Daybreak

An Investigation Into the Practices of Dr. Theodore Buck and the Daybreak Treatment Facility, Transcribed from Recordings of Treatment Sessions Between Two Full Moons. 

A One-Act Verse Drama 


Test Subjects

Darryl, 31: 						Bitten in a bar fight.

Ellie, 12: 						Bitten in the woods while camping with 
her parents. 
 
Louis, 43: 						Bitten by his father as an initiation rite. 

Thomas, 54:						Unclear when bitten. 

Petra, 19: 						Bitten by Louis. Does not know this. 














Scene
The Daybreak Werewolf Treatment Facility. 

Time
The interval between two summer full moons. 


Scene 1

SETTING: 							The sparse office of
 				Dr. Theodore Buck on 
July 25th. He writes 
a memo that he reads aloud. 

DR. BUCK

Today we begin our ‘mad’ exploration 
of the Self, and whether or not the Soul
can be saved. The papers call us ‘mad’. 
They also sing from their op-eds of Wolf, 
the ‘Harmless Wolf’, as though to exist
gives one the right to live. To destroy. 
We start with six so infected: werewolves. 
From a little girl to a middle-aged man, 
all would gnaw on your meaty flesh 
three days from the full gut of the moon.
Today I know we can train them, save them. 
Today we begin to reclaim what’s human. 

(BLACKOUT)
Scene 2

SETTING: 						A supernaturally bright, round
 			white room where five strangers 
are chained up in plastic chairs. 
A man with a clipboard, DR. BUCK, 
takes occasional notes on the lack of 
need for notes.Some of the FIVE, 
dazed and drug-eyed, begin to wake.
They try to break free of their chains. 


DR. BUCK
No use to strain against your chains. 
They’re silver—you can’t so much 
as bend them, such as you all are. 
We’ve brought you here to recover
from the dreadful hangover of being
out of yourselves, and to curb any
residual hunger you harbour for 
the taste of human blood. Shocked? 
Yes. Your victims were, too. But
you have come here to Daybreak, 
where we know how to help you. 
It’s like a hospital, but kinder; like
a spa, but cleaner. Rehab for beating
down your baser instincts. Here you
will re-learn to be whole and human. 

But you look confused—
is it possible you don’t know how 
you got here? What’s the last thing
you remember, from your human life?

DARRYL
What do you mean by ‘human’ life?
(He spits these words at Dr. Buck.)

DR. BUCK
I see, I see. So you’ve already forgotten.
 
DARRYL
Forgotten what? What is this place? 

DR. BUCK
What’s the last thing you remember, Darryl? 

DARRYL
I was out at the bar, like any Monday. 
Me and the bartender fought over 
this girl... She shone like a pilot light
on the old stove of my life, but he 
loved her, too. And worse, she’d
been his before. Next thing I know
I’m chained up here. Why? Why won’t 
you tell us what the hell’s going on?! 

DR. BUCK
Petra, what do you remember? 

(Petra fidgets in her constricted seat.) 

PETRA
I was in my dorm room putting sticky
notes all over my copy of As You Like It. 
That’s how I start to write each paper,
but this one was different. Rosalind, 
Orlando, pretending to be something
you’re not. I felt like that every damn
day of my degree. My soaked-hair 
roommate came back from the shower, 
asked to borrow my detangling brush…
and then I was here in this white pill 
of a room. What is this place? Treatment 
for what? Who am I supposed to be now? 

LOUIS
You’re one of us. All of you. There’s no life
better! I know for sure what I am, but not
because I remember. No. 
 
My father bit me when I turned sixteen, as his
father bit him and his father bit him as far back
as we can all tell. We live our lives as wolf-men, 
not men. To be a wolf is our sacred birthright, 
to forget each full moon a state of grace. 

DR. BUCK
We’ll see if we can’t change your mind, Louis. 
Ellie, dear, what do you remember? 

ELLIE
Girl Guides camp! I’ve wanted to go 
for, like, forever, but mom wouldn’t let me
because of that time I almost got mauled 
by a bear. But this time she let me! 
Mackenzie was there. She’d just got
her braces, so around the campfire 
her metal mouth glowed all weird like 
a safety flare. I remember the campfire, 
singing, marshmallows...and then here. 
Is Mackenzie here, too? Brown Owl? 

DR. BUCK 
There are no owls at this treatment facility. 
Anyone else care to share their last memory?

