Everybody Wants to Change the World

A play with five words

This short play is part of the NOISE/QUIET cycle. If you’re just joining, I recommend starting at the beginning by clicking here.

If you want a reminder of the play that comes before this in the cycle, While We Wait 2, click here.

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In the spring of 2021, I gave myself a playwriting challenge: could I tell a compelling story with almost no dialogue?

The inspiration for this challenge came when a one-minute play festival announced a call for submissions. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the pandemic gave me time I’d never had before—time to experiment, to play, to take risks through writing. I wrote my first one-minute play in a traditional style, heavy on dialogue, and had so much fun that I immediately wanted to try again.

But this time, I decided to push myself. What if I stripped away the words? What if I expressed the drama through gestures, sounds, and silence—in what the characters do rather than what they say?

Then I went further. Instead of psychologically realistic characters, what if I created figures without personal histories behaving in ways the audience would instantly recognize.

The result was far too long for a one-minute festival. But I knew I’d created something worth holding onto. Now, within the NOISE/QUIET cycle, it’s found a home. Living in the context of the other plays, many of which are dialogue heavy, it invites the audience to sit up in their seats and listen differently.

Keep in mind, I wrote the play for the stage, not for the page. It’s primarily stage directions—descriptions of actions and sounds—intended to guide the actors and designers toward a physical and sonic expression of drama.

The inspiration for the piece will be obvious to anyone who lived through the 2020-21 social media landscape—that fevered, claustrophobic moment when every scroll felt like stepping into a minefield. In the stage directions, I note that the piece might become dated. But the more I think about it, I don’t believe it will. A social media frenzy could happen again tomorrow.

It could even be happening right now.

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Everybody Wants to Change the World

The only words spoken in this play are the five words at the end. Everything else is utterances or sounds.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

The actors cast in the play should be a diverse group of people who are convincingly between the ages of 16 and 45. YOUNG MAN should be within an 18 to 26 age range. The other roles could be played by anyone in the 16 to 45 range.

SETTING

The setting is either 2020-21, or now and here, or some combination of both. If smartphones and social media have become outdated technology, I suggest presenting the play as a “period piece” set in either 2020 or 2021. Either way, whatever you do, do not show the audience what the characters in this play are posting to the internet, leave that up to the audience’s imagination. What they are posting to the internet is less important than how everyone reacts to the posts.

Eight to eighty people, or as many people as can fit on stage.

Some are sitting, some standing, some are laying down. They are together in a suggested physical space, but they are not talking or mingling with each other. They are texting, emailing, browsing and posting to social media, each using an iPhone, Android or similar internet connected device. The lighting is low and the phones illuminate the actors’ faces with a mesmerizing glow.

We hear the clicking sounds of typing that smartphones make. Otherwise we hear silence.

The “ping” sound of a received message or social media post emanates from PERSON 1’s phone.

PERSON 1 sees something on the phone and audibly reacts with a gasp of shock.

EVERYONE ELSE looks at PERSON 1, then looks back at their phones. They search or scroll to see what PERSON 1 reacted to. They all see it at the same time and simultaneously make the identical gasp of shock made by PERSON 1.

EVERYONE, including PERSON 1, furiously texts, posts, and emails with their fingers, staring angrily into their phones. We hear the clicking sound of entering text on a smart phone; it becomes a sound like a swarm of agitated bees.

At the same time, they all post something and we hear the sound of the posts.

They all stop and stare at their phones with intense anticipation.

Silence.

A sad “bloop” of a post emanates from everyone’s phones.

They have all achieved their goal and simultaneously erupt with joy. No words, just the sounds of hard-won victory.

The reaction is short lived and they all return to silent scrolling.

The “ping” sound of a social media post emanates from PERSON 2’s phone.

PERSON 2 sees something on the phone and audibly reacts with a gasp of disgust.

EVERYONE ELSE looks at PERSON 2 then looks back at their phones. They search or scroll to see what PERSON 2 reacted to and simultaneously make the same gasp of disgust PERSON 2 made.

Everyone, including PERSON 2, furiously texts, posts, and emails with their fingers, staring angrily into their phones. We hear the clicking sound of entering text on a smart phone; it becomes a sound like a stampede of wild animals.

At the same time, they all post something and we hear the sound of the posts.

They all stare at their phones with intense anticipation.

Silence.

After a moment, they realize nothing has happened.

