DROWNING STALLION
DROWNING STALLION was first performed at the Rooftop Theater at Sunway University, Malaysia, in 2014, with the following Cast:
Aaron Teoh (Husband)
Grace Tham (Mary)
Seth Sabri (Son)
Director: Shah Shaha (Shahrizuan Shaharuddin)
Stage Manager: Erica Tham
Production Manager: Michelle Yip Audio
Technician: Alex Lim Light
Technician: Beh Jing Qiang
3 Characters
2 Men. 1 Woman
Simple Set
18 pages
A study in loneliness and the slow deterioration of one’s passion. In the middle of a dark night, an old man confronts the ghosts of his dead wife and son, his sins against them, his own guilt, his fear of death, and his passion that is dying. We learn that the 2 characters involved in the play are really both dead, and are the ghosts that torment him on the last days of his life.
The language in this play is both stark and poetic, as the old man confronts his inner fears, demons, and aloneness . A projection of a white stallion, representing his life and passion, slowly galloping under the ocean waves, and disappearing, represents the dying of passion, and the ending of a life.
To read Excerpts from the play, click Read More below.
Note that formatting in the excerpts are not centered, and instead, left justified.
The PDF of the the play is in correct format.
MARY
(facing Joe)
I need to rest. Can’t we go away Joe? Can’t we take a vacation? He’s in my head. I can’t get rid of his voice. I can’t get rid of him. I don’t want to lose him. But I can’t bear the thought of him.
JOE
Don’t make sense. It’s fifteen years. Has to be a female thing.
(his face begins to cry, but he stops it)
HANK
Because she feels guilty. Guilty as hell for lettin’ him kill me. First in his mind, then his heart. Then in his inability to save me from the tractor. You know he did. You knew he was gonna do it. You could see it in his eyes. In his movements. When he looked at me and stood in that insincere way. Disgusted with my inability to live my own life. That fear he had, just ate at him, so he blamed me, and turned his back on me when I needed him most. But be proud, Mama, HE DID IT LIKE A MAN!
(facing Joe)
Are you a man, Dad? DAD?
Joe hears something and leans in again – looking out.
JOE
Was an accident, Mary. Accidents happen. We don’t like them too but they do. All the time. Mistakes. Misjudgments. Our emotions curve our reason and someone dies. In some way. We’re only human. I wanted to help. But I wanted him to learn to live his own life, not be dependent on me. He was too afraid of tractors. Was a sensitive boy. I was too rough on him.
HANK
You know he’s lyin’ to you. We always fought. He didn’t like it. He wanted me to be his son, not my own person. Wanted me to live my life the way he wanted me to live my life. Become an image of himself, to replace his mistakes and failures, resurrected, and redone, through my success.
MARY
To my dying day I couldn’t stop hearing him in my head, Joe.
HANK
But I wasn’t good enough. Nobody could ever be good enough. I had to be better than his own ego. His own idea of himself. Who he thought he was but wasn’t.
MARY
I’m hearing him now, again. Go away please. Please.
HANK
He wanted a replacement for his own inner pain, that sorta thing. And when I started to think on my own he wanted me dead. In him. To relieve his guilt. To validate his illusions about who he was – who I was.
JOE
(to himself and Mary)
You can’t let it get to you. Wipe it away. Forget it. He left us, never even wrote. I don’t know what the hell he was so angry at me for.
MARY
He was growing up. Came out a blank slate, like the seed of a redwood – and the world started hitting in the face before he could take root and stand on his own two feet.
JOE
I made mistakes I’ll admit it. I’m not perfect for God’s sake, I’m a man. Just a man. I loved my son. As much as my own life. More than my own life. I was hard on him because I was so afraid he’d die if I didn’t toughen him up, to face the tractors. Coming at us all the time. God Damned Tractors.
