copyright © 1988 Todd Ristau

October 28th

NIKOS’ BIRTHDAY

(with a roar from the vomitorium)

PARASITES!! All of you. Fucking parasites.

(stepping slowly into the audience with the elegance of decay comes the vampire--skin pale and tight on his frame, eyes aflame:)

I wonder if any of you ever gave serious thought to what it might be like to be a real

vampire. I mean an honest to God blood-sucking fiend from Hell. That’s what I am. My living is death, without the pretence. Without the shame. Call me a metaphor.

(he laughs)

Its exciting to me to feel so much blood, so many cattle collected into one room. I don’t just hear your hearts beating, I can feel it, even smell it, a hundred hearts all pounding a single rhythm in my head....I am what you call supernatural.....what do you think that means? That I exist beyond nature? No, I am what you think you are. I am more natural than nature itself. You. You, there. 21? 19? You have maybe eleven years of memories worth a damn. What are they? Your dog? Your parents? First kiss? First fuck? I remember sitting in a prisoner camp during the Civil War! I remember reconstruction. World War One. World War Two. I have over one hundred and fifty years of memories. Memories of things you can’t possibly imagine. I have watched America in her "rise to glory" from a third rate back woods country to the most powerful nation on Earth. There is a lonliness that comes with power, and from that a bitterness that seems to justify everything. Every night for one hundred and fifty years someone has died to keep me alive. To keep me young and healthy and beautiful. To keep me powerful.

(pause)

There are only two things that make me different from you.

The first is that I look into that person’s face before I kill them.

The second is -- I’ll live longer.

(lights fade)

"Nikos' Birthday" IS COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL AND MAY NOT BE DOWNLOADED, TRANSMITTED, PRINTED OR PERFORMED WITHOUT THE EXPRESS PERMISSION OF THE AUTHOR

AUTHOR'S NOTES (7/5/02):
This piece was part of a series of vampire things I was doing at No Shame while working on a full length play called the Bleeker Street Vampires, which later became Blood Dance. The idea came from a descussion with Lisa Schlessinger about a play where I'd meet and be seduced by a vampire, a character with all the character traits I suppress (or ought to). It was her idea to name him Nikos.

If you'd like to be bitten by Nikos and become a member of the Undead, follow this link: Love Bites.

"Nikos' Birthday" debuted October 28, 1988, performed by Todd Ristau.

[Nikos' Birthday] [Piece for me and David] [Lovers] [Piece for March 4th]

[Todd Ristau's website] [Ristau Entertainment Ltd.]

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