Everyman

By
Jacob Loat
 scene 1
The anthem of the country that the play is shown
in is heard as the curtains open to a pale,
white-lit stage. Two Narrators enter stage left,
standing downstage center-left of the stage. Both
of them wear identical identical suits and share
the same stiff physicality.
NARRATOR 1
This is Joe.

He refers to a man in a white dress-shirt held

together with a messy black tie, and a worn
brief-case. The man enters the stage waving.
NARRATOR 2
Joe Everyman.
An on-track riser holding a bed (which contains a
woman), a table (holding 4 plates and cutlery),
and a sink (holding a razor and brush) is rolled
onstage. Joe hops on the bed and lays down as it
comes to a stop, tossing the briefcase towards the
table.
NARRATOR 1
This morning, Joe woke up at five Oclock AM.

Joe sits up and swings his legs over the edge of

the bed.
NARRATOR 2
He shaved, and brushed his teeth, and went downstairs
for breakfast.

Joe stands and makes his way over to the sink,

shaving and brushing his teeth as described. He
then makes his way over to the table, and
hurriedly eats from the plate.

NARRATOR 1
Joe kissed his wife goodbye, and went to work.
He kisses the woman asleep in the bed, and leaves
the riser, collecting the brief-case as he goes.
He walks stage right. As he walks, a new on-track
riser is slid on stage right, holding a cluttered
desk and an old computer.
NARRATOR 2
His commute was two hours. Hes late today. Hes late
every day.

(CONTINUED)
CONTINUED: 2.

Joe begins running as he hits the 3/4 point across

the stage, planting himself down in his chair,
dropping the brief-case on the desk and begins
typing frantically on the key-board. At this
point, Joes wife stands, and begins straightening
up the table placements.
NARRATOR 1
He worked overtime. At Seven Oclock, Joe finally went
home.

Joe collects his brief-case and returns to the

stage left riser, dragging his feet. He arrives on
the riser, and his wife kisses him and leads him
to the table. He places the brief-case next to it.
NARRATOR 1 (CONTD)
By the time he arrived, it was nine Oclock. Finally
able to relax for a moment, Joe sat down for dinner
with his family.
Two children, a boy and a girl and boy in all
white clothing run onstage and sit down at the
table.
NARRATOR 2
His wife left for her evening shift, and his children
retired to finish their homework.

His family exits stage left.

NARRATOR 1
Ten Oclock. Joe was already late for a business call.
He retired to his room to take it.

Joe pulls his phone from his pocket, and sits on

the bed. He talks silently into the phone.
NARRATOR 2
It wasnt until one Oclock that the call wrapped up.
Exhausted, Joe went to bed.
Joe lays back in the bed and closes his eyes.
After a moment, Joes wife returns and lays down
in the bed.

As Narrator 2 repeats the cycle, Joe goes through

the actions listed above.
NARRATOR 2
Joe woke up at five Oclock AM. He shaved, brushed his
teeth, and went downstairs for breakfast. Joe kissed
his wife goodbye, and went to work. His commute was two
(MORE)
(CONTINUED)
CONTINUED: 3.

NARRATOR 2 (contd)
hours. Hes late today. He worked overtime, and went
home at seven Oclock. He arrived home at nine, and sat
down for dinner with his family. His wife went to work,
and his children did their homework. At eleven Oclock,
Joe made his business call. By one Oclock, the call
wrapped up. Joe went to bed.
As Narrator 1 speaks, Narrator 2 repeats the cycle
again.

NARRATOR 1
Meanwhile.
The top lights on stage right remain white, while
the top lights on stage left turn red. A pair of
identical on-track risers are slid on stage left,
identical to the ones Joe uses. Another man,
dressed identical to Joe stands on the risers.
This man has his own wife and his own children,
and goes through Joes cycle in sync with Narrator
2. Well call this man Joe B.

NARRATOR 1 (CONTD)
This (referring to the stage right risers) is country
A. This (referring to the stage left risers) is country
B. Tensions between countries A and B run high. They
conflict on every subject- Resources, lifestyle,
philosophy, religion.
Two men walk out onstage from opposite sides. The
man on stage left walks out wearing a red suit,
while the man on stage right wears a white one.
They are presidents A and B. They meet at the
center of the stage.
NARRATOR 1 (CONTD)
For years and years the two countries campaigned
against each other, advertising non-existent threats
and throwing petty insults.

