Draft:Peerless (play)

"Peerless" is a 2015 play written by Jiehae Park. It's a 21st century adaptation of Macbeth, following twin Asian-American sisters M and L, who are willing to do whatever it takes to get the one affirmative action seat reserved at "The College." However, their plans go awry when the seat is instead awarded to "D," who is 1/16 Native American.

Plot

The play opens on twin sisters M and L, who are mulling over a letter informing M that she had been deferred from The College, which only has one reserved affirmative action spot per year. The seat has instead been given to D, who appears white but is 1/16 Native American.

Right away, the twins are shown to fake and ambitious. They beam smiles at people walking past and drop them the second they are out of view, all while hurling slurs at D’s disabled brother behind his back. M is ready to give up, angry at the results but accepting that it’s over, while L continually insists that it isn’t.

Later in class, a student named “Dirty Girl” throws paper at M while saying “hail,” using slurs and a Nazi salute. Dirty Girl says that she knew L intentionally stayed back a grade so that the twins would not compete for The College, and that she knows that M didn’t get in. Dirty Girl then gives a prophecy that M will get in (“and your little dog too”), reciting M’s application stats. She also prophesizes that the girls will go after D and predicts the grade for a test M has not yet gotten back.

Later M, who is angry about the test grade that Dirty Girl predicted, is hanging out with her boyfriend, BF, who keeps flirting and isn’t really taking her anger seriously. M lashes out, suggesting that BF, who is African American, will have an easy path to college at an Historically black colleges and university (HBCU). The argument expands, and the two break up.

Later on, D is at the Hoopcoming dance after asking M to go as his date, as his brother, who is stuck having a coughing fit in the bathroom, is there with L. M initially refuses to dance with D, clearly unhappy to be there. However, L pushes her to dance with him. D is evidently very happy to be there, complimenting the twins and sending pictures to his mother.

D opens up, revealing that his brother was initially scared to ask anyone to the dance as a result of his condition, that his dead is a deadbeat, and that D generally feels pretty lonely and insecure. After a suicide attempt, during which he had a vision of his great-great grandfather telling him to wake up, he decides to work on himself, losing weight in the process. He talks about how things are finally going his way, while the twins listen. However, when he mentions his joy about getting into The College they snap out of their semi-trance and remember that they are there to kill him.

When asked to dance again M declines. D makes a few awkward comments, and M makes fun of him to L (which he doesn’t realize and takes as a joke). L hands M something to put in his punch, but M gets cold feet. L goads, and then guilts (it’s supposed to be you then me, you’re being selfish), M into agreeing to do it. However, D comes back and reveals that he is severely allergic to nuts, and L leaves M to talk to him while she poisons the punch.

D keeps flirting with M, who’s not reciprocating. He reveals he really likes M, and shows her his tribal ID. He talks about how he was the only non-senior citizen left in his tribe and so he applied to a scholarship foundation which got him into the college as a first-generation student. L hands them both punch (one poisoned), but M again gets cold feet and drops her cookie into his drink, ruining it and saving him. D left to check on his brother. L is angry at the spoiled murder, and again insists she is doing it for M’s benefit. D decides to take his brother home and comes back to tell the girls. L starts flirting with him and says that they both want to come back to his house. D agrees and offers to stop and get cookies for them.

Back in D’s basement, his brother is in a Chest wall oscillation vest in another room. D puts in a cheers tape, as L asks D about his EpiPen and how to use it. During the demonstration L keeps flirting with D. M tosses a piece of a cookie containing nuts in his mouth as both twins kiss him. M takes the EpiPen and D begs her to use it, but she refuses. As he goes into shock M avoids eye contact, and he dies. As the girls leave, they hear D’s brother knocking on the door.

M wants to go back and call 911 to help, but L vetoes. L is calm and insists that she's doing it for M's benefit. The two work on a cover story, with L claiming they left his house because he tried to forcibly kiss M, calling her a slur when she rejected his advances. M rejects this proposal, thinking it’s too much and that it would spoil the legacy of a good man. Eventually agrees to a slightly less intense version of the story.

The next day, Bf comes to console M. He knew D was suicidal and questioned the twins’ “accident” story, suggesting that D may have killed himself intentionally. However, M insists it was an accident. BF asks if M will get his spot, but she insists it isn’t even on her radar. M hears nibbling and BF yelling “wake up,” but when asked BF has no idea what she’s talking about. A black feather falls from the sky as a person in a hoodie spray-paints “Liars” on the twins' lockers.

