Nature Changes: Not Man

Curtains rise.

There are three spot-lights, red-blue-green, merging only in the centre where a table is kept. Under the red light is kept a rocking chair, under the blue an old Victorian chair, and under the green a comfortable leather sofa. The blue chair is empty. But on the chair under the red light sits an old man, well dressed, straight. He is sure to be sitting there. On the chair under the green light sits the same man, not his twin, the same man, only that this one is a lot younger in years. Possibly a difference of 50 years, we could for the sake of argument say, 20 and 70, are their ages. The younger man is wearing the same clothes, only he is not so sure of being sitting there.

They seem to have been in a conversation since before the curtain rose, and hence they are just staring at each other, as if something serious was being argued for some time now.

There is no sound on the stage. No music. A hushed silence. Wide silent stares.

Young: So are you trying to tell me that at this point what I am trying to do, trying to wish is to become you? That, since it is not in my mind for sure, so in my sub-consciousness, the one lurking beneath all of this, I am hoping and dying to be you? Is that what you are trying to tell me?

Old: Yes, that is precisely what I am telling you; in turn myself, if I am not mistaken. That may be you are not aware of what you are going to become, but you are going to become me.

Young: (Getting a little agitated) But you are a monster! That is what you are. A ruthless, cruel monster. You are not even an animal.

Old: (Calm and composed) And you are naïve. You are everything that I was, and why wont you be? You are me. Only that we both exist at the same time.

Young: Oh NO! NO! You are the past. And I am the future.

Old: The past ‘IS’ the future.

Young: I have learnt from your mistakes, and from history. I won’t make the same mistakes twice. I am a human being and I learn.

Old: Yes, you have leant and you will learn. You will learn from my mistakes, in turn your own, and then go ahead and invent new ones. You will not make the mistakes I made in my day. Not them. You will call them cruel. You will say you are evolved, far more evolved then I was at your age or I am now, and which also means that you were. But you will then go ahead and invent a more grotesque and cruel mistake, and call it justice, until your time comes and you sit on my chair and I in your again. And then you will tell me the same thing that I am telling you.

Young: No I wont! I will not invent anything cruel! I will strive for peace. I will fight for it.

Old: (Cutting him short) Yes, you will find a new way to fight. Two thousand years ago you crucified your enemies, people you were insecure of! A thousand years later you burnt them as witch doctors. Five hundred years ago you pulled apart their limbs and called it Justice. Then you learned to shoot them in front of firing squads!

Young: You did that! Not me!

Old: I AM you! Now you will device new ways, call it new wars, give it new reasons. But just because you will device new ways to kill people will not mean that you have found ways to subject people to Justice: your Justice. Nature changes: not man. You and I are destined to do this forever. Never shall you hesitate to do something absolutely abominable in the name of justice. Never shall you hesitate even once. You are born to be wrong.

Young: No old man! You are wrong. We have evolved from your time.

The lights begin to fade. And gradually there is complete darkness. Only the two voices can be heard. And it is then that we realize that even the sounds of the voices are the same. That you can not figure out which one is which, except from who says what.

Old: Evolved? Sure you have evolved. Now you give them injections, because you don’t want to hire a person to clean the blood on the floor, to clean the brain on the street. You have evolved alright. But you are even further from being human. There is no road that you shall tread that shall make you a human. No matter what you do, you shall always walk further from it. You and I are the same. Nature changes: not man.

Young: Is there any point in arguing with you? You are just a stubborn old man, who thinks he knows everything.

Old: And you are just a stubborn young fool who thing he knows everything.

What’s the difference? You are me, and I am you! And we are both wrong. Nature changes: not man.

Curtains Fall.