September 2011
Light comes up.
The stage is bare, except for LAILA who stands center of the stage. She looks out at the audience, searching for someone... or something.. melancholic music plays. A few minutes pass - Laila stares out the audience and then she paces back and forth. She looks anxious.
Suddenly someone enters the stage, dressed in rags. We cannot see his face yet and neither can Laila, who tries to decipher his face. Music fades out.. The light comes up on him. It is MAJNU. He looks downtrodden and dirty.
LAILA
Majnu? O Majnu! It’s you!
She rushes to Majnu and embraces him tightly and kisses him all over. He doesn’t reciprocate but he doesn’t push her away either. He is limp, like a rag doll. Laila kisses him all over his face and his neck.
LAILA
I can’t believe you’re here with me now.
(Majnu says nothing)
LAILA
Majnu! I’ve been waiting for you for so long! I’ve waited and waited so we could finally be together at last. For so long, I kept to myself and shunned advances from all other men because my heart belongs to you. You’re the only man in the entire universe for me. I don’t care about anyone else. You’re mine and I’m yours. I’d rather be alone, than be with someone else and not have you! You are worth it. My life is empty without you. I’m nothing with you. I’ve felt dead without you by my side. Majnu! I love you so much, right now I can’t comprehend the being of your presence...
(Majnu says nothing)
LAILA
Your eyes. They’re so beautiful. My heart burns when I look into your eyes. I know you’re the one for me, Majnu. When our eyes lock in an embrace, I feel we are soulmates. I want to be in your arms. Hold me, Majnu... please.
(Majnu says nothing)
LAILA
Why are you quiet? Are you mad at me? Did I say something wrong, my darling?
MAJNU
I am dead.
LAILA
O Majnu... don’t say that... let me revive your soul...
MAJNU
You can’t. My soul is gone. I’ve been killed. A whole year was snatched away from me. The mere existence of my being was hell. I was enslaved and locked up in shackles and constantly beaten, it was a hellhole. I suffocated and suffered in silence while you roamed freely amongst the palm trees and fresh running brooks. Now that I’ve been released, I am dead. I’m numb all over. I can’t feel anything.
LAILA
Majnu! Oh honey...
MAJNU
You don’t know what it was like back there.
LAILA
No I don’t..I can’t imagine what being enslaved is like.. tell me what happened, meri jaan?
MAJNU
So much shit. Awful crap.
LAILA
Do you want to talk about it?
MAJNU
I can’t talk about it.
LAILA
That’s in the past. Now you’re here with me and I’ll make you feel good. Let me show you the beauty of life. I want to share in the wonders of nature with you. You are free now. Let’s go explore the world together. We’ll go galloping on horses and lie under the hot sun and cradle each other in the soft grass while the wind brushes past our hair. Let the sun turn our skins darker while we kiss each other. Let me heal you, let me take the pain away from your mind. Let me nurse you back to sanity and health.
MAJNU
You can’t, Laila.
(beat)
I need to find myself first.
LAILA
I don’t understand.
MAJNU
I’ve been ripped to shreds. My body was ravaged and eaten by cannibals. My soul was destroyed and defecated on. I am miserable. I need peace.
LAILA
Oh Majnu...
MAJNU
I’m not me anymore. I’m not Majnu.
LAILA
You’ve become a madman.
MAJNU
That’s my name.
LAILA
I don’t even know what to say.
MAJNU
I don’t know who I am.
LAILA
You’re different.
MAJNU
I have no soul.
LAILA
Your soul is somewhere out there in the universe.
MAJNU
Far away. Thousands of miles away.
LAILA
It’d be a long journey to find yourself again.
MAJNU
Yes..
LAILA
What about me?
MAJNU
You?
LAILA
Us together. You and me. Laila and Majnu.
MAJNU
I don’t know.
LAILA
Do you want me to leave you alone and disappear?
MAJNU
I don’t know.
LAILA
You don’t love me anymore?
(Suddenly Majnu turns cold and hard)
MAJNU
I never had any feelings for you.
LAILA
What?
MAJNU
All this stuff you’re saying to me. About love and soulmates. Stop saying those things to me. You keep pressuring me and I’m sick of it. I never loved you.
(Laila looks like she’s about to cry)
LAILA
I can’t believe you said that.
MAJNU
Why are you so upset?
LAILA
I’ve waited all this time for you, Majnu and you know that.
MAJNU
I never asked you to wait for me.
LAILA
You pursued me... you seduced me! You wrote me countless love letters and sang odes about your undying love for me... you wouldn’t stop unless I fell in love with you and now that you have my heart, you’re crushing it.
MAJNU
I never pursued you or seduced you. I never wrote any love letters to you. I never sang odes to you. I didn’t do anything to make you fall in love with me.
LAILA
Are you saying I’m delusional? I’m crazy and I’ve gone and lost my mind?
MAJNU
You are being strange, Laila. I don’t understand why you’re being like this.
LAILA
Why are you pushing me away? Why do you act as if there was nothing between us?
MAJNU
I’m not pushing you away because there was nothing between us.
