Devoted
A 10-Minute Love Story Through Time
by Conrad A. Panganiban
Cast of Characters
MARY/MARISOL/MARIA CLARA: 20s. Filipina. Dressed in black as a statement of rebellion against love in all of it’s forms, shapes, and spaces.
CHRIS/CRISTOBAL/CRISOSTOMO: 30s. Filipino American. A history professor and author who’s mysterious past has come back to fulfil a prophesy.
DANIEL/DANNY/DANILO: 30s. An entitled young conservative with high political aspirations.
Setting
The play begins in the present inside Nostalgia, the Bookstore, San Francisco, USA. From there, it goes to 1986 inside a bookstore off the EDSA, and then we are transported to Manila inside a library in 1896.
Playwright’s Notes
‘/’ denotes an overlap of dialogue.
Lights up on the interior of Arkipelago Books, the Bookstore, with a small row of chairs set out.
Putting a pad of paper and sharpies into his bag is CHRIS, a 30-something history professor with a stack of books on a small table in front of him.
On a side table are items on display: a red shawl, women’s sunglasses, yellow t-shirts, a Filipiniana (A Maria Clara styled dress with Butterly Sleeves), fake mustaches, hats, and various disguises.
To Chris’s side is an easel with a sign reading, “The History of Romance in the Philippines” by Christopher Toledo.
MARY, a 20-something dressed in black and wearing a shoulder bag, rushes into the bookstore and immediately turns around to look outside.
MARY
Shit shit shit shit shit.
CHRIS
Um… Hi? Thanks for coming–
MARY
(looking outside the door) Shhhhh!!!
CHRIS
I’m sorry. Can I help you?
MARY
(still looking outside)
Shut up! He’s going to hear you.
CHRIS
Who?
MARY sees Daniel coming.
MARY
Fuck.
MARY quickly turns around to face Chris. As both look at each other for the first time, they both realize it isn’t. At the same time, they say…
CHRIS and MARY
You.
DANIEL (O.S.)
Mary?! Mary, are you in there?
MARY quickly sits in one of the seats in front of Chris’s table. Quick-thinking, Chris grabs a red scarf and sunglasses off the display table and hands them to Mary who quickly puts them on.
Enter DANIEL, a 20-something young conservative wearing a sports coat with a matching pair of entitled smugness.
DANIEL (CONT’D)
Mary, are you in / here?
CHRIS
Hey… you? Thanks for coming! I’m glad you made it to / my book signing.
CHRIS takes Daniel’s hand to shake it and turns him around away from Mary.
DANIEL
Yeah, I don’t care. Did you see a girl come in here?
CHRIS
Can’t say that I have.
DANIEL
(Takes a sniff)
No… I’m picking up on her scent. I heard on a podcast that when you’re in love, you can smell…
DANIEL turns around to see Mary sitting but facing the other way.
DANIEL (CONT’D)
Mary?
CHRIS
Excuse me Miss, [In Tagalog: Do you know this man?] MARY stands up, turns around to give Daniel a once over and in a deep 1960’s Filipina Film Star’s voice she answers with,
MARY
[In Tagalog: Who? This boy that smells like shit?]
DANIEL
Wha what what’d she say?
CHRIS
Um, tae. It means…
DANIEL
I don’t have time for tae. Did she see Mary?
CHRIS
Oh… yeah! She said… she said she saw a woman running that way… outside. Waaay outside!
DANIEL
That’s more like it. Thanks lady.
MARY
Tanga.
DANIEL begins to exit and then turns around.
DANIEL
Hey! If I don’t find her out there, I’ll be back… in here.
MARY
(Smiling and with a chopping motion)
[In Tagalog: Then I’ll chop your tiny dick off.] CHRIS
Uh, she said goodbye.
DANIEL
Okay. Bye. But next time, tell her to say it in English.
Exit DANIEL.
MARY
(Towards the door.)
Sure. Fuck you.
CHRIS
Who was that?
MARY
That was the blind-date-from-hell.
CHRIS
You should really unfriend the person who set you up with him.
MARY
Already did. I unfriended my mom on Facebook months ago.
