Devoted

A 10-Minute Love Story Through Time

written by
Conrad A. Panganiban

332 McDonell Road

Alameda, CA 94502
916-813-9609
conradap@gmail.com
Cast of Characters

MARY/MARISOL/MARIA CLARA: 20s. Filipina. Dressed in black as a

statement of rebellion against love in all of it's forms,
shapes, and spaces.

CHRIS/CRISTOBAL/CRISOSTOMO: 30s. Filipino American. A history

professor and author who's mysterious past has come back to
fulfil a prophesy.

DANIEL/DANNY/DANILO: 30s. An entitled young conservative with

high political aspirations.

Setting
The play begins in the present inside Nostalgia, the Bookstore,
San Francisco, USA. From there, it goes to 1986 inside a
bookstore off the EDSA, and then we are transported to Manila
inside a library in 1896.

Playwright's Notes

'/' denotes an overlap of dialogue.

Lights up on the interior of Nostalgia, the
Bookstore, with a small row of chairs set out.
Putting a pad of paper and sharpies into his bag is
CHRIS, a 30-something history professor with a stack
of books on a small table in front of him.

On a side table are a couple of items on display: a

red shawl, women's sunglasses, yellow t-shirts, a
Filipiniana (A Maria Clara styled dress with Butterly
Sleeves), a Barong Tagalog, different mustaches,
hats, and various types of glasses.

To Chris's side is an easel with a sign reading, "The

History of Romance in the Philippines" by Christopher
Toledo.

MARY, a 20-something dressed in black and wearing a

shoulder bag, rushes into the bookstore and
immediately turns around to look outside.

MARY
Shit shit shit shit shit.

CHRIS
Um... Hi? Thanks for coming–

MARY
(looking outside the door)
Shhhhh!!!

CHRIS
I'm sorry. Can I help you?

MARY
(still looking outside)
Shhhh. He's going to hear you.

Who? Fuck. MARY quickly turns around to face

Chris.
CHRIS As both look at each other for
Mary?! Mary, are you in there?
the first time, they both realize
MARY it isn't. At the same time, they
say... DANIEL (O.S.)

CHRIS
You.
MARY (CONT’D)
You.
2.

MARY quickly sits in one of the seats in front of

Chris's table. Quick-thinking, Chris grabs a red scarf
and sunglasses off the display table and hands them to
Mary who quickly puts them on.

Enter DANIEL, a 20-something young conservative

wearing a sports coat with a matching pair of
entitled smugness.

DANIEL (CONT’D)
Mary, are you in / here?

CHRIS
Hey... you? Thanks for coming! I'm glad you made it to / my
book signing.

CHRIS takes Daniel's hand to shake it and turns him

around away from Mary.

DANIEL
Yeah, I really don't care. Did you see a girl come in here?

CHRIS
Can't say that I have.

DANIEL
(Takes a sniff)
No... I'm picking up on her scent. I heard on a podcast that
when you're in love, you can smell...

DANIEL turns around to see Mary sitting but facing

the other way.
DANIEL (CONT’D)
Mary?

CHRIS
Excuse me Miss, [In Tagalog: Do you know this man?]

MARY stands up, turns around to give Daniel a once

over and in a deep 1960's Filipina Film Star's voice
she answers with,

MARY
[In Tagalog: Who? This boy that smells like shit?]
 DANIEL
Wha what what'd she say?

CHRIS
Um, tae. It means...

DANIEL
I don't have time for tae. Did she see Mary?
3.

CHRIS
Oh... yeah! She said... she said she saw a woman running that
way... outside. Waaay outside!

DANIEL
That's more like it. Thanks lady.

MARY
Tanga.

DANIEL begins to exit and then turns around.

DANIEL
Hey! If I don't find her out there, I'll be back... in here.

MARY
(Smiling and with a
chopping motion)
[In Tagalog: Then I'll chop your tiny dick off.]
CHRIS DANIEL
Uh, she said
goodbye.
Okay. Bye. But next time, tell her to say it in English.
Exit DANIEL.
MARY
(Towards the door.)
Sure. Fuck you.

CHRIS
Who was that?

MARY
That was the blind-date-from-hell.

CHRIS
You should really unfriend the person who set you up with
him.