The next morning, the girls find out that BF had applied to and gets accepted into The College without telling M, who feels betrayed and shocked as she hadn’t viewed him as a “threat.” The girls then realize that this had been part of Dirty Girl's prediction. L, not to be outdone, suggests that “these things happen in clusters” and wants to kill him too, again accusing the hesitant M of being selfish and complaining that she always has to “be the doer.” M counters that poison wouldn’t make a believable suicide. L has an idea and whispers it, but M only hears the chattering teeth. L repeats and suggests framing D’s brother by putting the poison in his backyard. M takes the bag.

That night M wakes up and looks outside and sees a hallucination of D coming toward her in a stereotypical Native American costume with the theme song from Cheers playing in the background. L wakes up, and the twins re-affirm their love for each other. Off in the distance, they see a figure in a hoodie.

M goes back to talk to Dirty Girl, asking for another prediction. Dirty Girl warns M to watch out for D’s brother and predicts that only one of the two twins can end up at The College.

Back at Track practice, M again hallucinates nibbling when L calls her. M tells her not to go through with the murder and hangs up.

Later that night, it’s made to look as if L approaches BF in a parking lot, handing him a poisoned Snickers bar.

The next morning M confronts a very disheveled L and accuses her of going through with the murder while pretending to be M. However, L denies, and says she was out all night looking for M who was not answering her phone. M reveals that it was actually her pretending to be L pretending to be herself while killing BF, and that she also burned down D’s house in an attempt to kill D’s brother.

During the conversation, M gets ahold of L’s phone and text’s herself “I’m sorry, I did it for you.” She reveals to L that Dirty Girl said The College only takes one, so M wore L’s yellow backpack to make it appear to witnesses as if L gave BF a Snickers bar. M reveals that she called the police from a payphone, and, while pretending to be L, confessed to all of their crimes. The two fight and draw blood.

Back at home, M gets the acceptance letter that she’s been waiting for. While celebrating the door swings open, with D’s brother standing in the doorway. After a confrontation, it is revealed that the oxygen tank he was dragging with him was filled with propane. He takes a lighter to the tank, killing them both in the explosion.

In the future, we see L standing on The Quad at The College. It’s revealed through a conversation with Preppy Girl, another student, that L is pretending to be M and has taken her spot, with L expressing remorse over the death of her sister.

Characters

M

M is an Asian-American high school senior with a perfect GPA. She is dead set on going to The College and receives a prophecy from Dirty Girl saying that the one spot will be hers. M is much less willing to resort to violent methods than L is, but still ultimately resorts to killing to get what she wants, suffering from paranoia and guilt along the way.

M is loosely based on the title character of Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

L

L is the twin sister M. However, L is only a junior as she decided to hang back a year so that the twins would not compete for the one spot in The College. She is ruthlessly ambitious, and crafts the plan to kill D and free up what she views as her sister's rightful spot. Whenever M starts to get cold feet, L encourages her to keep going. She is described in the text as a “Two-dimensional evil schemer,” driven by both love for her sister and selfish desires.

L is loosely based on Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth.

D

D is a socially awkward, insecure, and formerly overweight high school senior who gets accepted into The College over M. He is 1/16 Native American and has very severe nut allergies. D has a crush on M who agrees to accompany him to the Hoopcoming Dance, and then back to his home. Once in his basement, the twins feed him a cookie made with nuts, and kill him by moving his Epinephrine autoinjector out of reach.

D on the character King Duncan in Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

BF

BF is M's boyfriend, who she initially views as too laid back. When M gets deferred from The College, the two fight and break up over his cavalier attitude towards it. However, it is revealed that BF also applied to The College without telling M and gets accepted once D is killed. Eventually, M kills BF by giving him a poisoned Snickers bar, both to get him out of the way as well as to frame L.

Dirty Girl

Dirty Girl is a social outcast who is implied to have supernatural powers. She is able to know things she shouldn't be able to, such as the grade M got on a test that had not yet been returned. She delivers a prophecy that M will get into The College, alongside another prophecy that the twins will kill D. Throughout the play, she is implied to be haunting M through hallucinations. Eventually, Dirty Girl tells M that only one of the two twins will end up at The College, setting up the climax.

The character is an amalgamation of Shakespeare’s Three Witches in Macbeth.

D's Brother

D’s Brother has Cystic fibrosis, which causes him to miss most of the Hoopcoming dance. He uses a Chest wall oscillation vest, located in the basement of his house. He is in the vest when the twins kill D and is able to hear through the door. He tries to expose the twins' crimes (including writing "liars" on their locker), before eventually killing M by exploding a propane tank.

References

Category:Macbeth