“When am I going to have grandkids, haaa? Oh, there’s a boy from St. Francis aand his name is Daniel” aaand he’s so effing… grr. Sorry. Thanks for these.
MARY takes off the scarf and glasses and gives them to Chris.
CHRIS
Sure. Glad I didn’t throw you off with the / Tagalog.
MARY
Tagalog? No. Good thinking. Thank youuu…
CHRIS extends his hand, which MARY accepts and shakes.
CHRIS
Chris. And you’re Maria?
MARY
Mary actually. Just Mary.
MARY starts to vaguely remember knowing this guy she just met. Freaked out, MARY lets go of his hand.
MARY (CONT’D)
So, um. I better get / going.
CHRIS
Going. Right. Good luck.
MARY
You too.
MARY exits.
MARY rushes back in.
CHRIS
He’s still out there?
MARY
Like a troll. Would you mind if…? Just until you-know-who disappears.
CHRIS
No. I don’t mind at all. Mi biblioteca es su biblioteca.
MARY
That means library.
CHRIS
Tagalog and Spanish. Oh! Lemme… Excuse me…
As CHRIS crosses the floor to dim the store lights, MARY digs into her bag.
MARY
What are you doing?! I have mace!
CHRIS
Woah! No need for that. I’m just turning down the lights so the blind-date-from-hell will think we’re closed.
MARY
Oh. Right. Good thinking… again. Why does it feel like you’ve done this before?
CHRIS
That’s because I’ve written about this same scenario before.
MARY
Written?
CHRIS
Yeah. Um… I’m a writer and…
CHRIS gestures toward the sign saying, “The History of Romance in the Philippines” by Christopher Toledo.”
MARY
(Reading)
“The History of Romance in the Philippines by…” Oh! You’re that Chris.
CHRIS nods, “Yes.”
MARY (CONT’D)
Wow. Romance… Interesting. Okay… so, same scenario writer guy, how does the hunted in your book get away from the hunter?
CHRIS
Well, I wouldn’t put it that way, but it kinda went a little something like this…
Tony Orlando’s TIE A YELLOW RIBBON begins to play, and CHRIS puts on a pair of glasses and a fake mustache from the side table, picks up one of his books, flips to a page and begins to read, MARY takes a yellow bandana and puts it on. Lights change–it’s 1986, the Philippines.
CHRIS (CONT’D)
(In Filipino accent)
On a humid February night in 1986, Marisol runs into the makeshift bookstore on White Plains Avenue near EDSA. It’s the week before the world would first hear the words, People Power.
MARY looks out the door.
MARY
(In Filipino accent)
Shit shit shit shit shit.
CHRIS
Marisol.
MARY
Shhh… [In Tagalog: He might hear you.]
CHRIS
He’s still out there?
MARY
Like a duwende. And he’s about to-!
A quick-thinking CHRIS grabs a wooden fan (a pamaypay) from a side table and gives it to Mary who opens it to cover her face just as DANIEL enters wearing a Barong Tagalog.
DANIEL
Na saan siya? [In Tagalog: Where is she?]
CHRIS
Where is who?
DANIEL
Don’t play stupid with me.
(To Mary)
Have you seen a girl about this tall come in here?
MARY
[In Spanish: You’re so stupid. You don’t even know you’re talking to her.]
DANIEL
What did she say?
CHRIS
She said that the person you’re looking for ran outside.
Waaaay outside.
DANIEL
Thank you.
MARY
[In Spanish: Asshole.]
CHRIS
She said, Good luck!
DANIEL
Salamat. Oh, if she does come in here, tell her that we will find her and her boyfriend.
DANIEL exits.
MARY
Good thing he didn’t recognize you, Cristobal.
CHRIS
Not while I’m wearing this…
(CHRIS takes off the mustache.)
Lucky, he didn’t recognize you either.
MARY
(Smiling)
Then it’s lucky my picture is never shown with my words.
CHRIS
How can you be happy at a time like this? That was too close and it’s getting dangerous.
MARY
No, it’s getting exciting. And I’m happy because we’re in the middle of a movement. A Revolution. A new life. For us. For all of us.
