"AS IF SOME PAIN WAS DEADENED." DURAS

 " AS IF SOME PAIN WAS DEADENED."

"I WOULD FORCE MYSELF TO WANT SOMETHING, HOWEVER HARD IT MIGHT BE." 

 DURAS

"LOVE":   BS

She was quite miserable and nasty with him

And he was willing to tolerate all that in the name of love.

He came across terribly needy

And she seemed un-grateful and unkind towards him though he took care of her single handedly

while she was recovering from all the injuries which she suffered in war zones taking pictures

of others, dead and dying...

The bottom line is that she didn't love him, period.

He needed to understand that and end the relationship

But he didn't...

Because he loved her.

---------------------------------

APATHY:   BS

"I WANT TO BE EXACTLY LIKE EVERYONE ELSE."   DURAS

---------------------------------

"IT'S SO HARD TO FIGHT THE APATHY."    DURAS

-----------------------------------

"TRY TO FIGHT THE APATHY."       BS

Just be more mobile

More social

Go out and be with people or just watch what they do or behave without expectations of

any benefit or any real results.

Go out to events, readings...

Just to be out and about...

Do not expect any kind of favors, help or love

Not even any respect...

You won't find respect...

That's for sure...

The world is too busy for that.

You better respect your self

Every minute, every second, every day of the month, every day of the year.

Just be above your wants and be productive nevertheless.

----------------------------------

MISERABLE:     BS

Many men in NYC looks miserable.

Maybe they are not...

But they look miserable.

Ugly as well...

And so much talk of sex is around...

Who wants to have sex with them?

Maybe that's the reason women have started to make their own choices to be with their own sex.

------------------------

TALKING AND LISTENING:   BS

I don't want to see people any more

Because I like to talk and they don't listen.

They are mostly pre-occupied with themselves and with their phones...

I do theater

In theater, you have to talk and you have to listen...

You can keep looking at the screen of your phone and not listen what another actor is saying

But that scene will last for a very short time

Unless the whole play is about peole just staring at their phones for 90 minutes...

and I  haven't seen that play yet.

I can't stand it when people don't listen while someone, their so called friend is talking to them...

neither in person or in the theater. In the theater you would be considered a terrible actor who is ruining

 the scene for the other professional actor as well and thus ruining the entire play.

Life is very much like theater

Only when people are civilized, respectful and enjoyable.

It's very humiliating to go through that when you meet people who are just not interested in you and

 whatever the hell you are saying.

Why meet them?

Thats the most important question...to be asked

Ask yourself before you go out to socialize...

"Are you going to talk while no one is listening?

No. Not if no one is listening.. as  they are  deaf and dumb persons.

No one is listenuing, why are you talking?

I like to talk

Talking to whom?

Them

Them? they are not listening, stop talking...

Should I just sit there as a deaf and dumb person?

Why be there?

That's the question...

Ask yourself that question before you go out to socialize...

That is a very important question

I am right now asking myself

I am asking and I am asking...

And I have decided finally not to go out, not to socialize, not to humiliate myself...

NOT TO GO THROUGH IT. THATS ALL. THATS ALL I HAVE  JUST DECIDED.

---------------------------------

WORK:    BS

If you had a very strong will power and love of your work,

actually respect for your work,

You could live without people for a very long time...

-----------------------------

PEOPLE:    BS

People are not bad

People are nice

People are open to have intersting conversations

People actually have time

People are very intersting ...

WHERE ARE THEY?

------------------------------

CHILDREN:     BS

Children will talk to any one

And are always ready to listen...

---------------------------

CHILDREN IN THE 3RD WORLD COUNTRIES:    BS

Children in the third world countries are freer

than the first world children.

The first world children have been made afraid

of strangers by their parents.

It's very wonderful to protect your children but every one is not a dangerous stranger

But in the first world if any one looks different than the child, that child is afraid of that person

Because he/she was told to be that way.

It's good

and bad

For certain skills to be developed by the child

When he/she become an adult, has fear of everyone who looks different.

In the third world, children talk to people, everyone looks the same,

They play with other children and respond to other children's parents

Most of the families with children know other families with children...

Hot countries, children play in the streets.

Many people are poor and they can't afford luxries

They come out of their poor homes and have fun with orher children...

In the first world, more luxurious living, creates more fear of the poor looking people

And of the one who looks like a stranger especially immigrants who always look like starngers..

Parents have frightened their children of the, "OTHER" 

Everyone is an, "OTHER", "STARNGER" "ODD LOOKING" "DANGEROUS"

Just like the first world govt's and media of the first world has frightened their people

about,  Muslims and their religion...they have labelled them terrorists.

Their children are frightened of everyone.

When they grow up, they decide that everyone else who looks different is inferior, dangerous and to be

 feared. Like their goverment is always afraid of the, "ENEMY" and is willing to eradicate that enemy

at any cost.  Sad! isn't it?  Rich, previliged and afarid.  Poor have nothing to lose. They lost everything

 at their birth.

---------------------------

SOLITARY;     BS

Are people solitary because they have no one to talk to or are they because they don't want to talk to

 anyone?

thus have become solitary?

But the sad thing is that they have no idea that they are solitary.

---------------------------------------

"INVENT:    DURAS

"I invent people and I talk to them.

Since I have no friends--

I invent enemies.

I talk to the enemies.

I insult them."         Margurite Duras

------------------------------

"CONVERSATIONS:    DURAS

"Some times I have conversations on my own---

Not that I talk to myself--

But I imagine people---

I invent people...

I like conversations."      Duras

______________________

"People are not good at happiness."     Duras

"No, I have nothing to go for."             Duras

______________________

"At 6pm--one longs for something."      BS

"Do not agree to do anything every one asks."     ?

"Do not accept all the worst things which come your way."    ?

_______________________

"If you think of other people, that means you have plenty of time

to do that...and it's not the best kind of time."     ??

____________________

"Must persist in this slavery."    Duras

_______________________

"For me the most important thing in the world is to have no controlling person near me...

I hate subservient people and when you are being controlled, you become subservient

and stay that way.

I have experienced that kind of control all my life.

And now I have removed it from my life at the expense of having no career, no money, no social life,

but at least I am not subservient to any one ."

_____________________

"It's all how you frame what you have."

"See possibilities instead of problems."    ?

_____________________-

"TWO MOST IMPORTANT ELMENTS TO LIVE."

POWER

AND

WEALTH

Sexual harrassment?

What?

Where?

When?

In the office silly...

Then what happens?

What happens?

Where?

When?

After sexual harrassment..what happens?

They get caught

And?

They get fired...

And then?

They go out to eat...

They go out to eat at their favorite, elite, rip off, expensive restaurants...

They have millions of dollars...

And then?

Then when?

After they eat at the rip off restaurants?

They go to the Hamptons...

And then?

They do more sexual harrassments...

Wow...

Yes, 

Wow...

POWER OF WEALTH

AND

FAME

TWO MOST IMPORTANT ELEMENTS TO LIVE.... ??

------------------------------

"People are very rushed and standoffish."   Duras

"You want to talk and be listened to so badly

that it can produce a feeling of an illness."    Duras

____________________

"It's not for nothing...

It's strength

 Your inspiration in the past.

Your tremendous work.

It's you who did all that. You forget...but don't.

You are not a strange new person all of a sudden...

You are the same person who did all that...accomplishments in the past are yours and only yours alone.

You are the same person."      BS

______________

"Nothing wrong with the culture---

It's just not mine."               BS

___________________

"HIs wife was Maria

But he was flirting with Claire

What a surprise!"       Duras

"A crime was committed in our town this afternoon."    Duras.

"I HAVE SUDDENLY BECOME EQUALL TO MY LIFE." DURAS plus, DIALOGUE, A SHORT PLAY BY BS

 "I HAVE SUDDENLY BECOME EQUAL TO MY LIFE."  DURAS and a short play called "Dialogue by BS

 A DIALOUGH, A SHORT PLAY BY BINA SHARIF....Copyright:binasharif 2021

===========================================

A DIALOUGH:   SHORT PLAY

                                 BY

                           BINA SHARIF

copyright:binasharif 2021

-------------------

ZULEKHA:

WHAT SPECIAL MOMENT ARE YOU WAITING FOR TO DO WHAT YOU REALLY WANT?

INJSA:

WAITING TO OPEN THE DOOR

ZULEKHA:

JUST GO AHEAD AND OPEN IT,,,OPEN THE DOOR.

INJSA:

MAYBE TOMORROW...MAYBE TOMORROW?

ZULEKHA:

"HOW CAN YOU BE CHOSEN IF YOU CAN'T MAKE A CHOICE FOR YOURSELF?"  THAT'S

 WHAT MARGUERITE DURAS SAID

INJSA:

I WOULD FORCE MYSELF TO WANT SOMETHING,  HOWEVER HARD IT MIGHT BE"

 THAT'S WHAT MARGUERITE DURAS, SAID AS WELL.

ZULEKHA:

SO ARE YOU GOING TO OPEN THE DOOR?

INJSA:

TOMORROW...MAYBE TOMORROW?

ZULEKHA:

"AS IF SOME PAIN WAS DEADENED."  THAT'S WHAT DURAS SAID.

INJSA;

I NEED TO FIND THAT DEADENED PAIN FIRST BEFORE I OPEN THE DOOR.

PAIN IS THE LOCK,  A VERY HEAVY LOCK ON THE DOOR...

"ZULEKHA:

DO YOU SEE THE DOOR?

INJSA:

YES,  I SEE THE DOOR.  IT'S MY MEMORY.   WHY IS IS IT SO DIFFICULT TO OPEN?

ZULEKHA:

SINCE YOU RECOGNIZED THAT,  IT WOULD BE MUCH EASIER...

INJSA:

I DOUBT IT.  THE PAIN IS TREMENDOUS.  AFTER THE FIRST CRACK, I WILL CLOSE THE

 DOOR SHUT AGAIN...

ZULEKHA:

YOU WILL NEVER HEAL

INJSA:

I DON'T WANT TO.  IF I HEAL,  MY MEMORIES WILL DISAPPEAR.  THEY WILL VANISH.

WHAT WILL I HAVE THEN?

ZULEKHA:

YOU WILL HAVE YOURSELF

INJSA:

WHAT GOOD WILL THAT DO?  I WON'T KNOW WHO I WAS...

ZULEKHA;

YOU NEED TO KNOW WHO YOU ARE INSTEAD OF KNOWING WHO YOU WERE...

INJSA:

I CAN NEVER KNOW WHO I AM WITHOUT KNOWING WHO I WAS?

ZULEKHA;

ONCE YOU WILL UNLOCK THE DOOR,  YOU WILL FIND OUT..

INJSA:

FIND OUT ABOUT WHO I AM?  OR WHO I WAS BEFORE?

ZULEKHA:

YOU WILL FIND OUT EVERYTHING...

MAKE AN EFFORT.

THAT'S ALL YOU HAVE TO DO...

KEEP MOVING TOWARDS THE DOOR...

EVERYTHING ELSE WILL HAPPEN...

INJSA:

I AM SCARED, I AM SO SCARED...

ZULEKHA;

SCARED OF WHAT?

INJSA;

ABOUT FINDING WHAT LIES BEHIND THAT DOOR.

ZULEKHA:

YOU ALREADY KNOW

INJSA:

I DO?

