Love and Marriage Ever After
Love and Marriage Ever After
A ten minute play
by
Paola Bruni
CHARACTERS
VOICE OF GRANDMA GODDESS – Narrator. Voice of wisdom and choice.
Wang Shu “THE GROOM” – 43 when deceased in a coal mining accident. Kind and compassionate, but lonely and despairing. Feels tremendous guilt that he did not marry and produce heirs to carry on the family name. Inexperienced and idealistic about matters of love.
Zhi Ruo “THE BRIDE” – 29 when deceased by drowning. Self-involved, educated young woman. Changeable and rebellious in nature. Cynical about familial love as well as romantic love.
TIME: Present day (although technically, the characters are not subject to time)
PLACE: Bridge between the afterlife and rebirth into a new life.
AT RISE: WANG SHU stands on a bridge alone. He is wearing a black tuxedo smeared with dirt and dust. A misty fog rolls across the stage. He is sad, contemplative at times, and anxious.
ZHI RUO suddenly appears. She arrives on the stage walking backwards. She wears an old stained, damp wedding gown. Her hair is partially wet, disheveled.
ZHI RUO
(shouting vehemently offstage) No! I said, “No!” You aren’t listening to me. Mother, please!
WANG SHU stares, a look of relief and then concern illuminate his face. ZHI RUO bumps into WANG SHU. She startles.
ZHI RUO
Look, this isn’t my choice. I don’t belong here. No offense.
WANG SHU
(nervously) None taken. I understand. You are upset. Arranged marriages can be difficult at first.
ZHI RUO
Difficult? Difficult! (angry) I’m dead! (poking WANG SHU on the chest, her finger disappearing as it touches him) You’re dead!
WANG SHU
(stepping back, rubbing his chest) Yes, we’re deceased, but this is a mere technicality. It’s our afterlife marriage, mínghūn!
ZHI RUO
(interrupting) I know what mínghūn is. Archaic…of all the ridiculous. How could they?
WANG SHU
You were unmarried at the time of your death. I was unmarried at the time of mine. My family sought to dispel my loneliness. They purchased…
ZHI RUO
(interrupting) My corpse for you. My soul. I know. I know. I just can’t believe my parents would do something like this. And for a pitiful $2,500!
WANG SHU
(becoming irritated) $2,500 is my family’s entire life savings. They spent every penny they had to ensure my happiness. It was too much.
ZHI RUO
For your information, $2,500 is nothing to my parents. It’s less than a quarter of the dowry they saved for my wedding (pause while ZHI RUO examines herself). My mother was probably concerned about the bloating.
WANG SHU
You are still vibrant, even in death. I can only imagine your flesh and blood beauty.
ZHI RHO
(despairing) You think I’m vibrant? (pause) Doesn’t matter what you think!
I was nothing more than a commodity to my parents in life, and clearly now, a commodity in death. You must know that Chinese daughters have no value until they are wed and produce an heir. I should have known they’d pull a stunt like this…marry me off to some… to some…who are you anyway?
WANG SHU
(bowing) You can call me WANG SHU. I am the only son of Kong and Chin Lee of the Shanxi province.
ZHI RUO
ZHI RUO. Wuhan City, born and bred. What’s with the dust?
WANG SHU
I was a coal miner.
ZHI RUO
That’s just perfect. Not only did they marry me to a complete stranger, they married me to an uneducated, working class…God, I could just kill my mother for this. (turning to WANG SHU) No offense.
WANG SHU
(frustrated) That was rather offensive. You don’t know me.
ZHI RUO
You’re right. Of course, you’re right. (looking him over) You seem fine. Nice bones, a strong jaw. It’s just…this is all so (straightening her hair, patting at her dress) unexpected.
WANG SHU
What is? Death? (pause) Or marriage after death?
ZHI RUO
Both. (pause) I never imagined…(pacing) I’m only 29. I had a life, dreams. I…
WANG SHU
How did you?
ZHI RHO
Drowned. (pause) You?
WANG SHU
Cave-in at the mine. (pause)
Look, ZHI RUO, this is all my fault. I was lonely in life, and then, ironically, desperately lonely in death. My spirit was restless. My mother sensed my desire for love—she was always very intuitive.
ZHI RUO
(sarcastic) Love. Love is highly overrated. It is a sleight of hand—an illusion. One minute you can’t live without the other person, and the next minute, you want to kill them.
WANG SHU
Perhaps I’m naive, but that doesn’t sound like real love. It sounds like obsession, passion perhaps, but not real love. I believe real love is like breathing—simple, constant, enduring. (glancing down at his hands shyly)
ZHI RHO
(briefly interested, despite herself) Were you engaged?
WANG SHU
I lacked courage where women were concerned.
ZHI RHO
Ha! Did you even date?
WANG SHU shakes his head indicating he had not.
ZHI RHO
That’s what I thought. You don’t know the first thing about love. I was in a real relationship for seven years.
WANG SHU
But your parents...
ZHI RUO
Didn’t know. Oh, they thought me insolent and picky. They paraded suitors through our house. Lord, that was tedious. But I’d already found someone to love.
WANG SHU
(Disturbed) Go on.
ZHI RUO
(Sighing) We were wild, savage together. I never met anyone like him. Intelligent, fearless, passionate. Every moment we spent in each other’s arms—the morning mist over East Lake, strolling through Cherry Blossom Park, feeding each other morsels of spicy duck—it was like a dream. I’d have married him in an instant.
WANG SHU
(Confused) Yet, you…
ZHI RUO
He already had a wife, a son, a thriving auto business.
