Disowned
A short play

Ali Hamvatan
July 29, 2007
iranian.com

This is a short play about an Iranian boy who gets disowned by his father.

Part 1
The players:
Farhad, a young Iranian boy
Eric, his friend
Dad, Farhad's dad
Mom, Farhad's mom

Scene I
Enter Farhad, Eric. (The scene is Farhad’s kitchen. It is 11 pm.)

Eric: So when are you parents coming home man?
Farhad: Oh, they said later than 1 am.
Eric: Sweet, we can drink all we want then.
Farhad: Yeah, but maybe we should take it easy Eric.
Eric: Why? We’re young, we gotta get hammered.
Farhad: I don’t know, what if we get so drunk we pass out and our parents find us?
Eric: Relax dude! Nobody’s gonna pass out. For Christ sake, you’re on your first beer, and it’s Miller light of all things.
Farhad: Yeah, maybe I’m overreacting.
Eric: Of course you are. Drink up! (hitting his glass to Farhad’s; they both take a swing from their bottles)

Scene II
(The time is now 1:45 am. Farhad and Eric are both passed out on the living room couch. Farhad is awoken with a loud knocking at the door. He gets up, very startled, looking around helplessly for a few seconds.)

Farhad: Eric, Eric, wake up man! My parents are at the door!
(Eric opens his eyes briefly and shuts them again. Farhad slaps him hard in the face. Eric wakes up)
Eric: Shit! What’s the matter with you? I was dreaming of naked women!
Farhad: We passed out! My parents are knocking!
(The lock is unlocked. The doorknob is being turned.)
Eric: Quick! Hide the bottles!
(Farhad and Eric run to the kitchen, grab the bottles, drop a few and pick them back up, then look at each other in bewilderment.)
Eric: Where should be put them?

Enter Mom, Dad.

Dad: Farhad!
Mom: Farhad!
(Dad and Mom are walking toward the kitchen. Farhad and Eric are stuffing the bottles in an empty cabinet. Just as they finish, Mom and Dad enter the kitchen.)
Farhad: Hi Mom, Dad!
Eric: Hello Mr. and Mrs. Amiri. How was the party?
Dad: Hello Eric. How are you? I didn’t know you were here.
(Dad glances at Farhad, with a stone-cold look in his eyes.)
Farhad: Oh-yeah-Eric-he’s ah, we were doing homework together.
Mom: That is wonderful!
Dad: Homework? At one in the morning on a Friday night?
Eric: Yeah, we – ah – have a big project we’re working on.
Dad: (with a look of suspicion) What is that smell?
Farhad: (his face flushed red) What smell?
Dad: Have you been drinking?
Eric: Drinking? No, no, we’ve been studying.
Dad: (angrily, addressing only Farhad) You have been drinking, haven’t you?
(Farhad is silent, his body paralyzed by fright.)
Eric: It was my fault Mr. Amiri, I made him drink, I told him he’s gotta have more fun, and party, and get a girfriend. I’m sorry sir, I’ve been a bad influence.
(Dad suddenly looks calmer, less angry, yet still gazes at Farhad with piercing eyes.)
Dad: Ok Eric, you should go home now.
Eric: Yeah, I should. Good night sir. (turning to Mom) Good night Mrs. Amiri.
Mom: Good night Eric.
Eric: (turning to Farhad, eyebrows raised, with a look of sorrow) Later bro (They shake hands, albeit very weakly)

Exit Eric.