(almost crying)
HANK
Look who’s talking, Ma, making excuses at this late age – imagine that nothin’s changed. Mr. Adultery himself. Mr. I’m just goin’ out for a nightcap – to a hotel room…
MARY
…Stop it Hank. What’s done is done…
HANK
…Mr. Liar. Mr. Pervert…
MARY
…You don’t know the half of it – I wasn’t being a good wife then…
HANK
…Mr. American Values gone haywire…
MARY
…It’s not all his fault. There’s always two sides. You never knew the whole truth…
HANK
…No one wants to feel trapped in someone else’s fears, and angers, and hatred…
MARY
…He needed love and I couldn’t give it to him. Anymore. But I stayed. That’s a form of love I suppose…
JOE
…Was that the Doc? I heard a voice? Was that him. No. Damn those trees…
HANK
(sudden rage)
YOU HAVE TO WALK THOUGH THE MUD ON YOUR OWN AND LEARN TO KICK THE SHIT OFF, THAT’S BOGGIN’ YA DOWN.
MARY
(to Hank screaming)
GO AWAY. JUST GO AWAY. YOUR MEMORY IS TOO ANGRY. YOU’RE SEEING ONLY HALF THE PICTURE AND THINKING IT’S WHOLE. THAT’S HOW EVERYTHING GROWS CROOKED.
JOE
(turns sharply to her)
That’s it honey. Push it out of your mind, stand your ground against yourself.
Mary weeps, her head down. Hank remains looking at them both, one at a time.
JOE
(hears something out over the audience)
My horse. I coulda swore I just saw that damn thing again. Right out back. That mane flarin’ in the night wind.
HANK
(almost crying)
I loved you mamma. I loved him too. I’m sorry.
MARY
There’s no horse, Joe. There’s nothin’ but us. Nothin’.
JOE
I miss you. It’s like everything I had in me, spilt to the ground. I planted a redwood forest and watched it turn to dust.
HANK
I want to see you again. Sit at the table. Over dinner. Just talkin’. Seein’ ya laugh. Remembering the day. Like the day was a lifetime. I don’t know why everything moves away from everything, leaving such holes that can never be filled again. And why time moves by so fast. I’m so sick of memories. I want to hug my life again.
MARY
What time is it?
HANK
He was jealous of me. Because I still had my youth. I can understand that. I had passion. The same passion he had once but lost. He was jealous because his white stallion drown. Just like him. Just like his passion. Drowned.
JOE
(looking out over the audience)
Three fifteen in the a.m. Look at that. I see it Mary, over the corn field.
HANK
His life, drowned. His dreams died. Suffocated.
JOE
So many years ago that horse went for a swim.
MARY
It never happened. It was all in your mind. You’re making things up again. I need something.
JOE
NO BOOZE.
MARY
MY NERVES.
HANK
The bubbles came up to the surface. Memories colliding. He remembered his life. He tried to escape his pain. He tried to run. In his life. When he slept. Couldn’t let it go. It was all the substance he had left. That, and his dreams. Looking up at the ceiling alone, in his old bed. And Mama, you weren’t next to him anymore.
MARY
(echoing exhaustion)
I CAN’T TAKE THIS JOE. STOP HIM SHUT HIM UP.
JOE
(growing awe)
SHE’S GALLOPING INTO THE HIGH STALKS. I CAN SEE HER MANE. WILL YOU LOOK AT THAT?
MARY
(violently angry)
THERE IS NO HORSE. THERE IS NO BOY. THEY’RE ALL GONE. THERE’S NOTHING BUT US. LOOK AT ME. JOE? LOOK AT ME, I’M YOUR WIFE.
Joe lost in his dream, seeing his horse out over the audience doesn’t hear Mary.
JOE
Just the tip of the white hair now, goin’ under, under, annnnnd… How the hell can a horse do that? I’m gonna save her. MARY I’M GONNA GO OUT THERE AND SAVE MY BLEACHED STALLION.
He turns to leave, as she turns to him. She’s far stage right and he left. They look in each other’s direction but can’t see one another.
MARY
No. No please don’t go. Stay here with me, Please. Joe?
JOE
What? Who’s there?
