Boots

A play no longer then a piece of A4

Characters

Homeless Man (HM) - mid 40s

Woman (W) - Early 20s

The boot is in the middle of the pavement somewhere in Chinatown London

A single homeless man sits a few meters behind it staring at it.

It is daytime yet, you determine the time. People (all dressed from colours in the monochrome grey colour pallet) will walk past them however there is minimal obstruction of the view of the homeless man.

The boot is a old work boot off a construction site, its original light brown colour is muffled by scratches and scuff marks and the laces are broken with one of them no longer having the plastic end.

The boot sits facing directly towards the audience.

Homeless man sits staring at the boot. His left hand twitches after years of drug abuse. Scratches at his right forearms as he shakes his head at his self pity and self loathing. He is not wearing any shoes or socks, he has long old denim trousers with dirt patches covering them and a mark where he has obviously wet himself in the past and hasn’t changed out of them. he is wearing a blue checkered lumberjack top. he has a trolley of possessions next to him. multiple shoes all odd make up the stack of possessions. He holds a polystyrene cup he is using to beg and a sign reading “I lost my leg at war and need money to fix myself”

The homeless man has one leg.

HM - (Silence)

(HM sneezes and rubs his noes on his sleeve)

HM - *mumbles* i need it (you can barely make out what he is saying) (Silence)

(HM shuffles and looks at his polystyrene cup a quarter full with 10p’s)

HM - (Silence)

HM - Please any money is appreciated. (Silence)

Woman enters from stage right walks past the man only glancing at him once. she is wearing bright red and is very well dressed however her mascara is dripping down her face because of tears. she has been biting her nails and the red nail varnish is chipped.

HM - Please i beg you anything, I’ve lost more then everything, I’ve lost myself (Silence)

HM - Freedom from life is one thing but freedom from yourself is another.

(Silence)

Woman enters again from left stage and sits next to the HM. She takes his sign and writes on it. The HM said nothing as he has given up on his life yet cannot do anything about it because he only has one leg. She places the sign back infant of the HM gets up and leaves.

The sign reads “its nice to be able to run towards your dreams ill do my best to keep up”. People now walking past the HM being dropping money and making donations.

HM - (Looking after the Woman) Id chase after you and thank you if i could.