Setting : A family living in North Korea. Their Daughter is a very good student who is protected by South Korean government and studying there.
Mother and Father talk about they want to escape from N.K to S.K, where they can live with their daughter
Father and Mother left each other
They record how they escape in form of letters, store by themselves
One of them die, the other waits in the place their promise to meet.
Scene 1: In the living room. There will be two chairs, a table, and two triangles for background with poster of Kim Jong-un
(Light on)
F & M: Long live for Great comrade Kim Jong-un
F: There are nothing changes in our life here. The life in North Korea is colorless.
M: People believe they are living happily under Kim Jong-un, but actually we lost our freedom already.
F: These days, I always think about our daughter. I wonder is she having a good life in South Korea or not? She was so young when I was able to send her out of our country.
M: She was the treasure of us. The colorless life becomes colorful for me because of her. I never understand why you send her into South Korean.
F: The world outside of our country is much better for her to grow up.
M: I don’t understand! Was it better for her to live alone in another country?
F: I know it would be hard! But you don’t know about outside. Beyond the mountains of mountains, there are big cities with giant buildings, children learn real knowledge at schools and their lights shining up their whole city during the night.
M: Again! Those things you heard about from your illegal radio. You finish all the study at school here, why you believe that thing.
F: My radio is talking about the real things. There is a better world outside. And that’s why I sent our daughter out with all our money, she deserves a better life.
M: But I will never know she has the better life or not!
(Drinking tea, pause)
F: You know, I miss her too. Days and nights, our family is not a family because we miss one fo the most important members.
M: We all miss her. The days and nights here are so colorless for me
F: We have to escape from this country too.
M: But last time was so difficult for our daughter to get out! We spend all our money to let the soldiers send her out. We won't have such amount of money again!
F: You are right. But we can escape you. There are people who like us, who want to escape. They have secret transport ways in the mountains and on the sea.
M: But nobody knows those people succeed escaping or not. Maybe they die on the way.
F: I know it will be dangerous. But it worth trying for a better life, to live together as a complete family! Usually, escape from the mountain is safer, but I don’t want both of us to get caught together.
M: So what do you think is safer?
F: I will escape from the sea, the coast guard will keep finding me and other people. Then you can have time to escape through mountains. Trust me, they won’t find me on the sea. We will meet in South Korea.
(Light off, scene changes. Father will stand in the stage right, the mother will stand in stage left. They will take turn reading their letters)
Father Letter 1:
They say behind the mountains are more mountains. Besides the mountains, there are timeless waters, endless seas, and lots of people in this world whose names don’t matter to anyone but themselves.
I don’t know how long we’ll be at sea. There are thirty-six other deserting souls on this little boat with me. White sheets with bright red spots float as our sail.
It is frustrated to be on this endless sea, and with all those people I don't know. In these days and nights, all I think is you, our daughter, and the bright future we will have. I hope we can all get into South Korea safely. I hope we can have a life we dream about.
When I got on board I thought I could still smell the semen and the innocence lost to those sheets. I look up there and I think of you and all those times you resisted. Sometimes I felt like you wanted to, but I knew you wanted me to respect you. You thought I was testing your will, but all I wanted was to be near you. Maybe it’s like you’ve always said. I imagine too much. I am afraid I am going to start having nightmares once we get deep at sea. I really hate having the sun in my face all day long. If you see me again, I’ll be so dark.
Lastly, Whatever you do, please be careful with the soldiers. They’re almost not human.
Mother Letter 1:
I remembered you once told me that the soldiers are almost not human. And yes, I agree with you today. Bullets day and night. I thank god our daughter got out when she did. I used to thought butterflies are beautiful whenever they appear in the spring after those cold and long winters. I don’t sketch met butterflies anymore. Because i don’t even like seeing the sun, besides manman says that butterflies can bring news. The bright ones bring happy news and the black ones warn us of death. The only few I see on this journey are the black butterflies.
Father Letter 2:
There are nothing on the sea. The whole sea looks like one. I cannot even tell if we are about to drop off the face of the earth. Maybe the world is flat and we are going to find out, like the navigators of old. As you know, I am not very religious. Still, I pray every night that we won’t hit a storm.
I am more comfortable now with the idea of dying. Not that I have completely accepted it, but I know that it might happen. Don’t be mistaken. I really do not want to be a martyr. I know I am no good to anybody dead, but if that is what’s coming, I know I cannot just scream at it and tell it to go away.
