Impaction (My First Play)

My first play, Impaction, was performed in LA as part of Nothing to See Here, directed by my amazing friend Jacques Manjarrez. The last night was recorded and can be seen here.

Impaction

by Rin Ray

Cast

• Main Character (MC)
• Sick Creature — a human wrapped in blankets to look vaguely unidentifiable, but certainly alive
• Doctor — wearing a rhinoceros mask and a pink lab coat
• Creatures — a crowd in costumes

Props

• Lots of yellow and pink ribbon
• Two chairs
• Two phones
• A banana

Scene One

MC and Sick Creature on stage. A phone near the back of the stage.

MC: (Standing, staring out into space at the mostly lifeless body.)

Sick Creature: (Lying on their side, crying slightly, breathing labored.)

MC: (Backs up slowly and sinks down next to the phone without looking at it, still staring at Sick Creature. Tension slowly builds. Through shaky breaths, holding back tears, dials.) “Hi, does your clinic offer the procedure?”

Voice on the phone: (Disappointed) “Ah, I see. Okay, thank you.”

(MC crosses a name off a list. Approaches the creature and strokes its hair while calling once more. Increasingly agitated, MC throws the phone down.)

Sick Creature: (Flinches and curls in on itself, breathing faster and shallower, building toward panic.)

(MC picks the phone back up and calls the Doctor.)

MC: “Doctor, I can’t reach anyone who does the procedure. Do you know someone?”

(MC gets up to go outside. A flash of different styles and genres of music begins to play.)

(A parade emerges from behind the audience and weaves through the seats: minions, clowns, demons, nuns, a flamingo — all shitfaced drunk. Each holds a pink or yellow ribbon trailing behind them. The music keeps switching rapidly as they float by. Strings and ribbons flow through the space.)

(The characters pull to the side and play rock paper scissors in an uncanny, chittering clown language. The next batch comes out with ribbons in the same way, in front of MC, freestyling mischievously in their mayhem.)

(Suddenly MC is caught in a web of ribbons, dodging side to side, running their hands through them. They “trip” and grab one. The being holding that ribbon — the flamingo — stops, walks up to MC, and hugs them. MC holds on tight, then looks at the ribbon in their hand, then back at the flamingo. MC lets go of the ribbon, and the flamingo immediately turns around and rejoins the parade.)

Scene Two

(The parade mostly clears the stage as MC exits. A small parade keeps passing parallel to the stage, ribbons leading offstage. Upbeat, quickly shifting music continues.)

(Two chairs. The Doctor, in a pink coat, sits on one next to a phone. Hidden behind them: another phone and a banana.)

(MC opens a door, arriving.)

MC: “Help me.”

Doctor: “What? Okay.”

(MC and Doctor both start calling frantically while the parade continues, alternating the same line.)

MC & Doctor: “Hi, do you offer the procedure?”

(More characters join the parade in the background. MC and Doctor keep calling, now in different languages, building to a frantic pace.)

Doctor: “Hi, do you offer the procedure?”

MC: “Hallo, bieten Sie die Operation an?”

(More characters enter.)

Doctor: “Bonjour, proposez-vous l’OPÉRATION ?”

MC: “Hola, ¿ofrecen la OPERACIÓN?”

(The Doctor raises the banana to their other ear, as if on two phones at once.)

Doctor: “Salve, operationem offersne?”

Doctor: “They have always abandoned us. We must do it ourselves.”

(The parade grows louder and closer until it is walking in front of and around them, club music pounding. MC and Doctor are obscured.)

Scene Three

(While covered, the Doctor exits with their chair and phone. Sick Creature enters and lies on the floor, two ribbons already tied around its throat, each held by a costumed person.)

Sound: (The upbeat music continues, but slowed down, as if playing in another room.)

(The costumed people in front of MC part down the middle and move left and right behind them, revealing Sick Creature on the floor. MC sits blindfolded on a chair. Behind MC, the costumed people split the ribbons into two paths — yellow and pink — like a fork in the road.)

Doctor: (Walks out to stand behind MC.) “Here are the options.”

Doctor: “You can end its suffering — kill it.” (Points to the pink ribbon.) “Or you can try the procedure yourself, but act as its tormentor as you try.” (Points to the yellow ribbon.)

MC: “What will they lead to?”

Doctor: “You cannot know the future.”

(The two ribbons around Sick Creature’s neck feed into the two paths behind MC, so that MC sits inside a triangle of ribbon. The people holding the neck ribbons begin to pull.)

Sick Creature: (Fights the ribbons at its neck, clawing wildly and whimpering, in clear agony, growing more intense by the second.)

MC: (Breathing heavily, still blindfolded, gets up and crawls on hands and knees to stroke the creature’s face as it whimpers. The ribbon-holders move closer; the triangle shrinks and forces MC back into the chair.)

Sick Creature: (Screaming and seizing in pain, still clawing at the ribbons.)

(MC turns to the audience.)

MC: “Fuck! What do I do? Fuck!”

Offstage Narrator: “Those who want yellow, raise your hand. Those who want pink, raise your hand.”

(A TV in the background shows yellow on one side, pink on the other. The audience votes.)