This play was written with the following prompts: Wesley, Kyle, medieval courtyard, rom-com, dramatic fight to the death for employment, bravery, cunning, mischievousness, and dance.
SETTING: A MEDIEVAL COURTYARD.
AT RISE: WESLEY AND KYLE ARE PRACTICING SWORD FORMS.
WESLEY: I’ve always wanted to wear fancy clothes.
KYLE: I suppose you can call armor fancy.
WESLEY: If it involves a blacksmith, it’s fancy.
KYLE: Say, what do you think about Sir Peter? I saw him making eyes at you over at the fishmonger’s yesterday.
WESLEY: Sir Peter is interested in my freelancing skills. But he needs to pay me more than three meals a day and a bed of straw with the cows.
KYLE: I heard that Margaret got her own village from Lord Pumpernickel for her paintings.
WESLEY: I kill people for a living, Margaret paints hot naked people. It’s not the same.
KYLE: True. If you aren’t going to succumb to Sir Peter’s charm, who are you waiting for? There is another, isn’t there?
WESLEY: I was going to run off with a troupe of traveling players. Add a thrill to their sword fighting.
KYLE: The Player King! I knew it! You’re in love with the Player King!
WESLEY: What? That’s absurd. I have no interest in the Player King.
KYLE: Who, then? Nobody runs off unless they’re running away from or with somebody.
WESLEY: I’m more interested in the clown. He’s a comely fellow, is he not?
KYLE: He’s terrifying. He’s a clown.
WESLEY: He has hidden depths.
KYLE: I should go talk to the clown.
WESLEY: Hands off, Kyle. He’s mine. He’s already expressed his love for me. Gave me this rose here as a token of our love. See.
(Points to the rose in his helmet.)
KYLE: You mean like this one?
(KYLE pulls a matching rose out of his sleeve.)
WESLEY: Where did you get that from?
KYLE: The terrifying clown.
WESLEY: I don’t believe it!
KYLE: He plucked it out of his ear and handed it to me. Then he offered me a job as his lovely assistant.
WESLEY: Why…why…I challenge you to a duel!
KYLE: Challenge accepted!
(THEY fight. The fight morphs into an epic dance battle to Haddaway’s “What Is Love?” The AUDIENCE votes on the winner with applause.)
THE END.
Photo Credit: Photo Credit: Ylanite, “Red Rose,” 2018