President A turns around to Joe, pointing to

President B.
PRESIDENT A
Theyre building bombs!

President B turns around to the other man,

pointing to president A.
PRESIDENT B
Theyre present in twelve other countries!

(CONTINUED)
CONTINUED: 4.

PRESIDENT A
Well, theyre threatening our freedom!
NARRATOR 1
And so on.

The two Presidents turn to each other and continue

bickering quietly.
NARRATOR 1 (CONTD)
One day, President B proposed "The Agreement" to the
Association of Many Presidents.
President B produces a sheet of paper from his
back pocket. Six other presidents in different
colored suits appear onstage.

NARRATOR 1 (CONTD)
President A, of course, was quite against the
agreement.
PRESIDENT A
(Shouting over the murmuring crowd of Presidents)
Theyre trying to take away our freedom!
Half of the crowd of presidents begin nodding.
NARRATOR 1
And just like that, the world was divided in two.

The crowd divides into two groups. One group is

behind President A on stage right, and the other
is behind President B on stage left.
NARRATOR 1 (CONTD)
War strikes.
The two groups of Presidents divide, exiting off
their corresponding edge of the stage. The stage
left risers are slid off stage left, and Joes
risers are once again expanded across the stage.
Narrator 2 continues his cycle until the line "He
went home at four Oclock." By this point, a new
on-track riser has been moved across the stage,
holding President A behind a podium. Half a dozen
extras follow the riser.
NARRATOR 2
... And was stopped abruptly on his way home by a
national message:

(CONTINUED)
CONTINUED: 5.

PRESIDENT A
My people, today is a dark day like no other. Our
enemies have declared open war on us, our people. Our
elderly, our wives, our children. Even now they rally;
armed, dangerous and disorganized like the heathens
they are. And soon, they will come. Maybe not today,
not tomorrow, but one day soon, they will come for us.
To kill us. To torture us. To enslave us.
We have all known this day was coming for a long time,
but now it is here. So now I must call to you, the men
and women of this great country, and ask you to take a
leap of faith. To dive out into the unknown and join me
on this grand adventure in the name of family, and
liberty, and freedom.
So, brothers and sisters, will you join me in stamping
out these animals once and for all?
The crowd applauds. President A comes down from
the podium with a white clip-board, and the crowd
lines up in front of him. Joe remains where he
stood.

PRESIDENT A (CONTD)
And what about you?
The crowd turns to face Joe.

PRESIDENT A (CONTD)
Wont you join us? Or are you not willing to fight for
what you have? Do you take your freedom in this
glorious country of ours for granted?

JOE
No.
PRESIDENT A
Our entire way of life has been threatened. Stand up
and defend it.

Joe, slightly unsure, joins the line. The

clip-board is signed and then passed back by each
member of the line, until it reaches Joe. He signs
it as well. A man in a military jacket walks on
from stage-left, with seven rifles. He takes the
clip-board from Joe, and plants the rifle in his
hands. The man then passes a rifle to each member
of the line.
NARRATOR 1
This is Joe.

(CONTINUED)
CONTINUED: 6.

NARRATOR 2
Joe Everyman
NARRATOR 1
On October 5th, 8:45am, Joe landed in a foreign country
to face off against enemy "soldiers", who were just as
scared and confused as he was.
As Narrator 1 talks, the cyc lights begin turning
red, sweeping from stage left to right. Joes
risers are moved off stage left, and President As
riser is moved off stage right. The crowd, minus
Joe, moves to stage right. A group of seven
soldiers, including Joe B, enter stage left
wearing red outfits.
NARRATOR 2
He and his patrol traveled two days on-foot across
unfamiliar territory before seeing a new face. Needless
to say, his first encounter was unfriendly.
COUNTRY B SOLDIER
Here!

Army B raises their weapons. Army A dives to the

floor. Strobes flash over an otherwise black stage
to the sound of screaming and gunfire. As his
squadron dies around him, Joe pulls the body of a
dead soldier over him. As the sound and lights
subside, only Joe and two B soldiers remain. They
prod the bodies before exiting stage right. Joe
pushes the body off of him, looking around. His
shirt is covered in blood.

NARRATOR 1
For the first time, Joe had witnessed death.
NARRATOR 2
It had only been forty-four hours.

