CASSANDRA: Part 9
Here’s another installment of Bryce Duzan’s CASSANDRA play, which we’re serializing this year to help build your appetite for the festival in November. Enjoy!
CASSANDRA
by Bryce Duzan
Act Two
Scene Two
(History has reversed. It is now the time of Ancient Rome, the day of Julius Caesar’s coronation as emperor. CASSANDRA paces back and forth, away from the cheering crowds that await Caesar’s approach.)
CASSANDRA
What shall I do now? I know the future that will come if I allow this. Caesar will be murdered if he is crowned king. His murder will lead, to a civil war in Rome and, eventually, to the downfall of Rome itself. Hundreds of thousands will be displaced or killed. But how do I seek an audience with him? How do I approach him? How do I even form an argument to sway him?
Ah! If only I had some contacts from the old days. The friends I had formed after escaping the palace of Agamemnon were great indeed, but…they have long since passed now. And I remain…unchanged. (She looks at her hands.) I cannot believe that Apollo would go to such lengths to curse me. First my sight, now my life. Both extend into eternity, and there is nothing I can do to stop either…and where has he gone? I have not seen him for many years, though I still feel his sight upon me from time to time. Has he slipped into the pages of history? I doubt I should be so lucky. If he were to disappear, I would hope that my curses would disappear with him.
Still, a small part of me is thankful for the strange things I have seen. Were I still mortal, I would not be privy to the rise of Rome. But the Roman people are strange to me. Their customs and ways seem far more brutish than those of Greece. I find more in common with their slaves than their royalty! Yet, slaves cannot grant you an audience with a king.
(A cheer erupts from the crowd.)
The parade has begun! He will be here within minutes. Perhaps I can give him some sort of warning…
(APOLLO emerges from the crowd.)
APOLLO
I see you are plotting again, Cassandra.
CASSANDRA
Apollo! I knew you could not be far from me. Why are you here?
APOLLO
You are attempting to influence history, Cassandra. You are trying to change the future you see. Why?
CASSANDRA
I do not want what happened to my home to happen here. There are many people that would suffer in the coming war if Caesar is assassinated.
APOLLO
And what about the future you cannot see? What would happen if Caesar were to remain as king?
CASSANDRA
What do you mean?
APOLLO
Think of it. Caesar obtains the power he desires, but soon, it is not enough. He craves more. It becomes a hunger inside of himself, devouring all it can. Soon he is driven insane, and all of his subjects suffer under his rule. Can you not see it?
CASSANDRA
That…is not true! You are just trying to confuse me! There is only one future written as of now, and I am trying to change it.
APOLLO
There is one future that you can see, Cassandra. The future that will come to pass. But there are countless other possibilities.
CASSANDRA
How do you know what will happen?
(APOLLO chuckles.)
APOLLO
You may be immortal, my dear Cassandra, but you are not a god.
CASSANDRA
So…you say that whatever I do, I will not be able to affect fate?
APOLLO
Indeed. You cannot change humans. They will find a way to destroy themselves in
the end.
CASSANDRA
No, there must be something I can do!
APOLLO
Cassandra, stop this foolishness. When you have seen humans squabble amongst themselves for as long as I have, for as many petty reasons as there are stars in the sky, you realize the pointlessness of it all. I too, was once concerned for them. Then I grew angry at them. Then…well, it is all amusement to me now.
CASSANDRA
And you do not believe you sometimes squabble over petty reasons with your divine brothers and sisters?
APOLLO
Please, we are above such things!
CASSANDRA
Is that so? I seem to remember a certain story about a girl who resisted your advances, so you cruelly cursed her for the rest of time…
(They are silent for a moment.)
APOLLO
So you wish to try to save this Caesar?
CASSANDRA
His fate is less important to me. It is the fate of the Roman people whom I care for.
APOLLO
How interesting! How much you’ve changed already, Cassandra!
CASSANDRA
What?
APOLLO
I seem to remember a girl whose city had burned to the ground. Weeping, she returned to the ruins of her once-glorious home, and sought not for the common men and women, but her own family.