THOMAS 

I know what I am. I keep to myself. 
I was looking over the accounting
books for one of my clients, 
thought I had the door locked 
so I could spend the three wild
days cooped up in my office. 
My usual plan. I had just checked 
over the totals for May when I heard
the locked door click terribly open…

DR. BUCK
And you bit your intern. We found
you drenched in her blood. So
some of you know. Or guess. 
But most—is it possible?—really 
don’t know what afflicts you, why
the last few days are so hazy? 
Third day from the full moon 
and you’ve returned to yourselves. 
Third day out and you’ve all come 
here, to a place where we give 
people like you rest. 
	      Of course, in the strictest sense, 
you are not people. But this is Daybreak,
a rebirth. The start of your new human lives. 
Darryl, We found you fur-backed and dog-
fanged in an alley, suckling blood from 
the bartender’s flesh. And you, sweet 
Ellie? Church-goer, Girl Guide? The camp
you terrorized Tuesday won’t want you 
back with bites like those. Petra, 
your roommate...We found all of you 
in similar states. A tranq dart deep 
in your flank, we saved you from 
your wolfish wants and brought you 
here. So no, you are no people. 
You are lycanthropes—werewolves—
cursed by a biological virus to to turn
wolf-formed and hunt for 3 nights each
full moon. You are monsters whose goal
is to make us all be monsters...or make
all be a monster’s meal. 

But our controversial position at 
Daybreak is: we can treat you—heal 
you. Give us 4 weeks and we’ll evict 
the wolf-half that’s hijacked your minds,
some of you for decades. Left untreated, 
who knows who you’ll turn, or who you’ll
snack upon—a father, a friend? But treated 
by Daybreak, the werewolf life ends. Now, 
who wants the treatment? Who wants life?

(BLACKOUT)

Scene 3

SETTING: 						A small room where a private 
session between Ellie and Dr. 
Buck is taking place, July 27th.  

ELLIE
When are Mama and Daddy coming? 

DR. BUCK
Soon, Ellie, soon. But while we’re here waiting, 
why don’t we get to know each other better?
Where did you grow up?

ELLIE
In a big, oak-y suburb just east of the City. We only 
moved right into the City this year. I still see some friends 
from my old school, karate, ballet. I’m still in the same old 
Girl Guide troupe. 

DR. BUCK
With cookies? Oh, fun!

ELLIE
I’ve had the most cookie sales three years running. 

DR. BUCK
Good, good. And you never feel—

ELLIE
Yes?

DR. BUCK
You know by now that you’re a lycanthrope—a werewolf. 

ELLIE
I know you say I am. 

DR. BUCK
Well, some of the kids I’ve met in your…
um.. condition, they feel this gathering 
darkness inside them once every month. 
Have you felt anything like that? 

ELLIE
Sure. Mama says it’s my PMS starting up. 
She said it must be. 

(She looks disappointed.) 

Mama and Daddy aren’t coming here, are they? 

DR. BUCK
No. We must keep them safe. Do you know 
when the darkness months might have started? 

ELLIE
Um...last summer. We went camping at a State 
Park, and I nearly got mauled by a bear. (beat)
I guess it wasn’t a bear, after all. I guess 
it’s not PMS, either. I’m not a person. I’m a—a thing. 

DR. BUCK
I’m here to help you with all of that, Ellie. 
Just put your trust in me. 

(BLACKOUT)


Scene 4

SETTING: 							Dr. Buck’s office again, 
July 29th. He dictates 
a memo we hear. 

DR. BUCK

The worst step of bettering is always
admitting you’re worse. 

Great progress being made on 
that count, particularly by our more 
pipsqueak patients.
   
What troubles me most is the wolf-
man, who seems to relish and revel 
in his subhuman state. New tactics
must be tried for him, new tonics. 
But I’m confident we will save him yet. 

I’m confident we can, in time, learn 
to save them all. 

(BLACKOUT)
Scene 5

SETTING: 							The unnaturally clean,
circular-logic room 
again. Werewolves, 
untied, sit in plastic 
chairs. Treatment, Week 2. 


DR. BUCK
So we’ve acknowledged the source 
of our most base desires, not to mention 
mysterious memory lapses. The first step, 
as the old saw goes,is admitting...something. 
   So now that we’ve all had 
a week to “come to terms” with ourselves, 
I thought we might pair up for an exercise. 

(LOUIS raises his hand)

DR. BUCK
Yes, Louis? 

LOUIS
I venerate the pelts of my forefathers
and foremothers. To be part wolf is 
a grand thing, an honour. 