MARY
Already did. I unfriended my mom on Facebook months ago.
"When am I going to have grandkids, haaa? Oh, there's a boy
 from St. Francis... His name is Daniel..." and he's so
effing... grr. Sorry.

CHRIS
Your mom? With him?
4.

MARY

Thanks for these.

MARY takes off the scarf and glasses and gives them
to Chris.

CHRIS

Sure. Glad I didn't throw you off with the / Tagalog.

MARY
Tagalog? No. Good thinking. Thank youuu...

CHRIS
You don't remember me, do you?

MARY
I'm sorry. I don't...
Chris.
It's okay. I'm CHRIS

CHRIS extends his hand, which MARY accepts, shakes

and starts to vaguely remember knowing this guy she
just met. Freaked out, MARY lets go of his hand.
MARY
So, um. I better get / going.

CHRIS
Going. Right. Good luck.
MARY
You too.

MARY exits.

MARY rushes back in.

CHRIS
He's still out there?

MARY
Like a troll. Would you mind if I hide out here? Just until
you-know-who disappears.

CHRIS
No. Don't mind at all. Stay as long as you'd like. Mi
biblioteca es su biblioteca.
5.

MARY
That means library.

CHRIS
Tagalog and Spanish. Oh Lemme...

CHRIS walks over an dims the light in the store. MARY

starts to dig in her bag.

MARY
What are you doing?! I have mace!

CHRIS
Woah! No need for that. I'm just turning down the lights so
the blind-date-from-hell will think we're closed.

MARY
Oh. Right. Good thinking... again. Have you done this before?

CHRIS
Let's just say that I've kinda written about this same
scenario.

MARY
Written?

CHRIS
Yeah. Um... I'm a writer and...

CHRIS gestures toward the sign saying, "The History

of Romance in the Philippines" by Christopher
Toledo."

MARY
Oh! You're that Chris.

CHRIS
Yeah.

MARY
Okay, so, same scenario writer guy, how does the hunted in
your book get away from the hunter?

CHRIS
I wouldn't necessarily put it that way, but it kinda goes a
little something like this...

As the music of Tony Orlando's TIE A YELLOW RIBBON

begins to play, CHRIS puts on a pair of glasses from
the side table, picks up one of his books, flips to a
page and begins to read, MARY takes a yellow bandana
and puts it on. Lights change to 1986 Philippines. 6.

CHRIS (CONT’D)
(In Filipino accent)
On a humid February night in 1986, Marisol runs into the
makeshift bookstore on White Plains Avenue near EDSA. It's the
week before the world would hear the words, People Power.

MARY looks out the door.

MARY
(In Filipino accent)
Shit shit shit shit shit.

CHRIS
Marisol.

MARY
Shhh... [In Tagalog: He might hear you.]
CHRIS
He's still out there?

MARY
Like a duwende. And he's about to-!

A quick-thinking CHRIS grabs a wooden fan (a

pamaypay) from a side table and gives it to Mary who
opens it to cover her face just as DANIEL enters
wearing a Barong Tagalog.

DANIEL
Na saan siya? [In Tagalog: Where is she?]

CHRIS
Where is who?

DANIEL
Don't play stupid with me.
(To Mary)
Have you seen a girl about this tall come in here?

MARY
[In Spanish: You're so stupid. You don't even know you're
talking to her.]

DANIEL
What did she say?

CHRIS
She said that the person you're looking for ran outside.
Waaaay outside.

DANIEL
Thank you.
7.

MARY
[In Spanish: Asshole.]

CHRIS
She said, Good luck!

DANIEL
Salamat. Oh, if she does come in here, tell her that we will
find her and her boyfriend.

DANIEL exits.
MARY
Good thing he didn't recognize you, Cristobal.

CHRIS
You too.

MARY
They can't arrest a person they've never seen.

CHRIS
That was too close. It's getting dangerous.

MARY hugs Chris.

MARY
No, it's getting exciting. We're in the middle of a movement. A
Revolution. A new life. For us. For all of us.

CHRIS
We won't have a life if we're caught. My father says we can
still leave tonight. He has connections with the American
Embassy.

MARY
I already told you, I can't leave. If I don't do my job here,
how will the world know about what the President is doing to
our country?