The stage goes pitch-black, save two cool spots

focused on each of the two narrators.
NARRATOR 1
The days went on. He witnessed horrors beyond
recognition: torture, execution, murder.

NARRATOR 2
He witnessed the death of children.
NARRATOR 1
He witnessed grown men crying for their mothers...

(CONTINUED)
CONTINUED: 7.

NARRATOR 2
... And women holding their insides in with their bare
hands. His only connection to the real world was in his
letters home.

The entire stage snaps to black. During the

reading of Joes letter, a series of small
tableaus are lit up individually all over the
stage in sequence; small, momentary snapshots of
the horrors of war.

A woman in red, her boot pressing a man in whites

head into the floor. (downstage right)
A man in white, holding his friends limp body
over his shoulders. (upstage left)

A man in red facing stage-right. Behind him stands

a man in white with a gun to the mans head.
(upstage center)
A man in red holding a knife to a man in whites
throat. (upstage right)

A woman in red kneeling, looking at the ground. A

man in white holds a rifle to the back of her
head. (downstage left)
A man in white kneeling, facing stage right, with
a man in red standing before him with his arm
drawn back in the middle of a strike. (Downstage
center)
The tableaus end about two sentences before the
end of the monologue, and the stage fades to
black.
JOE
Dear Madeline,

I cant believe its already been a year. I swear I

couldnt have been out here more than a month. Waking
up, seeing the sun rise up into the sky... Its a brand
new experience every morning. Its so beautiful- I wish
you could see it. (Pause.) Things are good here. Morale
is up; the camp is full of traded stories and friendly
conversation. We havent seen the enemy in weeks- We
think they may be retreating. Im trying not to get my
hopes up, though. Not to say that Im not proud to be
out here, of course. I absolutely am. To have the
freedom to lay down my life in the name of our country
and everyone who lives in it. I love my nation, and I
love you. Tell Max and Amy I love them, too. They just
(MORE)
(CONTINUED)
CONTINUED: 8.

JOE (contd)
got off for Christmas break, right? Ill see if I cant
find anything exciting to send home for them. And...
Im sorry I cant be home for the holidays. I wish
there was something I could do to make it up.

With love, Joe.

The entire stage suddenly illuminated in bright,
saturated white light. In the center of the stage
is a large circle of a dozen men and women, as
well as Joe (whos clothes are still bloodied from
his last encounter) and Joe B. All together there
are 7 A soldiers and 7 B soldiers. Each one of
them holds a pistol aimed at another person of the
opposite country onstage. After three seconds, the
sound of a gunshot rumbles through the auditorium,
accompanied by a flash of red light onstage.
Everyone collapses in a heap save Joe and Joe B.
They lock eyes for a moment before Joe B runs
offstage left. Joe drops his pistol, and shuffles
offstage right.

As Narrator 1 begins to speak, a series of white

clothed medics (stage right) and red clothed
medics (stage left) come to collect their soldiers
and return them to their corresponding sides of
the stage.

NARRATOR 2
Two years.
NARRATOR 1
The camps were nearly as messy as the battlefield.

NARRATOR 2
Soldiers gambled and fought, sometimes with a blood
lust usually saved for battle.
NARRATOR 1
Toilets were holes in the ground, and the food was
terrible. Todays meal was Spam.
NARRATOR 2
Yesterdays meal was also Spam.

NARRATOR 1
Last week, the meal of the week was Spam.

(CONTINUED)
CONTINUED: 9.

By this point, all soldiers have been collected

from the stage, and eight white clothed army men
and women, including Joe, enter alongside 4
on-track risers; 2 from each side of the stage.
They each find their way into bed, hanging jackets
or weapons on bedposts as they do. Stage lights
darken.
NARRATOR 2
But there was no place quite as cramped, quite as
uncomfortable, quite as terrible as the quarters.

NARRATOR 1
Where someone was always snoring.
Soldier 1 begins to snore.

NARRATOR 2
Or talking.
Soldier 2 begins ad-libbing as the scene
continues. Possible topics include (but are not
limited to) Spam, death, A/B politics, some
adventure that happened that day/
NARRATOR 1
Or praying.
Soldier 3 begins praying in Latin.

NARRATOR 2
Sometimes they cried.
Soldier 4 begins to cry. Quietly at first, and
gradually louder, though without overtaking the
narrators.
NARRATOR 1
And Screamed.

