Bluebeard by Michele Pittenger

This Play is the copyright of the Author and may not be performed, copied or sold without the Author's prior consent

Slowly fade up to Bluebeard's Hall bathed in a warm glow.

Three or four rich furnishings mark it as the great hall of a manor.

Down left are a writing desk and a prie-deux with prayer beads displayed.

Up center, the door to the killing room stands alone. It is closed.

Down right, Bluebeard's lady, Dora, stands in virgin white, holding
a very noticeable key.

She is surrounded by guests.

BRADFORD: This is what comes of asking questions. Women get ideas.

BOOPSIE: Oh, you. (pause) I'm sure Madame Bluebeard isn't amused.

DORA: Hmmm? Oh, I'm sorry

SOPHY: Just put the key away and let's do something fun.

DORA: Sir wouldn't really mind all that much.

COCO: Why do you keep calling him "Sir"? He's got a perfectly
good name.

DORA: He wants me to.

COCO: Whatever for?

BOOPSIE: We've been standing before this wretched door forever.

DORA: It's just another door. There are so many in this place.

BRADFORD: The man asks one little thing.

DORA: You're right. I promised.

SOPHY: Oh, for heaven's sake, you haven't broken your vows.
DORA: I would neverI do hate to disappoint him. (pause) He scares
me a little. (struggling for the words) His eyes flash and his voice
gets so.

SOPHY: That's when he starts shouting?

DORA: I never said he shouted.

COCO: I say we go for a stroll in the garden.

BRADFORD: We could play tennis. Again. Surely, we haven't exhausted
all the pleasures of the house?

BOOPSIE: I don't knowa locked door is so mysterious. You never
know what treasure or terror is on the other side. Personally, I
couldn't sleep for not knowing.

DORA: Sir doesn't like people who break promises.

BRADFORD: That's just a matter of looking out for one's best
interests.

SOPHY: You are a great dolt.

COCO: Dora, it's just a door. It's not the great mystery of
life.

SOPHY: Dora, what's the matter with you? You always used to poke
your nose into everybody's business. You got into so much trouble.

COCO: You were so much fun.

DORA: Sometimes, you learn things you don't want to know. Besides I
had Peter with me.

BRADFORD: This is going to go badly.

DORA: I think I have to know. Peter would know what to do.

BRADFORD: Really, Dora, still pining for Peter? It's been months
now.

DORA: It's not that.

COCO: Well, then.

DORA: (helplessly) That wretched door just keeps tickling the back of
my mind.

BOOPSIE: Oh, I couldn't tolerate that at all.

BRADFORD: Are you trying to get her to break a promise?

SOPHY: Not every promise is sacred.

DORA: But a promise made to your husband.

SOPHY: After what happened? How can you.

COCO: We don't know what happened.

DORA: Stop it.

SOPHY: Has he ever kept a promise to you?

DORA: Yes.

DORA visibly shivers at the memory.

SOPHY: You can't think you're responsible.

DORA: If he hadn't met me, mother might still be with us.

COCO: Why do you stay with him if you think that?

DORA: I can't let him hurt anyone else.

COCO: Is his word law now?

DORA: It's not a joke. I should just open the door.

SOPHY: What does the back of your mind tell you?

DORA: I don't know. That's the problem.

SOPHY: That's not a real answer.

DORA: That door worries me.

COCO: Oh, can't you both forget the blasted door? There are so many
other things we could be doing.

DORA: There's the library.

BOOPSIE: Oh, a library. How divine to devote a whole room to books.

BRADFORD: Do show us the library, Madame Bluebeard.

SOPHY: Since when are you interested in books?

BRADFORD: Some illustrated texts are quite valuable. I've heard
that Madame Bluebeard's husband is quite the collector.

DORA: Brad's right, you know. Sir calls me the gem of his
collection, his prize.

BOOPSIE: How charming for you.

DORA: I like belonging to someone.

SOPHY: Sounds awful to me.

DORA: It doesn't have to be.

COCO: That's the way it's supposed to be.

DORA: I never thought about it.

SOPHY: And look what it's got you.

BOOPSIE: What happens if you disobey? Does he punish you?

DORA: I don't know what he'd do.

COCO: How can you stand not knowing?

DORA: It will be something horrible.

BOOPSIE: Do you really think it is? How divine!

BRADFORD: You must excuse my sister. She gets bored easily.

BOOPSIE: He's right. I do.

SOPHY: Does it have to be horrible, Dora?

DORA: Something tells me it is.

COCO: Leave then. And never come back. He'd never know.

DORA: He would. There's no place I can go.

SOPHY: It's not hopeless yet.

DORA: I wish Peter were here right now. He'd say, "Dora,
there's nothing you and I can't fight."

SOPHY: Sometimes you need to lance a boil.

DORA: I'll get into trouble. There's no help for it.

SOPHY: Dora, you're in trouble.

COCO: Stop pushing her, Sophy.

DORA: How can I fight this thing if I don't know what it is?

BOOPSIE: This gets better and better.

DORA: Boopsie, please be quiet. You're making my head ache.

BOOPSIE: Well, I wouldn't challenge Monsieur Bluebeard on this.

COCO: What do you want, blood?