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DROWNING STALLION was first performed at the Rooftop Theater at Sunway University, Malaysia, in 2014, with the following Cast:
Aaron Teoh (Husband)
Grace Tham (Mary)
Seth Sabri (Son)
Director: Shah Shaha (Shahrizuan Shaharuddin)
Stage Manager: Erica Tham
Production Manager: Michelle Yip Audio
Technician: Alex Lim Light
Technician: Beh Jing Qiang
3 Characters
2 Men. 1 Woman
Simple Set
18 pages
A study in loneliness and the slow deterioration of one’s passion. In the middle of a dark night, an old man confronts the ghosts of his dead wife and son, his sins against them, his own guilt, his fear of death, and his passion that is dying. We learn that the 2 characters involved in the play are really both dead, and are the ghosts that torment him on the last days of his life.
The language in this play is both stark and poetic, as the old man confronts his inner fears, demons, and aloneness . A projection of a white stallion, representing his life and passion, slowly galloping under the ocean waves, and disappearing, represents the dying of passion, and the ending of a life.
To read Excerpts from the play, click Read More below.
Note that formatting in the excerpts are not centered, and instead, left justified.
The PDF of the the play is in correct format.
MARY
(facing Joe)
I need to rest. Can’t we go away Joe? Can’t we take a vacation? He’s in my head. I can’t get rid of his voice. I can’t get rid of him. I don’t want to lose him. But I can’t bear the thought of him.
JOE
Don’t make sense. It’s fifteen years. Has to be a female thing.
(his face begins to cry, but he stops it)
HANK
Because she feels guilty. Guilty as hell for lettin’ him kill me. First in his mind, then his heart. Then in his inability to save me from the tractor. You know he did. You knew he was gonna do it. You could see it in his eyes. In his movements. When he looked at me and stood in that insincere way. Disgusted with my inability to live my own life. That fear he had, just ate at him, so he blamed me, and turned his back on me when I needed him most. But be proud, Mama, HE DID IT LIKE A MAN!
(facing Joe)
Are you a man, Dad? DAD?
Joe hears something and leans in again – looking out.
JOE
Was an accident, Mary. Accidents happen. We don’t like them too but they do. All the time. Mistakes. Misjudgments. Our emotions curve our reason and someone dies. In some way. We’re only human. I wanted to help. But I wanted him to learn to live his own life, not be dependent on me. He was too afraid of tractors. Was a sensitive boy. I was too rough on him.
HANK
You know he’s lyin’ to you. We always fought. He didn’t like it. He wanted me to be his son, not my own person. Wanted me to live my life the way he wanted me to live my life. Become an image of himself, to replace his mistakes and failures, resurrected, and redone, through my success.
MARY
To my dying day I couldn’t stop hearing him in my head, Joe.
HANK
But I wasn’t good enough. Nobody could ever be good enough. I had to be better than his own ego. His own idea of himself. Who he thought he was but wasn’t.
MARY
I’m hearing him now, again. Go away please. Please.
HANK
He wanted a replacement for his own inner pain, that sorta thing. And when I started to think on my own he wanted me dead. In him. To relieve his guilt. To validate his illusions about who he was – who I was.
JOE
(to himself and Mary)
You can’t let it get to you. Wipe it away. Forget it. He left us, never even wrote. I don’t know what the hell he was so angry at me for.
MARY
He was growing up. Came out a blank slate, like the seed of a redwood – and the world started hitting in the face before he could take root and stand on his own two feet.
JOE
I made mistakes I’ll admit it. I’m not perfect for God’s sake, I’m a man. Just a man. I loved my son. As much as my own life. More than my own life. I was hard on him because I was so afraid he’d die if I didn’t toughen him up, to face the tractors. Coming at us all the time. God Damned Tractors.
