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The Last Toll

A tragicomedy for two and a barrier

  • Tragicomedy
  • Absurdist
  • 2-character play
  • 2 either
  • 14 min
  • Beginner
PDF Word Free, no sign-up

Synopsis

It is the last night for the booth on lane 7: by morning, unmanned gantries will take its place. No car has come through for hours, yet Dominique is patiently training the new recruit sent out for the night, procedure by procedure, from the good evening to the change placed in the driver’s hand. Noa listens, takes notes, and keeps glancing at the toolbox on the ground.

A motorway toll booth, lane 7, on its last night before closing, from a quarter past five to six in the morning.

Casting

182 lines
  • DOMINIQUE No gender marker, Senior around sixty, thirty-one years in the booth on lane 7.
  • NOA No gender marker, Young adult twenty-something, in an orange hi-vis vest, on site since four in the morning with a toolbox.

Contents

  1. Scene 1: Procedure Nineteen
  2. Scene 2: One Screw per Procedure
  3. Scene 3: Forty

Excerpt

Scene 1: Procedure Nineteen

(Night. A toll booth: a sliding window, a stool, a cash drawer, a log book on the ledge, a green arrow lit up and, above the window, a plate: 7. On the ground, a toolbox. Dominique, inside the booth, holds a fat binder open. Noa, standing beside it, notebook in hand, watches the road.)

DOMINIQUE

Procedure nineteen. The four drivers.

NOA

It’s a quarter past five.

DOMINIQUE

The four drivers don’t keep hours. There are the ones who look at you. The ones who don’t. The ones who sing. And the ones who cry.

NOA

The ones who cry?

DOMINIQUE

About once a week. Sunday nights, mostly.

177 more lines, 3 scenes

The rest is waiting in the file.

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