Bird Boy
Boys: 7. Small. Thinks he’s a bird. That is all he knows.
Mother: Late 20’s. Older than her years. Clever but withered.
Woman: Early 30’s. Direct. Calm.
The play is set in a small room inside a two-roomed apartment in which there lives a boy and his mother. The whole room is filled with bird cages. Straw, bird seed and droppings cover the floor. At the centre of the stage towards the back there is one cage that is larger than the others in which lives the boy. Also in the room are a table and two chairs. The birds chirp.
Scene 1
Mother: Once upon a time there was a young girl. She was loved, she was beautiful, and she was cherished.
Then someone came along and took her. Moved her. Worshiped her. Corrupted her beauty and her youth. Took away her life and her soul. Locked them away in a deep dark place. A deep dark forest. For the shame would have damaged the whole world.
She gave birth. To a bird. A beautiful bird.
Pause
I bleed. I bleed inside. And outside.
I watch them, my birds. Thrushes and nightingales, sparrows and larks, starlings and robins. I wait until I can hear them cry. There’s a sound they make when they are crying, a screech. They are hungry and I give them the gift of life. I give them the gift of my love. My undying love. That’s all they need to save them. Deep love is all anyone needs, it fills the thirst, it fills all the holes you find in the lost and the lonely.
Come back. Come back. Come back. Come back. Come back.
Wake me from my nightmare to kill me again.
(Singing)
My pretty bird is blood red
Sings away, sings away
My sweetling bird is dead
Sings away, sings away
My pretty bird is swollen bled
Sings away, sings away
My sweeting bird is homeward sped
Sings away, sings away
(Speaks)
The birds, the birds, the birds, they love me.
It was a bad day, a terrible day. No one deserved a day like that. Sort of thing you would read in a book. Only the book always ends. Final page and that is it. Events and people resolve themselves. Today nothing resolved itself; it just bled and bled and bled and bled and bled. Took it all away from me. Then more.
Come Ahriman, fill me up with valour. Cover the world.
(She turns and sits by the boy in his cage, croons at him and stokes the cage. He chirps back at her.)
You’re such a pretty little boy. I would let you out but you’d fly away. You can’t leave me. I won’t let you. I pressed you out of me. All alone I gave birth to a bird. And who would believe me if I told them? That I gave birth to a bird of love.
In cages. Locked up together, no chance of escape. If you are locked up then you can’t leave. You can never leave.
You are safe in your cage, you’re pretty and real.
You love me don’t you?
Please tell me you love me?
Please tell me you need me?
(She reaches through the bars of the cage containing the boy. He chirps at her and then bites her fingers, drawing blood)
You don’t love me?
I brought you here. I protected you.
You hate me?
Fine. You shall have no more seed. No more seed for you. For any of you.
(The birds and the boy chirp louder throughout the next few lines.)
I’m sick of you.
Stop it. Stop shouting at me.
STOP IT.
Boy: STOP IT
(The boy attempts to get out the cage. He keeps trying to bite her.)
Mother: I don’t like it.
Boy: STOP IT.
Mother: Go away.
Boy: GO AWAY.
Mother: Stop shouting at me.
Boy: STOP IT.
Mother: I told you to stop it.
Mother: STOP IT.
Boy: STOP IT.
Mother: Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. I don’t like it.
(She has enough and puts a cloth over the cage containing the boy. He is silent.)
Mother: See what you made me do?
See.
You see.
You’ll love me in the end.
No more seed for you.
That will teach you.
I do everything I can to make you love me and yet you still don’t love me.
WHY DON’T YOU LOVE ME?!
(A woman enters. No warning. She just wonders in. She has an ethereal quality. The Mother jumps and moves away from the cage.)
Mother: Who are you? What are you doing here? How did you get in? No one comes here. No one.
Woman: I come where you need me.
Mother: Why are you here?
Women: You need my help and so I am here.
Mother: I don’t understand.
Woman: Yes. Well. It’s a sort of magic.
(Pause. The Woman stares at the Mother. She shivers.)
Woman: You seem afraid, jumpy.
Mother: You look like someone I used to know. I can’t get them out my head. I’m sorry.
Woman: No need.
Mother: They were strange. Like you. Different.
Woman: Well then I hope we are alike in looks alone. I am not strange.
Mother: Who are you?
Woman: I am she.
(Long pause. Both women look at each other.)
