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Dreams in Captivity

Where are you trying to run to, Pax? Ca...

Overview

Character
Gender
Female
Playing Age
Adult
Style
Dramatic
Act/Scene
Act 2, Scene 5
Time & Place
Livi and Pax's apartment, America, Present Day
Length
Short
Time Period
Contemporary
Show Type
Play
Age Guidance
Thirteen Plus (PG-13)

Context

Text

Where are you trying to run to, Pax? Can’t you just stop and enjoy life while you’re here—lucky to be alive and breathing? I mean, there may be no tomorrow and you may have missed today in some desperate, frenetic, striving frenzy.

I like the people at the retirement home. Their time is limited and they know it. They have a palpable sense of their limits. And they know how to enjoy the moment. There’s an old couple there, that I aspire to. They sit together, all day, hand in hand, just breathing, staring at the TV.

Yes Pax … like just two bodies...sitting there. Yes. "A sitting-down love." They have "a sitting down love." You think love should make you stand up, jump up...achieve your greatest heights. Sure, yes love can do that but it can also make you calm, centered, at peace, contented.

Is that really what I want for us? You call it “A life in retirement.” I don't know, Pax. I just want us to be fulfilled. Yes, I know you want that too. So why can’t you accept things the way they are?

It’s not “giving up.” It’s … giving in. Surrendering. Being .. at peace. You say you want to “fly on the stars and never look back.” But Pax … Sometimes falling can feel like flying.

Look we … we don’t have to solve this tonight. Tonight we can just take a breath. Take a step back. We can retire ... to bed. Not retire forever. Not give in forever. Just give in ... for tonight. Retire ... for tonight.

Come to bed. Pax … just … come to bed.

Sourced from the author's website Monologue Genie

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