Script for Ambient Noise

Last week I spent my days putting together the script for our group project and recording each characters part with the actors I had cast for the voice-over.

Here I have attached a section of the script for your reading pleasure...

AMBIENT NOISE; an extract*

Inside the TV Studios there is a warm hazy womb-like room build of paper lit in a soft blue/green light. There is a chandelier hanging from the ceiling. it is not lit. It is dripping with candle wax and toy soldiers. There is a mirror in the room which reflects a second masked character who has his back to the audience. His mask has no features. It is blank and expressionless. He is looking at a television that is hooked up to a playstation with a war game on pause. He is holding the joystick limply in both hands. The music that was playing in the corridor continues while the audience entre the space and position themselves around the room. Suddenly as if awaking from a dream the masked figure acknowledges the audience. A second voice is heard

VOICE2: You’re late! Where the hell where you? Are all the doors firmly shut? Can anyone see us or hear us?

The masked character moves through the audience and hastens the shut the door. Pausing and looking left and right into the corridor before carefully shutting it. As the masked figures returns his attention to the room the voice continues

VOICE2: I’ve been told that this house is going to be besieged. The rebels have already crossed the river

This afternoon, just before you arrived the rebels took three key positions. They set fire to several places. Not a single fireman came out. Everything went up in flames the palace was blown up last night. It’s dangerous for anyone to loiter in the streets. You had a pretty close shave.

(he laughs and looks at himself in the mirror, taking a stance like a movie character, he pretends to machine gun the entire cafe)

Bangbangbangbang!

I went out to plant a bomb. When I got half-way up the street, some son of a bitch started firing away but he missed me. I saw the machine-gun almost in front of me. He was reloading. I just stood and stared at him, cool as a cucumber. He looked as if he were posing, with the light beaming on him. He took aim. And then, he toppled over. One of our boys had picked him off. I continued on my way, calm as can be. I plant my bomb and here I am. I wasn’t scared for a second. Didn’t bat an eyelash.

A noise is heard

VOICE2: What’s that?

All the lights go out. The audience is plunged into darkness.

*Ambient Noise is an adaptation of Jean Genet's The Balcony, so all the lines here have been drawn directly from the original text. They have however been reconstructed and rearranged for the purpose of our performance.