Painkiller – A script about suicide

There is a really serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Deciding whether life is worth living is tantamount to answering the fundamental question of philosophy. – Albert Camus, The Myth Of Sisyphus (1942).


This is the scariest thing imaginable. For anyone who at any time goes so far as to be master over his own life is also master over the life of another; For him, the door is open to any crime and he is ready to throw himself out of the world before he is caught. – Immanuel Kant, Lectures on Ethics, trans. Peter Heath, Cambridge University Press, 1997, Part II.

Characters

Mehmet: A middle-aged depressed writer. He has utopian works that never sell. His hair fell out at an early age. The lone wolf does not enjoy life, and even sees it as a hell for those who are not given the illusion of joy.

Cem: Mehmet’s roommate. Middle-aged, friends since college. She is teaching. He sees marriage as absurd, but is active in social life. Efforts to socialize Mehmet were unsuccessful. Now he arrives home late at night drunk.

1 HOME, INTERIOR, NIGHT

Mehmet is sitting in the living room at midnight with a large amount of medicine boxes. He looks at the walls, closes his eyes. He takes the meds and looks as if he’s questioning whether that’s what’s going to kill him.

Cem enters through the outer door, when the voice comes, Mehmet does not break his seat, but in a panic:

MEHMET

What happened, did you forget something?

CEM

by the door

No, the girls were not in a good mood, so I said let it go, I gave way.

MEHMET

In desperation, as if trying to collect drugs.

I did not expect.

CEM

What didn’t you expect? Your roommate…..

He saw Mehmet’s strange situation and looks at the things he is hiding from the corner of his eye.

Mehmet

How should I know.

CEM

No, are you sick?

MEHMET

It remains unanswered, as if caught in the crime.

Who is not?

CEM

He thinks that he will solve this situation, which they have been talking about for years, by ignoring it at first.

So much medicine and this late hour… the omen of sickness disease. or again a prank, like you did before.

Mehmet

Why suffer when you can be saved?

CEM

(sitting right next to him) Saved from what? Yourself?

MEHMET

Is the disease myself?

CEM

I don’t know you other than you.

MEHMET

There is silence for a while. Are they having one of their good old heated arguments?

You don’t know me, you are someone who finds positive things in life. I can not find. There is nothing to stop me.

CEM

I’m here. won’t I be upset?

MEHMET

You should be glad to be saved, my friend. That I finally found the courage, that I finally did it.

CEM

Remember the last time we talked about emotions being in vain? I can never be happy with that. I will be sad for the rest of my life. Don’t you ever think of me, what if I came a little late?

MEHMET

You spoiled the surprise. I wanted to go quietly.

CEM

Silence sometimes inflicts the deepest wounds, in which case I prefer to shout no matter what. Look at you, your state is screaming. Is this why we argued for years? We were sleepless, we cried to people. We laughed at people…

MEHMET

Sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you. I just thought I’d better go, the time has come. My pain has increased. Everything has become unbearable now. Everything hurts, not my body, everything…

CEM

That’s not going away, that’s “destroying.” Do you kill your foot when your foot hurts? Besides, we cannot live without pain, it is our pain that keeps us alive. You need to listen, not kill, don’t look at people.

MEHMET

Dude okay, let’s not get emotional. Let’s call it withdrawal from an evil realm. How many times have we talked, please do not exaggerate. Isn’t living in this world playing into their hands?

CEM

But when you say these are people, we are people too, we are a part of it. You are complaining about yourself.

MEHMET

I complain about myself and go, what else?

CEM

You can’t, you’re responsible. You can’t go, you can’t escape. You’re worse than what you’re complaining about.

MEHMET

Who are you? Where did the attitude of looking from above and seeing everything come from? I’m not playing bro. Doesn’t everyone have such a right?

CEM

My friend, this is a sin in all religions, it is forbidden everywhere, it never happened. This is an invention… Take your time, come and wait. Didn’t we say that your time is in old age and wisdom. You will be very happy. You will build the utopias in your books yourself. Maybe not the time, not now. Just wait, let a time change.

MEHMET

So I’m going to believe the tale of happiness they set up to exploit us?

CEM

No, my friend, happy, happy, happiest. You will taste being a part of something. Maybe a new world will be established, you will not sit there in the dark. How do you know the future? How life has changed from infancy to childhood, from childhood to youth! Who knows what’s in the rest of the script. What a fool to come out of the movie!

MEHMET

How do you know? What did you drink? You cannot afford to take responsibility for making such promises.

CEM

I’m giving, I’m promising. You don’t know either. Do you know what it’s like to lose a friend? And what do you tell the man who does this?

MEHMET

Good bye…

CEM

Welcome to the stupidity.

MEHMET

I don’t care about stupidity or anything after I’m gone… (Back attacking) And you came back disappointed, what was your purpose in the night worlds to break a hazelnut or two and the hazelnut is empty…

CEM

He just keeps quiet.

MEHMET

What else is there in life other than frustration? We are so empty, so alone that the expression of emptiness and loneliness reflects on our faces over time. The empty, miserable life reveals itself in the faces of the old. Nobody says where are we going, what is this? Everyone is caught up in their own little illusions, here you go…

CEM

[He pauses to make sense of this unusual night]

I read somewhere that it is necessary to make suicidal people feel that they are one of us. This is what people do when they feel lonely. One should also suggest that life is progressing. You are not alone, besides, life is getting better, you know. Is it not changing for the better? We no longer have the ignorance and desires of youth. Our life is just beginning, intellectual life, what a foolishness to end it at the beginning!

MEHMET

Even if it is getting better, it goes to extinction after it. Well, aren’t we already dead at the end, now or later? Oh now, then come on! I like to take shortcuts. Ok?

CEM

But the shortcut spoils the enjoyment of the road.

MEHMET

I’ve been down that road a long time.

CEM

What if there’s no shortcut and you’re jumping into abyss?

MEHMET

Those who want to jump should not be hindered. And why not jump whenever we want?

CEM

Can you exit by pressing the cross in every event you do not want?

MEHMET

I’m getting out of this.

CEM

Then let’s do it together. Since it’s a good thing.

MEHMET

Withdraws.

You can not do it.

CEM

If you think I have a family, I am your family too. I’m going too. If it’s a good thing, let’s see.

MEHMET

You can not do it.

CEM

I’m going too, here we go! This is the world of tyrants, this is the world of deception. And won’t it hit the sun at the end?

MEHMET

No, no.

CEM

Look, see what I’m thinking.

MEHMET

Don’t do that…

CEM

He takes the medicine boxes from Mehmet’s hand. He opens it as if to drink. One box is empty. He takes a quick look at the others. All empty…

(Not in the sense that they were consumed, maybe the boxes were already empty. As a joke or a practice maybe. The audience determines the end in their minds.)

-END-

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