CHRIS
And where are all the other journalists who thought the same
as you? They're either missing. Or worse.
 MARISOL gets down on one knee, pulls out a box and
opens it to reveal a ring.

MARY
Marry me.

CHRIS
What?
8.

MARY
Marry me.

CHRIS
I'm talking about staying alive in a time of martial law and
you're talking about marriage?
MARY
Cristobal, when is there going to be a better time? We've known
each other since our parents forced us to play hide and go
seek. We're not kids anymore. No more games. I refuse to hide
from Marcos and people like that person out there looking for
us. Marry me and together, we can make a future worth being
alive for.

CHRIS takes Mary's hands to help her stand.

CHRIS
For richer or poorer,

MARY
In sickness or in death,

CHRIS
[In Tagalog: Will you marry me?]

Lights transition back to the present, with American

MARY dropping Chris's hands.

MARY
(Back in American accent)
No! Now that sounds worse than the blind-date-from-hell.
(Mockingly) Will you marry me?
MARY
Ouch.
CHRIS

Not your writing. I was talking about the institutional

prison of marriage.

CHRIS
I wouldn't necessarily equate marriage / with prison
 MARY
And what's with the goopiness of proposals?

CHRIS
What do you have against two people pledging a life of
commitment to each other?

MARY
They should both be committed into a mental hospital. 9.
CHRIS
Why do you hate love? What's it ever done to you?

MARY
There's a Trumpian Douche Nozzle out there who thinks he's in
love with me after knowing me for, what, five-minutes? That
kind of love sounds like some crazy voodoo power shit that I
don't want any part of.

CHRIS
Have you ever been in love?
sure?
Why? No.
MARY CHRIS
Never. Are you

Spanish guitars fill the air as lights change into

1896 inside a library.

Enter DANIEL wearing a friar's robe.

DANIEL
(In Spanish accent)
[In Spanish: He said I'd find you here.]

MARY
(In Spanish accent)
What did you do with him Padre Danilo?

DANIEL
Crisostomo is no longer any of your concern.
Beat.
MARY
Where is his body?

DANIEL
You should have convinced him to stop writing about the
government. If there's any consolation, Señora Maria Clara,
he was very brave.
 MARY
WHERE IS HIS BODY?!

DANIEL takes out a letter and gives it to Mary.

DANIEL
Always writing until the very end.

DANIEL exits.
10.

MARY
When we were kids, Crisostomo would climb the tallest tree in
Batangas and cut down the coconuts at its very top. At night,
after having our fill of coconut meat and juice, we would lay
under a blanket of stars and make up stories for the
different constellations that reflected in our eyes. Like how
the Big Dipper was used as Bathala's tabo. Or how the three
stars that make up Balatik's sword of Orion was used to fight
off dragons for the honor of his love, the Goddess Dawn. If I
had that sword, I'd use it to fight this empty feeling of loss
for what was once the bottomless vessel of joy in hearing his
voice, in hearing his laughter and in hearing the beat of his
heart sync with mine as I lay my ear to his chest before
falling asleep. I'd give anything to use that blade to cut out
the agony of what a hundred of Cupid's arrows feels like as
they fall from the sky and pierce the metaphorical symbol of
love that beats within my chest. And with this... this infinite
ache, I make this devoted vow to never love again until his
body is returned to me.

Lights shift back to the present inside the bookshop.

CHRIS
That's when you started hating love?

MARY
It's not the love I hate. It's the pain that comes along with
it.

CHRIS
What does the letter say?

MARY
What?

CHRIS
The letter. The one you're holding. What does it say?
MARY looks down at the letter and unfolds it.

MARY
It says,
[In Spanish: My Love,]
 [In Tagalog: No matter where I am / or...]

CHRIS
[In Tagalog: Or where you are...]

MARY
No matter the distance,

MARY (CONT’D) 11.

...time, or place. I'll...
CHRIS
...time, or place. CHRIS (CONT’D)
I'll never stop looking for you.

After centuries of being apart, as lights fade out and

the guitar intro of Julie Plug's DEVOTED fade in, CHRIS
and MARY finally find each other in the embrace to end
all Love Stories.

END OF PLAY