Slightly louder this time) What did you two do to me? LILITH: We stopped the SMILES that was in you.

CHARLES: Why would you do that? People arent supposed to cry anymore, we got rid of crying, just like small pox. LILITH: Youve been high on that chemical euphoria your entire life, now weve made you human. CHARLES: Why would you do that? LILITH: For decades people have been using SMILES without ever stopping. The entire world exists in a constant state of synthetic happiness. CHARLES: Whats wrong with being happy? Isnt that the point of being alive? LILITH: I told you, its not real happiness, and even if it was, thats not worth the damage its done. CHARLES: What damage? Theres nothing wrong with the world.

LILITH: Open your eyes, Charles, weve all witnessed it by now, but no ones actually seeing it. Almost everyone in the world is starving in the streets, about half the world is dying of the same virus because no one cares enough to make a vaccine, and every singe nation is shipping out thousands every day to die in a pointless war, and no one gives a damn because of that poison. CHARLES: (Stammering) You-You-Youre wrong. SMILES has been helping the world, thats what it was made for. LILITH: No, it was made so the people living at the top could maintain control. CHARLES: Youre lying. LILITH: Okay then, so why are we at war? Can you tell me that? CHARLES: Because...because...because... LILITH: You cant. You dont have any idea at all. No one does. We just do as were told, and everythings going to hell, but were going to fix that. CHARLES: What will you do? LILITH: We created an enzyme that reacts with the SMILES and breaks it down to create more of itself and hormones which block the receptor sites interact with SMILES. Making SMILES useless forever. CHARLES: What happens then? LILITH: Eventually the entire country will wake up and realize whats going on, and then from there we hope that it will spread to the rest of the world. People will take control of themselves and live their lives again. We can start healing.

CHARLES remains silent. LILITH: What did you create when the SMILES wore off? CHARLES: How did you know?

LILITH: Usually when someone stops using SMILES, all of the pent up emotions are released. The emotional flood will usually result in an outburst of creativity. (Beat) What was yours? CHARLES: (Pause) I made a song. LILITH: Really? Ive never met anyone who wrote a song before. LILITH gets up and looks at him gently and kindly. LILITH: I would like to hear it one day. LILITH starts to walk back to CLARA. CHARLES: (Blurting out) What did you make? LILITH: (Turning around) What? CHARLES: What did you make when you stopped using SMILES? What was your... (The word is so foreign and new to him) ...creation? LILITH: I made a painting. CHARLES:

Can you show me? (Adding) Please? CLARA: (Jumping in) We have time. The two of them turn and look at CLARA in surprise. CLARA: We have to wait for the solution to settle, anyways. That should be long enough to show him. All three of them remain silent and almost frozen. LILITH finally breaks the stillness. LILITH: Alright then, hand me the paints. CLARA goes over to the bag and reaches inside it. She rummages around its insides and pulls out a few bottles of paint and a few paint brushes. She then tosses these to LILITH. CLARA: Here. LILITH: Thanks. LILITH walks over to the SMILES poster and starts to paint over it. A spotlight turns onto her, while the rest of the lights on the stage fade off. LILITH continues to paint over the poster, and the song The Ballad Of Love And Hate by the Avett Brothers begins to play. The new painting should demonstrate the stripping away of fake happiness and show true beauty in the magnificent spectrum of human emotion and emotional truth. Once the painting is finishes, the spotlight and music fades off while the rest of the lights of the stage turn back on. LILITH steps back to observe her artwork for a few seconds.

Afterwards, she and CLARA turn to look at CHARLES, who is completely enthralled by her artwork. CHARLES: (Barely able to fid the words) Its beautiful. LILITH: Thank you. CHARLES: Ive-Ive never seen anything like it. Ever. LILITH: Hopefully therell be a lot more people making things like it soon. CHARLES: Can you teach me to paint? LILITH: (Caught off guard, but happy) I would love to. CHARLES: Thank you. LILITH goes back over to CLARA and the two of them go back to work. CHARLES goes back to studying the painting, but he occasionally looks over at LILITH, his eyes and soul full of amazement and wonder. After a few seconds, CLARA sets down a vial and turns to LILITH. CLARA: Alright, its done. Lets go put it intoSuddenly the sound of a door bursting open is heard and ACTOR walks in from stage right. He is completely apathetic. He is holding a pistol and he shoots LILITH and CLARA. The two actors fall to the ground dead. CHARLES is in shock. ACTOR nonchalantly walks over to the dead bodies and kicks them to make sure that theyre dead.