(Farhad steals a nervous glance at the cabinet, which Dad notices.)
Dad: What is in the cabinet?
(Farhad is mute. He looks helplessly at his mom. His mom returns a similar look. Dad opens the cabinet. Farhad shudders as the bottles drop out onto the kitchen floor. Dad’s face turns red.)
Dad: (yelling) How much did you drink?
Mom: (meekly) Mohsin, don’t yell.
Dad: (ignoring Mom’s pleas) Unbelievable! You piece of shit! You cover up from your parents! Drinking is ok, I did it when I was a kid, we can drink together if you want, that is not a problem. What makes me so angry is that you cover up from your family, that you lie to your own father. You are shit, a worthless asshole, if you lie to your family, if you cannot trust us, you will end up destroying us and then yourself and end up an alcoholic or druggie on the streets, homeless!
Farhad: Dad, I’m sorry, I panicked, I thought you’d get angry if you saw us drinking.
Dad: And then you lie and say you are doing homework! You are the lowest of lows.
Mom: (pleading, softly) Mohsin –
Dad: Not now! (pausing for a moment, composing himself) Farhad, you have disappointed me. You have let me down, and the rest of the family. My son, my dear son who I love, who I would die for, walk on hot coals for, if I get angry it is because I love you and I don’t want to see you get hurt. I’ve live life, and I’ve seen youth destroyed in an instant. I –
Farhad: (interrupting) Dad, I don’t enjoy my youth. You always tell us to enjoy it but then you don’t let us.
Dad: (yelling) That is not true! The other day, when you wanted to watch a movie with your sister, did I stop you? No, I encouraged it, I drove you there and picked you up, I –
Farhad: Yeah, but Dad, that’s with my sister, what about going out with friends?
Dad: You see your friends in school, you see them and say hello, you sit down and have lunch together, you work on projects together, I never said that these things are wrong! Tomorrow you may meet a girl that you like, you may want to take her by the hand, and go on a date with her. These are all very good things, I did these things when I was young.
Farhad: Dad you always tell me these things, but when it comes time for it you never let me
Dad: Farhad, stop it with this B.S. Name one time you wanted to do something and I didn’t let you.
Farhad: (thinking) I can’t think of anything right now, but I know that every time I have an idea you shut it down or make it seem ridiculous or place impossible conditions on it.
Dad: (angry) Farhad, this is all bullshit! You are just trying to accuse your father of these things now. Am I so bad, am I so evil, do I deserve these things? All I’ve ever said is that you must study, and that family comes first, that you have to be home by 9 pm, that I have to meet all your friends first, that you have to look after your little sister, that you have to study for you SATs, that is all I’ve ever told you. Otherwise you are basically free, man is basically free to do whatever he wants.
Farhad: What about last week when I wanted to go with Eric and his friends to that restaurant?
Dad: Yes, so, and what happened?
Farhad: You told me I couldn’t go because you didn’t know Eric’s friends.
Dad: Exactly! That’s right, I had a good reason. You never know who these people are, what if a police pulls you over and searches them and finds drugs! You would get it trouble too!
Farhad: But Dad, what are the chances of that?
Dad: Farhad, my dear son, how many times do we have to go over this! I have seen these things with my own eyes! Why didn’t you tell Eric and his friends to come to our house for dinner, like I had told you?
Farhad: (sighing) Dad, nobody does that, kids go out and hang out with each other, not with their friend’s parents.
Dad: (yelling) What kind of bullshit is that! If they come over, we wouldn’t get in the way. We’d meet them and get to know them a little, and then that’s it, we’ll get out of your way and the house is yours. I only need a few minutes, I am a very good judge of character.
Farhad: (his voice cracking) Why can’t I be a judge of character? I know more about these people, I know who’s a druggie or an alcoholic, I see these people all the time, I –
Dad: Farhad, you are a young, naïve, simple boy. Sometimes I think we should have lived in New York, so you’d be more street smart.
Farhad: (teary eyed) Dad, sometimes I think that…that you have no faith in me.
Dad: (exploding) Bullshit! How can you say something like that to your own father! Do you realize how much that hurts me! That I, do not have faith in my own son! Get lost, leave the house, don’t come back till you realize what you’ve just said to your own father, who loves you. You hate me so much. I disown you!

(exit Dad)

(Farhad is crying now. Mom, also teary-eyed, looks at her son, whose head is down, facing the kitchen floor. Farhad shifts his body a little and bumps into the half-open cabinet, and a few more bottles fall to the floor.)

>>> Part 2