Marilyn/God

Setting: An empty stage, in a space of limbo, during Marilyn's 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.)

MARILYN: 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.)

MARILYN: 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)

MARILYN (Panicked): Who’s that? (Screams) Somebody!

(We hear labored breathing.)

MARILYN (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 at 5 Helena Drive, on a small street, almost like an alley.)

(Fade-in of “Come-on a My House”, Nelson Riddle, composer)

Setting: 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.)

MARILYN: 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)

MARILYN (Scared): There’s a sign!

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

MARILYN (Reads): “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 them aside.)

MARILYN: 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.”

MARILYN (Rebellious): I’m not dying!

MARILYN (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.)

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