ZULEKHA:

YES.

INJSA:

HOW COME?

ZULEKHA;

THAT'S WHAT YOU ARE AFRAID OF.

INJSA:

AFRAID OF WHAT?

ZULEKHA:

YOU KNOW THE SOURCE OF YOUR FEAR. YOU HAVE ALREADY TOLD ME...

INJSA:

TOLD YOU ABOUT WHAT?

ZULEKHA;

ABOUT YOUR FEAR. YOUR FEAR OF YOUR MEMORIES WHICH ARE LOCKED IN THAT

 ROOM BEHIND THAT HEAVY LOCKED DOOR...

INJSA:

I CAN'T GO THERE...I CAN'T OPEN THAT DOOR,  IT'S TOO HEAVY,  I AM TOO WEAK...

ZULEKHA;

STRENGTH WILL COME TO YOU ONCE YOU START TO MOVE...

INJSA:

AND THEN?

ZULEKHA:

THEN WHAT?

INJSA: 

YES,  EXACTLY. WHAT WILL HAPPEN ONCE I STARTED TO MOVE TOWARDS THE DOOR?

ZULEKHA:

YOUR WHOLE LIFE...YOUR WHOLE LIFE WILL OPEN UP LIKE AN OPEN BOOK...

INJSA:

I DON'T WANT TO EVER OPEN THAT BOOK.

ZULEKHA:

THE BOOK IS ALREADY OPENED. OPENED BY YOUR LIFE'S LONG PAIN WAITING TO BE

 DEALT WITH...

INJSA;

IN-CASE I DON'T WANT TO DEAL WITH IT?

ZULEKHA:

THAT'S THE QUESTION AND YOU HAVE ALREADY ANSWERED IT...

INJSA:

I HAVE NO ANSWERS. THAT'S WHY I SEEKED YOUR HELP.

ZULEKHA;

I CAN'T HELP YOU.  IF IT WAS THAT EASY, I WOULD HAVE OPENED THE DOOR MYSELF

 LONG TIME AGO. EVERYTHING BEHIND THAT LOCKED DOOR BELONGS TO ME AS

 WELL BUT I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR YOU TO UN-LOCK IT...I SEEM STRONG, I SEEM

 MORE POSITIVE,  MORE HEALTHY BUT THAT'S JUST A FAKE COVER...I AM EXACTLY

 LIKE YOU...SEEKING, DESIRING, WANT TO BE PAIN FREE OF MY MEMORIES WHICH ARE

 YOURS AS WELL...I AM YOUR LONG, LOST SISTER...IT WAS ACTUALLY ME WHO LOCKED

 OUR MEMORIES BEHIND THAT LOCK AND WAS WAITING FOR YOU TO COME ALONG

 AND HELP ME FIND OUT WHAT'S BEHIND MY PAIN. 

INJSA:

OUR PAIN. THAT'S WHAT IS HIDDEN.

OUR COLLECTIVE PAIN IS HIDDEN BEHIND OUR LOCKED DOORS,  DOORS WHICH WILL

 OPEN TO OUR UN-HEALED WOUNDS AND THE WOUNDS WILL BLEED AGAIN AND

 AGAIN AND AGAIN...

ZULEKHA:

PERHAPS I WAS WRONG TO TELL YOU TO OPEN THAT DOOR...

MAYBE NEITHER YOU, NOR I,  SHOULD TRY...

LET'S LEAVE THE PAIN ALONE, THE WOUNDS ALONE, THE SIMMERING SORROW

 ALONE...

LET'S LIE DOWN TO FINALLY REST. I AM SO EXHAUSTED...SO EXHUSTED THAT I CAN

 FINALLY DIE...

INJSA:

CAN I LIE DOWN NEXT TO YOU?  CAN I? 

 I FOUND YOU AFTER SUCH A LONG TIME...

A LONG, LONG TIME...

LET'S LIE DOWNTOGETHER, 

LET'S SLEEP...

 SLEEP TOGETHER IN THE SAME BED...

LIKE WE USED TO DO WHEN WE WERE CHILDREN.

IT'S BEEN A LONG JOURNEY...

A VERY LONG JOURNEY...

LET'S REST..

LET'S REST FINALLY

SLEEP...

LET'S SLEEP....

(They lie down, hug each other tightly, a song they used to listen to when they were children come on, lights slowly fade to black)

BLACKOUT

END OF PLAY

"WHAT HAPPENED?"

 "WHAT HAPPENED?"

"SO, WHAT HAPPENED?

I HAVE NO IDEA

NOT THE SLIGHTEST IDEA,  I TELL YOU...

BUT I DON'T LIKE IT

SOMETHING HAS CHANGED AND I DON'T LIKE THE CHANGE...

I AM NOW DELIBERATLEY AND HAPPILY ISOLATING MYSELF FROM EVERYONE. BS

"THINGS WHICH GIVES PLEASURE WHILE DOING THEM IS THE SMALL CHANGE." 

 DURAS

"I WANT TO BELONG TO MYSELF-TO OWN SOMETHING." DURAS

"ONCE YOU STOP LOOKING, THERE YOU ARE EXACTLY WHERE YOU WERE

 BEFORE."  DURAS

"WHO IS EVERYONE?"

A ONE ACT PAY

BY BINA SHARIF

Copyright:binasharif 2021

L:  WHO IS EVERYONE?

M:  I DON'T KNOW

L:  WAS EVERYONE THERE FOR YOU BEFORE? 

M: NO, NOT AT ALL.

L: SO,?

M:  BUT I WAS THERE FOR EVERY ONE...BUT NOW I AM NOT.

L:  PERHAPS IT'S GOOD FOR YOU-

M:  IT'S A BIT SCARY...

L:  WAS  IT A BIT SCARY BEFORE?

M:  BEFORE I WAS AVAILABLE  FOR EVERYONE AND NOW I AM NOT, THAT'S SCARY.

L:  STRANGE...

M:  YES, STRANGE. ISN'T IT?

L:  YOU SHOULD BE THRILLED THAT YOU ARE NOT AVAILABLE FOR EVERYONE NOW.

M:  I AM NOT AVAILABLE FOR ANY ONE BECAUSE THERE IS HARDLY ANY ONE AROUND.

L: I HAD NO IDEA THAT YOUR LIFE HAD BEEN SO PATHETIC...

M:  YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT.  IT IS PATHETIC. THE WHOLE WORLD WAS ALWAYS

MORE IMPORTANT TO ME THAN MYSELF. THEY BEHAVED THAT THEY WERE

  MORE IMPORTANT THAN ME AND I BOUGHT IT...

L:  SO SAD...

M: SO VERY SAD, INDEED.

L:  SO, WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO NOW?

M:  THAT'S A GREAT QUESTION

L:  ARE YOU GOING TO LOVE YOURSELF FROM NOW ON?

M:  I HAVE NO IDEA. NOT USED TO IT.  BUT I HAVE TO THINK ABOUT IT,

L:  YOU HAVE BEEN THINKING ABOUT IT YOUR WHOLE LIFE.  NOW DO IT.

M:  BEGIN TO LOVE MYSELF?

L:  YES...

M:  HOW?

L:  THINK OF YOUR SELF AS THE MOST IMPORTANT PERSON ...

M: THAT WOULD BE CHEATING. THAT WOULD BE A LIE...

L:  HOW COME?

M: YOU KNOW AND I KNOW THAT I AM NOT THE MOST IMPORTANT PERSON ON THIS

 EARTH. THERE ARE HUNDEREDS, IF NOT THOUSANDS...

L:  YOU ARE ALREADY THINKING OF OTHERS AGAIN

M:  NO, I AM NOT...

L:  YES, YOU ARE.  OTHERS ARE ALL COMING BACK...

M:  MAYBE THEY WERE ALL THERE. MAYBE THEY NEVER GONE AWAY...

L:  WHO ARE THOSE OTHERS?

M:  I DON'T KNOW.  BUT THEY ARE ALWAYS LURKING AROUND

L:  START THINKING OF YOURSELF AS IF YOU ARE THE LAST PERSON ALIVE

      AND TRY TO FIGURE OUT HOW BEST TO SURVIVE...

M: BUT I WOULD START THINKING OF ALL THE ONES WHO PERISHED.

L: THINK OF YOURSELF, YOU ARE PERISHING RIGHT IN-FRONT OF ME

M: YOU CAN STILL SEE ME...PERISHING, I MEAN?

L: YES, VERY CLEARLY...IF YOU DON'T STOP, YOU WON'T BE NO MORE.

M: MAYBE THATS WHAT I WANT...

L: YOU ARE YOUR WORST ENEMY.  WHAT HAPPENED IN YOUR PAST?

M:  DON'T GO THERE...PLEASE DON'T GO THERE...

L: DID SOME ONE HURT YOU VERY BADLY?

M:  (NO ANSWER, SILENCE, SILENCE, SILENCE)

(No one talk, they both sit there silently)

(Lights begin to fade..)

BLACK OUT

END OF PLAY

RETIRED ARTIST WHO HAS RECENTLY MOVED TO NYC TO ENJOY WHAT TE CITY OFFERS

 RETIRED ARTIST WHO HAS RECENTLY MOVED TO NYC TO ENJOY WHAT THE CITY

 OFFERS.

---------------

MUSEUMS: $32 fee...

GALLERIES:  closed, moved to Chelsea )

SO GO TO CHELSEA:  (Too far, need to take a bus and then walk )

PARKS, (Too cold right now)

THEATER, (Too expensive)

RESTAURANTS, (Fattening and expensive)

BOOK READINGS, (Which book?)

POETRY READINGS, (Where????)

BEACHES, (Too cold to swim)

BEACHES IN THE SUMMER, (Can't swim)

GO TO THE HAMPTONS, (Where am i going to sleep?)

RENT A PLACE IN THE HAMPTONS), With what money?)

GO OUT WITH FRIENDS FOR HAPPY HOUR, (Friends???)

GO FOR LONG WALKS, (Freezing outside)

MOVIES, ($ 20 )

WATCH PRIME VIDEO, ( No tv )

STATEN ISLAND FERRY, (Too cold)

GET A PART TIME JOB, (No work visa)

GO UPSTATE NY, (Where? which city?)

HUDSON, )
(Where to stay? I might sit next to Hudson river and freeze to death.)

AIRB&B, (Some one will rape me even if I could afford it)

FERRY TO STATEN ISLAND,  (In this freezing weather and on top of that what am I going to do in Staten Island? I am from Manhattan and you suggested this before. I can't stand Staten Island. I didn't leave my country just to go to Staten Island )

READ BOOKS AT HOME,  (Books? which book? i hate contemporary novels. I like philosophy and poetry, and I have read almost all the books there are to read )  I like dead wrritters, they are my best friends. I know about Victor Hugo, Balzac, Flauberet, Camus, Sartre, Valery, Malarme, Rimbaud, Baudelaire )

READ BOOKS ABOUT GREEK MYTHOLOGY, ( I. did. I read Odysse, I read Illiad, I read Greek tragidies )

YOU ARE IMPOSSIBLE, ( That's what they said about me in my country and that's why I left, came here to enjoy what NY offers)

THEN ENJOY IT, ( Enjoy what? )

NY, (How? )

GO FOR LONG WALKS IN CENTRAL PARK.  (It's snowing outside and you are sending me for a waklk? You want me to break my leg? I already have arthritis in my foot, in my knee, in my ankle, in my shoulder...)

