Your End of the World
Will sits darkly clothed in his grey apartment.
His lap is full of shiny razor blades. One of these blades is in his hand,
and he stares at it. His other arm has the sleeve rolled up, waiting.
WILL
Will, what else is there to do?
Will digs the blade down into his arm.
MASTER OF CEREMONIES (MC) opens the door to will's office, and
dramatically bows and gestures for will to come outside in one fluid
motion. MC is dressed in an excellent costume, with an excellent hat on his head.
MC
This way please.
WILL looks at the MC with disbelief.
MC
Your end is waiting.
WILL
Um. Who sent you?
MC
This way please, heh.
MC, a little impatient, leaves. Will sloughs off whatever garbage was in
his lap (razor blades, blood, whatever), and walks off after the MC.
MC
I am the Master of Ceremonies, William.
Your final experience has been prepared for some time now-
WILL
What the fuck?!
MC
Please, do not interrupt.
You think that life has thrown all it can at you.
You are incorrect in this assumption, of course,
but it is not my place to dissuade you.
Rather, it is my place to prepare your final experience.
Ceremoniously, heh.
They walk out into a wide open field. the far end of the field is revealed
to be empty. A void. A white pit of nothing that does not end at the
horizon line. The far end of the field is simply : gone.
MC
You are to stand here at the edge,
and tell your sorrows to the pit.
the pit of human despair, heh.
WILL
What happens then?
MC
Then you will solve the puzzle, or the puzzle will solve you.
Absolve dissolve, heh.
As MC exhales his last little laugh, he dissolves. Will stands alone at
the edge of the pit.
Will turns back the way he came in puzzlement. Then whips around to stare
at the pit again.
WILL
Well Will, this is new.
Will feet step right up to the edge of the pit.
WILL
Well, i don't know if there's anything in there to hear me.
But there's nothing out here to hear me either,
so i guess it's equally ridiculous.
Will drops a razorblade into the void and it sails off like a leaf caught
in the wind, till it disappears in the white.
WILL
I've been born and i've been bored. That about sums it up.
My life has been fairly empty.
My parents didn't love me as much as much as I did not love them.
My friends didn't feel me enough to remember me over the years.
My lovers didn't know what love was, to me.
And my teachers never really showed me anything new.
Nothing like you.
Will stares deep into the void.
What are you anyway?
The end of all things.
Quietly waiting to accept me, i suppose.
Well, color me impressed.
The pit creeps under the tips of WILL's shoes. The audience should realize
that the pit is GROWING.
WILL certainly does, as he slips and falls on his ass then wriggles away
from the edge.
WILL
What? Wait! I haven't finished my speech. Stop!
The edge of the lawn crumbles and falls into the pit, as the pit grows.
WILL
You think YOU will define the end of MY world?
Who ARE you?!
WILL gets to his feet, pissed.
WILL
I! AM! WILL! I AM WILLPOWER! I AM THE MASTER OF MY OWN CEREMONIES!
The void recedes dramatically/quickly.
Then surges back, as a strong as a tidal wave.
Will runs the length of the field, but there is no stopping the growing
void. He is swallowed by the silent whiteness.
Will floats in the white sea. Then dissolves unhappily in a fetal
position.
Pull back from White void to reveal it as the eye of MC, as he walks down
a path. MC spits out some dark gum, as he walks up the path to another
house. The gum hits the ground in the shape of an aborted fetus candy with razor blade inside.
The MC swirls on the door step too look at the camera.
MC
heh.
The MC vanishes into the inky blackness of the house's doorway, and so do we.
THE END
Production Notes:
-the key to this skit is the digital effect. the actor's have to believe
the pit, so the audience will believe the pit. So mix up the shots of the
pit. Do something more than just fade white across half the shot. Love the
pit with your camera, don't hide it.
-For the edge of the grass, put some ripped up grass against a white backdrop and have him stand on the grass.
Use this same chunk of lawn in the studio, so you can look past will into a white curtain. Crank up the brightness to delete the folds
in the white curtain (or any white surface you choose to use).
-The void is a riff on Silverstein's "where the sidewalk ends", and the
void in the comicbook Gilgamesh. Both of which i can show you for
reference, if you'd like.
-Locations. The obvious choices would be alan's office for the apartment, or his apartment, or kim's apartment,
and the large field by Dixon for the end of his world. Maybe the old
jenn&alan apartment on 7th street for the final apartment?