BOOPSIE: I want a good story to tell.

DORA: Just get out of the way, all of you.

DORA steels herself to open the door. The lights go down on everyone
but DORA. Everyone watches avidly as she turns the key in the lock.
The door opens slowly. Dora walks hesitantly in. Instantly, the smell
assaults her; she should show this in her reaction. The guests
"see" the bodies of Bluebeard's former wives hanging from hooks
in the room. There is blood pooled on the floor underneath the bodies.
During her time in the "room," DORA pierces the packet of stage
blood she carries over her heart. She stumbles out of the room.

The lights come back full with a sullen reddish cast to them.

The door to the killing room is shut, and a bloody light glows from
around it's edges.

The only overt evidence of what's inside is the shock on the
actor's faces and the newly bloody stain over DORA's heart.

BRADFORD: I knew this would go badly. Curious women are nothing but
trouble.

DORA turns on him and shoves him off stage.

DORA: Go on then, get out!

She rounds on everybody else.

DORA: Has anyone else got anything to say?

They stand aghast, staring at her gown.

COCO: Dora, look at your lovely gown. It's ruined.

SOPHY: Really?

COCO: Gowns can be cleaned.

DORA: I've enough new gowns to wear until this time next year.
It's the key. The key won't come clean. I broke my promise and the
key won't come clean.

BOOPSIE: What's a little slap compared to dozens of gowns? It
happens to everyone.

SOPHY: No, it most certainly does not.

DORA: This is fated.

COCO: There's got to be a way to clean the key.

SOPHY: Coco, there isn't always a solution.

COCO: so you think it's fate? She's doomed?

SOPHY: No!

COCO: Run. Now.

DORA: Coco, he'd find me. He's got tracking hounds that the
prince would die for.

SOPHY: Sometimes you make do with what you've got. We may not get
to happily ever after, little sister, but we'll come as close as we
can.

DORA: I rub and I rub. Nothing's working. There's even more blood
than before.

BOOPSIE: So what's he going to do, kill you?

DORA: Yes, (a bitter pause) he's sworn to. Do you still think he
married the wrong girl?

BOOPSIE: I think I should be going now.

BOOPSIE exits in a rush.

DORA: No sense of adventure, that one.

COCO: Dora, I think you need to concentrate.

DORA: It's like a wound.

She absent-mindedly strikes her palm with the key, cutting it.

DORA: Ow!

SOPHY: Are you hurt?

DORA: What difference does it make? (relenting) No, I'mit's
just a cut.

COCO: So what staunches wounds?

SOPHY: Find me a broom.

DORA: What do you need a broom for?

SOPHY: You never were much of a housekeeper.

DORA: I don't see a need for criticism right now.

COCO: Cobwebs staunch blood.

DORA: Well, I have cobwebs.

DORA exits and returns with a broom.

COCO: What if this doesn't work?

SOPHY: I'm thinking.

DORA finds a likely cobweb, winds it around her broomstick, gathering
some. She gives some to SOPHY and presses the rest to her palm.

DORA: It's not staunching. He'll see it like this. He was so
exciting. I thought he'd take me away to strange, wondrous new
worlds.

SOPHY: Is that room strange enough for you?

DORA: He gave me this gown as a wedding gift. I don't understand
how he could kill all of those women. All those other wives?

COCO: Look, your cut is staunching.

SOPHY holds the key up critically. Even more blood drips from it.

DORA: That doesn't matter. Oh, Coco, your face gives you away.

COCO gets the ash bucket.

COCO: Here, let me see that key.

She scrubs at the bloody key with the ashes.

DORA: Don't. I don't want anyone else hurt by this.

COCO: He can't do anything to me. I'm not his wife. Right now I
heartily wish you'd listened to us.

DORA: He can hurt you. Oh, Lord, what will I do? He'll know.

SOPHY: Stop it. Now, when is Sir due home?

DORA: He never tells me. I'm just supposed to be ready for him.

SOPHY: How does he expect you to know.

DORA: He just does. (to COCO) Did you hear me? I said he can hurt
you.

SOPHY: This is futile.

The SHEPHERD comes to warn DORA

SHEPHERD: He's due anytime now, Missus.

DORA: Thank you, Andrew.

The SHEPHERD nods briefly and exits.

COCO: I heard you. I'm not going to think about it now.

SOPHY: We need to focus now, Dora.

DORA absent-mindedly wipes her hand on her gown.

SOPHY: Don't wipe your hands, you'll just make it worse.

DORA: Women need discipline or we'd run the world riot. We wreak
havoc wherever we go.

COCO: You don't believe that?

DORA: It's his world. Of course I believe it. I have to.

The lights dim, freezing the three women. Sir's voice comes from
offstage. His sweetness and reasonableness hold a threat. Sir's
voice escalates as his speech progresses.

SIR: Dora, where are you, my sweeting? I'd so hoped to see you
waiting for me, my fond, little wife, my unopened box of treasure. I
hope you haven't been up to mischief, my girl. Will I have to punish
you? Dearling, come to me. I can be compassionate. I will only punish
you as just. All I want to do is love you.

SIR enters and sees DORA's state

SIR: The time for reckoning is now.

[end of extract]

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