CHRIS
Mahal, we won’t have a life if we’re caught. My father says we can still leave tonight. His connections with the American Embassy are waiting.
MARY
I told you, I can’t leave. If I don’t do my job here, how will the world know about what this President is doing to the people in his own country?
CHRIS
And where are all the other journalists who thought the same as you? They’re either missing… or worse.
MARISOL gets down on one knee, pulls out a box and opens it to reveal a ring.
MARY
Marry me.
CHRIS
What?
MARY
Marry me.
CHRIS
I’m talking about staying alive in a time of martial law and you’re talking about marriage?
MARY
Cristobal, when is there going to be a better time? We’ve known each other since our parents forced us to play hide and go seek. We’re not kids anymore, so no more games. I refuse to hide from Marcos and people like that person out there looking for us. Marry me and together, we can make a future worth being alive for.
CHRIS takes Mary’s hands to help her stand.
CHRIS
Together?
MARY
Magkasama. [In Tagalog: Together.]
CHRIS
For richer or poorer,
MARY
In sickness or in death,
CHRIS
[In Tagalog: Will you marry me?]
Lights transition back to the present, with American MARY dropping Chris’s hands.
MARY
(Back in American accent) Oh no! Hell no! (Mocking) “Will you marry me?” Seriousthere’s nothing worse than the institutional prison of marriage.
CHRIS
Where’s this hate coming from? What’s love ever done to you?
MARY
There’s a Trumpian Douche Nozzle out there who thinks he’s in love with me after knowing me for, what, five-minutes? That kind of love sounds like some crazy voodoo power shit that I don’t want any part of.
CHRIS
Have you ever been in love?
MARY
Why? No. Never.
CHRIS
Are you sure?
Spanish guitars fill the air as lights change the room into 1896 inside a library.
Enter DANIEL wearing a friar’s robe.
DANIEL
[In Spanish: He said I’d find you here.]
MARY
(In Spanish accent)
What did you do with him Padre Danilo?
DANIEL
Crisostomo is no longer any of your concern.
Beat. Maria Clara knows what happened…
MARY
Where is his body?
DANIEL
You should have convinced him to stop writing about Madre España and the government here. If there’s any consolation, Señora Maria Clara, he was very brave.
MARY
WHERE IS HIS BODY?!
DANIEL takes out a letter and gives it to Mary.
DANIEL
Always writing until the very end.
DANIEL exits.
MARY
When we were kids, Crisostomo would climb the tallest tree in Batangas and cut down the coconuts at its very top. At night, after having our fill of coconut meat and juice, we would lay under a blanket of stars and make up stories for the different constellations that reflected in our eyes. Like how the Big Dipper was used as Bathala’s tabo. Or how the three stars that make up Balatik’s sword of Orion was used to fight off dragons for the honor of his love, the Goddess Dawn. If I had that sword, I’d use it to fight this empty feeling of loss for what was once the bottomless vessel of joy in hearing his voice, in hearing his laughter and in hearing the beat of his heart sync with mine as I lay my ear to his chest before falling asleep. I’d give anything to use that blade to cut out the agony of what a hundred of Cupid’s arrows feels like as they fall from the sky to pierce the symbol of love that beats within my chest. And with this… this infinite ache, I make this devoted vow to never love again until his body is returned to me.
Lights shift back to the present inside the bookshop.
CHRIS
That’s when you started hating love?
MARY
It’s not the love I hate. It’s the pain that comes with it.
CHRIS
What does the letter say?
MARY
What?
CHRIS
The letter. The one in your hands. What does it say?
MARY looks down at the letter and unfolds it.
MARY
Mi Amor, [In Spanish: My Love,] [In Tagalog: No matter where I am / or…]
CHRIS
[In Tagalog: Or where you are…]
MARY
No matter the distance,
…time, or place. / I’ll…
CHRIS
…time, or place.
I’ll never stop looking for you.
After centuries of being apart, as lights fade out and the guitar intro of Julie Plug’s DEVOTED fade in, CHRIS and MARY finally find each other in a kiss to end all Love Stories.
END OF PLAY