The Great Trash Heap

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Created by Echo Cain (2019)

 

Circa 203X

 

Cast of Characters (In Order of Appearance):

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NARRATOR- An omniscient being from the fourth dimension

They only appear between scenes in order to offer the audience another part of the story.

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AHMAD- The Trash Baron

A ruthless tyrant of the Trashland

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PUTERI- The Trash Baron’s Wife

A woman who holds great sway over the Baron’s actions.

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OSCAR SMITH- An American tourist who has come to

Malaysia to see the “beautiful beaches”.

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SUJIVA- A Buddhist Monk

who has holed up as a hermit at the top of the Trashland.

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 TAHMEED- An Islamic devotee

who believes wholeheartedly in the Trash Baron’s vision.

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SRI- An orphan

They sort through the trash for food scraps leftover from the West and is a slave to AHMAD.

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BORAI- An enforcer of the Trash Baron

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ZARA- A young woman who grew up in the trashland

She has figured out how to save Malaysia with a fungus that can digest plastic waste.

 

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ACT ONE (OF ONE)

 

SCENE ONE

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               The set is empty, the lights should be dimmed

               and not highlighting the narrator particularly.

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NARRATOR-

     Entering swiftly

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Welcome one and all. We find you here at… (looks at watch) about 2019 in the little town of… (sniffs twice) Granville, Ohio. Thank you for coming to see this vision of a future unimaginable to those of us unfamiliar with the waste produced by our own hands. Our name is [UNPRONOUNCEABLE WORD] and I will be taking you on this journey through both third dimensional and fourth dimensional space. From star to star we could travel, but far more meaningful are the problems that you are dealing with on this third rock from what you have named the “Sun”.

 

So release! Come fly with us to a place beyond your limited scope! We take you not to a locale that will bring joy but one that will enforce the feelings you hold in the deepest part of your cardiovascular systems! To Malaysia!

 

To the planet-time you call 2030!

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     Whooshing sounds begin and the lights go crazy.

 

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SCENE TWO

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               The lights now show a set with trash strewn

               about and a single throne in the center of it

               all.

 

AHMAD-

      Sitting in the throne languidly

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BOY! Bring the Teh Tarik! (A pause) DID YOU HEAR ME?! BRING...THE...TEH...TARIK! Idiot. I’ll have to beat him after the next drop-off.

 

PUTERI-

      Entering while speaking on an outdated flip phone

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No, make the appointment a little earlier… Earlier than that. Good… (Hangs up)

Oh Ahmad, you needn’t be so hard on the boy, not as though he had a proper upbringing like you and I! To think that an orphan would ever even reach to the heights of serving the Trash Baron himself!

It is quite a feat, love.

 

AHMAD-

      Entertained by this notion

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This may be true, but you forget that a servant has no relation to his ruler.

That boy is of no consequence to you or me, another could take his place if I so much as snap my fingers!

 

SRI-

      Entering hastily, almost spilling the Teh Tarik

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Oh my lord, Trash Baron, may your days be ever long and fruitful upon the heap. Here is the drink.

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      She offers the drink in a prostrate position.

 

AHMAD-

      Not picking up the drink

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Hmmph. Boy, you are a waste. You will kneel there until I allow you to stand. (Taking the drink)

Now, to more important matters.

Lady Puteri, do you have the policies for today?

 

PUTERI-

      Pulling out a short list

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Shall I read them out?

 

AHMAD-

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You shall.

 

PUTERI-

      Reading aloud

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Policy One: Eliminate the final Buddhist monk living in the trash heap.

 

AHMAD-

      Speaking into a microphone

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Send an Islamist Iman to convince the monk of his uselessness.

The Iman may use lethal force if necessary to remove the monk.

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Aside to PUTERI

Doesn’t take much for those introspective recluses to flee in fear.

 

PUTERI-

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True my lord.

Policy Two: Wipe the heap of orphans and bury them in the trash.

A heap clear of those filth is a clean heap.

 

AHMAD-

      Speaking in the microphone

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Send some enforcers to torture and bury the orphans. Actually, no, send Borai.

He should be able to do the job singlehandedly.

That man takes such pleasure in the job! A model enforcer!

Trained from birth, now that makes a good soldier.

 

PUTERI-

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Policy Three: An American tourist has entered the heap.

He seems interested in learning about the government.

The Supreme One has ordained that he must be shown the best kept portions and to limit his interactions with undesirables.

 

AHMAD-

     Speaking into the microphone

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I will personally meet him and watch the drop-off of the new building materials.

 

PUTERI-

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Hmmm. A short list today Baron. Shall we?

 

AHMAD-

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Yes.

(Tossing the tea on the ground)

Let’s meet the intruding American.

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They exit. SRI looks around and leaves after 10 seconds of waiting, obviously tired from staying in one place for so long.

 

 

 

SCENE THREE

 

NARRATOR-

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A nasty business this world makes of ruling. Tyrants arise so easily yet an honest, respectful leader is so rare the phenomenon might as well be nonexistent. Religion is often used by evil dictatorships for their own goals. No religion is evil and not one religion has ever been fully correct. The unfortunate power of religion all depends on how a dictator can twist and use that religion to their own interest. How can they destroy the souls of the pious to corrupt them to perpetuation of the singular, the one road? We see it in every religion, here’s another.

