Survival of the Fittest

a short play by Timothy H. Jackson

 

SCENE 1

Lights come up as three men in their mid-twenties, ALEX, CHARLEY, and NICK, sit in three seats at a movie theater. Their backs are to the audience and in front of them is a screen. The movie is showing a tyrannosaurus rex attacking a cow.

CHARLEY
(throwing popcorn at Nick)
Oh yeah? You’re it!

NICK
(throwing popcorn at Alex)
No I’m not! Not if I have anything to say about it!

The popcorn throwing continues for a while as they giggle and snort from excitement. The throwing stops when Charley gets hit in the eye with a piece of popcorn.

CHARLEY
My eye! I think it’s bleeding.

Darkness.

SCENE 2

The movie seats are now turned around and the movie has been paused. Only CHARLEY is present and lights are mainly on him.

CHARLEY
You can’t let people ruin a film. I mean it’s true enough that you can’t let them ruin a rare film, print films from Europe. You go to see it and somebody’s talking or eating, you know, making noise. I mean to me it’s not a moral question in the sense that those people don’t have a right do it. I think they do have a right to do it. They have a right to ruin a film, for other people. I think everybody has the right to do whatever they want. But that vision of the world, that kind of Hobbesian vision of the world, what that indicates then is that you also have the right to stop people. So there was this ridiculous woman. She came in late of course, she started making noise, she was eating I think. She changed her seat and she sat right in front of me. And I was so annoyed that she was sitting in front of me that I started to kick her chair. I was hoping that by kicking her chair that I’d get her to move. And she turned to me and said, “Stop kicking your...stop kicking the chair.” And I said, “Well, next time why don’t you get here on time?” So she said, “What does that have to do with anything?” But she didn’t wait to here an answer, she just sorta went back to watching the movie. But I went back to continuing to kick her chair. And then she got up, and now she was actually stood up and was really obstructing my view, you know. So I knocked her down. And unfortunately you know she seemed to hurt herself really badly. I wasn’t intending to hurt her really badly. I mean I didn’t knock her down with a certain amount of force, you know. And I knew I was angry and she sounded like she was in terrible pain. And I actually felt bad. You know, I was like very angry that she was ruining my experience in the film. But i thought she doesn’t really deserve to be wailing in pain like that. But of course her pain was not enough for me to get up and do anything about it. I mean I wasn’t gonna get up and apologize. I wasn’t gonna help carry her out into the lobby, cause then I’d be missing the film, you know? And really it is true that, you know, I mean, you know if somebody was having a heart attack. It’s a strange thing to admit you know but really I mean it would be very hard for me to feel any sense of moral compunction you know about you know what to do for another human being who was in trouble during the movie, if it meant missing the film to help them. So I just let her lie there. In fact, I realized that I was in danger. Because somebody started saying they should call the police and you know. And I knew the police were gonna come. Or that it was likely they would come. And at that point if you know, I wasn’t a cinephile, a true cinephile, I would have left the theater and escaped so there was no witness that could have proven it was me or whatever you know. But instead I waited till the end of the film and of course the police were there to arrest me immediately after. And that’s what happened you know.

                                               The movie continues playing.

                                                                 Darkness.