Buried Alive or Marie Lauveau II

First five pages


Time: June 15, 1881, 7 pm death time, New Orleans, Louisiana

Setting: An occult parlor in the French Quarter, and other hallucinatory spaces in ghostly New Orleans. We�re in the death mind of the Voodoo Priestess, Marie Laveau II.

NOTE: The coffin and other death symbols can be real or imaginary. Saints and other ghosts may be personified as voices or characters. These intruders threaten to stop Marie�s return to earth. The spirit of a fantastic dream is what is important.

AT RISE: Marie Laveau�a stunning Creole woman of timeless beauty stands near an open casket. She wears a rose satin shroud. Velvet bows sweep up her waist length hair. She speaks to an imagined intruder in a parlor for the dead.

MARIE (Hysterical, desparate) Who put me in that casket. I�m alive. I couldn�t sleep. Probably took the wrong potion. I�m a Voodoo Queen, can�t do things without drama.

Things went from it�s good to omygod what�s happening here, to�

My body looks like it�s in that coffin propped up on those pillows . But I�m here.

Somebody must have put a spell on me.

(Her arms lift up)

(Terrified) Oh, no. My arms are floating up, and I�m feeling as though I�m rising out my body. STOP.I don�t want to go toward that light. I want to stay in New Orleans, a colored girl you hear.

Whoever you are. Release me and I�ll give you whatever potions you want.

(Turns on the lights.)

MARIE Death is ridiculous. I put the lights on, and I won�t see it.

Oh no. I�m in Mama�s house. I thought we sold that.

(Tolling of bells)

Things are set up for a wake

(L�ESPRIT taps her shoulder.)

MARIE Who are you? If I name people, I�m not afraid of them.

L�ESPRIT (Angry, mean) Your helper.

MARIE I can tell you are a good friend as my best friends are always instant or not. Spirits don�t grow on me.

L�ESPRIT (Frigid, vicious) I�m Bo

MARIE But�You�ve come to the wrong place? I�m not dead!

YOU ARE LOOKING FOR MY DEAD MOTHER NOT ME. SHE WAS MARIE LAUVEAU I. I�M NUMBER II.

L�ESPRIT I�ve been invited into the inner circle of your death.

MARIE You�ve got it wrong. And I�m sure someone thinks Ma is still alive and wants to kill HER�not me.

I arranged her public events, that�s why you got confused. My name is Marie Heloise Euchariste Glapion. I was a hairdresser. Ma�s in St. Louis cemetery. In that tomb with the most flowers.

L�ESPRIT Why not die easily?

MARIE I kept Ma�s portrait on the wall, lit candles before it.

L�ESPRIT Admit your treachery.

MARIE People don�t know she died because I dress and look like her. Carry on the tradition.

L�ESPRIT You were bad, Marie. And your goodness gave way.

MARIE No people counted on me. I gave them hope. If people had thought Mama died, they would have distanced themselves from Voodoo.

(APPARITION of Peter and Paul floating above Rome.)

(MARIE rushes to the altar of the dead)

MARIE Oh her old altar�s still here. I thought we enlarged that.

(MARIE lights candles, lifts a voodoo doll.)

MARIE Ma. Come to me.

(Voices whispering, �Libere profundo.�)

MARIE Tell me what to do and say. I�m worried.

L�ESPRIT Worry is like a rabbit�s foot it can�t prevent the unpreventable.

(MARIE writes a note, hides it.)

L�ESPRIT Who is going to find that paper?

MARIE It doesn�t matter; what matters is I give it.

(Voices whispering, �Misere misere.�)

(MARIE walks about.)

MARIE I�m starting a ripple effect; I�m expanding my world.