Mother: I have, I’ve always had, a fear of being ordinary.
Woman: Yes, I understand. I love the ballet. Swan Lake. But when the show is over, I always wonder if anyone is going to die in a car crash on the way home.
Mother: Yes. It’s a sad state of affairs when the inability to orgasm leads you to consider suicide. When the slightest bit of human contact moves you to tears.
Woman: I know. I was ashamed to admit when nothing out of the ordinary happened. I got bored of my life being like a one woman show in which I only played the fool. So I push to the front. I made myself what I am. I chose my role.
(Pause. A flutter from the birds)
Mother: They keep me happy. Keep me alive. You understand, don’t you?
Woman: I see. (pause) Shall we play?
Mother: Play what?
Woman: Play a game of chance.
Mother: What’s the chance?
Woman: The chance of a lifetime.
Mother: Mine or yours?
Woman: I misunderstand you.
Mother: Your lifetime or mine? Your chance is different to my chance. My life is different.
Woman: I’m sure it is.
Mother: Does yours feel different?
Woman: Perhaps.
Mother: If I ripped you open would you be different?
Woman: Perhaps.
Mother: If I kept you forever, would you mind? Would you keep yourself happy?
Woman: I might do.
(Long Pause. Mother moves as if to caress the women. Nearly touches her but falls back when she speaks)
Woman: I’ve been having some dreams lately. In my dream I kiss a stranger. I cannot see their face. It is blank, a beautiful blank canvas. I think it represents acceptance of that locked up, repressed, crazy, unconscious part of yourself that you would rather hide away. Would you like to kiss a stranger?
Mother: A snake. Mine is a snake. A long and twisted snake that in your dream may be phallic, full of dangerous and forbidden sexuality. The snake. I think it may also be a person. Someone who is callous, ruthless, and can't be trusted. What if there is a snake in reality?
Woman: To dream that you are wearing a white dress implies that you want to appear pure and angelic toward others. Perhaps you are trying to look "innocent”.
Mother: To see or watch Cinderella in your dream indicates that a seemingly bad situation will work out for the best in the end. There is such thing as "happily ever after".
Woman: Is there?
Mother: Is there?
Woman: Perhaps.
Mother: So many broken.
Woman: So many fixed.
(Pause)
Mother: I’m so scared.
Woman: You need my help.
Mother: I’m afraid and alone and hurting. There’s a dull ache in my chest that never leaves. It never goes away. It’s lodged there in my heart like a piece of apple stuck in my throat.
Woman: I know.
Mother: It’s poison. I’m poison.
(Pause)
Women: So do you want to play?
Mother: Ok.
Women: (Calmly) Kill the birds.
Mother: What?
Women: Kill them.
Mother: I can’t.
Women: Yes you can. Drown them. Throw them away. Ring their necks.
Mother: But I can’t.
Women: Yes. Yes you can.
Mother: No.
Women: What if I held a knife to your throat?
Mother: No.
Women: I think you would.
Mother: No.
Women: A game of chance. A chance that I stumbled upon.
Mother: No. Stop it.
Women: One little movement that is all it would take...
Mother: Stop it.
Women: Just a second, then it would be over...
Mother: STOP IT.
Boy: STOP IT.
Women: Ahhh, now I see.
Boy: STOP IT.
(The Women uncovers the cage. The boy stares at her.)
Woman: Would you cry if I took him away from you?
Mother: I’d weep floods of tears.
Woman: Would you kill yourself?
Mother: My life would end.
Woman: Would it break your heart?
Mother: My life would end.
Woman: Would you find another?
Mother: My life would end.
Woman: If I broke your bones, cracked open your skull and ripped your flesh... would it hurt less?
Mother: My life would end either way. I would feel nothing.
Woman: What if I cut your throat and impaled you on a stake?
Mother: I would feel nothing without them.
Woman: If I came to you in love?
Mother: I would cut my throat before I let you hurt me again. Love is between a Mother...
Woman: Again? There is no before, after or again.
Mother: There is always before. Before invades everything. Before tells of again.
Woman: I shall take him away.
Mother: I will die.
Woman: Leaving her with nothing but the bruises she herself had inflicted.
Mother: They need me. I need them. What’s wrong with that? I am happy and they are happy with me. How they are now. I look after them. I love them.
Woman: There's a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how you may.
Mother: You must leave now. Leave me. I’ve been here before. I know how it ends. Leave now.
