The Slave with Two Faces

Wonderful one act allegorical play. The story opens on two girls, the First wearing a crown and the Second carrying one. Once they find they’ve both come to meet Life, the First instructs the Second that the trick to not allowing Life to hurt and torture them is to know the secret: he is a slave. So the First tells the Second she must never let Life see her without her crown and that she is only safe “as long as you remain his master. Never forget that he is a slave, and that you are a queen.” Life enters walking “like a conqueror” but with “something ugly in his appearance.” However, when he sees the girls in their crowns, “he cringes and walks like a hunchback slave. He is beautiful now.” They prove what the First Girl has spoken by ordering Life to do and get many things for them. When he leaves to accomplish the tasks, they continue talking about Life, but when they hear “sounds of moaning and cries and a harsh voice menacing some unseen crowd,” they hide behind a bush. First tells Second that Life is “watching for the first sign of fear,” which can begin with a thought, and Life can see one’s thoughts of fear. “If we say we’re afraid we will be more afraid, because whatever we make into words makes itself into our bodies.”

We then see Life commandeering those who have empowered him with their fear: a Woman, a Workman, and a Young Man; Life uses his whip, dancing with fury, laughing at them, choking a cripple with his hands, and some even fall dead. Life drives them off the stage and goes off himself. The First girl leaves the Second by reminding her, “never kneel, little queen.” When Life returns, the Second girl, now by herself, begins strongly, commanding and winning Life’s submission. However, he begins to seduce her by saying that she is beautiful, getting her to remove her crown and then give it to him, and then he asks her to dance for him. By the time the dance is finished, they have reversed roles: Life is now the Second Girl’s master and threatens her when she shows any resistance to his demands. He kicks and beats her, eventually choking her to death, laughing as he leaves her body and goes offstage. The First Girl returns, singing, but when she sees the body, she whispers “But he was too strong…too strong… (She stands, trembles, cowering in terror.) Life has broken her…Like has broken them all…Some day…I am afraid.” But when Life re-enters, she sees him first and “straightens up just in time to be her scornful self before his eyes light upon her. As she speaks Life becomes a slave again.” The play ends with First Girl flinging a rose that falls onto the Second Girl’s body as she commands “Life! Bring me a fresh rose!” and Life, now her slave, “goes to do her bidding."