ACTOR: (Pressing his earpiece) Everythings under control. Yes, theyre dead. Ill shut him up too. Got it. (Hangs up) (Pause, then a small chuckle) They almost made it, they almost won. They were this close to undoing half a century of everything Ive spent my life protecting. Five more seconds and theyd have killed us all. (Beat) They only made it here on luck though. I mean they didnt even have their cure ready when they got here. Really, youd think that they didnt have any time to plan this at all. They were that unprepared. Still, they had tenacity. (Beat) I wish it didnt have to be this way. CHARLES: It doesnt. ACTOR: Oh, 574LA found his tongue. You were so quiet that I was starting to wonder if they had cut off your tongue. CHARLES: Im Charles. ACTOR: No, no youre not. CHARLES: You didnt have to kill them. ACTOR: Oh yes I did. The world needs SMILES. Its the only thing keeping us alive anymore. CHARLES: Its destroying us. ACTOR: They didnt understand, and neither do you. Weve reached the tipping point. Theres just too many of us, theres not enough food or space on the planet. They tried to tell us that, but we wouldnt listen. We didnt care, we just kept on growing. So they had to make us obey another way. CHARLES:

What do you mean?

ACTOR: SMILES is the only thing standing between us and extinction. It keeps our growth in check, and we can survive. Occasionally the population gets a bit too large, but its actually quite easy to start a war, or to create a virus. They both drive the numbers down quickly. CHARLES: Youre a monster. ACTOR: Im a savior. CHARLES: Youve killed millions! ACTOR: And Ive saved trillions! You just dont get it! Im a shepherd; if you want to keep the entire flock alive, then you have to kill a few of the sheep. Its the only way. (To himself) Its the only way. CHARLES: Why are you telling me all of this? ACTOR: To be honest, I dont really know. Maybe I thought I could make you understand, but that didnt work. It doesnt matter anyways. CHARLES: Are you going to kill me too? ACTOR: No, theres no reason to do that. I can still save you. ACTOR pulls out a syringe. ACTOR: I dont know how they managed to get all the SMILES out of you so quickly, but this will fix that. Its so powerful itll obliterate your memories, and you can go back to bliss. Now hold still and Ill try to make sure that this wont hurt. ACTOR grabs CHARLES and injects syringe into his neck. After a the few

seconds, CHARLES goes limp and his head slumps over. ACTOR gets up. ACTOR: No matter how much willpower you think you have, no one could be immune to that. CHARLES raises his head and reveals the same smile that he bore at the beginning of the play. ACTOR smiles back at CHARLES. ACTOR walks over to the two corpses and searches for the key. As soon as ACTOR stops facing CHARLES, CHARLES drops his facade grin and grimaces in pain and determination. ACTOR: Found the key. ACTOR turns and walks back to CHARLES. CHRLES goes back to smiling and humming. ACTOR unlocks CHARLES handcuffs and helps CHARLES stand up. ACTOR: 574LA? CHARLES: Yes. ACTOR: Clean this mess up and stay here for the rest of the day. CHARLES: Yes, sir. ACTOR: Good. Oh and throw this out too. ACTOR hands the syringe to CHARLES. CHARLES takes the syringe and stares at it. ACTOR turns and starts to walk off stage. CHARLES stops smiling and stabs ACTOR in the neck with the syringe. ACTOR: Stop it! What did you-

ACTOR freezes, smiles, and falls onto his knees. CHARlES, panting, walks around ACTOR. ACTOR: Hello, how may I help you? CHARLES: (Pointing offstage) Leave. Now. ACTOR: Yes, sir. ACTOR exits. CHARLES stares after him and then he drops the syringe as he tries to take everything in. CHARLES goes over to the lab equipment and finds the enzyme mixture in a sealed flask. CHARLES picks up the flask and looks at it closely. CHARLES walks over to the grate, opens the grate, and pours the enzymes in. CHARLES then starts to exit the stage, but before he leaves carefully takes off the painting that LILITH made and takes it with him. Right before he leaves, CHARLES takes one last long look at the bodies. He exits. The song Window starts to play again as the stage goes into blackout. End. There is no curtain call. Goodnight.