Vox
by Saul David Freudenstein
(Two men of roughly the same size and age enter from opposite sides of the stage. One man is black, dressed in white clothes. The other man is white, dressed in black clothes. Both wear mirror-style sunglasses. They stand together shoulder to shoulder and face the audience. At the silent count of ten, speaking loudly and concisely as top sergeants giving orders to troops, they half-shout the following:)
Black: A is A.
White: A is not not-A.
Black: If A is B and B is C then C is B and B is A.
White: A minus A plus A equals A.
Black: Being is that which is.
White: The Real is the rational and the Rational is the real.
Black: Cogito ergo sum.
White: Workers of the world unite.
Black: E equals MC squared.
White: Let a hundred flowers bloom.
Black: I do not want to be I, I want to be We.
White: Are you better off now than you were four years ago?
Black: The world is all that is the case.
White: Existentialism is a humanism.
Black: To save the village we had to destroy it.
White: Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny.
Black: Wouldn't you really rather have a Buick?
White: Lazarus, come forth.
Black: One must imagine Sisyphus happy.
White: Things go better with Coca-Cola.
Black: Ask not what your country can do for you.
White: The silence of these infinite spheres terrifies me.
Black: You've got mail.
White: What is the sound of one hand clapping?
Black: Have you accepted Jesus as your personal Savior?
White: Property is theft.
Black: You ain't nothing but a hound dog.
White: The medium is the message.
Black: Ein Volk. Ein Reich. Ein Fuhrer.
White: Where's the beef?
Black: These fragments I have shored against my ruin...
White: Use the Force, Luke.
Black: Arbeit Macht Frei.
White: My love is like a red red rose.
Black: We will bury you.
White: To be or not to be, that is the question.
Black: Thank you for shopping at Wal-Mart.
White: The unexamined life is not worth living.
Black: If not me, who?
White: Hell is other people.
Black: Jesus died for your sins.
White: Down with Big Brother.
Black: Enter the Matrix.
White: I am not come to bring peace but a sword.
Black: All men are created equal.
White: I want to believe.
Black: This is CNN.
White: Man is a useless passion.
Black: I have a dream.
White: We are the hollow men.
Black: But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?
White: The only good Injun is a dead Injun.
Black: We must make the world safe for democracy.
White: It's a bird. It's a plane. It's Superman.
Black: Love is a many-splendored thing.
White: We shall fight them on the beaches. We shall fight them on the shores.
Black: The white race is the cancer of history.
White: Just do it.
Black: War is the health of the State.
White: Revolt is itself moderation.
Black: This is a day that will live in infamy.
White: Dial 911.
Black: We must love one another or die.
White: Thou shalt not kill.
Black: Reach out and touch someone.
White: What is truth?
Black: See the USA in your Chevrolet
White: God is dead.
Black: Quality is Job One.
White: Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.
Black: For thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory.
White: (whispered:) Run Toto Run...
Black: (whispered:) Run Toto Run...
White: (normal:) Run Toto Run.
Black: (normal:) Run Toto Run.
White: (loud:) Run Toto Run!
Black: (loud:) Run Toto Run!
White: (shouting:) Run Toto Run!
Black: (shouting:) Run Toto Run!
(Silence. Then both men scream over and over, their screams overlapping screams, for ten seconds. They stop together, on cue. They leave the stage, marching in opposite directions.)