READ A BOOK WHICH OBAMA WROTE, ( I don't like politicians)

READ A BOOK WHICH TRUMP WROTE,  HE IS NOT A POLITICIAN,  (He wrote no book, something called, "Make a deal" was written by a ghost writer. There are ghost writers now in the modern world. Every one ends up writing a book. 'Oh! my book is coming out tomorrow." They say.

They were just typists and now they are all writers. Thats why I read literature from the 17, 18, 19th Century. There were no ghost writers  then. The real writers sat next to the fire with a candle, an inkpot and a feather and they themselves wrote every word out of 1000 pages...now every story has a ghost behind it.

SIT AND DO NTHING, (That's not why I came to NY after my retirement)

SIT ON A PARK BENCH AND THINK, ( Prone to allergies, bugs bite me, i already have a swollen eye because of that.  The American eye doctor don't know what it is...I ask him, "Is it allergy? He says, "MAYBE?" I ask him, "Is it inflamation?" He says, "Maybe?"  I ask him, "Is it infected?" 'MAYBE?" He says... I can't sit in the park and take a chance for another maybe?  Nothing is diagnosed...How can anyone treat anything if they don't know the diagnosis. All guess work to make money from the insurance companies. The longer the doctors call everything , "A MAYBE?" THE PATIENT WILL KEEP COMING BACK AND MORE MONEY IN THEIR POCKETS WILL ALSO ACCUMULATE.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN HERE TO ENJOY WHAT NY OFFERS? (For a while )

ARE YOU ENJOYING YET?  (Enjoying? are you kidding me? Can't figure out which enjoyment NY offers will suit me and my temperament and my budget.)

HAVE YOU THOUGHT OF GOING BACK?  (Back where?")

BACK TO YOUR COUNTRY. (What?" )

SINCE YOU HAVEN'T BEEN ABLE TO ENJOY ANYTHING WHICH NYC OFFERS WHY DON'T YOU JUST GO BACK?  (I will enjoy eventually. that's my purpose. That was my purpose to come here.

Everyone told me that NYC offers a lot. There is no city like NY city. One can enjoy without haveing money, without having heat in the apt, without having running water, with arthritis, with allergies, with

no food, no friends, actually without having anything. The only city one can enjoy in the world without having lots of things, is NYC and you are telling me to go back...I have patience, I can wait, I have a goal and I have patience, these are two perfect abilities to achieve...I don't give up...I came from far, far away to this fun city and I am determined to have fun ...

WHEN?  (Whenever...whenever the winter will go away, the snow will go away, the arthritis will go away, whenever the eye doctor will diagnose and treate my EYE, whenever the bugs will stop biting me in the park, whenever the theater will be cheaper, whenever I will be able to eat out in Manhattan gourmet resturants, whenever the movie price will go down, whenever I will have some American friends who will teach me swimming and we will take a ferry to FAR ROCKAWAY BEACH...

OH, BY THE WAY, I FORGOT...YOU CAN ALWAYS TAKE THE FERRY TO FAR ROCKEWAY BEACH, IT'S ONLY $2-75 CENTS. ( I have sea sickness...motion sickness...when the ferry moves, I throw up)

GO TO JACKSON HEIGHTS THEN. (What for? to eat more samosa's and nan and get fat...look at me...moreover it's not Manhattan...It's not NYC. And I only took the long journey here to enjoy what NYC offers.

GO TO AVE C AND DANCE IN A NIGHT CLUB...NO COVER CHARGE FOR RETIRED PEOPLE.

(OH! I TRIED THAT. I DID. I LOVE TO DANCE AND I AM A GREAT DANCER. WHEN I WENT ON THE DANCE FLOOR, IN A FEW SECONDS EVERY OTHER DANCER LEFT...I DANCED ALONE...THAT WAS NICE. KIND OF A MOMENT OF SOLITUDE AFTER SUCH A LONG JOURNEY TO NYC...SUCH A LONG, LONG, LONG JOURNEY TO NYC TO HAVE FUN.

"WAITING FOR THE RAIN TO STOP." A ONE ACT PLAY

 "WAITING FOR THE RAIN TO STOP."

A ONE ACT PLAY

BY

BINA SHARIF

copyright:binasharif:2021

CHARACTER: SAM AND ANNA

 SAM:  Rain isn't going to stop any time soon...

ANNA:  I am not in a hurry...

 SAM:  Are you going to stay here all night?

  ANNA:  No, not all night, till the rain stop...

SAM

  Rain is not going to stop any time soon...

ANNA:   How do you know?

SAM:  The weather report, I checked the weather report...

 ANNA:    I don't trust the weather report

SAM:      But now it's raining

Yes,  now it's raining,

So the weather report was correct

ANNA: Maybe once in a while they tell the truth

SAM:    The  truth?

 ANNA:  Yes, once in a while they can be accurate

 SAM:  They were accurate this time...

ANNA: I guess so...

SAM:  So what are you going to do?

ANNA:  Stay here till thhe rain stop...

SAM:  Didn't you hear me?

ANNA: When?

SAM:  Earlier

ANNA:  Earlier when?

SAM:  When I told you that the rain is not going to stop any time soon...

ANNA: I heard you

SAM:  So, what are you going to do?

ANNA:  Do what?

SAM:  How are you going to get home?

ANNA:  Home?

SAM:  Yes, home...why don't you ever carry an umberrela?

ANNA:  I don't need an umberella...

SAM:  You don't? 

ANNA:  No, I don't...

SAM:  There is thunder storm raging outside...

ANNA:  I hear it

SAM:  Arn't you worried about it?

ANNA:  About what?

SAM:  The thunderstorm...

ANNA:  I have other worries

SAM:  What other worries?

ANNA:  Mever mind...

SAM:  Never mind...never mind...that's all you can say?

ANNA:  Yes, thats all I can say...

SAM:  Amazing

ANNA:  Lack of vocabulary...

SAM:  That's not it...

ANNA:  What is it than?

SAM:  You don't care about other people's concern for you

ANNA:  What concern?

SAM:  I am concerned about you getting home in this rain without an umberella...

ANNA:  I don't need an umberella

SAM:  How come?

ANNA:  Just don't need it...

SAM:  How the hell are you going to get home?

ANNA:  Don't need to go home.

SAM:  Where are you going?

ANNA:  Never mind...

SAM:  Where ever you are thinking of going, you would need an umberella

ANNA:  I don't need an umberella...

SAM:  Yes, you do...

ANNA:  I don't. I don't need to go anywhere...

SAM:  But you can't stay here for ever

ANNA:  Who told you?

SAM:  I mean, how can ou stay here for ever?

ANNA:  Why not?

SAM:  How can you stay some place which is not yours

ANNA:  Who told you it's not mine?

SAM:  Of course, it's not yours. 

ANNA:  How do you know?

SAM:  Every one knows

ANNA:  Everyone knows what?

SAM:  That you will have to leave this place at some point

ANNA:  And why?

SAM:  Because it's not your home

ANNA:  How do you know it's not my home?

SAM:  Because it's not...

ANNA:  How do you know?

SAM:  I know. I am not carzy like you

ANNA:  Oh! so, I am crazy now...

SAM:  You are talking like one...

ANNA:  Not me, you are talking like one...

SAM:  Me?

ANNA:  Yes, you

SAM:  How come?

ANNA:  How come? He asks me...

SAM:  Yes, you are crazy and you are calling me carzy instead.

ANNA:  How do you know that I am crazy?

SAM:  Because you are at my place and you will have to leave it at some point and you can't because

 there,

 is a thunder strom outside and you don't have an umberella...

ANNA:  I don't need an umberella, like I told you earlier...

SAM:  How are you going to get home then?

ANNA:  That's the question I have to ask you

SAM:  What question?

ANNA:  How are you going to get home in this thunder storm? Do you have an umberella?

SAM:  Of course I do. I check the weather report...and they said it's going to rain a lot this evening.

ANNA:  So, when are you going to go home?

SAM:  What do you mean?

ANNA:  When are you going to go home? 

What are you waiting for? 

You have an umberalla.  What are you

 waiting for?

SAM:  I am waiting for you to figure out how would you get home in this rain? 

ANNA;  I am concerened about you.

  I can't leave unless I figure it out that you would be safe.

SAM:  I am perfectly safe. I don't need an umberalla. I am not going home. I AM  AT HOME.

THIS IS NOT A PUBLIC PLACE. THIS IS MY HOME. YOU CAME TO

 VISIT ME. YOU SAID THAT YOU WILL BE STAYING A SHORT WHILE AND YOU ARE 

 ALREADY HERE FOR HOURS. I DON'T WANT TO BE RUDE BUT I NEED TO REST.

  I KNOW IT'S RAINIG HARD OUTSIDE BUT YOU DO N'T HAVE AN UMBERELLA,

 SO COULD YOU PLEASE LEAVE ANYWAY.  GO HOME AND BE SAFE. I HAVE AN AWFUL

 HEADACHE.

I NEED TO LIE DOWN AND I CAN'T DO THAT BECAUSE I HAVE A GUEST.

 I CAN JUST GET UP,  GO TO MY BED ROOM AND LIE DOWN BECAUSE IT'S MY

 OWN HOME, MY OWN BEDROOM, BUT I AM A VERY POLITE HOST,  I CAN'T DO THAT IF

 YOU ARE STILL SITTING HERE. 

ANNA:   BUT YOU DON'T SEEM TO UNDERSTAND THAT IT'S YOU

 WHO CAME TO VISIT AND IT'S YOU WHO HAS TO

 LEAVE AT SOME POINT,   YOU DON'T SEEM WELL. ARE YOU ALRIGHT?

(Silence for a while)

SAM:  I NEED TO REMIND YOU AGAIN THAT IT WAS YOU WHO CAME TO VISIT ME.  AND

 THE

 REASON WAS TO HAVE SOME COFFEE,  DO SOME SMALL TALK AND THEN LEAVE...

(Silence for a while)

 .AND NOW,  YOU ARE RELUCTENT TO GO HOME... (Silent)

( he yells)   COULD YOU PLEASE LEAVE,  LEAVE EVEN WITHOUT YOUR

 UMBERELLA AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. (silent)

 ...CAN'T BELIEVE I AM GOING 

THROUGH THIS IN MY OWN HOME.   (Silent) (Then shouts)

I DON'T GIVE A SHIT ANY MORE,  IF YOU GET SOAKING WET AND EVEN

 DROWN.  YOU HAVE

 GIVEN ME A TERRIBLE HEADACHE...I NEED TO REST.  I NEED TO SLEEP.   CAN YOU

 IMAGINE THAT,  I AM

 IN MY OWN HOUSE AND SUFFERING THIS DISASTEROUS VISIT BY A 

 MENTAL PATIENT?

  I THOUGHT SHE WAS A FRIEND BUT SHE IS AN OCCUPIER...JESUS CHRIST...

WE ARE NOT IN A PUBLIC PLACE, WE ARE NOT IN A CAFE. YOU ARE AT MY HOME AND

 YOU HAVE TO GET GOING,  BECAUSE I AM GETTING SICK...I NEED TO LIE DOWN...