(almost crying)
HANK
Look who’s talking, Ma, making excuses at this late age – imagine that nothin’s changed. Mr. Adultery himself. Mr. I’m just goin’ out for a nightcap – to a hotel room…
MARY
…Stop it Hank. What’s done is done…
HANK
…Mr. Liar. Mr. Pervert…
MARY
…You don’t know the half of it – I wasn’t being a good wife then…
HANK
…Mr. American Values gone haywire…
MARY
…It’s not all his fault. There’s always two sides. You never knew the whole truth…
HANK
…No one wants to feel trapped in someone else’s fears, and angers, and hatred…
MARY
…He needed love and I couldn’t give it to him. Anymore. But I stayed. That’s a form of love I suppose…
JOE
…Was that the Doc? I heard a voice? Was that him. No. Damn those trees…
HANK
(sudden rage)
YOU HAVE TO WALK THOUGH THE MUD ON YOUR OWN AND LEARN TO KICK THE SHIT OFF, THAT’S BOGGIN’ YA DOWN.
MARY
(to Hank screaming)
GO AWAY. JUST GO AWAY. YOUR MEMORY IS TOO ANGRY. YOU’RE SEEING ONLY HALF THE PICTURE AND THINKING IT’S WHOLE. THAT’S HOW EVERYTHING GROWS CROOKED.
JOE
(turns sharply to her)
That’s it honey. Push it out of your mind, stand your ground against yourself.
Mary weeps, her head down. Hank remains looking at them both, one at a time.
JOE
(hears something out over the audience)
My horse. I coulda swore I just saw that damn thing again. Right out back. That mane flarin’ in the night wind.
HANK
(almost crying)
I loved you mamma. I loved him too. I’m sorry.
MARY
There’s no horse, Joe. There’s nothin’ but us. Nothin’.
JOE
I miss you. It’s like everything I had in me, spilt to the ground. I planted a redwood forest and watched it turn to dust.
HANK
I want to see you again. Sit at the table. Over dinner. Just talkin’. Seein’ ya laugh. Remembering the day. Like the day was a lifetime. I don’t know why everything moves away from everything, leaving such holes that can never be filled again. And why time moves by so fast. I’m so sick of memories. I want to hug my life again.
MARY
What time is it?
HANK
He was jealous of me. Because I still had my youth. I can understand that. I had passion. The same passion he had once but lost. He was jealous because his white stallion drown. Just like him. Just like his passion. Drowned.
JOE
(looking out over the audience)
Three fifteen in the a.m. Look at that. I see it Mary, over the corn field.
HANK
His life, drowned. His dreams died. Suffocated.
JOE
So many years ago that horse went for a swim.
MARY
It never happened. It was all in your mind. You’re making things up again. I need something.
JOE
NO BOOZE.
MARY
MY NERVES.
HANK
The bubbles came up to the surface. Memories colliding. He remembered his life. He tried to escape his pain. He tried to run. In his life. When he slept. Couldn’t let it go. It was all the substance he had left. That, and his dreams. Looking up at the ceiling alone, in his old bed. And Mama, you weren’t next to him anymore.
MARY
(echoing exhaustion)
I CAN’T TAKE THIS JOE. STOP HIM SHUT HIM UP.
JOE
(growing awe)
SHE’S GALLOPING INTO THE HIGH STALKS. I CAN SEE HER MANE. WILL YOU LOOK AT THAT?
MARY
(violently angry)
THERE IS NO HORSE. THERE IS NO BOY. THEY’RE ALL GONE. THERE’S NOTHING BUT US. LOOK AT ME. JOE? LOOK AT ME, I’M YOUR WIFE.
Joe lost in his dream, seeing his horse out over the audience doesn’t hear Mary.
JOE
Just the tip of the white hair now, goin’ under, under, annnnnd… How the hell can a horse do that? I’m gonna save her. MARY I’M GONNA GO OUT THERE AND SAVE MY BLEACHED STALLION.
He turns to leave, as she turns to him. She’s far stage right and he left. They look in each other’s direction but can’t see one another.
MARY
No. No please don’t go. Stay here with me, Please. Joe?
JOE
What? Who’s there?
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