PLAYHOUSE OF THE DAMNED
"Swans"
by Richard Nathan
The spotlight is up on our host, GUS THE GHOUL.
GUS
This next story is truly for the birds. Aren't
they all? This one is called “Swans.”
Gus exits.
The spotlight comes up on an ACTRESS.
She addresses the audience.
ACTRESS
You want to know what frightens me?
Swans! Swans have terrified me every since
I was a little girl. It’s because
of my brother.
He told me that when parents don’t like their
children, they take them to the park and feed
them to the swans! When he first told me
this, I
was four years old, and he was seven. I
figured a seven year old must know what he
was talking about. So when my
parents told
me they were taking us to the park to feed
the swans, I ran to
my room, slammed the door,
and pushed against it as hard as I could so no
one
could get in. My brother came to the door
and told me I’d better go to the park, because
if I did everything my parents said,
and wasn't
afraid, they might think I was a good girl, and
they wouldn’t feed me to the swans. But if
I cried, and was a fraidy cat, I was swan food.
So we went to the park, and
I tried to be brave,
but those swans were huge. Monster birds! I
started crying like
a maniac. My parents demanded
to know what was wrong, and I told them I told
them what my brother had said. So they turned to
him and
said, “Richard, did you tell your sister we
would feed her to the swans?” And he admitted
he had.
And they said, “Richard, you’ve been a
very bad boy.”
And then they fed him to the swans.
The actress smiles. Blackout! The actress exits. A moment later the spotlight comes up on GUS THE GHOUL. He shrugs, having nothing to add to this story.
THE
END
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© 2000 by Richard Nathan. All rights reserved
The author grants all internet uses to print these scripts for their own, personal, non-commercial use. No other use may be made without the author's permission. Without limiting the foregoing, the plays may not be staged without the author's express permission.
Send e-mail to the author at Richard-Nathan@att.net.