Woman: I’m going to let your boy free now. I’m going to be the good fairy. You’d like that wouldn’t you. A happy ending?
(The woman excitedly moves to open the cage. As she is distracted The Mother picks up one of the smaller bird cages. She advances on the women and just as the women is about to let out the boy. She hits the woman over the head with it. The Woman falls unconscious, half in the cage.)
Mother: I told her. I warned her.
Scene 2
The Woman and the Boy are locked in the cage. The Mother is sat next to the cage. She is poking seed through the bars. There is some faint noise going on outside. The sound of voices and banging.
Mother: (Singing) My pretty birds are swollen bled
Sings away, sings away
My sweeting birds are homeward sped
Sings away, sings away
Here you are. Have some seed. Seed for you to make you happy. From me.
I love you.
I shall keep you.
I love you.
(The Woman stirs and wakes.)
Mother: No. I told you to stay quiet. I told you to be quiet.
Woman: I can help you.
Mother: No. You want to take him away. You want to take him away from me. I won’t let you.
Woman: I was sent here by others. The other good people. They are on their way. We cannot keep having children disappear. You must have expected it. You must have.
Mother: They get too close. Playing near me. I want them. I want to steal them and keep them. Hide them away from the world. I have to lock them up. It’s for their own good. Their own good. They are happier this way. Safe.
Woman: There will be here soon. They will come whether you want them to or not. This is it now. This is the end. This is banishment. Vanquish. The end of the tale.
Mother: No. No. It can’t be.
Woman: It is.
Mother: I can’t let them go.
Woman: You’re going to have to. I was the last message. The last chapter. I tried to tell you. I tried to persuade you every way I could.
Mother: Why? Why do you need to do this?
Woman: We can’t let this go on. These children are dying. They are wrong. They are different. They don’t belong here. They don’t belong in this world. They need to be free. They need to be rescued.
(A loud banging is heard offstage. It is an indescribable sound.)
Woman: Let me out. Let me out so I can talk to them.
Mother: No.
Woman: If you just let me talk to them, I can try and persuade them. I can try and make them see. Let them see him. Let them see that he is well and alive.
Mother: No, I can’t. No one can come in.
Woman: Please let me. Please. For your boy.
Mother: I can’t. I can’t.
Woman: Yes you can. Yes you can, I believe in you.
(More banging.)
Mother: If I don’t then they’ll come in?
Woman: They’ll force the door down.
Mother: (Almost to herself) I don’t know... I... I. I don’t know what to do. I’m scared. I’m so scared.
Woman: Please let me try and help you. Both of you. All of us.
Mother: What should I do?
Woman: Let me go. Let me take him to the window.
(Banging continues)
Mother: What if he goes? What if he leaves me?
Woman: He won’t. He loves you.
Mother: What if he doesn’t?
Woman: He does. I know he does. (Pause) Please. (Pause) Please. You must.
(The Mother slowly opens the cage. As she does so the woman runs out, dragging the boy with her and exits the stage. The mother stands aghast looking after them. After a couple of minutes the woman re-enters from the same place that she exited. The noise outside has stopped.)
Woman: I hope you understand. He’ll be better off now. He’ll be a real boy.
Mother: He’s not coming back?
Woman: Did you really believe that he was?
Mother: You promised. You promised he would come back to me.
Woman: It was never meant to be.
Mother: He’s gone? He’s not coming back?
Woman: It’s better this way.
Mother: No. No. No. You said he’d come back. Why would you do this? Why would you kill me this way?
Woman: You don’t belong in this story. You don’t belong in his story.
Mother: I do. I do. I love him. And now he’s gone. He needs me. Bring him back. BRING HIM BACK.
Woman: I can’t do that. He’ll be looked after. Happily ever after.
(The Woman exits. The Mother is left alone. Bereft. After a while she moves to get inside the cage. She locks it and swallows the key.)
Mother: They all will leave in the end. No one is safe from harm. Come Arhiman. I am ready for you now. Cover me in your caress. Lead me away from here.
(She curls up in the bottom of the cage. The lights start to dim as she sings.)
Mother: (Singing)
My pretty bird is blood red
Sings away, sings away
My sweetling bird is dead
Sings away, sings away
My pretty bird is swollen bled
Sings away, sings away
My sweeting bird is homeward sped
Sings away, sings away