LAILA
Majnu! What happened to you?
MAJNU
I told you, I’m dead.
LAILA
Majnu...
(Majnu stays silent and stares at her)
LAILA
Majnu... where did he go? Who are you?
MAJNU
I’m dead.
LAILA
You are dead.
MAJNU
I’m numb.
LAILA
Numb. Dead. Soulless.
MAJNU
My soul is gone. It was ravaged. Crushed. Spat on.
LAILA
Let me help you recover, baby...
MAJNU
Stop. Don’t.
LAILA
Majnu...
MAJNU
You suffocate me. I need to be alone.
LAILA
Why are you dismissing me like I never existed?
MAJNU
You dismissed my feelings.
LAILA
I’m trying to understand!
MAJNU
I told you, I’m dead and I need to find myself again. I need peace. I want to be alone.
LAILA
I understand that, baby. You were enslaved for a whole year. I can’t imgaine it was like. I’m glad that’s over now. I just want you to be safe and be in good health. But - what about you and me? Don’t you remember all those times you sang outside my balcony and seduced me with those songs you sang while you played your oud?
MAJNU
I never did that.
LAILA
What? Yes you did-
MAJNU
I don’t remember doing any of that.
LAILA
You’re seriously telling me that.. you don’t remember?
MAJNU
Why are you making up stories about me singing outside your balcony? I would never do anything like that.
LAILA
That was how you seduced me! That was how I fell in love with you!
(Majnu stares at her blankly)
LAILA
You’ve changed so much. I don’t even know you anymore.
(Majnu says nothing)
LAILA
You don’t realize how bad you have hurt me.
MAJNU
I’ve done nothing wrong.
LAILA
You took my heart and you ripped it out.
MAJNU
Why are you upset? I’m just telling you the truth.
LAILA
You’re cold. Yeah you’re right. You’re dead. You have no soul. No heart. No feelings.
(Laila turns around to walk away --)
MAJNU
Where are you going?
LAILA
Far away so you never see me again.
MAJNU
Why?
LAILA
You want to be alone and find yourself again. I won’t help by lingering around. I should go away and let you discover yourself again. It’s time for me to move on.
MAJNU
I need you.
LAILA
You denied ever having any feelings for me.
MAJNU
Don’t make this difficult for me..
LAILA
Me? Difficult? You’re making this difficult, honey. Here I was, awaiting your return to shower you with kisses and adore you - yet here you are, pushing me away.
MAJNU
(explodes)
I’m dead! My soul has been crushed and I feel numb and I can’t feel any emotions or express myself! You don’t know what it was like, being enslaved and forced to work so many hours under inhumane, crushing conditions!
(beat)
You are selfish. You don’t care about me. You had the liberty to go out and wear silky dresses and eat dates and ride Arabians, while I was shackled up, slaving under the hot sun everyday for over 14 hours, being shouted at and abused and berated by a cruel master.
LAILA
I’m sorry... I just want to understand what you’re feeling.
MAJNU
I’m telling you, I’m dead and you won’t listen.
LAILA
So allow me to stand by your side and hold your hand while you search for your missing soul, let me help revive yourself back from the dead.
MAJNU
No. I have to do this alone. I can’t let anyone help me.
LAILA
But this is what love is about. A man and a woman should always stand by each other in times of peril and help each other.
MAJNU
No.
LAILA
Majnu...
MAJNU
You just don’t understand.
LAILA
I’m trying.
MAJNU
You will never understand the torment I went through back there. You don’t really know what misery is like unless you’ve lived it.
LAILA
I will never understand but I can sympathize and offer you support and love. When no one else is there for you, I’m here. I’m always there for you. I’m always going to hold your hand and listen to you and offer my bosom for you to lay your head on while you pour all your emotions to me and I’ll absorb them all.
MAJNU
I don’t even feel like talking about my feelings.
LAILA
Then what do you want, baby?
MAJNU
Just to be alone. I just need time and space. I want to think and relax.
LAILA
Relax with me.
MAJNU
No. I gotta relax alone before I spend time with you.
LAILA
Alright.
MAJNU
You probably hate me now, don’t you?
(beat)
LAILA
I’ve waited a whole year for you, Majnu. Waiting for the day of your return so we could be reunited as lovers again and look into each other’s eyes and feel our breathings on our faces, our wet lips pressed together.. And we’d run away somewhere far away where we’d have the freedom to make love all day and you deeply penetrated inside me all night.
MAJNU
Not now.
LAILA
I know. You need to find yourself first.
MAJNU
I can’t feel anything, Laila.
LAILA
I know, baby...
MAJNU
I need to be happy again.
LAILA
Aren’t you happy to see me again after so long?
MAJNU
I just can’t feel any emotions. I feel nothing. All I can think about is the enslavement and the beatings I suffered from.
LAILA
Bichari. My poor baby. I want to take your pain away...
MAJNU
You can’t. No one can.
LAILA
I can try...
MAJNU
You hate me now, don’t you?
LAILA
No, baby. I feel sorry for you.
MAJNU
Why?