DR. BUCK
Try holding that notion post-today, Louis. 
Partners for this exercise will be…
Thomas with me, Darryl and Petra, 
and...Louis, I’m going to put you with Ellie. 
Don’t be frightened, dear Ellie, he can’t 
hurt you in here. 

(He points sentimentally at his chest.)

		  Now that we’re paired off, I thought 
we’d start with a warm-up based on empathy 
and trust. Imagine your partner is a victim of yours, 
one you maimed but didn’t kill. What kind 
of apology should you extend to this person? 
What kind of grace can they bestow upon you? 
Ladies, start. 

(PETRA and ELLIE talk over each other. 
The others hear snippets of what they say.) 

PETRA
I didn’t want to hurt anyone. Not my 
roomie! I didn’t yet know what I was, 
or why. 

ELLIE
I’m sorry. Do you think the other 
Girl Guides will be all right? 

PETRA
I’m sorry we’re all here, in 
this position. 

DR. BUCK
Okay, very good. And now, the others? 

(Jumbled voices reverberate around the bleach-white room.)

THOMAS
I’m sorry about the accounting intern. 
I should have bought better locks. Or nooses. 

LOUIS
To be a wolf is to be blissfully free... 

DARRYL
I’m sorry to all the lives I’ve altered 
like some fucked-up cut-and-paste collage. 

DR. BUCK
Language, Darryl. 

ELLIE
It’s okay, Dr. Buck. It’s all fucked up. 

LOUIS
Who should we listen to—the healer,
who wants to strip us of our specialness,  
or the “disease”— when the “disease” 
feels more natural than our own blood
pumping? 

THOMAS
I’m sorry for the pain I’ve schlepped
around—from me, to them, and back again. 

DR. BUCK
Okay, okay, very good. Now engage 
your partner in a deep conversation, 
about what you like most about your 
human self. Anyone may talk at any time. 

PETRA
I’m a good listener. 

DARRYL
I’ve noticed! I guess I…
make great banana bread?

ELLIE
I’m kind and thoughtful. 
My parents always tell me. 

DR. BUCK
This exercise is not meant 
to be a calculus exam! 

THOMAS
I’m great at my job…
for most of the month. 

LOUIS
Being human is great because you 
can become the Wolf. 

DR. BUCK
Okay! Um...that was really...well, 
awful, but it’s a running start.
Would you mind telling your partner 
when you were bitten? And how long 
since you’ve been making people—
makers of great banana bread, moms—
your victims, to be gnawed on or 
bitten for your vile delectation? 

(ELLIE raises her hand.) 

DR. BUCK
Yes, Ellie? 

ELLIE
What’s delectation? 

DR. BUCK
It means you like it. 

ELLIE
...oh. I don’t know about that, 
but I got bit about a year ago, 
camping with my parents. I thought 
it was a bear. I guess I’ve had 
victims, or near-victims, since. 

LOUIS
I was bitten by my father, Ellie! 
As his father bit him and his father
before, all the way up the line as far
as we know. I was sixteen, and I’ve
feasted on flesh ever since, three days
out from the sated gut of the moon. Our
family’s bite is a brand, unique, two 
bites overlaid at 90 degrees from each
other. This bite is a gift we give.  

(DR. BUCK laughs nervously.) 

DR. BUCK
Petra, Darryl, would you care
to share—Petra, what’s wrong? 
You look like you’ve just been ill. 

(Petra pulls her infinity scarf higher up her neck.)

PETRA
It’s—it’s nothing. 

DARRYL
I was bitten in a barfight. 
Must’ve been—it’s the one time 
I’ve ever been bit. Unless you 
count sex— 

DR. BUCK
There’s a child here, Darryl!

DARRYL
Right. Sorry, Ellie. 

PETRA
I don’t know...I don’t know where…

THOMAS
It’s okay, Petra. Neither do I. 

DR. BUCK
You’ve all been so brave, 
sharing all these truths. Let’s 
all break now, for cookies and juice. 

(SMOOTH TRANSITION TO THE NEXT SCENE)
Scene 6

SETTING: 							Cookies and juice in
the infinite white room.

DARRYL
It’s okay, you know. Not to remember when you were bitten. 

PETRA
I know. 

(She uncomfortably nibbles on a stale gingersnap.) 

PETRA
Could use some of that banana bread, now. 

DARRYL
What’s on your mind? You seem unsettled. 

PETRA
I don’t—I can’t—not with everyone here. 

DARRYL
Let’s move, then. The lukewarm 
Hawaiian Punch can wait. 