CASSANDRA
Are you accusing me of not caring for the common folk of Troy? I shed tears every day for my people-
APOLLO
Yes, “your people,” you say. It’s always “your people.” But what people? You call out for Hector, for Priam, for Hecuba, but never have a name for the commoners who lived and died serving you and yours! What about the peasants, the soldiers, the hundreds, no, thousands who died fighting for Troy and Troy’s royal family? What about the innocent merchants and craftsmen, the wives and children of the soldiers, all huddled in the city, looking to your family to save them from destruction? Whose salvation was never secured, and who died knowing it was you who had failed them? Those are your people, Cassandra, and you failed them!
CASSANDRA
Enough! You do not know about these people, Apollo, you knew nothing of their plight! How dare you suggest that I did not care for them! I poured my heart and soul into caring for them, and they knew it. They loved and respected me for everything I tried to do to help them!
APOLLO
But you hated them too, did you not?
CASSANDRA
What are you talking about?
APOLLO
When you first received your…gift, did you not feel hate in your heart when they turned their backs on you?
CASSANDRA
No, never! They…simply did not understand…they could not understand!
APOLLO
Yet they shunned you! For all the kindness you had shown them, they laughed at you, called you mad!
CASSANDRA
They…yes, they did.
APOLLO
And it pained you, did it not?
CASSANDRA
…it did. So very much. I needed them, and they all turned their backs on me.
APOLLO
So, tell me. Why do these people deserve your pity? What makes them so special?
CASSANDRA
…no! I will not hear these words from you! This is too much. Your words eat holes into my brain and drive me mad with fury. Enough! (She turns to leave, then stops.) No, wait…you are pushing me away. You are trying to make me leave, are you not? Why are you doing this? Why are you trying to stop me?
APOLLO
I simply do not want you to be crestfallen when you have failed, that is all.
CASSANDRA
You are hiding something from me. What is it? Tell me!
(APOLLO smirks and turns away. CASSANDRA grabs him by the arm and spins him to face her. He is genuinely shocked by the action.)
APOLLO
I…a mortal should not be able to change the future, Cassandra!
(Cheers erupt from the crowd once more.)
CASSANDRA
Watch me do so.
(CASSANDRA moves to the crowd.)
APOLLO
He will not believe you, Cassandra, try as you might!
CASSANDRA
I must try, Apollo. I must try.
(CASSANDRA pushes past the crowd and calls out to CAESAR, who is attended by CASCA and BRUTUS.)
CASSANDRA
Caesar!
CAESAR
Ha! who calls?
CASCA
Bid every noise be still: peace yet again!
CAESAR
Who is it in the press that calls on me?
I hear a tongue, shriller than all the music,
Cry ‘Caesar!’ Speak; Caesar is turn’d to hear.
CASSANDRA
Beware the ides of March.
CAESAR
What woman is that?
BRUTUS
A soothsayer bids you beware the ides of March.
CAESAR
Set her before me; let me see her face.
CASSIUS
You, come from the throng; look upon Caesar.
CAESAR
What say’st thou to me now? speak once again.
CASSANDRA
Beware the ides of March.
CAESAR
She is a dreamer; let us leave her: pass.
(CAESAR, CASCA, and BRUTUS leave, the cheers of the crowd echoing all around. APOLLO is left as the crowd follows CAESAR.)
CASSANDRA
He…did not even heed my warning.
APOLLO
Indeed. ‘Tis a shame. I thought you might really make him believe for a moment.
CASSANDRA
You had something to do with this. I know it!
APOLLO
I did not.
CASSANDRA
You must have! You did something, empowered my curse, made my truths seem like greater lies!
APOLLO
Cassandra, you were the daughter of a king once. But that was many, many years ago. Who are you now? Troy is all but forgotten by these people. And you, by all accounts, should be dead…for a great number of reasons, I might add. You are just another woman wandering the world now.
CASSANDRA
That is where you are wrong, Apollo. I am so much more. This is not over. I will change this world, I swear it.
APOLLO
Why do you bother, Cassandra? This war is lost. Caesar heads to his doom.
CASSANDRA
Do you not see it? Far ahead, hundreds of years in the future…fire enveloping the earth…tragedy like Troy a hundredfold.
APOLLO
(Chuckles.) Perhaps you are mad, dear. Come, end this-
CASSANDRA
No! Leave me be, Apollo. I have much to do now.
(CASSANDRA storms off. APOLLO makes no move to follow her.)
APOLLO
Run as much as you want, Cassandra. One day you will realize how pointless it is. All I have to do is wait…and time is on my side.
(BLACKOUT)
Keep checking for more installments!
Tags: Bryce Duzan, Cassandra