Note: If you’d like to produce this play, on stage or in a class — please email me and ask permission. It will be granted, but I’d really like to know about it.
Purple
Copyright 2006. Samuel M. PostProduced by Theatre Charlotte’s 9×9@9. The cast was:
HE — Douglas Welton
SHE — Annette Saunders
Directed by Douglas Welton
HE is at a table with several purple onions and a knife. He begins to cut an onion, slicing off the top and bottom. SHE holds a mirror and leans against the table, watching him slice.
SHE: I can’t imagine.
Not looking up, he slices. He listens, but his eyes are on the onion.
HE: What?
SHE: Can’t imagine.
HE: Can’t imagine what?
Louder. Some irritation.
SHE: If I could imagine it, I’d tell you.
HE: What are you talking about?
Softer. Speaking to herself.
SHE: Just thinking.
He slices the onion down the middle. After a moment…
SHE: You can’t imagine.
HE: Jesus! Tell me!
She lifts the mirror and looks at her own reflection.
SHE: My silly mother.
He stops slicing for a moment and watches her look at herself.
She studies herself more closely in the mirror.
He resumes slicing.
SHE: Do you think I’m a little purple?
He looks, shakes his head, cuts the onion.
SHE: My complexion.
HE: No.
SHE: Not really purple. Relative. Compared to summer.
HE: You were pink in the summer.
SHE: And now I’m purple.
HE: You’re not purple.
SHE: A little. My lips turn blue in the cold. My nose is red. Red and blue make purple.
He picks up a whole onion.
HE: This is purple.
SHE: You disagree with everything.
He resumes slicing.
HE: I have to.
SHE: No — you could agree.
HE: I have a mind of my own. I use it.
SHE: You could agree with me sometimes and still use it.
HE: I do. Sometimes. Not when you say you’re purple!
SHE: It’s called support!
HE: Agreeing all the time?
SHE: Going along — with me — some of the time. You don’t get me.
HE: Nobody does!
SHE: People get me.
HE: No they don’t. That’s what makes you special. That’s what I love about you.
SHE: Love is bullshit without support.
HE: I’m supportive.
SHE: Am I purple?
HE: No.
SHE: Then you’re not supportive.
HE: I’m not blind.
SHE: You’re not supportive.
HE: Fuck it. You’re purple.
Pleased, she takes a long look at herself in the mirror.
SHE: But you don’t mean it.
HE: I mean it. You convinced me. Support.
SHE: Something you don’t do.
HE: You want me to go along.
SHE: Only if you want to.
HE: I do.
SHE: It should be your idea.
HE: It is. You are extremely purple.
He starts to cry.
HE: Really.
SHE: I miss her.
HE: I know you do.
SHE: Can I make it through this?
HE: Of course you can.
She studies herself in the mirror.
SHE: What’s happened to me?
HE: It’s normal.
SHE: Not her. Me! Why am I this color?
She begins to cry.
HE: I don’t know.
SHE: It’s not normal.
HE: Of course it is.
She slams the mirror.
SHE: Look at me!
He stops chopping and looks.
HE: You’re the same.
SHE: I’m not!
HE: He slices.
SHE: Stop!
He puts down the knife. She goes to him, picks it up, and begins to chop.
He looks at himself in the mirror.
SHE: These holidays are the pits.
HE: Maybe so. This year.
SHE: Every year.
HE: This year. Get into it. Wallow. Next year will be different.
SHE: How do you know?
HE: It’s…logical.
SHE: Give me the logic.
HE: I’m going by experience.
SHE: Whose?
HE: People.
She chops and cries.
SHE: That’s not logic.
HE: It is.
SHE: It’s not.
HE: People get better. You will too. Logic.
SHE: That’s bullshit.
HE: I’m speaking bullshit?
SHE: Yes.
HE: It’s not bullshit.
SHE: It is.
She chops and cries.
HE: Huh uh, sweetheart. No bullshit.
He goes to her. Puts his arm around her.
HE: No bullshit here.
SHE: That doesn’t help.
HE: I know.
Holds the mirror to her. She looks at herself.
HE: No bullshit.
She cries. He comforts her.
end of play
i love this one(:
really? bad words? im 11 don’t do that…. i am practicing for a play i am doing at school ( that i luckily got into ) and i have to yell at someone, but putting bad words into a conversation doesn’t exactly make the script any better.. please if you do any more don’t put in curse words.. maybe instead of the f word and all that crap you could put crap or dang it or “shoot!” just please no more bad words….
Jaelena,
Please don’t say the bad words. Substitute words that work for you.
Sam
Hi Sam love all the scripts that you have created and I was thinking that you might have a script for an 11 year old girl (me) and her 5 year old brother if you do then please tell me what it’s called if not then I was hoping you could write a really short and brief one ( doesn’t have to be good ) and email it to me at dennise.sandra@yahoo.co.uk ( don’t worry it’s a temporary email) and then I could perform to my school on Friday because we do performances on that day and perhaps put it on you tube
Also I really like your scripts and might perform one with my friends as we all know this website and are familiar with it and created a drama group
Hi Sandra,
Thanks for the kind words about these short plays. Your request that I write a play for you and your five year old brother to perform at school and on YouTube is different from any request I’ve ever had before, and I admit that I am quite moved by it. However, I won’t be able to oblige.
May I suggest you write your own! If you do, please send me the link so I can watch it.
Good luck with the drama group. I’d love to hear more about that.
Thanks,
Sam
Wow, awesome play. Funny…
Thanks, Mariah.
Hi Sam,
Just read your play Purple and although I thought it very funny, dare I say I didn’t understand it 100%…..I have my ideas to what you are getting at but I would love you to explain it in your own words as I would then like to read the play with my teenage Spanish students who are learning English. Of course I have to get my thoughts together about it before I do this.
Would also be interested in seeing some of your other works,
All the best, Sally
Hi Sally,
I just saw this message. I apologize for taking so long. Michael Kamel, a student at George Mason University, made a short film of ‘Purple.’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-BVIVG9ltI
It’s been a while since I wrote that — I’m trying to remember! It’s basically about a woman asking her for a little support. She’s dealing with the first holiday without her mother.
Sam