 

               Lights up on a new configuration of trash. This

               Should be a pile maybe 2 to 4 feet high. Upon it

               Sits SUJIVA, who is meditating. TAHMEED enters

               And stares up for a moment before pulling out a

               Copy of the Quran. He prays for a few seconds

               And then climbs up the heap, pushing SUJIVA down

               The back side.

 

SUJIVA-

      From behind the pile of trash

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Why would you do that friend?

 

TAHMEED-

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Nobody wants you here monk.

You represent the old shit that we have buried under our feet.

 

SUJIVA-

      Looking down at his feet

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I do not see shit. I see only the world.

I may not see the soil, but I know it is there beneath it all.

 

TAHMEED-

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Do your senses fail you, fool? There is no shit upon this Earth.

We have BURIED it with your old ways.

There is only Allah; there is only the will of the people; there is only the one righteous path to follow.

You represent the isolation, the place before.

We will not return.

 

SUJIVA-

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To refuse newness is no crime.

To live upon the mountain with no one brings no suffering upon your society.

I shall not be moved with wordplay from a tyrant’s bag of tricks.

You should---

 

TAHMEED-

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TRAITOR! You betray Baron Ahmad!

To worship the waste brought unto us is what gives us life!

(From the Quran he pulls a knife)

You shall die here and be buried with the rest of your kind like the shit you are.

 

SUJIVA-

     Speaking to the audience now

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My death matters not. I could make no difference in my station.

My life is as meaningless as the constant flow of waste.

Humanity will never be satisfied with simple pleasure.

We must have the comfort of it all, even if it means the suffering of those we never see with our own eyes.

I do not blame the Iman.

I do not blame even the tyrant.

It is not their doing that has put the system in place.

I point to the ships that drop the trash on our shores daily.

It is the Americans, those that live in their ivory towers staring down at the trash, barely able to see it in its seemingly miniscule quality, to them at least.

(A pause)

One beach remains free of the trash.

One beach is now left in all of Malaysia, for the tourists.

I have never, in all my years, heard of a Malaysian stepping on the beach unless they are leading a tour of visitors that have skin as white as the sands they frequent.

 

This whole time, the Iman has been circling the

monk with knife at the ready. He now lunges

forward and a blackout occurs. Screams are heard

as well as the mumblings of a prayer afterward.

 

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SCENE FOUR

 

NARRATOR-

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An American in paradise: what a Western thought! Rarely touching the real, the tourist stays in a dream world concocted to profit off of their enjoyment, keeping the truth under locked cellars and in camps set aside.

 

               Lights up on a scene lacking any trash. AHMAD,

               PUTERI, and OSCAR enter. They are laughing

               about something irrelevant. OSCAR is holding and

               taking occasional bites out of a candy bar.

OSCAR-

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So, you use the trash sustainably?

 

AHMAD-

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Of course, we only use it as building materials to create more island space.

With the rising sea levels, it is the only solution!

 

PUTERI-

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Yes, you can even see our brilliant colony from space.

To think, an island of trash, made so beautifully! 

She points around in ecstatic glee.

 

OSCAR-

      Looking offstage

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What’s up with the, uh, y’know, smell?

 

AHMAD-

      Looking lightly displeased

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It really is nothing to be afraid of.

We burn the excess plastic…(a short, startled pause) but it doesn’t harm the citizens.

We have...carbon traps to prevent the typically toxic fumes from reaching our citizens.

     PUTERI rubs the baron’s shoulder.

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OSCAR-

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I must say, this beach is...incredible.

What’s your method?

How do you keep it so clean with all the trash about?

 

AHMAD-

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Aha! That, my friend, is a trade secret!

I would be doing a disservice to my country if I related such knowledge.

 

A scream rings out across the stage from the

monk. AHMAD and PUTERI do not seem disturbed

while OSCAR appears concerned.

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OSCAR-

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Uh, what, what was that?

 

AHMAD-

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Ah, dear sir.

You are surely aware of the way the...

...mentally insane scream at the slightest touch.

Our forces must take them away to hospitals to be rehabilitated.

Without such precautions, madness would surely infest our population as a disease among our righteous men and women.

 

OSCAR-

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Fair enough.

I mean, a place like, this, like would draw the oddballs of the world.

A trash heap!

It is a novel idea, but almost sounds completely crazy!

 

PUTERI-

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Surely so.

Now, would you care to watch the new material being dumped at the shore?

It is a splendid process to take in with the visual senses!

 

OSCAR-

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Alright, let’s see it.

 

               The group wanders offstage and OSCAR drops his

candy bar wrapper in the center of the stage.

 

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SCENE FIVE

 

NARRATOR-

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Everyone tries their best. Some conform, others blend in, still others push against the establishment in some way. It is often the rebels of the world that do the most good. We are all rebels at heart, trying to do what is TRULY right. But, only some succeed spectacularly, saving lives, and changing the world at every level.

 

               SRI is seen on stage and begins motioning and

yelling offstage.

 

SRI-

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Hey, Ten Taum! In the trash, not on top!

You have to hide UNDER it so Borai can’t find you!

(A pause) 

Shhh! Shhh! Shut your mouth Perum!

 

BORAI-

      His footsteps are heard long before he enters

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ATTENTION! HEAR YE HEAR YE, CITIZENS OF THE HEAP!

ANY ORPHANS OUT AND ABOUT WITHOUT DOCUMENTATION WILL BE BURIED!

AN ORPHAN’S EXISTENCE MEANS NOTHING TO THE GOVERNMENT!

PROSTRATE YOURSELVES BEFORE ME, SO AS TO MAKE THE JOB SIMPLE!

 

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