Heiress Hollyhock

I’ve decided to post my play from the finals up here. I had to make a few changes, including the title. The name Princess didn’t really make sense for present-day America, so I changed it to Heiress Hollyhock, which is also really annoying. Also, I added a little bit more to the ending so that it we would understand why Batman would need to show up. The things in quotes are dialogue and stage directions from the original Aoi No Uye.

(The scene takes place in the courtyard of the Hollyhock House designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in Los Angeles. It can either be in the real courtyard or a remake. Around this whole courtyard is the house with a balcony. The audience sits in the courtyard space that is not the performance space. This performance space that represents Heiress Hollyhock’s home is a cement patio, a door upstage center and stage right, stairs that lead to a balcony, and a tall wall a few meters behind the bed. Just at the top of the stairs and stage right is Heiress Hollyhock’s bed. There is also a bucket next the bed and a spotlight at the edge of the balcony downstage right of the bed.)
Heiress Hollyhock lies on her bed as Courtney enters from stage left carrying a breakfast platter and goes up the stairs to Holly.

Courtney- Here’s some breakfast, Holly. Are you feeling better yet?
Courtney gives Holly her breakfast. Holly barely touches it throughout.
Holly- The morning sickness is even worse today. Also, I can’t stop thinking about Roxanne, and that’s just making my nausea worse.
The doorbell rings.
Courtney- That might be him.
Courtney goes downstairs and opens the center door. Enter Bynum.
Bynum- Good morning.
Courtney- You must be Bynum Walker. It’s nice to finally meet you. I’m Courtney, Heiress Hollyhock’s assistant. You must know that the she’s sick. We’ve sent her to her doctor, psychiatrist, acupuncturist, and masseuse, but none of them could cure her. Now she’s taken a more spiritual turn.
That’s why we need you here. We need your skills in the homeopathic magic of Voodoo.
Bynum- Right. Let’s see, if I can remember correctly, Heiress wants me to bind her to her husband Genji and see if Genji’s mistress, Roxanne has put any spells on the Heiress.
Courtney- That’s right. She’s ready upstairs if you can help her.
They make their way up the steps and to Heiress’ bed.
Holly- Finally! Bynum, can you help me?
Bynum- I have a song that might bring Roxanne here to talk to you. It’s the only way to clear things up.
Holly- If it’s the only option left . . ..
Bynum- What else is there to do at this point? (He starts beating a drum and singing.)
“Pure above; pure below.
Pure without; pure within.
Pure in eyes, ears, heart and tongue.
You whom I call”
Press down on the pedal
As you rush to me
“Over the long sands!”
Bynum continues drumming as the doorbell rings. Courtney opens it and it’s Roxanne.
Courtney- Is that really you?
Roxanne- What?
Courtney- How can I help you?
Roxanne- I have beef with your Heiress Hollyhock. I think that she keyed my car. There are also some other things that I need to get off my chest. It’s inevitable. You might as well let me in.
Courtney- Okay. She’s upstairs.
They go up to Heiress’ room. Holly stares at Roxanne in anticipation. Long pause.
Roxanne- I’ve been keeping this in Heiress. The clock is ticking and we need to have this conversation now.
Holly- Get on with it.
Roxanne- I know that just because you’re younger and you’re carrying his baby you think you have a right to Genji, but my vengeance on you will come. (Pause.)
I wish that this was a dream that I could wake up from and Genji and I wouldn’t love one other. It’s just difficult to think straight with this hate between us. That must be why I came here. I can’t think straight. “For a little while, I thought, I would take my pleasure;” and I drove here as fast as I could.
Bynum- (Bynum stops drumming.) Roxanne, don’t be alarmed. I called you here with my song so you could straighten things out with Heiress.
Roxanne- I didn’t get a call. Checking her phone.
Bynum- No. I mean I called you with Voodoo.
Roxanne- What? Oh my God. You can’t think I’m that naïve and vulnerable. You think this is like some devil’s call to a witch on the Sabbath?
But if you did do it, I’m sure it was to prompt my downfall.
(She covers her face.) Either way, I should be ashamed of myself for coming here. I’ve tried to come here before to confront you, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. One night I made it here and sat in my car in your driveway “till dawn and watched the moon, till dawn and watched.” “How could I show myself?” Perhaps that night I convinced myself to drive here so that I might see Genji. My mind has been so scrambled.
This morning I did bite the bullet and ring the doorbell, for some reason.
Bynum- It was probably the song. She did make it to the door . . .
Roxanne- I probably came because I got sick of Genji not calling me. So sick I’m numb to the world. I had to do something.
(To Holly.) I used to have such a good life before you got pregnant and all hope for me ending up with Genji was lost. I even sat at feasts in the White House! On most mornings I would meet Genji somewhere else instead of coming here to talk to you like today. I used to do so many exciting things. I lived life to the fullest.
Now I can’t find my happiness without Genji. “I wither like the Morning Glory” as miss Hollyhock mopes in a better position. I hate you so much because you’re so restrained that it seems like you don’t even realize what you have.
You should be suffering. You probably did something bad in your past life to deserve this situation. As the Buddhist saying goes, “Our sorrows in this world aren’t caused by others; for even when others wrong us we are suffering the retribution of our own deeds in a previous existence.”
(She turns towards Holly’s bed; “passion again seizes her and she cries:”) I hate you so much! (“She creeps towards the bed.”)
Bynum- Roxanne, watch yourself! Think before you act.
Roxanne swiftly goes to Holly’s bed and knocks the breakfast trey off of the bed. Courtney senses trouble and runs to the edge of the balcony where there is a spotlight facing the sky. She turns the spotlight on. The light has a bat shape in it.
Bynum- “She is going to strike again. (To Roxanne.) You shall pay for this.”
Roxanne- “And this hate too is payment for past hate.”
Roxanne slaps Holy in the face. Holly leans over to the bucket next to her bed and throws up.
Holly- (Too sick to fight back.) What did I do!?
Roxanne- You took him away from me! (Roxanne spots something shining on the floor by her feet where the breakfast platter fell. She reaches down and grabs it. It is a sharp knife.) If I did something bad in my past life, then you must have too to deserve this. (She walks toward Holly with the knife).
Suddenly a tall dark figure appears at the top of the wall behind the bed. Courtney- Finally, Batman.