#25: UNDINE: A FABLE

Written by
Joseph Frost
Draft
8/27/16
written for the 2016 31 Plays in 31 Days project

Joseph Frost, 2016

4550 Normandy Dr
Jackson, MS 39206
FrostJosephD@gmail.com
* member, Dramatists Guild of America

UNDINE stands in the center.

KNIGHT stands apart from her.
UNDINE
There was a promise.
KNIGHT
I know there was.
UNDINE
It was made of words you formed.
KNIGHT
Yes.
UNDINE
With your own mouth. And of your own will.
KNIGHT
Yes.
A moment.
UNDINE
You know what this means, dont you.
KNIGHT
What do you mean?
UNDINE
What youve done. The consequences.
KNIGHT
Consequences.
UNDINE
The consequences.
KNIGHT
Surely you cant mean...
UNDINE
You know what it means.

2.
KNIGHT
I dont.
A moment.
She turns to Knight.
UNDINE
How could you?
KNIGHT
Undine, I-UNDINE
To lie to me. As well.
(beat)
After what Ive done. For you.
KNIGHT
After what you chose to do.
Another moment.
UNDINE
From what I was to what I am now...
KNIGHT
This was your choice. You chose not a god, but a man. You chose not perfection, but
mortality.
UNDINE
This was my choice.
KNIGHT
This is what you have never felt before. Fear of death. Fear of your death.
UNDINE
This feeling...
KNIGHT
Its horrible.
UNDINE
Yes.

3.
KNIGHT
You never thought it could feel like this.
UNDINE
No.
(beat)
Never.
KNIGHT
Never.
Lights shift.
The world is underwater, except for Knight.
UNDINE
The flow of tides, the ever undulating waves, water surrounding my body at all times,
supporting me, sustaining. Whatever was there to fear. Nothing.
KNIGHT
Until...
UNDINE
I looked up. I looked up beyond the waters. And looked up to where the sun shined and
the winds blew. I looked up from the life I knew into the unknown.
KNIGHT
The unknown.
UNDINE
And I saw...
KNIGHT
Me.
UNDINE
You.
KNIGHT
And you...
UNDINE
Loved.

4.
KNIGHT
Loved.
(beat)
And you...
UNDINE
Chose.
KNIGHT
Chose.
(beat)
You rose from the waters.
The water light changes.
UNDINE
I left the waters. For you.
KNIGHT
And you told me...
UNDINE
I told you.
KNIGHT
You told me that you would be mine.
UNDINE
That I would be yours.
KNIGHT
And that...
UNDINE
And that you had to be...
KNIGHT
Faithful.
UNDINE
Faithful.
KNIGHT
Or.

5.
UNDINE
Or you would lose me.
KNIGHT
That you would die.
UNDINE
That I would be lost.
KNIGHT
Lost.
A moment.
UNDINE
You said you loved me.
KNIGHT
I did.
UNDINE
You betrayed me.
KNIGHT
I did.
UNDINE
You have lost me.
KNIGHT
You have been lost.
Undine stumbles.
UNDINE
So soon.
Knight rushes to her.
Knight picks her up.
KNIGHT
I never told you...

6.
UNDINE
Told me?
KNIGHT
I never told you I could be perfect.
UNDINE
But you promised...
KNIGHT
I...
UNDINE
Didnt you...
Undine takes a sudden breath.
KNIGHT
Undine.
UNDINE
You promised.
You.
Promised.
Undine dies.
KNIGHT
Lost.
Knight sets her down on the ground.
He kneels beside her.
He weeps.
She becomes water again.
Lights.
End.