 ANNA:  OH! I SEE, I THOUGHT I WAS IN A CAFE. I REALLY THOUGHT THAT YOU INVITED

 ME TO A CAFE, BECAUSE YOU ARE NOT A HOME PERSON, YOU ARE A CAFE PERSON, 

AND I LOVED THE COFFEE. I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW THAT YOU CAN MAKE SUCH A GOOD

 COFFEE. I MEAN, IF YOU CAN MAKE SUCH A FANTASTIC COFFEE, HOT AND FROTHY

 AND DELICIOUS, WHY WOULD YOU GO TO A LOUSY CAFE?  WHY SPEND 7-10 DOLLARS

 ON A LUKE WARM, SHITTY COFFEE?  SINCE YOU TOLD ME WE ARE AT YOUR OWN

 HOME, I JUST REALIZED HOW MUCH IT LOOKS LIKE THE CAFE YOU INVITED ME TO...

I LIKE THIS CAFE LIKE ATMOSPHERE...VERY RELAXING...MUCH MORE RELAXING THAN

THE  REAL CAFE...

TO TELL YOU THE TRUTH,  I AM...

LD?AFRAID TO GO OUT IN THIS

 DANGEROUS THUNDERSTORM... I NEED TO LIE DOWN MYSELF.

 SO EXHAUSTED FROM THE WEATHER AND THESE KINDS OF SILLY CONFUSIONS.

WHY IS EVERY BODY SO CONFUSED?  WHAT'S GOING ON WITH THE WORLD? OH! MAN I

 AM SO, SO EXHAUSTED BY PEOPLE WHO CAN NOT THINK CLEARLY.

(Silent for a while)

  WHERE IS YOUR BEDROOM? 

NEED TO LIE DOWN....DOES THAT DOOR, (She points towards stage left) LEAD TOWARDS

 YOUR BED ROOM?

  I AM GOING TO WAIT TILL THE RAIN STOPS.  I AM SURE YOUR

 BED ROOM IS EXTREMELY COMFY.  I WILL LEAVE WHEN THE RAIN STOP.  I PROMISE.

 TOMORROW, 

 DAY AFTER TOMORROW,  NEXT WEEK,  NEXT MONTH,  NEXT YEAR,  AS LONG AS 

YOUR BED IS COMFORTABEL AND KNOWING YOUR STYLE  TO BE PERFECT I CAN SLEEP

 IN THAT BED OF YOURS TILL ETERNITY...THESE KINDS OF THUNDERSTORMS GO ON

 FOR A WHILE.

  SO GOOD NIGHT.

(Ann gets up and starts to walk towards the room next to the living room. Sam, is in a state of shock)

(lights slowly fade, sound of door opening and closing...thunderstrom gets louder...lights fade to..

                                                                          BLACK OUT

                                                                        END OF PLAY

"DAYS AND NIGHTS OF KARIMA ULLAH" : (A PERFORMANCE NOVEL)

 "DAYS AND NIGHTS OF KARIMA ULLAH" : (A PERFORMANCE NOVEL)

MANHATTAN DAYS OF KARIMA ULLAH: (A PERFORMANCE NOVEL)

 MANHATTAN DAYS OF KARIMA ULLAH: (A PERFORMANCE NOVEL)

"IT'S A TIREDNESS WHICH COMES FROM VERY FAR." DURAS

 "IT'S A TIREDNESS WHICH COMES FROM VERY FAR."  DURAS.

"I WAS THE ONE WHO LOVED."

 "I WAS THE ONE WHO LOVED."

"MY GREAT COLLECTION OF BOOKS NEED A DIALOGUE."

"MY GREAT COLLECTION OF BOOKS NEED A DIALOGUE." 

"YOU HAVE SO MANY ONE WOMAN SHOWS TO DO."

 "YOU HAVE SO MANY ONE WOMAN SHOWS TO DO."

"WHY WOULD I COME TO YOU? GIVE ME ONE GOOD REASON..."

 "WHY WOULD I COME TO YOU?  GIVE ME ONE GOOD REASON."

"THINGS WHICH MOVE BACK AND FORTH IN TIME."

 "THINGS WHICH MOVE BACK AND FORTH IN TIME."

"THINGS WITHIN THINGS"

 "THINGS WITHIN THINGS."

I, KARIMA ULLLAH! " DISTANT PARTS OF MYSELF"

 I, KARIMAULLAHA! "DISTANT PARTS OF MYSELF."

LITERARY SALON AT 4W

 LITERARY SALON AT 4W

MONDAY, AUGUST 2ND AT 11 AM

BEGIN A PROJECT FOR THE SALON.

MAYBE THE HAND WRITTEN NOTE BOOKS TO BE PUT ON THE BLOG.

BE DILIGENT NOW ABOUT THIS.-

---------------------------------

"NO MATTER WHAT! IT GOES IN"

 "NO MATTER WHAT IT GOES IN"

"With memories sleeping in that thick head of hair."    Baudelaire

'Languorous Asia--a whole far away world--absent".   Baudelaire

"le Gout du-n`eant".  (Taste for nothingness).               Baudelaire

"Avalanche will you sweep me along in your fall?"      Baudelaire

"Fate has aleady banished me.                                        Baudelaire

"Fathomless gloom"                                                        Baudelaire

"Sunlight on the sea".                                                      CB

"Morbid or petulant, you are all pleasure".                     CB

"Conquered human race"                                                 CB

"But why is she weeping? She, the perfect beauty.          CB

"La Chevelure"  (Hair)                                                      CB

'Blasphemy of art"                                                             CB

"With memories sleeping in that thick head of hair".        CB

"Endless lulling of sweet scented leisure".                         CB

"Oil of coconut, musk and tar"                                               CB

"Scatter sappires, rubies, pearls".                                         CB

"So sad amongst my poems"                                                 BS

"Just dream--dream about where you want to be-"               BS

'PROJECTS" LIKE ALL SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE SAY

 PROJECTS

IST ONE:

The posts from the facebook,  put them together and make a one woman show.

 The potential title for now: " DIARY OF A THOUGHT" (SELECTION FROM FACEBOOK POSTS)

SECOND ONE;

ANOTHER JOURNEY:  ALONG THE TRACKS

  Explore the places on subway trains, write about whatever intersts you.

                                          Come home, type it, put it together and make another one woman show.

TAKE BOTH SHOWS ON THE ROAD.

And let everyone else go to the devil.

NO WORRIES OR EVEN THINKING OF THE RIFF-RAFF OF THE WORLD

AND WHO IS WHO AND WHO IS GETTING AHEAD....

THATS IT...NEW PROJECTS.

3RD PROJECT:

To completely eliminate all people, and I say, all people from your mind, from your psyche. They can go to the moon, let devil worry about it but not you.  "GETTING AHEAD, (your favorite sentence) and you shouldn't give a shit of a thought. Why do you waste everything you have on that kind of nonsense?  Are you mad?

No more, never more. Like Poe would say. 

Any time,  these kind of wasteful thoughts come to you, SHUN THEM OFF WITH VIGOR, THEY

 ARE DESTROYING ALL YOUR TALENT.  DO YOU WANT THAT?

YOU HAVE TO TRY VERY HARD TO ACHIEVE THIS RESULT.  FORGET ABOUT THE OTHERS.

DO THEY THINK ABOUT YOU SO SERIOUSLY? OR DO THEY THINK ABOUT YOU AT ALL?

SO SAD, THE SITUATION HAS BECOME. YES, YOUR SITUATION.

IF YOU DON'T PUT A STOP TO IT NOW,  IT WILL BE TOO LATE. IT ALREADY IS.  STOP IT.....

THINGS NOT TO BE DONE: "BEGIN AGAIN" "YOU SAY BISMILLAH AND END THE ROT." FOR YOU KARIMA ULLAH

THINGS NOT TO BE DONE:  "BEGIN AGAIN."

Not too much expression of any kind of thoughts with people

Express those thoughts in writing

No interest in politics

No mention of you know what?

No irritation at, you know what?

Do things alone

Don't need any one

Enjoy your company

Enjoy your passion by yourself

Do the things you really feel like doing

things such as, reading, writing, drawing, walking, cafe's, laughter,

solitude, movies, good food, water, rivers, occean, flowers, trees, leaves, birds.

Be a mystery, not an open book

Love yourself

Respect yourself

Admire yourself

Admire your work

Admire yourself for doing so much work single handedly

Do paintings, watercolors, charcoal drawings,  go to the beach more...sit near the rivers, think,

Imagine, love your imagination, love your spirit, give.  Give to the one who desreves it.

Don't throw your pearls in-front of the swine.  BE ALONE, IT'S SO IMPORTANT FOR YOU.

Get rid of lots of riff-raff. Do one woman shows...Only one woman plays...save yourself the heartache..

Be independent, be more independent, create independently...FORGET ABOUT RECOGNITION.

You are waiting to be recognised by whom?  Think about it...F**k them. They will have their day.

Some one is watching...

Be tender to yourself

Be kind to yourself

Be generous to your self

GIVE YOURSELF WHAT YOU DESERVE

DON'T GIVE YOURSELF WHAT YOU DON'T DESREVE...

BE NOT DEPRESSED

DO NT REGRET

PAST IS PAST

CREATE SOMETHING ABOUT IT

EXPRESS YOUR SELF IN YOUR GRIEF, IN YOUR SORROW, IN YOUR SADNESS,

DO NOT DISCUSS IT WITH ANY ONE...

THEY ARE JUST THERE TO FILL THE ROOM...

FILL YOUR HEART, YOUR MIND, YOUR SPIRIT WITH YOUR OWN CREATION, WITH YOUR

 OWN BEAUTY , WITH YOUR OWN STRENGTH, WITH YOUR OWN ABILITY, WITH YOUR

 OWN WIT.

 

 WITH YOUR HUMOR, WITH YOUR KNOWLEDGE, WITH YOUR EDUCATION, WITH YOUR

 GRACE, WITH YOUR CLASS, WITH YOUR STYLE, WITH YOUR CONCENTRATION, WITH

  YOUR SARCASAM, WITH YOUR METAPHORES, WITH YOUR

 SINGING BIRDS...

SEE HOW MANY COMPANIONS YOU DO HAVE?

AND YOU THOUGHT YOU HAD NO ONE TO DEPEND ON...

NO ONE,  AND I TELL YOU ONCE AND FOR ALL NO ONE,  IS GOING TO DO ANYTHING

FOR YOU,  NO ONE IS GOING TO ACKNOWLEDGE YOU,  AND YOUR CREATIVE SPIRIT...

WHY SHOULD THEY? THEY ARE MISERABLE BY THEMSELVES...THEY ARE NOTHING TO

 YOU, THE LEAST VALUABLE THINGS IN YOUR SURROUNDINGS,  THEY BELONG IN THE

 GARBAGE, THROW THOSE FEELINGS OF ABANDONEMNET. OH! YOU WERE ABANDONED

 BY THEM?...BY THEM? MY, MY, MY

 GOODNESS...HOW SAD IS YOUR STATE OF AFFAIRS.  THE THINGS WHICH BELONG TO

 THE...

 GARBAGE, YOU WANT RECOGNITION FROM THEM?  FROM GARBAGE?  YES, GARBAGE...

