Aquarium: A Play in One Act

CHARACTERS
Eliza, Teacher, Teacher 2


SCENE 1

ELIZA and TEACHER enter the shark habitat. Two women inside the tank are cleaning the glass of the tank with sponges. Outside the tank there are children banging on the glass.

(Teacher)
Pointing at the women in the tank
Have you seen a shark like that before

(Eliza)
No

The women inside the tank signal to one another with their hands.

(Eliza)
Is it safe

(Teacher)
I don’t know
It must be

(Eliza)
Why are they so small

(Teacher)
It’s the glass
The glass makes things smaller that are bigger

(Eliza)
Can we go to the tunnel please there is a tunnel and you go inside and you see what the sharks see

(Teacher)
Don’t you want to stay longer there are pictures of fish you haven’t seen yet and you can find the fish in the pictures in the tank

(Eliza)
You go inside the tank in the tunnel and you see what sharks see

(Teacher)
Have you found this pink fish
Have you found the fish that looks most like you or me

(Eliza)
I would like to go let me show you

ELIZA pauses

It’s like you see what sharks see

ELIZA walks to the tunnel that passes through the shark habitat. TEACHER watches. ELIZA crawls on her hands and knees from one end to the other end and then she turns around and crawls back the way she came and then she turns around and does it again. TEACHER 2 approaches TEACHER.

(Teacher 2)
It’s all about the gift shop really

(Teacher)
Eliza loves the tunnel

(Teacher 2)
They don’t care about the fish
They want to see the gift shop

(Teacher)
She is going through the tunnel again

(Teacher 2)
There are humans in the shark tank and look at these amazing fish I tell them see how a jellyfish moves without a brain see the face on the bottom of an eel I tell them and they barely look they play a game that is stomping on the plastic in the ocean until the ocean is clean and they play that game until I tell them to stop

(Teacher)
Do the fish know they are being looked at

(Teacher 2)
Museums trick and they shouldn’t trick

(Teacher)
When I was a kid I went to the underground railroad museum in Ohio they had a simulation where you pretend to be a runaway slave you get to choose what time you leave you choose if you knock on the door of a house marked safe or sleep in the woods I got caught I tried every option to every question I always got caught

(Teacher 2)
Did anyone escape

(Teacher)
No it was a trick

(Teacher 2)
There’s a tunnel in the spy museum and you crawl through it to see what a spy sees and I had nightmares of torture after that it was awful knowing how little I might endure

ELIZA stands from the shark tunnel and returns to TEACHER.

(Eliza)
Can we have lunch

(Teacher)
Yes but first I would like the names of three shark breeds

(Eliza)
Great White
Whale

ELIZA pauses.

(Teacher)
That’s two

ELIZA says nothing. She looks at the shark tunnel.

(Teacher)
It’s like you were not paying attention or learning about the sharks

(Eliza)
I was

ELIZA pauses.

Hammerhead

(Teacher)
Let’s have lunch


SCENE 2

ELIZA and TEACHER are seated against the wall across from the glass of the shark tank. TEACHER hands ELIZA her lunch in a brown paper bag and pulls a bag of crackers from her purse. They eat in silence for a few moments.

(Eliza)
I have a Knicks colored bagel even my cream cheese is Knicks colored

(Teacher)
The color of your bagel is smeared

(Eliza)
My dad put too much cheese on my bagel you’re just having wheat thins for lunch

(Teacher)
I forgot to pack a lunch

(Eliza)
Can I go back to the tunnel

(Teacher)
If I’m being honest I didn’t forget I just made a bad choice

They continue to eat in silence. ELIZA stands and returns to the tunnel where other children now are passing through. The tunnel is busy with children. TEACHER 2 joins TEACHER who is still eating her crackers.

(Teacher)
I am a woman in possession of a myth and the myth is hating aquariums

(Teacher 2)
What does a woman do with a myth

(Teacher)
I learned it I’m teaching Eliza

(Teacher 2)
You think she will hate aquariums

(Teacher)
She loves the tunnel

(Teacher 2)
I had a dream I had fat hips and little fish were nibbling them

(Teacher)
Was it painful

(Teacher 2)
No they were nibbling

(Teacher)
Just the skin

(Teacher 2)
Just the skin yeah they looked like wings

ELIZA pauses in the center of the tunnel. Children crawl past. They crawl over her legs and under her arms. ELIZA stares at a shark swimming at a distance.

(Eliza)
The shark wants to know why I am here why I want to see what he sees and he does not know that it is because he lives under the water and he cannot see what I see this is the only tunnel he cannot get closer to the things I see

What I see is teachers lunch and I can see the future too

The shark wants to know what will happen what will happen in the future and it all depends on chosen numbers choose a number shark and I can tell you what will happen in the future if you choose the number eight you will get everything you ever wanted and then you will die

Take your hands off the glass the shark says I cannot see I cannot see myself I am only seen by you the shark says and whatever I see through the glass through your hands the New York City Aquarium is one thing and the ocean is another thing the shark says but I could not want to look at all that blue all that blue the shark says and here there are no waves and no depths and eyes

If you choose the number four it will be like pretending there is a woman in you even in a shark and the woman sees everything you do and it sees the woman in me too

(Teacher 2)
Eliza is your only student

(Teacher)
There was a group but Eliza worried and we separated

(Teacher 2)
I have big idiot Ivan

(Teacher)
Eliza is a smart girl and I will give you a for example

I am teaching a lesson about saying only true things and I say let me tell you a story about a boy who cried wolf and Eliza walks away while I tell the story and the other kids slop it up and eventually she returns and is listening with them even though it was not all that interesting really

(Teacher 2)
It’s all about stories with these kids but I have trouble with narrative structure it is difficult for me and I want to cheat it so instead I ask the kids to close their eyes and tell me the color of the ground beneath them and they usually don’t know and are surprised that they don’t know that surprise is exciting to them and kind of satisfying they open their eyes and it’s like hearing the end of a story they have always known somewhere in the back of their minds

(Eliza)
I’m ready to go now

(Teacher)
Close your eyes

(Eliza)
Why

(Teacher)
Just close them

(Eliza)
Fine

(Teacher)
What color is the ground

ELIZA opens her eyes

(Eliza)
What

(Teacher)
Never mind you opened your eyes

(Eliza)
It’s blue

_____
Asha Futterman lives in New York.