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NOTE: This is the original script, as shared by the author.

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TOM A person of any age 

PHIL A person of any age 

AT RISE: TOM and PHIL sit in ordinary chairs on an otherwise empty stage 

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What are you doing? 

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Waiting for something to happen. 

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Do you think it will? 

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Does it ever? 

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So why are we waiting? 

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What else is there to do? 

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It's awfully quiet. 

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It's always quiet. 

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Everything's still. 

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Everything is always still. 

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That's kind of nice though, isn't it? You can just be alone with your thoughts. 

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I haven't had a thought in quite some time.

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Not one single thought? 

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What is there to have a thought about? 

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Maybe if we stop waiting for something to happen, something will happen. 

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How do we stop waiting? 

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We do something. 

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What is there to do? 

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Perhaps we should think about something happening. 

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You think something might happen if we think about it? 

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It might. Should we try? 

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I don't see the point. 

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I'll try. 

TOM closes his/her eyes, deep in concentration. After a while, he/she reopens them. Did anything happen? 

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Did you see anything happen? 

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No. But my eyes were closed. 

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Nothing happened.

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Maybe if we were in the company of others, we could all provoke something to happen. 

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Who could we possibly find to be in the company of? 

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There must be someone. What about Joe? 

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Joe hates me. 

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Oh. Bill? 

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Bill hates you. 

A pause. 

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Is it possible this quandary is our fault? 

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No, I don't think so. 

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You're sure? 

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Not entirely sure, no. But sure enough. 

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Then don't you think it at least deserves further inquiry? 

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No, I don't. 

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There must be something to do. Perhaps we aren't looking in the right places. 

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Where is there to look?

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What about what we have right here in front of us? 

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What do we have in front of us? 

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I don't see anything. 

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That's because you're not looking hard enough. 

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You think if I look harder something will magically appear in front of me? 

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You're only looking with your eyes. 

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Is there any other way? 

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Try looking with your imagination. 

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I'm afraid my imagination has gone blind. 

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That's impossible. It's just clouded. 

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And what does one do about that? 

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You just have to learn how to see through the haze. Let me show you. Look out there,  what do you see? 

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I see...nothingness. 

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But within the nothingness, what do you see?

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How can one see something within nothing? 

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There's never nothing if you use your mind. 

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I think you're wrong. 

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What makes you think I'm wrong? 

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The fact that you're wrong. 

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I really don't think I'm wrong. 

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Nobody ever thinks they're wrong. 

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I'll prove to you that I'm not wrong, then. (Pointing to the chair) What is this? 

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Is this part of the demonstration or did you forget what it is? 

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It's part of the demonstration. 

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It's a chair. 

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Yes, if you only look at it with your eyes. But if you look at it from another angle... He/she moves behind the chair and crouches 

Ah, yes...that's better. 

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I don't understand. 

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Come here, I'll show you.

PHIL joins TOM behind the chairs and crouches. 

Now, look very closely. 

Silence as they both stare intently at their chairs. 

Are you looking? 

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My eyes are pointed at the chair, are they not? 

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Yes but are you really looking? 

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I'm looking as much as someone with my level of disinterest possibly can. 

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And you don't see anything that you didn't see before? Other than the chair? 

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Wait a minute...yes, yes I think I do. 

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What?! What do you see? 

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I now see an idiot crouching behind the chair. 

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Ah! See, you're already seeing new things! 

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This is senseless. 

PHIL sits back down. TOM starts to circle the chairs, never breaking eye contact with  them. 

What are you doing? 

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If you look at these chairs from different angles, they turn into all sorts of things. 

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What are they turning into?

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You'll have to come look for yourself. 

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I'd rather not. 

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Are you afraid to use your imagination? 

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It seems that our imaginations are all we have at our disposal. Yet you seem to have an  aversion to using yours. 

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I'm not averse to using it. I only use it when I think it will be of use. 

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You don't think it will be of use now? 

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No, I don't. That chair was a chair yesterday. And the day before that, and the day before  that, and it will still be a chair tomorrow and the day after that and the day after that. I  have accepted that as irrefutable fact. 

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But facts aren't always facts. 

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Some are. Some facts will remain what they are for eternity, and no amount of wishing or  imagination will change that. For example, the world is round. This is a fact and it will  always be a fact. 

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But there was a time when people thought the world was flat! 

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Yes and they were wrong. 

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Precisely! Irrefutable facts are only irrefutable until someone refutes them. And it very  well may have been men just like us, sitting in chairs just like these somewhere, who  decided that maybe the world wasn't flat after all. Perhaps it was two men just like us,  with nothing more than their imaginations to guide them. And if the very nature of the  universe can be existed, why can this chair not be something other than what we think it  is? 

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Because the men who discovered the world wasn't flat did so with scientific  observations. 

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Very well. Then I'll observe this chair scientifically. 

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Suit yourself. 

TOM studies the chair intently. PHIL watches. 

Must you do that? 

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Do what? 

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Sit there and stare intently at the same stationary object endlessly. It's depressing. 

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The whole world is stationary it seems. 

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Not as quiet as it used to be, though. 

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Do you think it might rain tomorrow? 

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Yes, I think it might. 

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Well, I suppose that's something. 

END OF PLAY