Excerpt from JUST ANOTHER ROBOT play

[Originally performed at Crossroad in Nishinomiya, Japan, March '07...in Japanese. This is a translation]

TAROKUN
I'm...bored and lonely.

EGO
What?

TAROKUN
Bored! There's nothing to do, no
one to do it with and no time with
which to do it. I need a change of
pace. Maybe I should get a new
apartment.

EGO
What good is that going to do you?
I don't know, it would be newer,
cleaner than this place.

EGO
This place was once newer and cleaner.

TAROKUN
I just want to start over though,
get a new perspective on life or
something, make some new friends.

EGO
What's wrong with the friends you
have now?

TAROKUN
They don't have time for me. Or
maybe I don't have time for them.
They work like I do. I feel like
just another robot. I go to work at
8 o'clock and I get off at 6. I'm
too tired or hung over to do anything
on the weekends. Besides, Yuki got
married, Haruo got moved by his
company to Yokohama and Kyoshi has a
new girlfriend. There's no one left.

EGO
But don't you have a few drinks
afterwards with the guys at work
sometimes?

TAROKUN
They are not my friends though.
They are my co-workers and my boss.
I have to go. That's not friendship,
that's networking, that's
"nomunication," part of my job.
I'll never get a promotion if I don't
go out with them.

EGO
What about that young lady you went
on a date with last month? You
haven't called her in a while. Why
not?

TAROKUN
Hmmm. Could that be because she
looks like a horse and laughs like a
seal? Besides, she's boring.

EGO
What do you mean by boring?

TAROKUN
She never does anything interesting.

EGO
Oh, you mean kind of like--

TAROKUN
Don't say it!

EGO
YOU?

TAROKUN
(just looks and Ego
for a beat or two
and then hangs his
head in his hands)

EGO
What do you want?

TAROKUN
(standing)
I want...I don't know what I want
exactly. I just feel lonely that's
all.

EGO
What would your life look like if
you weren't lonely?

[Appearing not to listen, Taro picks up the remote control
and turns on the TV and sits down again.]

TAROKUN
It might look like that. See how
happy they are? They have a new
apartment with new appliances.
(switches station)
These guys are happy about pizza.
(switches station)
There, that man, now he looks happy.

EGO
(reads like an
announcer from a
commercial)
Maybe if you drove the car he's
driving, drank the tea he's drinking,
you'd have the girl he's having and
you'd be happy, too.

TAROKUN
But that's not real! I know that's
not real!

EGO
What is real?

THE END