(They move back to the squadron of chairs.) 

DARRYL
These cookies suck. So what’s up? 

PETRA
I know—I mean, I think I know—

DARRYL
I know I’m never getting in a
bar fight again. What is it 
that you know? 

PETRA
Wh—who bit me. 

DARRYL
...how?

(PETRA lowers her infinity scarf. Darryl gasps.)

DARRYL
Two bites overlaid at 90 degrees. 
Which means…

PETRA
Louis. He bit me. 
Louis made me a wolf. 

They each nibble a stale 
cookie in overwhelmed 
silence. The others paw 
at a fruit plate, foam cups.  

(BLACKOUT)
Scene 7

SETTING: 							The round white room. 
								Everyone sleepy, 
drooling. Werewolf
treatment, Week 3.


DR. BUCK

Thank you all for joining me today. You’ve 
made great progress these last weeks 
here, as the nurses’ nightly notes can 
attest. I see some of you have even 
formed friendships here—Petra, Darryl, 
I’m delighted to see it. There is nothing
more human than to trust one another. 
And Ellie, I just knew you’d be a good
influence on Louis! He’s almost stopped
babbling about the werewolf apocalypse. 

Almost. The medications you’ve been 
getting are our own one-of-a-kind 
blend of colloidal silver (the chains 
are all within you, now!) and various 
sedatives, so I hope you’ve all been 
relaxed and calm. I know you’ve been 
thinking more human thoughts, not 
snuffling-and-howling-in-the-woods
delusions. Those ones are Unhelpful
Thinking Thoughts, false and holding 
you all back from yourselves. 

There won’t be any exercise this meeting. 
This week it’s all introspection. The “within”. 

Reflect on the things you do well, like 
last week, but also think deeply about
the ways you fall short. I think the one
thing more human than trust is the desperate
jolt of inadequacy that shocks us. The wolf 
feels no pain, no shame, no fear. So as 
we near the end of our treatment, think hard
and for a long time: what are you worst at? 
What scandal shames you? How can we let
that noble shame nestle near your heart? 

(BLACKOUT)
 
Scene 8

SETTING: 						The small, private room, where 
a session’s underway between 
Dr. Buck and Thomas. 


DR. BUCK
Thomas, what have you learned 
in your time here at Daybreak? 

THOMAS
That it’s best to be my 
full and authentic self. 

DR. BUCK
Good. And? 

THOMAS
That the way I’ve been 
going about things is 
all wrong. 

DR. BUCK
So you recognize now that 
you aren’t that monster! 
You are kind Thomas, the 
quiet accountant. Not 
as dramatic a transformation 
as some, but still: a success! 

THOMAS
I don’t think I can ever do 
what I did before. Holing 
myself up in my office like 
that, alone and a loner. I’ve 
met such wonderful people here. 
I don’t want to be alone anymore. 

DR. BUCK
The lone wolf recants! This is 
welcome news. The nursing staff
will be delighted. Are you willing 
to share your testimony with the others? 

THOMAS
I would be willing to share 
anything with them. They are all like me. 

DR. BUCK
The colloidal silver must be working! 
I’ll assemble everyone later today, but I
have another one-on-one meeting first. 
Go now, Thomas: you have been rescued.

(BLACKOUT) 
Scene 9

SETTING: 						The one-on-one room again. 
Dr. Buck faces off against
Louis. 


DR. BUCK
You’ve been a difficult case for us, Louis.
All these Unhelpful Thinking Thoughts in you, and 
spewing them like upchucked bile at the others—
you’ve been a pernicious threat to our treatment 
regime from the start. But I have a plan, now—

LOUIS
You will have no more difficulty from me. 

DR. BUCK
You see—what?

(Dr. Buck looks unseated.)

LOUIS
I see very clearly what I must become. 
What I have always been destined to be. 

DR. BUCK
It...it worked? 

LOUIS
Better than you could know. Ellie 
and I were good for each other. 
You were right to buddy us up. 

DR. BUCK
I...yes...well, I thought it would 
be good. So you’re abandoning your 
wolf clan, that blood-smeared history? 

LOUIS
I’m becoming who I was always
destined to be. I can feel it. 
I can feel the blood start to 
change in my veins, as my heart 
thrum-thrums and then it changes, too…

DR. BUCK
...we are blessed with an
astonishing gift today! Another 
wolf, the most ferocious wolf…
saved. But how—?

