Off The Grid
Setting: the living area of a small house designed to be off the electrical grid. The walls are unpainted wooden planks with insulation in between them.
ACT I
Scene I
The lights come up to an empty stage. It is a late spring afternoon. The door opens. Marty enters first. She’s smartly dressed in clothes fitting a person prepared for the outdoors. She is carrying a duffel bag, which she drops on the floor after she enters. She looks around.
MARTY: Oh wow! This is unbelievable. (out the door) Len, you have to see this!
LEN: (from offstage) Coming.
MARTY exits to the kitchen. A few seconds pass. LEN enters. He’s wearing blue jeans, sneakers, a tee shirt and a hoodie sweat shirt. He’s carrying a normal suitcase and has a brochure in his hand. He takes a few steps, stops and drops his suitcase. He’s stunned by what he sees.
LEN: What in the –
MARTY enters from the kitchen.
MARTY: Well?
LEN: This is unbelievable.
MARTY: I know. It’s something else, isn’t it?
LEN: Something else is right; it sure isn’t a house.
MARTY: Of course it’s a house.
LEN: Depends on your definition of house.
MARTY: I told you it was rustic.
LEN: You told me it was finished.
MARTY: It is finished.
LEN: The walls aren’t even painted.
MARTY: That’s part of the experience.
LEN: If we wanted to experience unpainted walls, we could have spent the week in our basement.
MARTY: I’m referring to the experience of living off the electrical grid.
LEN: Okay, our basement with the power off.
MARTY: It’ll be great. Just think, a week free from TV, internet, cell service…
LEN: If that’s meant to be a pep talk, it could use some work.
MARTY: We’re like homesteaders out here. It’ll be a whole new experience for us.
LEN: For you maybe. I learned all about this way of life watching reruns of Little House on the Prairie.
MARTY: This is different. We’ll be living a life of simplicity, getting the most out of what’s nearby.
LEN: Marty, we’re so far from civilization, what’s nearby is nothing. And next to that is more nothing, miles and miles of nothing but nothing. That’s what we’ll get out of this … nothing.
MARTY: You know the first thing you need for this lifestyle? The right attitude.
LEN: Then I’d say we’re pretty much sunk.
© John Spurway 2018