VISULIZE THAT AND FEEL UPSET, THROW UP, YOU HAVE BEEN WASTING YOUR LIFE TO

BE RECOGNIZED BY GARBAGE?  I FEEL SAD FOR YOU...I FEEL SORRY FOR YOU...YOU

 HAVE DIAMONDS IN YOUR HAND AND YOU ARE SEEKING REWARDS FROM THE

 GARBAGE...YOU HAVE PEARLS IN YOUR HANDS, RUBIES IN YOUR HAND AND YOUR

 DESIRE IS OF GARBAGE...ARE YOU OK?

HAVE YOU GONE MENTAL? IS SOMEHING SERIOUSLY WRONG WITH YOUR HEAD?  HAVE

 YOU LOST YOUR MIND COMPLETELY?

THERE IS STILL TIME...IMAGINE THAT...STILL GOD HAS GIVEN YOU TIME ALONG WITH

 ALL THE OTHER GIFTS, HEALTH, THE MOST PRECIOUS...DON'T LOSE THAT, NO MATTER

 WHAT YOU DO OR DON'T DO...TAKE YOUR HEALTH AS THE MOST SERIOUS PROJECT...

THROW THE GARBAGE OUT TODAY FOR EVER...

IT'S BEEN THERE FOR DECADES...

YES, DECADES...

IT'S NOW SMELLING ROTTEN

SO ROTTEN THAT IT HAS BECOME TOXIC...

YOU SIMPLY CAN'T GO NEAR IT...

WEAR A SET OF HEAVEY CONSTRUCTION GLOVES AND THROW THE SHIT OUT...

HOW LONG ARE YOU GOING TO KEEP THE STINKING, ROTTEN, DANGEROUS GARBAGE

 AROUND YOU?"

IN YOUR BRAIN?  HOW LONG?

ANOTHER CENTURY?

YOU DON'T HAVE TIME GIRL, YOU DON'T HAVE TIME.

YOU HAVE WASTED DECADES...DECADES...ALREADY.

TODAY IT ENDS.

YES, SAY BISMILLAH AND END THE ROT...

THROW IT OUT...NEVER TO BE THOUGHT ABOUT AGAIN.

IT'S RUBBISH DARLING, RUBBISH...'YOU JUST DIDN'T KNOW IT..

I AM NOT BLAMING YOU...

YOU WERE IGNORANT OF WHAT IT CONTAINED.

BUT NOW YOU HAVE THE CLARIFICATIIN...

NOW YOU MUST DEAL WITH IT..

END IT...

EVERYTHING ENDS...

END OF PLAY

END OF LIFE

END OF GARBAGE...

OUT OF YOUR HEAD

INTO THE BIN

THROWN OUT...

THROWN OUT...

THROWN OUT....

FINALLY...

GO FOR A NICE, HOT CUP OF LATTE...

CELEBRATE...

CELEBRATE YOUR LIFE

CELEBRATE YOUR TALENT

CELEBRATE YOUR IMAGINATION

CELEBRATE YOUR FEELINGS

CELEBRATE YOUR THOUGHTS

CELEBRATE ALL KINDS OF THOUGHTS, YOUR THOUGHTS.

THEY ARE ALL YOURS

KEEP THEM FOR YOUR SELF...

NO, NO SHARING OF YOUR THOUGHTS WITH ANY ONE...

BECOME A DEAF AND DUMB PERSON FROM NOW ON...

FROM THIS INSTANT ON...

YOU, AND YOUR CREATIVITY OF ALL KINDS MUST ACCOMPANY YOU AT ALL TIMES

AND IF YOU HAVE TO HAVE SOME ONE WITH YOU, JUST SMILE AND SAY VERY LITTLE, 

TALK OF THE WEATHER AND HOW GREAT DEMOCRACY IS...NOTHING ELSE...

IT'S BEST THAT YOU DON'T TALK AT ALL...BEHAVE STUPID, IGNORANT, SMILE, AGREE

WITH ALL THE NONSENSE...

BUT THE BEST FOR YOU IS JUST TO BE ALONE WITH YOUR OWN SENSITIVITY, YOUR

 OWN ABILITY, YOUR OWN IMAGINATION...

IMAGINE AND THINGS WILL COME TO YOU...LIKE IDEAS..LIKE HOW ALL YOUR PLAYS

 CAME TO YOU. 

CAME TO YOU FROM NO WHERE?

RIGHT?

YES, THEY CAME FROM NOWHERE...

THAT NOWHERE IS CALLED, "IMAGINATION."

DO NOT ABANDONE THAT PRECIOUS TERRITORY CALLED, "NOWHERE"

THAT'S THE DIAMOND YOU NEVER KNEW YOU OWNED,.

POSSESS THAT, OWN THAT DIAMOND...NAMED, "NOWHERE"

GET HOLD OF THAT SPACE, THAT PLACE WITHIN YOUR GRASP.

IT'S YOURS.

IT'S YOUR IMAGINATIN...

ALL YOUR PLAYS CAME FROM THAT IMAGINATION

NO OTHER PERSON GAVE IT TO YOU

NO, NO OTHER PERSON...

THAT'S THE ABSOLUTE TRUTH...

LOCK YOUR IMAGINATION WITHIN A SAFE FOR YOUR SELF, ONLY FOR YOURSELF

YOU KEEP THE KEY HIDDEN IN ANOTHER SAFE PLACE

NO DISCUSSIONS OF ANY KIND WITH ANY BODY...

NO DISCUSSIONS, OF ANY KIND, I SAID.

DO NOT WASTE YOUR ENERGY, YOUR PASSIONS, YOUR GIFT WITH ANY ONE FROM

 NOW ON...

THE GARBAGE IS THROWN OUT

YOUR MIND IS CLEAN

BEGIN....

BEGIN AGAIN...

"SAY BUSMILLAH AND GET RID OF THE ROT."

BEGIN AGAIN...

"PLAYS OF BINA SHARIF. RETYPE: WORD DOCUMENT"

 

PLAYS OF BINA SHARIF

------------------------------RE-TYPE FOR PUBLISHING: WORD DOCUMENT.

----------------------------------------------------------

"FIRE, EMPTY YOUR CLOSETS IF YOU WANT NO FIRE."

"KILL"

"REPUBLIC OF IQRA"

"AFGHAN WOMAN"

"DEMOCRACY IN ISLAM"

"MUSLIM GLITTER"

"MUSLIM DIALOGUE IN MIRRORS CRACKED"

"COMEDY OF TERRORS"

"MY SON, MY ONLY SON

"HAPPY HOLIDAY TALK SHOW WITH KARIMA ULLAH"

THINK OF BEN BRANTLEY AND WRITE A HAPPY PLAY

PARANOIA OF DREAMS

"MY ANCESTOR'S HOUSE"

ONE THOUSAND HOURS OF LOVE

SLEEPING WITH HORSES

RATS IN THE TUNNEL

ACCUSATION

COLONY OF ARTISTS

HELP ME JUMP OVER THE SNOW

SPICE OF BENGAL

MORE THAN MURDER

HARVARD YARD

BOB LOVES BONNIE

LOVE IS A STRANGER IN A WINDOWLESS ROOM

PERFECT MEAT LOAF

HERE COMES THE CHANGE

MONTH IN THE CAFE

DREAM WITHIN A DREAM

MISSING SCENES

DREAMLAND

WATCHMAN

IN-BETWEEN

-------------------

LES PRODUCTIONS OF SHORT WAR PLAYS

---------------------------------

LOWER EAST SIDE THEATER FESTIVAL

-----------------------------------

"COME HOME FOR LUNCH"

"SORROWS OF ABU GHARIB"

ON THE EDGE OF RIVER GANGES

ENGLISH BREAKFAST TEA, (UN-FINISHED)

"THIS IS HOW SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE TALK"

"RAMBLING PHILOSOPHERS"

--------------------------------

"UNPRODUCED PLAYS"

-----------------------------------

"SORROW AT THE TIME OF ISIS."---------------------------------

"LOVE IS A TRAMP"

"SEVEN DIALOGUES, SEVEN MONOLOGUES IN MIRRORS CRACKED"

"LOCKDOWN BLUES"

LIFE IS A ONE ACT PLAY

A: SITUATION

B: THE JUNGLE

-------------------------

VERY SHORT PLAYS

----------------------

DRAMA

CORPSE

GAME

SKETCHES AND VINIGATS

------------------------------

SYBIL'S DESPAIR, (UN FINIHED)

RED LEAK, (UN FINISHED)

ENGLISH BREAKFAST TEA, (UN FINISHED)

-------------------------------

ACTED IN OTHER PEOPLE'S PLAYS

ART BY IRENE FORNES

AT PUBLIC THEATER

INTAR

TNC

------------------

---------------------------------

GOODMAN THEATER:

 PLAY MAS

---------------------

LAMAMA: COLLATRAL DAMAGE WITH VENESSA REDGRAVE

LAMAMA: CHRIS TANNER

---------------------

PS 122" FIRE

SALOME, SARAH SCHULMAN

KILLER IN LOVE: SARAH SCHULMAN

-----------------------------

HERE THEATER: KILLER IN LOVE

-------------------------

THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY

WITH SEBASTAN STUART

-----------------

THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY

WITH ROBERT PATRICK: BEAUX ARTS BALL

---------------------------------------

"COSMO GIRL"

MANY, MANY PLACES, ALL OVER TOWN, GALLERIES, TV, WEDDINGS, CLUBS, LIMBO LOUNGE.

---------------------------

LIMBO LOUNGE:

COSMO GIRL

HANDCUFFS

CHRISTMAS DELIVERY

PARK LANE HOISERY

A DAY IN WOMAN'S LIFE

ME AND MY DOG GIGI

---------------------

ABC RIO

-------------------

LOVERS

HANDCUFFS

-------------------

CAFE BUSETELLO

-----------------------

AN ORDINARY WOMAN AND HER SISTERS

DIRECTED BY PATRICA  COHEN

------------------------------

AFGHAN WOMAN WAS PERFORMED IN NY, ENGLAND, BRUSSELS,

TORONTO, HAWAII, PAKISTAN AND MORE THAN 20 UNIVERSITIE'S DRAMA DEPTS IN U.S.A

-----------------------------

HEIDELBURGH GERMANY

---------------------

WOMEN OF MODERN CIVILIZATION

---------------------------

PRAGUE

---------------

TOUCH OF THE POE BY KEVIN MARTIN

DIRECTED BY BINA SHARIF

EXCERPTS OF, COME HOME FOR LUNCH.

