Stairway to
Oblivion:
Excerpted from a play by Cecile Denning
Malone
Man #1: Why?
Man #2: A question so simple, and yet so
frightening
Man #1: So many answers... or are there
none?
Man #2: One. You ask, "Why?" I answer,
"Because."
Man #1: Truth. So simple, and yet so
transcendent.
Man #2: I only speak the truth.
Man #1: Don't mock me.
Man #2: I'm not mocking you, I'm refuting
you.
Man #1: Truth is like a razor. It can cut
you, or shave you.
Man #2: Or kill you, or disgrace you.
Man #1: Down the stairway to
oblivion.
Man #2: And yet...
Man #1: One man's oblivion is another man's
stairway.
Man #2: Perhaps. But perhaps, one man's
stairway is another man's oblivion.
Man #1: Oh, that it would be so.
Man #2: Wouldn't it?
Man #1: Why would it?
Man #2: Life, my friend, is a succession of
stairways... we take one, then the other, willy-nilly, and we find ourselves
still lost.
...
Man #1: Where were we?
Man #2: South of oblivion.
Man #1: South-southeast, you said.
Man #2: So I did.
Man #1: Did you?
Man #2: I'm not denying it.
Man #1: But you're not confirming it,
either.
Man #2: And so it goes.
Man #1: Alas, yes.
Man #2: Down.
Man #1: Down, and down.
Man #2: The stairway to oblivion.
Man #1: So the truth is, there is no
truth.
Man #2: Thus, we each live our lives beguiled
by a lie.
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