No Way Out
Directed by Jessica Risco With Ray Renati, Christian Haines & Dorian Lockett
(Black out. A loud alarm sounds and then the lights come up suddenly. Three men stand in a circle with their backs to each other. Guns drawn. They are all carrying empty duffle bags. They all breathe heavily, their bodies tense. They are all in black with balaclavas covering their faces. Fear and adrenalin are high.)
(Suddenly.)
DANNY
FUCK!!!!
(DANNY pulls away from the circle, throws the bag away and pulls off the mask.)
(CLINT, ERIC and DANNY [DANNY comes in a beat later].)
CLINT What the fuck, man? You shouldn’t take off your mask, man, you shouldn’t take off your mask. I mean, right? I mean...holy shit what are we going to do? Eric? Should we all take our masks off? Eric? What’s the plan now? Is there a way out? Eric? Danny? I can’t go to jail man. That wasn’t part of the plan. I’m not a criminal. We gotta get out of here, man! We gotta -
ERIC Get your fucking mask back on! There are cameras in here! This thing isn’t over! We can still make it out and if you think you are going to puss out on us now you’ve got another thing coming. I said get your mask back on! Seth is out there, maybe dying, and for what? So you can give the fuck up now! Get your fucking mask back the FUCK ON! I said –
DANNY ...Don’t start with me because I don’t want to hear it. I don’t want to hear it. It’s hot and I can’t breathe and – you do what you want Clint. Do whatever the hell you want but get the hell off my back. Oh fuck you, Eric. You worry about yourself. It doesn’t matter anyway because we are in a locked room with no fucking way out and it doesn’t fucking matter anymore and I FUCKING HEARD YOU!
(They stand there for a moment looking at each other. ERIC takes off his mask.)
ERIC Fuck!
(CLINT raises his hands up as if he will also take off his mask, but he just puts his hands on his head and starts to freak out. He goes to a far corner, hands over his face, silently crying.)
ERIC Good. Great.
DANNY There isn’t a way out.
ERIC There’s a way out.
DANNY The alarm tripped the door. There isn’t a way out.
ERIC There’s always a fucking way out.
CLINT There’s no way out, man, no way out. We’re going to run out of air and I’m going to die and there’s no way out, man, no way out!
(He starts to hyperventilate.)
DANNY He’s gonna pass out.
ERIC He’s not –
(CLINT passes out.)
ERIC Fuck.
DANNY At least he’ll be quiet.
(Pause. DANNY goes to CLINT and pulls off his mask to make sure he’s ok. As he talks he bunches up one of the bags and puts it under CLINT’s head.)
ERIC We should start looking for a weakness.
DANNY It’s a vault.
ERIC Yeah. I know. But, I mean...how much money do you think they spent on this really? How much of this do you think is for show?
DANNY None of it. I think none of it is for show. They’re sophisticated enough to have a vault that locks when the alarm is tripped.
(CLINT starts waking up.)
ERIC Maybe there’s a loose panel somewhere.
CLINT Hey, what about Seth?
(ERIC is on the floor, butt in the air, looking for cracks along the wall.)
DANNY You look like an idiot.
ERIC At least I’m doing something. You’re just standing there saying over and over again there’s no way out!
CLINT Maybe he’ll get us out. Maybe he’s trying to open the door.
DANNY He’s not trying to help us.
CLINT Is he dead? Did the police kill him?
DANNY I don’t know.
CLINT But, what about Seth?
ERIC For fuck’s sake! It’s Seth’s fault we’re in here. “Let’s knock over the savings and loan! It’ll be fun!” FUN? WHAT KIND OF FREAK GETS HIS KICKS THIS WAY? Jesus. At what point did any of us think this was a good idea? I’m not a fucking bank robber! Seth was supposed to get the tellers away from the alarm buttons, but I bet you anything he let that fat guy at the end decided to play the hero and now we are locked in a fucking vault while Seth is hightailing it out of here in the getaway car!
DANNY We should shoot our way out.
ERIC Right. Perfect plan. What’s the worst that could happen?
DANNY Is there a weakness?
ERIC No.
(Pause.)
CLINT No way out, man. No way out.
DANNY We didn’t do this for the money. We aren’t doing this because Seth talked us into it. We’re doing it because your best plan was to be a dental hygienist. Clint is going to his seventh year of undergrad with no plans to actually major in anything. Seth’s a Lyft driver. And until three days ago I was really excited about opening a yogurt shop. A fucking yogurt shop!
(The lights suddenly go out. From the other side of the door. “We have the place surrounded. We will open the door. Put your hands up.” The lights come back up, but in a different color. All three are in the positions they were in at the beginning, except with their masks off and bags on the floor.)
(CLINT and ERIC talk at the same time)
CLINT I don’t wanna die, man, I wanna be a psychologist or a lawyer or an actor or a caterer or I wanna fuck that guy in my astronomy class I don’t know, man. But I don’t wanna die, man. I don’t wanna die...
ERIC I don’t want to live out some kind of Butch Cassidy fantasy of a suicide. I want to know what it feels like to hold hundreds of thousands of dollars in my hand. I want to live on a beach in Mexico!
(Pause.)
DANNY I don’t want to be normal.
(Pause.)
ERIC You know, this is a small town. It’s not like they have a SWAT team.
CLINT There’s no way out, man.
DANNY No way but one.
(They stiffen with resolve.)
(End of Play).