----------------------------------

------------------

INTAR: ARABAL'S, MADONNA

WOMEN'S INTERART: WOMAN TALK

---------------------------

TORONTO, CANADA

-----------------------

"SLEEPING WITH HORSES"

In Sheilla James play at Theaer Pas Marai

---------------------

FICTION

--------------

SHORT STORIES

_-----------------

BLACK FUR COAT

ECHO IN MY HEART

DESPERATELY SEEKING SUCCESS

MY CHEMICAL MOMMY

-----------------------------

FILM INTERVIEWS

----------------------

WITH MOVIE STARS and many film directors and actors

 FOR COVER MAGAZINE

---------------------------------

WRITING BLOG

-----------------------

STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS OF SINGING BIRDS: TITLE OF THE BLOG

COLLECTION OF WRITINGS SINCE 2009

---------------------------------------

ARTSINTERNATIONAL.BLOGSPOT.COM

---------------------------------

THEATER CRITICISM, REVIEWS SINCE 2009

----------------------------------------

Published two magazines

Lower levels of society

Cinemastage

--------------------

Theater company

Lower levels of society: A salon productions:

Artistic director: Bina Sharif

__________________

Another Theater Salon

Red Curtain Theater

ACCUSATION

RATS IN THE TUNNEL

MISSING SCENES

COLONY OF ARTISTS

HERE COMES THE CHANGE

COMEDY NIGHT LIVE

SHAPE OF LOVE

PARANOIA

"MONEY" A ONE ACT PLAY BY BINA SHARIF

 "MONEY"

A ONE ACT PLAY

BY

BINA SHARIF

copyright:binasharif 2021

(Takes places in Canada)

(Written after the tragic killing of a Muslim family in London Ont, Canada, while they went for a walk.)

A hate crime against Muslims.

CHARACTERS:

A &B

A:

He is amking money.

She is making money. They are all making money.

B: 

And you?

A:

What about me?

B:

Yes, you...

A:

Yes, me? What about me?

B:

Why are you not making money?

A:

Oh! Me and money? I have to think about it.

B:

You have something against making money?

A:

I don't. Actually, I did make money. I get residuals from the movies I made.

B:

So you did make money then.

A:

Yes, I did. I still get residuals.

B:

Did you make a lot of money?

A:

 Yes, Sometime 9 cents.  Some time 5 cents. It depends.

 I also get a bigger check like $ 1-29 cents once in a while.

B:

What do you do with those checks?

A:

I throw it in the garbage. There is enough clutter. already.  Lots of papers

scttered everywhere.

B:

Why don't you take it to the bank?

A:

Bank? Take a check of 9 cents to the bank and get killed for just taking a walk 

by some Islamophobe terrorist...

and then the police and the emergeny health workersn would see those checks in her dead hand...

 What would they think?

"Oh! please, this poor immigrant Muslim woman, with a check of 9 cents 

on the way to the bank gets killed because of a hate crime.

Maybe she made the killer ashamed of being such a failure in this rich country,

the one, who never took advantage of the great democratic process to make tons of money."

I think he killed her because she was not only a Muslim but a total failure...

a double embaressment in his amazing money making ambitious free country.

Maybe she should have never migrated since she had no ability to make huge amount of money.

"Our country offers one thing for sure and that is MONEY. "

The killer must have convinced himself on

 the importance of money and success.

And she died because she had nothing, absolutely nothing to show, not even one trace of success

in a powerful country like Canada.

Thus her punishment was to die in a terrorist attack, a hate crime, not only

because she was a hijab wearing Muslim immigrant but a failure as well.

A check of 9 cents and another slightly bigger one of $1-29 cents...give me a break.

Maybe she is better off dead.

And that is the reason why I never went to the bank to deposit those checks.

B: So what's your function in life and in Canada, since you don't know and never learnt

     how to make money?  Let me tell you one more time, In our capitilistic soceity,  the main

purpose of life is one,  just one and that is money,  you hear me? "Money." Everything begins

and end with money.

But maybe in your case it's a blessing in disguise that you didn't make tons of money, because

if your residul checks were huge,  you would have surely walked towards the bank and...

A:   (Interrupts her)  And get killed right?

B:  ( a little embaressed and tries to change the topic)  No,  what I was going to say was

       that why do you still pay your dues?  You still want to do movies after all that?

A:  Well that's my profession and to be an active member of SAG, (Screen actor's guild) you have to pay

      100 plus $$ every couple of months.

B:  Why don't you get out of the union?

A:  I don't want to because may be some day muslim minority won't be the most despised

      minority and it might actually become the most favorite one.  (Laughs) The fashion of the day

      changes...

      and if that happens and I am sure it will one day.  (laughs again) You know I happen

     to be the most positive hijab wearing muslim woman,  (Happy laugh) and if that happens, I will be

     at the top of the list of all the prestigious things,  awards and rewards reserved for the best artists,

     artists in many fields and I as a muslim woman artist  am a trailblazzer. I was always way ahead 

      of my time and I am still hopeful that my time will come...

    (Another laugh)

B:   (with a vicious smile) You might be killed long before that...There are lots of Islamophobs lurking

       around... why don't you remove your fucking hijab off?  You might actually become real success,        

        instead of faking to be a successful actress with a

       fundamental hijab in a modern country like ours and expect not to be killed...

A:   Hey, hey, hey.  Watch what you are saying...Who are you?  Do I know you?  I thought you were a   

        friend. What kind of

      a friend are you?  YOU WISH ME DEAD.  Maybe you are an undercover Islomophobe 

      Pretending to be a friend?  Oh! I see... You wish that an Islomophobe, a hateful person will

      kill me long before any possibility for Muslim people's lives change for better...

      Jesus Christ, I took you as a friend for so long,  so long...after all you are one of those Canadians

      who can't stand the sight of a Hijab,  sight of a muslim taking a walk in a garden,  in a park or even

      on the way to the bank...in case they had SOME  MONEY to deposit any way...

      (In a state of shock)  I need to get away from you as soon as I can and get away as far as I can...

       Your wishful thinking for my death by any means possible has absolutely shocked and stunned me.

B:    Oh! don't take it so ill.  I didn't mean that.  You might be dead by the time things change...any way.

        we are all going to die...

A:    (Still shocked, annoyed and angry) Why don't you die first?  Go ahead, drop dead. Drop dead

        of a natural death right now, heart attack or something  and I will wait for an Islomophbe to get me 

           later.

                                                          (lights fade)

                                                         BLACK OUT

                                                        END OF PLAY

LIVE LIKE SCANDENAVIANS

 LIVE LIKE SCANDENAVIANS

Polite

Sophisticated

Un-argumentative

Detached

Respectful

But nice...

--------------

 Detach yourself from painful past...

LIVE YOUR PAST IN YOUR WRITING

AND LIVE YOUR PRESENT AS A TRANSITORY, SOCIAL,

ENJOYABLE EVENT.

Remain blind of others.

You don't see them...

If you don't see them, you won't be too concerned of something

you don't see...

Would you?

It's all your fault...

Entirely your fault...

No one else is to be blamed

Too much involvement with everyone...all riff- raff

Amazing...

F,H, ANOTHER F, A, W, M, H, K, D, S...N

PLEASE...

GIVE ME A BREAK

ONLY ONE PERSON YOU HAVE BEEN COMPLETELY DETACHED FROM IS YOURSELF.

"THESE ARE KARIMA ULLAH'S WORDS." "WHY DID YOU FORGET YOURSELF?"

 "THESE ARE KARIMA ULLAH'S WORDS."

Do not call AO

Ask Sl for R letters plus jobs in U

Diet, D-D-D

Cut out S-S-S

F**k it if not.

EBT something else

Smaller for $600

Look for the material in the blog

3People

Detach-D-D-D

Karima Ullah is my neighbor and my best friend

She has been given a residency in Upstate NY.

She speaks a special distant language...

Let H

You should too...

Uneh paghul kur chadeh...ihey...

'Do a dance piece

Lots of music

Very few words

Lots of movements

I hour long

Go home"

"Much adventure"

"Love story"

Human cruelty has no limits

They are all un-interesting

Everything is un-interseting

People are big bores

People. are un-interesting

Everyone is un-interesting"

They are a big bore.

All of them

All of them

All of them."

Uneducated

Un-sophisticated

Big, big, big bores

So much cruelty in words of fiction

So much cruelty in every day life

So much cruelty

'Force yourself into contradictions because society demands it,

and never try to find the reason, the real reason of any dispute-personal-family-business-

friends-people-strangers. Everyone should concentrate on capitalistic success. Forget everything else."  ?

"Eveything is messed up with the un-conscious and coscious, tensions, my tensions, family tensions, 

 and all other

bullshit..."  ?

"She is ugly

He is ugly

The other one is also very ugly and un-interesting.

Forget about people

All people...

Forget about them

People are of no importance to you

Forget about people

All the people

Nothing but trouble

Nothing but waste of time...

I said, forget about them

Once and for all...

Enough time spent on them

Enough time wasted on them

Enough energy spent

Enough emotions wasted

Enough tears shed

Enough money wasted

Enough love wasted

Thats the ultimate truth...

FORGET ABOUT THEM

EVERYBODY

EVERYBODY

WITHOUT A DOUBT...

Narrow your focus

Narrow your focus minutely on yourself

Fix your focus only on yourself

You are not a messiha sent from above to worry about people

They are all AHS

Why did you forget yourself?

Why did you not realize that you exist?

Do you exist?

You think not

But you do...

When you die

People, the same ugly people will know that you existed. They will say, "Oh! she died today."

That's a proof of your existence.

So before they say it...

You beter shout out loud...

I EXIST

I EXIST

I EXIST...

You must be the only one in the range of the camera

The canera actually should  be focued on you

And only on you...

STOP BEING AN XTRA

You must be the leading lady

and if you are a man, though your name is of a woman

But who knows these days..

Who is the man?

And who is the woman?

So in case you are a man...

You should be the leading alfa male

Camera of the world must be focused on you

And only on you...

You are the camera

Now focus it on yourself...

You are in a movie

The movie is being shot

The cameras are set

The acion has been delayed for a long time

The producers are upset

Lot of money is involved

Now focus your camera

It's your camers, now focus it on yourself. 

You are your own camera

Focus your camera on yourself now

Tight focus

VERY TIGHT FOCUS...

The focus of your camera has been on un-important xtras

Yes, so far the focus has been on the most un-important xtras...

You are the leading lady and the focus is on the XTRAS?

WHAT KIND OF LEADING LADY ARE YOU?

GOD GAVE YOU THE ROLE OF A LEADING LADY

AND YOU GAVE IT TO THE XTRAS?

SHAME-SHAME-SHAME

You forgot

Completely forgot

That you have the main role to play in this world

In this life

In your life

YOU COMPLETELY FORGOT THAT YOU ARE PLAYING A LEAD ROLE IN YOUR OWN LIFE...

Instead you gave the lead role to all the riff-raff

All the riff-raff are infront of your expensive camera for which you paid an enormous amount of

 money...

Some riff raff from here

Some riff raff from there

All riff-raff from everywhere

Every corner of this filthy planet's riff-raff are in your own movie

WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU DARLING?

WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?

Think of this AH

Then thinking of another AH

All the time thinking of AH'S

This one, today

This one, tomorrow

This one, yesterday...

GET RID OF ALL THE ASS HOLES FROM YOUR MOVIE

IT STINKS

Develop instances of detachment

From all this

From all low lives...

This is what you get by getting involved with low lives

'LOW LIVES

GET AWAY

GET AWAY

GET AWAY...

You get too involved with low lives

WHY?

WHY?

WHY?

YOU NEED THERAPY GIRL

THERAPY

THERAPY

THERAPY

Find a good therapist

I know of one

In the neighborhood...

Doing a residency in the neighborhood...

Call her...

But don't talk about nitty gritty silly stuff...

Tell the therapist that you are the leading lady of your own movie

BUT YOU FORGOT THAT YOU WERE THE LEADING LADY.

Silly, meaningless shit...surrounded you for so long , for so long,

YOU FORGOT THAT YOU HAVE THE ROLE OF

 THE LEADING LADY...