LAILA
I just do.
MAJNU
I don’t need your pity.
LAILA
It’s not pity - it’s sympathy.
MAJNU
I’m not weak. I’m not asking for you to feel sorry for me.
LAILA
I know.
MAJNU
Feel with me, not feel sorry for me.
LAILA
You’re right.
MAJNU
When the time is right, I’ll tell you everything.
LAILA
Insha’allah.
MAJNU
Right now. I just need to be alone. I just want to go sit in a dark cave and sit amongst the cold dark air and then at night, go out and lie on the sand and stare up at the stars in the night sky.
LAILA
To find yourself again.
MAJNU
Yes.
LAILA
And me?
MAJNU
I’ll come fetch you when I’m ready.
LAILA
No, you won’t.
MAJNU
Why not?
LAILA
You’ve changed so much. When you find peace within yourself again, you won’t be the same Majnu who seduced me from my balcony, singing love songs while strumming his oud.
MAJNU
I will come back for you.
LAILA
No. You won’t. I’m not expecting anything to happen. I think it’s time for both of us to just move on with our lives.
MAJNU
Why are you pushing me away?
LAILA
I’m not pushing you away. I’m giving you space. But I’m being realistic. When you find yourself again, you probably won’t have the same feelings for me anymore.
MAJNU
Maybe my feelings for you will even be stronger than before.
LAILA
Or weaker. And then it all disappears. Like I never existed in your heart.
MAJNU
Laila.
LAILA
I’m giving you the freedom to walk away. Goodbye, Majnu.
MAJNU
I don’t want you to disappear out of my life, Laila, goddamnit!
LAILA
Then what do you want from me?
MAJNU
I still need you, but I want to be alone for a period of time before I come get you.
LAILA
Ok, but then you’ll probably start have different feelings and you’d decide you won’t love me anymore.
MAJNU
You’re being selfish. It’s always about you and your feelings.
LAILA
No, baby, no. I’m trying to help YOU by walking away from your life so you can revive your dead soul again.
MAJNU
But I still need you!
(beat)
LAILA
I need you, too.
MAJNU
I can’t live without you.
LAILA
I love you so much. You don’t know how badly I love you more than anything else in the whole world.
MAJNU
Laila..
LAILA
I can’t stand the thought of going on in my life without you.
(Majnu says nothing)
LAILA
Do you understand what I’m saying? I’m trying to prepare myself for the possibility that you won’t come back for me. Right now, I just want to forget you. I want Allah to erase all traces of my feelings for you. I want to pretend you never existed, so I won’t have to deal with the horrible, messy emotions of heartbreak and misery and despair.
MAJNU
How do you think I felt all this time I was shackled up and beaten and shouted at for so many hours everyday for the whole year?
LAILA
I’m sorry.
MAJNU
Laila. Come here.
LAILA
No. We better not get any closer. You got to find yourself first and I gotta pray to Allah and beg the Lord to make me forget you.
MAJNU
I don’t want you to forget me.
LAILA
You denied ever having any feelings for me!
MAJNU
I’m not thinking normal, Laila. Goddamnit. You’re so selfish.
LAILA
Baby. I’m sorry. I’m doing it again Thinking of myself before I think of your feelings. I know it’s not your fault. You’re not thinking clearly. You’ve been so miserable and unhappy and trapped in the hellhole for so long while I had more freedom and liberty to do whatever I want. You went through hell and back. I’m sorry. I keep forgetting. I’m so out of touch with your reality.
MAJNU
I want you to understand.
LAILA
I just don’t want to lose you.
MAJNU
It’s a process, Laila. An experience.
LAILA
I waited so long for you, Majnu and I’m scared that I’ll never have the actual experience of having a relationship with you and you’d just dump me before we’re even together.
MAJNU
Well, don’t pray to Allah to make you forget me. You gotta be patient and understand what I’m going through. Then if the time is right, insha’allah, we’ll be together.
LAILA
But you can’t promise that.
MAJNU
I know.
(beat)
LAILA
The sun is going down and it’s getting dark soon. You better get going and find yourself a dark, cool cave to sleep in and start your recuperation.
MAJNU
What will you do?
LAILA
Pray to Allah and weep over my broken heart.
MAJNU
No. Pray to Allah and ask Allah to help me heal myself from the wounds of cruelty inflicted onto me that I suffered under human bondage...
LAILA
You are right.
MAJNU
I love you.
LAILA
No you don’t. Deep down somewhere in your lost, ravaged soul, I know you love me. But you don’t love me on the surface. You’re dead. I will see you soon... I hope.
MAJNU
Ana bahebak ya roohy meri jaan.
LAILA
Aku cinta kamu- aku rindu kamu -sayang ku...
MAJNU
Farewell, my love.
LAILA
Khuda hafiz.
Majnu walks across the stage and before he goes further, he looks at Laila one last time. A long, lingering stare that penetrates into her heart. His eyes are empty. He turns his head and disappears into the darkness. Laila looks away from him. She stares out into the emptiness.
The light fades out.
Black-out.
THE END.
