So This Is The Elephants’ Burial Ground

Potter, a man, sits in a large chair and Jasmine, a woman, is at a small desk as we hear the sound of rain falling in So This Is The Elephants’ Burial Ground.  Potter comments on the heat and suggests that Jasmine could take off her clothing since they are “way out here in the bush” with no one around.  Potter asks her a series of questions and is not pleased with her noncommital answers.  Jasmine says she went to the store to get bread and was told by the baker that his oven was hot.  When Potter asks her who the letter she isn’t writing is for, she says it’s for whoever opens the door.  She tells Potter that she saw a man waiting in the garden again and Potter says that she’ll probably find his bones picked clean by predators.  Potter says he was a war hero, decorated for shooting his Captain.  He says he was well liked everywhere and that he won a prize for singing.  He tells Jasmine that she adores him and asks her to bring him a book.  When she asks what color the book is he says he is color blind.  He says he wrote a book about silkworms many years ago when he was recovering from malaria and in love with a beautiful girl who played the violin.  He says the girl died by stepping in quicksand; he then accuses Jasmine of being careless and leaving three pennies on the carpet by the bed.  Jasmine says they must have fallen from the torn pocket of her coat.  Potter asks her if she tore the coat at the baker’s when he was showing her his oven and Jasmine says she is going out to the elephants’ burial ground to sing and dance naked in the moonlight.  Potter tells her she’s not going anywhere, that the baker was found burned to death in his own oven.  Jasmine says she thinks she will stay in and the light fades out as we hear the sound of rain.