The Key
Supernatural, a day from before
- Supernatural
- Two-hander
- 3 min
- Female role
- Adult
- Intermediate
Casting
7 lines- LE MARCHAND Male role, Senior
- ELLE Female role, Adult your role
Full text
(A flea market. An old merchant holds out a small iron key to a woman.)
LE MARCHAND
This key has no price. Take it. But I must warn you: it opens no lock of today.
ELLE
What does it open, then?
LE MARCHAND
A door you know. You’ll recognise it. And behind it will be a day from before. Only one. The one you carry heaviest.
ELLE
…And can I change what happened there?
LE MARCHAND
No. You change nothing. You can only look. Stay in the room. See the faces still alive. Then the door closes, and the key melts in your hand.
(She grips the key. She already knows which door.)
ELLE
Just look. Without being able to warn them.
LE MARCHAND
That’s the rule. But tell me: after all this time, it isn’t warning them that you miss. It’s seeing them. So go and see them. One last time is better than never.
What you can do with it
Original text written for Acto. Read it, print it, work on it in class, perform it at an audition or on a self-tape: that is what it is for, and you need no permission. For a public performance or any commercial use, write to us at contact@acto.re.
In these selections
The same text, elsewhere
Close to this one
-
The Viewing
Double-aspect living room, original parquet. The fireplace works, the previous owners had stopped using it. No, they hadn’t. In winter. The draught jams when the wind comes off the sea; you…
-
The Night Shift
You’re early. Shift change is at four. I am always on time. It’s your clocks that hesitate.
-
The Double
You wanted to see me. I almost didn’t come. You don’t have coffee with your own face. I know. It’s unsettling. Believe me, on my side too.