Act I, Scene I of [Matilda Maddening] A play on the dissolution of marriage

[Set opens with Husband at his desk and wife seated across from him, legs folded under. Wife is wearing a robe, as though preparing for bed and husband is fully clothed]

[There is silence between them for at least two minutes, as they both fiddle around with things around them, their hands and their movements, trying to find words to speak to one another.]

[After a long, almost seemingly endless silence, Husband sits forward as if to break the silence, then seats himself back and resigns again to perpetuate the silence already ongoing.]

[Suddenly, the wife, Matilda, breaks the silence]

Matilda: Say it.
Husband: There’s nothing to say.
Matilda: So you say nothing?
Husband: What else can I say if there is nothing to say?
Matilda: You always have something to say, saying nothing means everything.
Husband: Then let my saying nothing say what you believe I should say.
Matilda: [Lets out a sigh/laugh, brief] I knew when I married you, you were a coward. Naively I believed you’d acclimate to what a man is suppose to be.
Husband: Sure, sure, if that makes you feel better, consider me what you must and consider my silence as my words. But let’s not be so coy as to pretend you had no part in this.
Matilda: A part in what?
Husband: You know what.
Matilda: No, what exactly should I know? Say it for Christ’s sake.
Husband: The night in question, you were engaged in your own bit of deception.
Matilda: [sits forward closer to the desk] You can’t be serious.
Husband: As serious as I ever have been.
Matilda: So you use this so called deception as your blueprint to commit your unspeakable crimes?
Husband: Who said I committed any crimes?
Matilda: I say.
Husband: Of course. Not only did you name yourself my wife, but also judge and jury.
Matilda: Don’t do that.
Husband: Do what?
Matilda: Return to your pathetic position of cowardice. My mum always said, “A tyrant always finds a pretext for their tyranny.”
Husband: So now I’m a tyrant. First a speechless coward, now a tyrant. [Sits back with sarcasm] Mon cher, you’ve got to make up your mind, that is, if you can ever can.
Matilda: Even with my scatter brain, I can focus in on your non-sense, that tucked tail between your legs and that fucking yellow belly.
Husband: Does it make you feel better? To belittle? Deface? The whole world that stands and the next that will has to be in flames before you can ever begin to get to the place where you will begin to think of smiling.
Matilda: In point of fact, since you’ve mentioned it, it would make me outright blissful if everything in that world you stand for goes down into flames and something you love dearly is murdered.
Husband: I love you dearly.
Matilda. Not that night you didn’t.
Husband: [Gets fed up and jumps to his feet to walk away] I’m not going to do this with you, not again, there’s got to be some point we’ll have to end.
Matilda. [Gets upset from his attempt to walk away] A point to end, a point to end, it’ll be tonight, right now if you don’t sit you ass back in that seat and show me that fucking respect I deserve!

[Husband stops in full step, contemplating]


-from the 2018 play by Dontrell Lovet't,[Matilda Maddening]

photography by: Izabael Dajinn