Marilyn/God

Scene 1

SETTING:

We're on an empty stage, in a space of limbo, during her final hours. MARILYN responds to people she envisions. When voices answer, faces appear on the scrim behind her. Messages flash on the scrim inside different movie palace marquees.


AT RISE: Marilyn, aged 36, in a creamy silk gown is asleep on the floor. She awakes from a nightmare.

(FADE-IN sounds of a phone ringing incessantly blurring into a buzz.)

MARILYN

(Terrified, calls out) What’s that? Who's here? (Clanking of a metal door closing)

My eyes are swollen. I can’t breathe.

(Snapping of a bolt lock.)

Oh! (Frustrated, humor) Did I do myself in?

(Grating like a prisoner walking in ball and chains.)

--Take too many pills? (Jokes) I tried suicide once; it didn’t work.

(More heavy footsteps.)

Hello! (Baffled) Where am I? New York? LA?

(She frets about this. Self-important.) My house is on a cul-de-sac! No one will find me.

(Swooshing sound of air shooting over the floor)

(Panicked) Who's that? (Screams) Somebody!

(We hear a labored breathing)

(Forceful) I’m not finished. This isn’t the end of me.

(Terrified) I’m shaking. Is it night sweats? Too many pills. (Shrieks) Anybody here!!!!!!!!!Who’s in my house


(Behind her in the dimness we see MARILYN’s house 5 Helena Drive, on a small street, almost like an alley.)

(FADE-IN of Come-on a My House, Nelson Riddle, composer)

Scene 2


Lapse of time of only a few moments. MARILYN’S house blurs into a 1950’s picture of old Hollywood. The picture fades into the face of an old man with a cigar.


VOICE (Off-Stage)

You’re at the crossroads.

MARILYN
(Reaching heavenward.) Someone’s getting inside my body.(Terrified) Who are you? Are you trapped too?


AGENT (Off-Stage)

Your agent.


MARILYN (Angry)

You're not my--Johnny Hyde. I went to your funeral. An old man was in the casket.


VOICE (Off)

(Voice echoes/fades) I'm the voice he speaks through.


MARILYN

Johnny come back! I’m barely breathing. Get a clinic to revive me. Private doctor. No publicity.
(Spreads her arms, rises)

Oh my god (Flabbergasted) I’m floating over the scene, up 30 feet.


(Looks down, horrified)

I see myself lying on my side in a fetal position. It's quiet.


(A marquee appears on the scrim. Perhaps one with blinking lights.)


(MUSIC: Sugar Blues/Runnin’ Wild from Some Like It Hot, Adolph Deutsch, composer)

(Scared) There’s a sign!

(Grabs her glasses,pushes them back on her nose. Reads the sign.)

“Heaven is a Hollywood set filmed by unseen cameras.

--You must audition to get through those Golden Gates.

--There will be signs along the way to instruct you.”


(Removes her glasses, putting then aside.

What the--

(Throwing a tantrum) Johnny! Where are you? I can’t die now--and if I did, why would I audition for--?

(Pushing on her glasses. Reads another sign) “Complex lives need a final review.

--You must bare your soul.

--Not hide behind makeup, wigs, props.”

(Rebellious) I’m not dying!

(Defiant) I'm studying Freud. Training with Lee. I’m still in shape!

I run, inspect my body for wrinkles, for age spots!

(Another marquee beams on.)

(She fumbles on her glasses. Reads the
sign)

(Reads)“You can do a three minute scene from THE MISFITS. It’s your last picture and you should know the lines.”

(Disgusted, whipping off the glasses)

Do I have to? Where’s my agent? Shouldn’t he be the authority. (Waits irritated)

(Shoves on the glasses. Reads)

(Reads) “He says MISFITS was your best picture.”

(Perturbed over the glasses) I’ve more to express than that role permitted.

(Reads) “There was no porn in that picture and without a good clean audition, you’ll go to hell.”

(Self-important) What if I don’t choose to die. (Deathly pause) Fine I don’t decide that. Okay. What are the rules?

(Reads annoyed) “You have 15 minutes to prepare while your agent finds a scene partner.”


(MUSIC: Down Among the Sheltering Palms, Original MUSIC Soundtrack from Some Like It Hot, Adolph Deutsch, composer)

Look I need a living audience to find me, to complete my form.

(Reads)”You may use the time to go over your scene or say goodbye to three people. Choose!”
(Throwing down the glasses)I don’t know!

(Demanding) Why are you hiding behind all these signs?

(On the scrim, we see fleeting pictures of Greta Garbo and Jean Harlow)


AGENT (0ff)

Garbo retired at 36. Baby Jean Harlow, died at 26. You’ll become a legend.


MARILYN

(Imperious) I can’t die now. I know all about Baby Jean Harlow. She wouldn't leave home without looking at her “lucky mirror.” Bill Powell--bought three crypts at Forest Lawn. For Harlow, her mom, and himself.

(Dismissive) Harlow and Garbo were sex goddesses. (Pause) I’m more than that.

(Proud) I’m becoming a serious actress. I not only want to be good; I have to be.

Acting is my way to grow and fix things.

I was an angry person before--the world around me was grim--

When acting, I can become my own mother. Make the world whole again.

Speak like I’m not worried about anything. Sound like a real person talking.

Characters are there. Always there. Permanently there. A script is my lifeline.

If I wasn’t an actress, I don't know what I’d call myself.

(Flabbergasted) Do you even know what I do onstage? I break down each scene into beats--that’s Russian for “bits”.

(Another marquee pops on.)

(Fumbles on her glasses. Reads) “Choose what you’ll do with your last 15 minutes.”


(MUSIC: I Wanna Be Loved by You, Harry Ruby & Herbert Stothart, composers)

(Throwing a tantrum) I’m thinking. Look, I don’t like your proposal.

(Desperate) Let me go back. I’ve got ten more good years-- I’ll weigh my actions with greater care. Keep my ways virtuous and simple.


AGENT (0ff)

You were never virtuous.


MARILYN

Right... You men made the conditions of my hire. I had to do awful things just to get an interview.