Soldier 5 begins tossing wildly in bed, scratching

at their face and body and screaming like theyve
lost their mind. Nobody flinches.
NARRATOR 2
Some people were attacked in their sleep.

Soldier 6, laying on the top bunk, rolls out of

bed and climbs on top of soldier 7, who sleeps
underneath them. They sit on their stomach.

(CONTINUED)
CONTINUED: 10.

NARRATOR 1
Beaten.
NARRATOR 2
Extorted.

NARRATOR 1
Raped.
8 red soldiers, including Joe B, make their way
onstage. All of them are sneaking; crawling on
their stomachs or crouching.
NARRATOR 2
But there were few things worse than the night raids.
The lights jump back up to 100%. The cyc lights
turn red, while top and face lights remain white.
Joe awakens, seeing the red soldiers. He shouts
for help. The red soldiers jump to their feet, as
do the white-dressed soldiers. The stage erupts
into a frenzy of screaming and shouting. More
extras join the stage from each side, until the
entire area is an incomprehensible mass of people.
The on-track risers are slowly removed off of the
stage amongst the chaos. Men and women are beaten
and stabbed; the stage begins to pile up with
bodies. Country A is visibly winning.

A spotlight settles on Joe, center stage, singling

him out of the battle. Joe B once again identifies
Joe, running directly towards him. Joe sees him at
the last moment, turning and stabbing him in the
stomach. Joe B sputters, and his legs give out.
Joe lowers him onto the floor. He is visibly
stained with Joe Bs blood.
He removes the blade and stands, looking over the
body. Joe is barely recognizable. His eyes are
unfocused. His hands shake. The battle comes to a
close with Country A on top. On stage right, a man
continues beating the body of a country B soldier,
crying. He has to be pulled off by another member.
As Narrator 2 speaks, all soldiers, save Joe and
Joe B, exit the stage.
NARRATOR 2
This is Joe.

(CONTINUED)
CONTINUED: 11.

NARRATOR 1
Joe Everyman.
NARRATOR 2
Joe was victorious in his quest for freedom. He
returned home, seeing his wife and kids for the first
time in years.
Joes "home" riser (with his bed, table, and sink)
is slid on stage right. He stiffly makes his way
over to meet his wife and children who emerge from
stage left. The children are visibly older than
they were before. He hugs them, some of the blood
on his clothes rubbing off on them.
NARRATOR 2
Exhausted, Joe collapsed into bed.

The children exit stage left, and Joe and his wife
lay down in bed.
NARRATOR 1
Then, Joe woke up at five Oclock AM.

Joe sits up and swings his legs over the edge of

the bed. As he goes through his actions for the
day, he is notably uncomfortable.
NARRATOR 2
He shaved, and brushed his teeth, and went downstairs
for breakfast.
Joe stands and makes his way over to the sink,
shaving and brushing his teeth as described. He
then makes his way over to the table, and
hurriedly eats from the plate.
NARRATOR 1
Then went to work.

He leaves the riser, collecting the brief-case as

he goes. He walks stage right. As he walks, a new
on-track riser is slid on stage right, holding a
cluttered desk and an old computer.
NARRATOR 2
His commute was two hours. Hes late today. Hes late
every day.
Joe begins running as he hits the 3/4 point across
the stage, planting himself down in his chair,
dropping the brief-case on the desk and begins
typing frantically on the key-board. At this

(CONTINUED)
CONTINUED: 12.

point, Joes wife stands, and begins straightening

up the table placements. She and the children sit
down and eat, then they all exit stage left. Joes
plate is left out.

NARRATOR 1
He worked overtime. At Seven Oclock, Joe finally went
home.
Joe collects his brief-case and returns to the
stage left riser, dragging his feet. He arrives on
the riser, and makes his way to the table. He
places the brief-case next to it.
NARRATOR 1 (CONTD)
By the time he arrived, it was nine Oclock. Joe sat
down for dinner.

Joe sits down at the table.

NARRATOR 1
Ten Oclock. Joe was already late for a business call.
He retired to his room to take it.

Joe pulls his phone from his pocket, and sits on

the bed. He talks silently into the phone.
NARRATOR 2
It wasnt until one Oclock that the call wrapped up.
Exhausted, Joe went to bed.
Joe lays back in the bed and closes his eyes.
After a moment, Joes wife returns and lays down
in the bed.

Fade out.
End