No One Hears Unless You Scream: A Play About Teen Suicide

Commissioned by Seven Story Theatre Company in 2010

This play was made possible by a grant from the Monmouth County Arts Council and several private donors.

This play has had productions or readings in New Jersey, Connecticut, Ireland, Kentucky, and Colorado.

Author’s Note

The writing of this play would not have been possible without the trust and honesty of the members of Seven Stories (formerly New Mystics) Theatre Company, whose willingness to talk about teen suicide and put themselves in the place of their peers who cannot stand up and speak for themselves is awe-inspiring and deeply humbling. You will never know whose life you may have saved by giving so much of yourselves.

Production Note

The stage is empty except for several boxes of different sizes, placed around the stage haphazardly. Some are stacked, others solitary.

Along the two sides of the playing area are clothing items, props, etc. used in the play. Again, some are piled together, others are solitary. Those items used by the more solitary characters should stand alone. These will be used as appropriate and discarded after use as the blocking dictates and the director/actors choose.

The actors, dressed all in black, enter the stage from the house, “wings,” and rear of the stage. They enter in pairs, trios, and alone as the director deems fit (either reflecting the character they play or not). They whisper as they enter—some walking, some crawling, some looking at the audience or each other. Others seem to stare at things that aren’t there.

The actors are “ghosts” of the characters they play. Re-embodied voices of those that cannot be here to speak for themselves.

As they enter, they whisper “No one hears unless you scream,” rapidly and unintelligibly. Trios and pairs should split the words between them in different ways. For example, one trio might each take a word in succession: actor 1: No, actor 2: one, actor 3: hears, actor 1: unless, actor 2: you, actor 3: scream. Or actor 1: No one, actor 2: hears, actor 3: unless you, actors 1 and 2: scream. This should help in making a “blanket” of white noise.

As the actors get into their initial positions for the start of the play, as described in what follows, they begin to get in synch with the phrase until all cast members are whispering it together. The dialogue then begins.

Scene 1: “Statements of the Lie”

[The actors take positions similar to the positions they are in when they speak the following lines later in the play. No boxes should be moved at this point. All the cast members not in the scene speak “No one hears unless you scream” in unison. It should be different in volume, pace, emphasis each time, and the last several times should build considerably in intensity until it nearly is a scream.]

EDDIE: Lots of times. It’s great for stress relief. You can have someone do it for you, with their hands, or a scarf or something, or you can just hang off a doorknob with a belt. Once you’ve had someone help a few times, you can do it by yourself, any time you need to.

SCOTT: Strange… yet appealing. I’m in.