I hope another group of young people can do the radio show. For a long time that radio show was my whole life. It was nice to have the radio like that for a while, where we could talk about what we wanted from government, what we wanted for the future of our country. It was the radio let me see all those colorful lives outside of our country.
Beloved North Korea, there is no place for you. I had to leave you before I could understand you.
Mother Letter 2:
I was terrified, I saw a group of students who got shot in front of fort dimanche prison around the border of our homeland. They were demonstrating the bodies for all these young generation trying to escape recently. I’m concerned, even scared, about our daughter’s situation and yours, my love, I hope you are safer on the boat out there. After what I saw, I’m afraid that I will never go outside again. Not even in the yard to breathe the air. The soldiers, and even people, are always watching you, like vultures. At night, I can’t sleep. I count the bullets in the dark behind those woods I passed with great fear. I keep wondering if it is true. Did our girl really get out? And will you? Will i?
Father Letter 3:
There is a crack at the bottom of the boat that looks as though, if it gets any bigger, it will split the boat in two. The captain cleared us aside and used some tar to clog up the hole. Everyone started asking him if it was okay if they were going to be okay. He said he hoped the Coast Guard would find us soon.
You can’t really go to sleep after that. So we all stared at the tar by the moonlight. We did this until dawn. I cannot help but wonder how long this tar will hold out.
We spent most of days telling stories. Someone says, Krik? You answer, Krak! And they say, I have many stories I could tell you, and then they go on and tell these stories to you, but mostly to themselves. Sometimes it feels like we have been at sea longer than the many years that I have been on this earth. The sun comes up and goes down. That is how you know it has been a whole day. I
I wonder will I get out safely or not. Maybe I was too positive about our plan. The water is really piling into the boat. We take turns pouring bowls of it out. I don’t know what is keeping the boat from splitting into.
Mother Letter 3:
I will keep writing to you my love, I thought marriage will keep us together safe and sound until we die. I hope it will. When we see each other again as we promised, it will seem like we lost no time.
On my way to you, I met a group of people escaping as well; yesterday. The soldiers arrested a lot of people near South Korea’s border, I did not know that there will still be soldiers from the North, we all did not know. They shot a whole bunch down. I am writing you from under the banyan tree in the yard in our new shelter. Also, why do I feel you leaving me even though I’m getting closer to the destiny? I feel like all those mountains are pushing me farther and farther away from you/
Father Letter 4:
They say I have to throw my notebook out. The old man has to throw out his hat and his pipe. The water is rising again and they are scooping it out. I asked for a few seconds to write this last page and then promised that I would let it go. I know you will probably never see this, but it was nice imagining that I had you here to talk to. I hope my parents are alive. He says it all with such an air that you would think him a king. The old man says, “I know a Coast Guard ship is coming. It came to me in my dream.” He points to a spot far into the distance. I look where he is pointing. I see nothing. From here, ships must be like a mirage in the desert.
Perhaps I was chosen from the beginning of time to live there, at the bottom of the sea. Maybe this is why I dreamed of the starfish and the mermaids having the Catholic Mass under the sea. Maybe this was my invitation to go. In any case, I know that my memory of you will live even there as I too become a child of the sea.
(Scene changes. Mother arrive in South Korea, she waits in the XXX building.)
M:
On my final steps here, I began to run and run so the black butterflies that appeared wouldn’t land on me. I know what must have happened. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I cannot see staying back in North Korea forever. I am writing to you for the last time. Last night on the radio while waiting for you, I heard that another boat sank off the coast. I can’t think about you being in there in the waves.
Behind these mountains are more mountains and more black butterflies still and a sea that is endless like my love for you. My dear, where are you? I am right here.
End
Set descriptions:
Scene 1- A wall with signs and posters praising North Korea to show the situation their living in and show the location of the story in the middle back of the black box theater stage. A table placed in the middle of the stage in front of the posters, two chairs placed on the opposite side with tea or water placed on the table.
Scene 2- The stage will be separated into two section, one for James on the left, one for Marinda on the right side using techniques of lighting, if possible, with props and background sounds. James could have a wooden bench that is alike those on a boat with blue lights and sounds of ocean waves. For Marinda’s side, she could have gun shots’ sounds to fit the content of her being around the border with soldiers stopping people escaping.
Scene 3- Marinda standing in the middle with a sign and flag showing the location changes into South Korea, and the place where both characters promised to meet.
Props:
Father: White Shirt
Mother: White Shirt; Wearing more fancy cloth after she arrives in South Korea.
