EXCERPTS
SHORT PLAYS – TEN MINUTE PLAYS
- PATTERSON’S
The parking lot outside an old family funeral home. A woman
enters quickly followed by a man. They are both dressed in black.
MAN: Put it back.
WOMAN: She won’t notice.
MAN: She might.
WOMAN: She doesn’t need it.
MAN: You don’t know that.
WOMAN: It doesn’t matter.
MAN: It does. Now put it back. You can’t steal from the dead like that.
WOMAN: I wasn’t stealing. I am taking what is rightfully mine.
MAN: Says who?
WOMAN: Says me.
MAN: It’s not like you took a watch or a ring. It’s a shirt.
They are going to notice. She is lying there without a shirt!
WOMAN: We’ll close the coffin.
MAN: There’s no reason to close the coffin.
WOMAN: She’s lying there without a shirt. It’s the only decent thing to do.
MAN: Because of you. The decent thing is to put it back.
WOMAN: She was always taking things of mine. I’m tired of it.
MAN: It won’t happen again.
WOMAN: It’s not happening now!
MAN: Don’t be ridiculous.
WOMAN: I’m not being ridiculous. I refuse to sit there and
look at her in my shirt, listening to everybody talk about
how good she looks. It just galls me.
MAN: You need to see a shrink.
WOMAN: I have seen a shrink.
MAN: What did they say?
WOMAN: They said I should exert my authority.
MAN: And you decided today would be the day to start?
WOMAN: Otherwise it would be too late.
MAN: She’s dead.
WOMAN: Right and if I don’t do something now I’ll never get
another chance to prove I can.