Skull
one-minute play
(excerpt from Roasting Death)
(excerpt from Roasting Death)
A woman holds a human skull.
WOMAN
To think one day I’ll look like this.
No hair. How will I flirt?
No lips for a deceitful kiss.
No tongue to dish the dirt.
No eyes to flash a cheeky smile.
No lashes I can flaunt.
There’s just one compensation. I’ll
Be fashionably gaunt.
The woman throws the skull to a man.
MAN
While feasting in a rowdy hall,
The ancients liked to see
A symbol to remind them all
Of their mortality.
They placed a gruesome skeleton
Amongst them at the table.
But we respect our next of kin.
So we use Aunty Mabel.
The man throws the skull back to the woman. She holds it up and moves the jaw as if it is speaking.
WOMAN
I’m six feet below
With no one to love me.
I’ll tell you where Heaven is.
Six feet above me.
WOMAN
To think one day I’ll look like this.
No hair. How will I flirt?
No lips for a deceitful kiss.
No tongue to dish the dirt.
No eyes to flash a cheeky smile.
No lashes I can flaunt.
There’s just one compensation. I’ll
Be fashionably gaunt.
The woman throws the skull to a man.
MAN
While feasting in a rowdy hall,
The ancients liked to see
A symbol to remind them all
Of their mortality.
They placed a gruesome skeleton
Amongst them at the table.
But we respect our next of kin.
So we use Aunty Mabel.
The man throws the skull back to the woman. She holds it up and moves the jaw as if it is speaking.
WOMAN
I’m six feet below
With no one to love me.
I’ll tell you where Heaven is.
Six feet above me.