WANG SHU
(Clearly disturbed. Walks away from ZHI RUO Turns back, frowning) You were his mistress.
ZHI RUO
His lover. His best friend. Mistress sounds so, so…mistress sounds so…
WANG SHU
Truthful.
ZHI RUO
I was going to say old fashioned.
WANG SHU
Concubine is old fashioned.
ZHI RUO
Okay, mistress, concubine. Whatever.
WANG SHU
ZHI RUO…
ZHI RUO
I grew tired of deception. I threatened to expose our relationship, involve our families so we could settle things properly.
WANG SHU
But you drowned…
ZHI RUO
By his hand. Imagine my surprise. (wringing water from her dress, picking at herself) Maybe I deserved it.
WANG SHU
No one deserves to be murdered, least of all by the person they profess to love.
ZHI RUO
Profess? I loved him.
WANG SHU
And you betrayed your family. (pause) His family. (pause) My family. I’m quite certain my parents purchased you believing you to be…
ZHI RHO
A 29-year-old virgin? Don’t you dare judge me. I followed my heart. And this is my punishment. Forever after with you—no offense.
WANG SHU
(frustrated) Seriously?
ZHI RHO
Yes, seriously. As you said, this is your fault. You couldn’t stop pining for the bride you didn’t get in your human life. Right?
WANG SHU
It sounds much worse when you say it.
ZHI RHO
Unlike you, I was perfectly content…(pause) wasn’t I?
WANG SHU
(beat) You’re here now. And we’ll make do. I accept you as you are.
ZHI RUO
That’s rich. You mean, used, decomposing goods that I am?
WANG SHU
You are my beautiful ghost bride, my honorable wife.
ZHI RUO
Don’t call me that. I’m not honorable and I’m not your wife, your possession, no more than you are my husband. I don’t care if your parents bought me. My family didn’t have the right to sell me in the first place!
WANG SHU
There’s no undoing what has been done.
ZHI RUO
Isn’t there? There has to be a way out of this. Afterlife annulment?
WANG SHU
If there is one I haven’t heard of it. Look on the bright side.
ZHI RHO
What bright side?
WANG SHU
As you said, I have good bones, a strong jaw. I have other qualities.
ZHI RHO studies WANG SHU intently. Every detail about him is suddenly important.
ZHI RHO
Like?
WANG SHU
I’m honest and loyal, and I will honor you. I believe you to be worthy of love, of my love, which I will give freely and without reserve.
ZHI RUO
And what if I don’t love you?
WANG SHU
For now, we can be friends, companions.
ZHI RHO
It’s not enough.
WANG SHU
I will bear witness to your afterlife.
ZHI RHO
What does that mean?
WANG SHU
Witness each other’s experience. Without a witness, it’s as if you never existed. That was my human life. Without a wife, love…it was… as if I had never been at all.
ZHI RHO
You’re awfully philosophical for an illiterate coal miner.
WANG SHU
Have you always been this demeaning or is it a trait I bring out?
ZHI RUO
What?
WANG SHU
I know how to read. And books are available in the afterlife. Large print. Easier on the eyes. God, you are arrogant and irritating!
ZHI RUO
Ha! And you’re opinionated and judgmental and you have no experience whatsoever with women. I’ll have to teach you everything.
WANG SHU
Forgive me for pointing this out, but the love of your life held your head underwater until you drowned. I’m not sure I should be taking relationship advice from you.
ZHI RUO
Damn you! (long pause) You’re right. Of course, you’re right. Apparently, I don’t know anything about love.
WANG SHU
Lao Tzu says, “Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength. Loving someone deeply gives you courage.”
ZHI RHO
What does that mean?
WANG SHU
It means that love given and received has the capacity to expand our souls. Together, we can become our best selves.
ZHI RHO
I don’t know. (pause) I’m just so confused. How can I ever trust myself again? I thought (head down, humbled) I thought he…I thought he loved me.
WANG SHU
If you can’t trust yourself, then trust me.
WANG SHU reaches for ZHI RHO’s hand and she yanks it away as if scalded.
ZHI RHO
What if I can’t?
WANG SHU
Can’t or won’t?
GRANDMA GODDESS
(offstage narrator) WANG SHU, come to me. Drink the soup of forgetting and you will be reborn into a new life.
ZHI RHO
Who was that?
WANG SHU
GRANDMA GODDESS. Did you not study mythology? We are standing on the bridge between eternity and rebirth. When GRANDMA calls, the gate is open. I can forget all of this…my past lives, this (pointing at the two of them), and be reborn into an entirely new existence.
ZHI RHO
Well, why didn’t you say so before? Let’s go.
WANG SHU
You can’t go. GRANDMA didn’t call you.
ZHI RHO
Then, you can’t go either. We’re married.
WANG SHU
Oh, now we’re married? That’s convenient. You want nothing to do with me, and now that I can leave, you say we’re married. (pause)
(to GRANDMA GODDESS) What awaits me when I leave this place, most honorable GRANDMOTHER?
GRANDMA GODDESS
You enter the realm of all possibilities, my son.
WANG SHU
(to ZHI RHO) All possibilities...I’m going.
ZHI RHO
You’re joking, right?
WANG SHU starts across the bridge.
ZHI RHO
Stop! WANG SHU. What about loyalty? I trust you. I mean, I’ll try.
WANG SHU
(long pause) So you do know my name.
ZHI RHO
WANG SHU. Please, don’t leave me. I’m no prize and I don’t deserve…
WANG SHU
(slowly walking back toward ZHI RHO) No, you don’t.
BLACK OUT