Silent Movie Script
Scene 1
Woman A walks. Finds note against her door.
‘Just once a day,’ she thought to herself, ‘get up, get dressed and go out.’ She echoed the words until they silenced the thoughts of her own.
A dark gravity pulled at the corners of her mouth and added weight to her every step as she moved aimlessly through the motions.
Until a letter on her door, a folded page of hope; a break in the force of the monotony. Eager fingers unfolded the letter and she learned that her neighbor would be having a party. She was notified, not invited.
Scene 2
Woman B arrives. Shows Woman A something. The vase is broken.
She needed some air; a walk to the park, or maybe just around the block. Just a few more moments of wholeness before the darkness and the night took hold once more.
As she reached the gate, she saw her oh-so-considerate neighbor approaching, overburdened. Reluctantly, she put forward helpful hands and watched as the woman before her moved through her life with such fluidity and ease. Her smiling neighbour looked to her for an opinion on her new purchase; and so she reached into her most glamourous bag and opened the package within. An underwhelming broken vase was revealed. Her neighbour sighed and shrugged off a wasted day on a vase that had lost its purpose before reaching home; but she couldn’t help but notice the glints of her own reflection in the jagged shards of glass.
Scene 3
Woman A comes out. Has an idea.
This time she decided, that she would walk right up to the door and ask for her invitation. She guessed that’s what someone confident and friendly would do; she could only guess. Her nerve weakened and she thought of the broken vase; she needed a purpose, an offering, a reason. A gift.
Scene 4
Woman B comes out talking on her phone. Woman A gives her a gift. Woman B hurriedly says thank you and goes back in her house.
She’d washed out her only old vase, boxed and wrapped it. She knew that it wasn’t much but she hoped it would be enough to free her from her own isolation, even if for just one night. When the woman resurfaced in the front garden, she hurried out to meet her with the gift. In all of the haste, she didn’t notice the phone pressed against her neighbour’s ear and so she put forward her humble gift too soon. She tried to conceal her disappointment as the gift was whisked from her hands with little acknowledgement. Another failed interaction. Another chance to break free of the loneliness, lost forever.
Scene 5
Woman A eats and watches television. Someone delivers flowers at her door. Woman A sits down again and is interrupted by a loud noise.
She felt no need to cook a meal for one and so she threw a single serving, TV tray into the microwave. It was edible, she would be fed, she would not starve but it would not satisfy her hunger. The blue light emanating from the TV, flashed over her glazed eyes. She told herself to focus on the stories in the movies and not her own; at least on the screen she would see smiles and hear laughs. Maybe she could even pretend she was a part of it all.
Until, three knocks landed on her front door. She clamoured to the door with excitement, with the hope that her invitation had finally arrived, but when she swung open the door, she found a delivery man with beautiful, white flowers. She knew they weren’t meant for her. How could they be? Seeing her neighbour’s name on the note, confirmed her suspicions.
She fell back into the cold comfort of her living room and listened as the sounds of joy and merriment swelled and spilt into her apartment. Each sound became a ghost, haunting her; taunting her in her loneliness. They jumped and frightened her until the tears broke from her eyes. She screamed for the fear of the darkness inside her heart and then she cried for the pain of the emptiness.
Scene 6
Woman A walks out with trash. Sees something in the bin next to hers. Woman B arrives. There is a confrontation. Woman A storms off.
With an emotional hangover, she faced the glaring light of the morning to throw out her filth from the day before. She heaved the black bag into the dustbin marked for her apartment but a glint of green paper, from her neighbour’s bin, managed to catch her eye. It was the paper from the gift she’d given. Ripped open, used, discarded and un-thanked. She could hardly see for all her anger and so she lifted the lid to get a closer look. Frozen with shock, she could not mask her emotions as the woman, from next door, approached to discard her empty bottles from the festivities before. Angrily she slammed shut the lid of the bin and with it, the chance of understanding why she was always left on the outside looking in. As she walked away, she thought that she might be the one trapped on the inside, only ever looking out.
Scene 7
Woman B arrives as Woman A is about to leave. Woman A tries to avoid Woman B. Then she hears something. Woman B hands woman B a piece of folded paper. Woman B picks up a vase with flowers. Woman B thanks woman A.
Later in the day, she had mustered the energy to go out for a walk; to feign normality for a while. As she left she was confronted with her neighbour once more. Although, this time, it was a different scene that she encountered. The woman at which she had marveled, was haunted by ghosts and darkness of her own. As tears streamed down her neighbour’s cheeks, she reached out to take the note offered to her and noticed only one word come into focus: ‘Condolences.’
She watched as her neighbour got up, dusted herself off and regained her composure; only to collect the white lilies that had been delivered the day before. After offering a solemn ‘thank you,’ the woman from next door, walked on with her grief.
As she watched her neighbour walk away, she pieced together all that had happened and when she did, she realized that it did not match the picture that her rash conclusions had drawn. In the pit of her emotional despair and desperate hollowness, she had forgotten that while she was alone and lonely, she was not alone in feeling that way. Just because her own world had crumbled, did not mean that others could see that it had. It also didn’t mean that they could fix it because maybe they were busy fixing themselves. She realized that she had a responsibility to herself and when that became clear, the gravity of it all began to lessen and the darkness lifted.
Scene 8
Woman A comes out. Looks down on pot plant. Smiles. Walks away.
That day, she got up, got dressed and went out, but this time, her feet lifted effortlessly from the ground. She cast her gaze at the dying plant beside her door and she smiled; not because the plant had died but because she had not.