AND YOU ARE THE PRODUCER/DIRECTOR OF THE MOVIE AND YOU BOUGHT

ALL THE EQUIPMENT AND PUT MEANINGLESS LOW LIVES IN-FRONT OF THAT

 EXPENSIVE MINOLTA...

TEll ME WHY THE HELL DID YOU FORGET YOURSELF?

I am going to call the resident therapist to help you finally

Yes, the therapist who got a residency in your head..

FIRE EVERYONE FROM YOUR OWN MOVIE...

FOCUS THE CAMERA ON YOUR SELF

HAVE A GLASS OF COOL SANCERE

AND ENJOY BEING THE DARLING OF YOUR OWN CAMERA

DID YOU HEAR ME?

DID YOU HEAR ME?

DID YOU HEAR ME?

OH! YOU DOZED OFF...

YOU ARE FULL OF SHIT

YOU DOZED OFF?

LIKE YOU HAVE BEEN DOZZING OFF ALL YOUR LIFE...

THERE IS STILL TIME

WAKE UP...

LET'S END THIS MOVIE ON A POSITIVE NOTE...

WAKE UP...

----------------------

MAKE SOME CHANGES IN YOUR LIFE STYLE KARIMA ULLAH

Don't waste your god given gifts.

You have been to the bottom of the valley

Now try to come up...

To come out of the hole, stop digging any further...

I don't care and neither does any one else...

Time has passed...

It's not in my control

Neither was in your control in the past.

It never was...

And I can't regret what has already happened

It was the result of many other factors beside me and you...

It can't be all me, and all you all the time...

All the troubles and failures can't be all your fault...

Whatever happened can't be all because of me or you...

Can it be?

No, not possible.

Family?

Me?

Others?

Me?

Bad, bad, bad, advisors...

Bad, bad, bad experts...(So called experts judging your existence)

Me?

People?

Me?

Strangers?

Me?

Friends? 

Me?

Relationships??

Me?

Apartment?

Me?

Everything is because of me?

Everything is because of you Karima?

All my fault

lt's your fault?

Is that possible?

They say, "Yes"

It's possible...

UNBELIEVABLE...I SAY...

"ME" "YOU"

Need a break..."ME" need a break

"YOU" need a break..

From all the blames

---------------

Let's go to Karakram highway...

From Pakistan to china...

From Abbotabad in Pakistan to Kashgar in China...8oo.ooo miles..

Determination is all...

To shape and contain most obstacles...

Riff-Raff is there not to hinder but to enhance yor existence...

It's you, yoursef who is there to hinder. 

Riff- Raff is not part of the day,

Or your evening..

Accomplish everything you want to accomplish independently and freely...

beside all that...

In the evenings go to the theater...YES, THEATER...THAT'S YOUR FRIEND, ONLY FRIEND.

Make theater your companion

When not going to the theater...

 Because of pain in  your knee, pain in your left foot, pain in your right shoulder...

 Stay in, have great dinner, watch a movie...

Everything is a game

It's upto you to play it right.

It's always up to you...

It's always upto you to achieve...

No one gives any one anything if they can help it...

Only you,

Only you,

Only you, yourself is the leader of your own destiny

The incharge of your own destiny

In total control of your own destiny

And destiny will do it's own share

And that is the only thing beyond your control...

I am not with any one

I am always alone

I am only with my own destiny...

Destiny is un-seen

Otherwise I am always alone by myself...

Evenings are nice

I am with him

And we have a nice meal

That's nice...

Isn't it?

Yes...

That's nice

Very nice

It's all because of my destiny...

That I end up having a nice meal with him...

Your destiny can make you love yourself as well.

Your destiny is begging you to appreciate and love your talent...

Not every one has that.

They might have a lot of things

But your destiny gave you special things...

Talent and imagination...

And you dare waste it?

Waste it on riff-raff...

Beware of destiny...

It can take everything away...

Beware...

And be gracious...

"DISTANT PARTS OF MYSELF."

 "DISTANT PARTS OF MYSELF."

"I crave to hide from everything and everybody."

"I have been hurt."

'I thought that others have hurt me."

'But I have realized that I have been hurt because of myself."

"I have hurt myself."

'I have hurt my self by loving them."

"They didn't love me."

'They weren't just selfish."

'They didn't love me."

Simple as all that...

I used to think how could they be so mean if they loved me?

But now I do know...

They wern't selfish...

Not selfish at all...

They just didn't love me."

'Loveing someone isn't that easy...

People like easy things...

Loveing some one is torturous sometime...

People stay away from torture...

Love is so time consuming

People like to spend time on making money

There is nothing wrong with making money

But it shouldn't be at the expense of love

But it has to be...

Time spent loving someone can not make dollars

Loving some one costs dollars...

Who wants to lose dollars for the sake of love?

You don't live in te world of love anymore...

You live in the world of money...

"Money". "Lots of money" "Lots and lots of money is needed to be rich,

To be important for the other rich...mansions and boats...and paintings...

What are you without dollars?

And what are you without love?

Very rich, you are very, very rich without love,  especially loving someone...you lose not only money,

 you lose your heart....

You saved a lot of time to make dollars which made you so rich, so rich and respectable with your heart

 solidly in place...

Would you have love or admiration of the others? Other rich people's admiration?

What are you without other rich people's admiration?

Love? What is love? An old fashion emotion...

TELLER OF STORIES, LONG AND SHORT

 TELLER OF STORIES, LONG AND SHORT

Vignette's, Observations, reflections

Vignett'es, observations, Reflections on Karima Ullah's days and nights.

---------------------------------------------

"Karima Ullah has emotional problems

They are destroying her sensitivity.  Sensitivity is one thing,

But when it becomes being stuck in everyone's pain, becomes a huge problem.

Very unhealthy for herself, very sad, because it has affected Karima's life.

She has become financially, physically and emotionally exhausted and can't function any more."  BS

From this moment on...yes, from this moment on...

Things have to change.

Change for better, healthier, not so time consuming because of regrets of the past...

Wasteful emotions....

Time has to be reserved for Karima's positive and constructive emotions,

Karima's well being,

Karima's finance,

Karima's benefit,

Karima's time.

Karima's time have to be Karima's time,

From this moment on...

From this moment on...

From this moment on...

Karima's time have to be for Karima only and no one else...."   BS

----------------------------------

"Empathy is a good thing

Connection with others is a good thing

Feelings for others is a good thing

Sharing and compassion is a great thing

But Karima gets too involved,  gets stuck

In other people's pain, in their trauma,

In other people's misfortunes...

It's a good thing...

It's very good thing...

But no one is around when she need to share her emotional difficulty.

Or share feelings of sadness or loneliness...

And that lack of concern from others make her much lonelier than she was to begin with...

How should she tackle all that?

Should she become unconcerned about others?

Should she become selfish?

Should she become less sensitive?

Should she never care for anything else but herself?

What should she do to not get stuck in other people's pain and suffering?

And still feel their pain somehow...

Therapy perhaps...

Less emotions...

Thick skinned...

Yes, That's the word Western people use a lot...

It's a healthy word..."Thick" 'Skinned"

But she is from the East...

Born with different values

Different emotional depth...

Different traumas...

Different extended family system and culture...

Very difficult adjustment in the West...

Extremely difficult...

How long Karima has been in the West?

Almost four decades...

Too late...too late...sadly too late...

Damage has been done...       BS

----------------------------------------

"The complexity of things

Things within things...

Just seem to be endless

"Nothing is easy,

Nothing is simple"       Alice Munro

"Stories which move back and forth in time

Move back and forth between reality and memory,

"Opening out magically to disclose that long panoramic vistas in these people's lives

Homely details of their day to day routines, the dull coping with food and houses that can

take up so much of their time."     Kakatuni

"Munro's stories possess an emotional amplitude amd a psychological density."  Kakatuni

"Music of domestic life." ?

"Drowning in her own talent of various kind."   ?

"Never worry about the band playing in the other room

Because you are the band".  Quentin Crisp

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Pulled between conflicting imperatives, between rootlessness and escape.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Domesticity and freedom, between tendencies to familial responsibilities

Or following the urgent promptings of their own hearts."     Kakatuni

"From any decision one takes-the other decision not taken- always pulling you towards it."  BS ?

"I crave to hide from anything and any body.

I actually always wanted to be anonymous. While you travel, while you are doing a lot of things

which interests you and still no one knows you and no one notices you for good or bad-then you

are truely anonymous. I love that."    BS

"Distant parts of myself"  ?

"Passion is the magnet or the motor which drives women's choices."   Kakatuni

"Re -imagining the past-in order to manufacture an identity or mythologize one's family." Kakatuni

" Why won't you come to me?

And...

Why would I come to you?

Give me one good reason."

"Surrounded by strange strangers

They give un-pleasant looks.

Need to stay away...

They just take my energy and enthusiasm away

And make me angry, bitter and forlon."     BS

-----------------------------------------------

"There is certain silence and slowness that the god of efficency

and hyperconnectedness will not tolerate."  Roger Cohen

"Double nature of everything in life."     ?

"The thrill of the un-expected is lost."   ?

"Simplicity lost and the possibility of undistracted existence" ?

"Reading a serious book in a cafe like the old times has become a great problem.

Loud music, people constantly talking loud on their phones while their ears are plugged in,

They can't hear themselves and thus are extremely loud and rude. It really disturbs me.

Distract me from my reading, takes my energy away.  Some others, constantly texting in my presence

which somehow irritates my nerves.  Their fingers always in motion bother me a great deal. I just come

 to the cafe to read like the old times. I don't want to be annoyed or bothered by their full time digital

Business but I can't help it. It literarly gives me a headache.  I have been trying to read this small book

for days and I after a long time of looking at my open book I see that I am on the same page...

I have so many books to read.  I have so many books.  I need to read them.  At home, if I can call it a

 home, I feel domestic so I go out to cafe's but it's the same story everywhere.  Those days are over when

 one went to a cafe to sit quietly and read an important book and have a nice, hot cup of coffee.

Now the owners still call their places, "cafe's" so more European oriented people can come but then they

 shove their menues up your face and want you to eat with loud music like you are in a disco and people

 telling us their private life stories loud and clear on their phones...I have not finished one book in any of

 these cafe's in Manhattan but I have gained a lot of weight because I have to eat there even if they are

 not called, "Restaurants" For me the meaning of a cafe is to have coffee and read your book.  But I

 guess I belong to the old, quiet days when one used to spend time learning and doing something

 important and reflecting. It's just noise now. Noise and food.

I simply can't take it any more. I go home flustered.

I need quiet, slowness, stillness.  That's what I need and I am being deprived of my essentials

Quiet, slowness, stillness,  especially when I am reading.

Now I have stopped going to cafe's.

But I am a reader and I am not reading.

I need coffee and a book

I can't read in a liberary

But I am not that serious a person.

I need a bit more excitement to excite myself.

Not in the apt

Always something to do

Dishes and things like that.

I need to have concentration when I read.

I can't have people talking loudly on their phones

Now I stay home more than ever...

So now out of necassity I am completely isolated.

I still like people

I like to at least look at them even if they don't talk to me

They like their phones better.

I still would like people and their company if they would leave their tortorous instruments home.

Then we could say, hi, my name is...

