"Beat me, beat me!"
by Henrik Eger

Synopsis

This one-minute play sets out to do the impossible:

(1) To explain a joke to a person from another culture and a radically different worldview who has no idea what the world of leather and S&M means to its practitioners, and

(2) to create a scene that sets out to be both informative and entertaining, trying to build a cross-cultural bridge. 

Characters

Haygen:     Mid-twenties, fashionable young man, punkish at times, always wearing a leather
                      jacket, a student who has seen more than most of his contemporaries.
Maria:         Young, religious immigrant student from Latin America and Haygen's classmate.
Professor:   Teaches Communication and likes to challenge his students.

Excerpt

Haygen: Hi. I’ve never talked with you. Would you like to work with me?

Maria: Sure. I’m scared because I don’t know too much about American jokes.

Haygen: No problem. And what do I know about Latin America? Here we go: At a leather meeting at the Bike Stop, a skinny young man follows a big hunky guy in a leather jacket and with chains wherever he goes. The young man finally corners him and says, “Sir, I’m going crazy over you.” The leather master just grunts, “Oh, yeah?” The young man then plucks up all his courage and says, “Sir, please, please beat me, beat me as hard as you wish.” The hunky older lather master looks at him, full of disdain, says nothing, but shakes his head—a clear “No.”

Maria: What happened next? And why would anyone want to get beaten? I got beaten in Mexico and it was terrible. 

Haygen: Good, we have a winner. I can now explain it to you.
                         (Maria, puzzled, looks at Haygen, totally confused.)

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