Everyone, including PERSON 2, furiously texts, posts, and emails with their fingers, the sound they make is more intense, perhaps it sounds like a thousand jack-hammers.

At the same time, they all post something and we hear the sound of the posts.

They all stare at their phones with intense anticipation.

Silence.

Three sad “bloops” of posts emanate from everyone’s phones.

They have all achieved their goal and simultaneously erupt in audible victory.

The reaction is short lived and they all return to silent scrolling.

Except for YOUNG MAN, who is still savoring the victory. Maybe he’s jumping up and down. He’s excited longer than the rest.

YOUNG MAN has an idea. He boldly texts it or posts it to social media.

YOUNG MAN: (Very satisfied with himself) Ha-ha!

The “ping” sound of YOUNG MAN’s post emanates from EVERYONE ELSE’s phones.

EVERYONE ELSE sees YOUNG MAN’s post on their phones. They react with a shriek of hatred.

YOUNG MAN: Huh? (He doesn’t understand why everyone hates his clever post.)

EVERYONE ELSE angrily looks up from their phones at YOUNG MAN.

YOUNG MAN makes a whimpering sound of an apology. It’s a sound not a word.

EVERYONE, except for YOUNG MAN, furiously texts, posts, and emails with their fingers, the sounds they make are intense, perhaps they sound like car horns in a five-mile traffic jam on a hot and steamy summer day.

At the same time, EVERYONE except YOUNG MAN posts something and we hear the sound of the posts.

EVERYONE stares at their phones with intense anticipation. Nothing happens.

They look up at YOUNG MAN, who is still standing there.

YOUNG MAN makes the sound of begging for forgiveness.

Everyone, except for YOUNG MAN, furiously texts, posts, and emails with their fingers, perhaps they make the sound like irritated fireworks.

EVERYONE ELSE stops at the same time and stares at their phones with intense anticipation. They look up at YOUNG MAN, who is still there.

PERSON 4 stands up and walks over to YOUNG MAN. PERSON 4 uses his or her phone to strike YOUNG MAN’s head.

YOUNG MAN stumbles, his hand on his head.

A trickle of blood runs down the side of YOUNG MAN’s face. YOUNG MAN looks at the blood on his hand. He makes a sound that expresses “Why?”

EVERYONE ELSE stands up, surrounding YOUNG MAN. They all use their phones to bludgeon YOUNG MAN.

They step away. YOUNG MAN is lying on the floor, his head drenched in blood.

YOUNG MAN makes quiet sounds of not being able to breathe. It sounds like a small, injured bird dying.

EVERYONE ELSE stands and silently looks at what they’ve done. There is no joy or sense of victory. They don’t know what to make of watching YOUNG MAN die, like bewildered children observing a butterfly for the first time.

EVERYONE ELSE uses their phones to make video recordings of YOUNG MAN dying. We see what they are recording projected onto the back wall of the stage. They make sounds of awe and wonderment as they watch the death they are filming through their phones and live-broadcasting on social media.

YOUNG MAN dies.

EVERYONE ELSE puts their phones down. They all look at each other. They don’t know what to do or say.

PERSON 5 begins to cry. EVERYONE ELSE looks at PERSON 5 and begins to move toward comforting PERSON 5.

They all stop when the “ping” sound of a received text message emanates from PERSON 5’s phone.

PERSON 5 sees something on phone and audibly reacts with a scream of outrage.

EVERYONE ELSE looks at PERSON 5, then looks back at their phones to see what PERSON 5 reacted to.

EVERYONE lifts their phones over their heads, wielding them like clubs. They run off-stage in every direction, yelling and screaming like ancient warriors.

PERSON 1 stays.

PERSON 1 walks over to the dead YOUNG MAN, looks at his lifeless body, then offstage in the direction where EVERYONE ELSE went and smiles.

PERSON 1 (Looks directly at the audience and says): The work is never done.

BLACKOUT

Silence. Then distant music played on a lute—courtly, stately—that grows as we enter the throne room of Succession Play.

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Next Play in the Cycle:

I published the next play in the cycle last fall. If you would like to read it now, click the link below.

The final play in the cycle, While We Wait 3, will be published on April 7, 2026.

KEVIN RAY | WORKS is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions for the charitable purposes of KEVIN RAY | WORKS must be made payable to “Fractured Atlas” only and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.