Start a conversation and then talk about the book, I had been reading...

Perhaps then they could learn something about, "Notes from underground" by Dostevsky

but alas! no one is interested. Why can't we just sit and talk and listen to each other any more?

Why can't we discuss great books with each other? 

My great collection of books need a dialogue...

Is someone out there for that?"   BS

------------------------------------------------

"FUTURE ONE WOMAN SHOWS."

---------------------------------------

"SUCCESSFUL PLAYS.

------------------------------

PLAYS WHICH MAKE MONEY

-----------------------------------------

SECRET OF COMMERCE."

-------------------------------------

Page after page I find nothing substantial in those kinds of scripts,

which make tons of money...

This is how it goes...

SCRIPT:

Hi,

Hi,

Where?

When?

Me-

Me?

No-

No?

Yes, no

Me?

Yes,

You-

You too...

How?

Why?

Where?

And it goes on and on

120 pages sometime

Full length play...

Who is going to produce plays full of speeches?

Speeches called monologues?

A movie star once in a while pick up a monologue from a famous, (Tony winner)

playwright and does a one man show at,  National Theater in London...

Everyone raves about it...

Otherwise the scripts are full of, Me?

You?

Where are we going?

To my bed room...

Aquick sex scene on the very first moment they meet...

Ect, ect, ect...

An unknown playwright with long monolgues will stay un-known unless he/she

is the son/daughter of a movie star...

Actors who act in those meaningless , "You and Me scripts of 120 pages are so un-intersting

without any kind of charm, personality or any stage presence.

This play which is being talked about, "A so called hit on broadway" is going to be very boring.

I am sure of that. After spending $200 and be totally bored?

Might as well stay at your couch and think of your boring life and save $200

I am not going to see it.

They are all gathering at the bar of a fancy restaurant...so it must be the play by the owner of the bar...

They are in all kinds of businesses,  show business,  food business,  fashion business,

theater business. It doesn't stop. Success is a poisonous snake...keep going with it's gaping

mouth to bite everyone. Producers, publishers, critics got the poison of the snake in them...

They are dangerous. Want to write? Be free to write your long speeches. Forget about productions

or publishing or opening night parties. Do you want the snake to bite you?

No way.

I am terrified of the snakes.

Then keep writing...

Write whatever you want to write

Writing doesn't cost any money...

Eating does...

When you make lot of money

You eat a lot.

Stop eating

You are too fat

Lose weight

Write on empty stomach.

Hungry stomach is more creative...

There is no burden on it

No burden of the food

No burden of the snake.

Be lean and healthy

And create long, long, ever lasting monologues which no one can read or recite

except you...

YOU HAVE SO MANY ONE WOMAN SHOWS TO DO.

 

WHAT TORTURE, A SHORT PLAY, :LIPSTICK IS THE ANSWER."

"BRIGHT RED LIPSTICK"

A ONE ACT PLAY

BY

BINA SHARIF

Copyright:binasharif:2021

CHARACTERS: 

A  AND B:  (Two friends who have an ambigous relationship.)

TIME:  PRESENT

PLACE:  MANHATTAN

A:  WHAT TORTURE I WENT THROUGH.

 B: LIPSTICK IS THE ANSWER

                                                                                   A: "I DON'T HAVE ANY."

                                                                             B: "YOU DON'T HAVE A LIPSTICK?   

                                                                                                            "GO, GET ONE."

                                                                                  A:  "THUNDERSORM IS RAGING OUTSIDE."

                                                                                    B:  "WHEN THUNDERSTORM STOPS, GO GET

                                                                                A BRIGHT RED LIPSTICK. THATS THE  

                                                                                                   ANSWER.

                                                                    LIPSTICK IS THE ANSWER TO ALL YOUR TORTURE.

                                                                    A:  I HAVE TORTURE OF THE SOUL.

                                                                       B:   YOU HAVE TORTURE OF THE SOUL?

                                                                         A:  "YES."

                                                                         B:  "WHY?"                                                                             

A:  I don't know....

Got stuck with some difficult dialogue.

Got disturbed.

Dark memories...

Remembrance of dark memories...

Unhappy thoughts...

TIRED.

EXHAUSTED ACTUALLY.

FORGOT THE ORDER OF THINGS.

ORDER OF CREATIVITY.

SO SCARED...

B: WHY?

A:  ALWAYS SCARED...

PANIC...

B:  ABOUT LOSING THING?

A:  NO, NOT LOSING THINGS...

BUT LOSING POSTS, WRITING,

FEAR OF TECHNOLOGY

PUSHING THE WRONG BUTTON

DELETE BUTTON..

B:  CAN'T YOU SEE THE DELETE BUTTON?

 A: I DO,  BUT SOME TIMES LOSING WRITING

WITHOUT THE DELETE BUTTON.

A NIGHTMARE.

FOGGY MIND

SLEEPLESS NIGHT

LIGHT HEADED WITH PAIN

SO MUCH PAIN

PAIN AND SORROW

SADNESS

B:  BECAUSE OF LOSING THINGS?

A:  BECAUSE OF EVERYTHING

B:  LOVE?

A:   LACK OF LOVE...

B:   LOVE OF YOURSELF?

   A:  THAT'S IT

LACK OF LOVE...

LOVE OF SELF...

LIFE PASSING BY...

B:  FORGET ABOUT TECHNOLOGY

LOSE ALL POSTS...

LOSE ALL WRITING...

WHAT'S THE POINT?

WHAT'S THE USE?

WHAT'S THE USE?

WHAT'S THE USE?

  B:  SUN HAS COME OUT...

  A:  YOU MEAN THAT THUNDERSTORM IS OVER?

 B:   OVER, YES IT'S OVER.

GO OUT...

WEAR SOME LIPSTICK AND GO OUT...

LIPSTICK IS THE ANSWER...

GO OUT.

SUN CAME OUT

 A;  WOULD THE THUNDERSTORM COME BACK?

   B:  YES, IT WILL, YES, IT WILL...

 IF YOU WAIT FOR IT...

A:  AND IF I DON'T?

  B:  IT WILL STILL COME BACK,

THE THUNDER,

THE STORM,

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE SUN

GO OUT...

WHERE IS YOUR LIPSTICK?

  A:  OH! I DON'T HAVE ANY

  B:  YOU DON'T HAVE A LIPSTICK?

YOU CAN'T CHEER UP...

 A:  I WILL GET ONE

B:   WHEN?

 A:   WHEN I GO OUT

B:   HURRY

THE CLOUDS ARE COMING BACK...THUNDER WILL STRIKE YOU AND YOU WILL BE NO

 MORE....

A:  DON'T SAY THAT.

B:  HURRY UP THEN.  BUY A BRIGHT RED LIPSTICK BEFORE THE STORM COME BACK

AND TRUST ME IT WILL COME BACK...

YOU KNOW ,WHAT YOUR PROBLEM IS?

A: WHAT IS MY PROBLEM/

B: YOU DELAY THINGS... TIME IS IN A HURRY,  LIVE LIKE THE TIME, HURRY...

A: Ok, GOOD ADVICE...I MUST HURRY TO GET THE BRIGHT RED LIPSTIC TO GET RID OF

THE TORTURE WHICH HAUNTS ME. ARE YOU SURE THAT THE RED LIPSTICK IS THE

 ANWER?

A: YES, THE ONLY ANSWER. HURRY, THE STORM IS RUSHING ABOUT. RUN, RUN FAST,

 EVEN IF YOU BREAK ALL YOUR BONES...

(B, get's her coat an rushes toward the door but alas)

(Loud sound of thunderstorm...starts to rain. it pours, lightning and thunder sounds... lights begin to fade to dark)

                                                                  BLACK OUT

                                                                 END OF PLAY

"ACCEPTANCE" A SHORT PLAY

 MY OWN PRIVATE THERAPIST NAMED, "I"

"ACCEPTANCE"

SHORT PLAY

BY

BINA SHARIF: Copyright: binasharif 2017-2021

Direction: The man opens an envelop, take a paper out

with a name on it and annouces.

MAN:

And the winer is Bulbul Saree

BULBUL

Races to the stage, is out of breath, take the mike and starts to talk

BULBUL:

Thank you.  Thank you.  thank you so much.

I don't know what to say.  I am speechless. I am out of breath.

Thank you academy. Thank you arts club. Thank you, my producer

Thank you my tall, white, blue eyed American husband.

Thank you, my mother, thanks to my father.

Thank you to the glass of wine I just had to calm my nereves.

Oh!  am so glad to be an artist.

I knew that this day will come eventually.

After all I crossed the ocean.

28 hours long flight.

Crossed borders to be here to receive this amazing award.

You see it's so important to be an artist.  We,  the winners can tell

the stories of all the people who never got any award...who lost their dreams

and then died as total losers.

Me, the winner artist is here to tell the stories of all the dead people

who were so un-fortunate in theire long-long life...

I am so honored and grateful that you also helped me get here safely through tough immigration

to receive this precious award...

(The man rushes towards the stage and then interrupts her)

MAN:

There has been a mistake, there has to be a mistake.  This award is not for you.

(Bulbul is in shock)

BULBUL:

WHAT? WHAT?  What mistake?  What kind of a mistake? I can't believe it...what kid of a mistake

for heaveen's sake?  What happened?

MAN:

Let me explain.  We were given the wrong envelope. This awad is for someone else. For another artist.

Who has actually won. Not you, not you. It's a mistake, a big mistake. We were given the wrong

 envelope.

BULBUL:

(Horrified)

The Wrong envelope?  Wrong envelope ?  You must be kidding. You are kidding? Right? You mean I am

 not the winner?

MAN: 

Yes...

BULBUL:

  How unfair...how could such an established entertainment industry behaves like this?

Millions of people are watching me. Watching me win this award and then lose it

the same moment.

 

Unnbelievable... unbelievable.  After making me go through

hell to get here, all the threatening questions at the airport, the awful jet lag,  the joy of winning once in

 my life time and now you are telling me that it's a mistake...

This award is not mine...it is for some one else...horror personified.. How can that happen?

But it has happened and has happened to me, me who never won an award in my whole life.

I hope this great demcracy will get it's act together next year.

Now I have to go pee.  I have been holding my piss for so long...

I hope I don't get detained in the rest room for pissing...pissing on my desires... and un-fulfilled

dreams...

If I don't get back soon,  please send an ACLU LAWYER to get me out of the restroom

You can do that at least.  After you took my award and gave it to someone else. Don't make a mistake

 getting me out of the rest room. You want me to spend my lousy life in the American rest room now?

Mistake?  What a great mistake...that is the only great thing you have accomplished in your life

A GREAT BIG MISTAKE MADE BY THE GREAT HOLLYWOOD INDUSTRY...TO TAKE MY

 AWARD AWAY...

GOOD BY AND THANKS A LOT FOR THE HOLLYWOOD NIGHTMARE...

At least offer me some champagne...

"Oh! it's only for the winner.

You cheap, lousy bastards...Get your act together for heaven's sake.

Disrupted my comfortable life and brought me here across the occean to lock me in the rest room...

Actually the award was mine.  You decided to give it to someone else after you saw face...

That's the truth, the only truth.  Mistake? It took me so long to prepare my acceptance speech...

(  Music comes on, as lights dim, Bulbul gets off stage and run towards the rest room.)

END OF PLAY