LOUIS
We have Ellie to thank, Dr. Buck, 
for so much. I had the tinderbox 
in me already. She came and struck 
the match for the blaze. 

(BLACKOUT)

Scene 10

SETTING: 						The dizzyingly round white
main room, sans Dr. Buck.
The werewolves hold their
stomachs and moan.


ELLIE
While we wait for Louis and Dr. Buck 
to have their way with each other, I’ve got 
something I’d like to say. 

DARRYL
Say it fast, Ellie. I’ve 
been queasy all day. 

ELLIE
So have we all. The full 
moon’s crept up behind us, 
and here we are unprepared 
and near-undone. I always
used to get sick before 
the change. 

THOMAS
I...I guess I did, too. 
But didn’t Dr. Buck say 
he’d cure us, fix us? 

ELLIE
You can’t fix a thing that
was whole from the start. 
Don’t you see? To be a wolf 
is freedom, pure freedom, 
something our governments 
don’t seem to care about. 
The treatment was always
doomed to fail, because 
there was no treatment 
that would ever work on us. 

PETRA
So it was a scam? 

ELLIE
I think the good doctor 
believed it. But listen…
our ears become more wolf-
like already. I can almost
hear the sweet song of the moon. 
But, a question: will you join 
me and Louis in bliss, or side 
with the delusional doctor who
tried to make you something
you’re not? You can feel in 
yourselfthat the wolf’s re-
emerging, dull teeth sharpening, 
sparse hair growing out and 
reforming itself as fur. Time’s
moving fast, and our full moon 
creeps nearer. So will you be
the delusional sheep? Or will you 
live out your lives as wolves?

(DR. BUCK enters. BLACKOUT.)



Scene 11

Night, and the patients’ slumbering skin cracks and peels to reveal wide-awake monsters within. They grow fur where before the skin was smooth, and great claws where the nails were once bitten to quick. They yelp and scratch the bedsheets, each other. They howl at the plentiful victory of the moon.  

Scene 12

SETTING: 							Dr. Buck’s office, late
 								night, on August 19th.
He dictates a memo to
be written down in
daylight. 
DR. BUCK

I can confidently call the Daybreak
treatment an unbridled success. 
We have made people out of 
basest creatures. It’s true that 
the patients won’t be unbridled:
they’ll still turn wolf, but the doses
we’ve given them will render them
docile until the three days’ end.
Tomorrow’s the full moon, our
great fulfillment, and the start 
of a new dawn for the afflicted 
few. After this moon, werewolves
can choose to be meek, not monsters. 
But I’m most proud of Louis. He 
started out spitting vitriol about 
his family wolf cult, his biting ‘style’, 
as though each bite is a classy
accessory. But we’ve reformed
the wolf. Tomorrow we prove it. 
Tomorrow comes the day of
the jubilant human, once more. 

(BLACKOUT)

Scene 13

SETTING: 						The round white room. They
are all wolves, now, though
pumped full of silver and 
other toxins Dr. Buck believes are enough to save him. Werewolves sit loose and relaxed in their chairs,no chains to bind them (without or within).They are stripped of every human constraint save speech. 

DR. BUCK
So you see? You’ve been 
rendered docile by our 
treatments. There will be 
newspaper headlines recording 
this history, and in three 
days you’ll return to your 
normal lives, safe and whole 
as if nothing happened. 

ALPHA WOLF
But Doctor...everything has
happened. I can see and smell 
things I never...you wouldn’t 
understand. To become the wolf 
is to be forever changed. 

DR. BUCK
Of course it is! I wouldn’t 
suggest otherwise. Only that 
you will be harmless to others, 
this time. And you can still 
carry out your normal lives. 

A SECOND WOLF
What normal lives? 
We shall never have them. 

DR. BUCK
I assure you: with this 
treatment, you can and will. 

A THIRD WOLF
And as for being harmless…

(He licks his lips.)

DR. BUCK
You have all proved a great
capacity for empathy, even 
love. These test results 
show clearly that…

(The alpha wolf strides forth, knocks
off Dr. Buck’s glasses, and holds 
him suspended in midair by his
labcoat. He whimpers.)


I...I don’t understand…

A FOURTH WOLF
The test results you squeezed 
from us are garbage numbers 
for a garbage enterprise. Your
“Unhelpful Thinking Thoughts”
didn’t help you at all; all 
you’ve done is breed a more 
defiant wolf.

A FIFTH WOLF
Now we are whole. Now we hunger! 

(The five other wolves dance ravenously 
around the alpha wolf, who still holds
Dr. Buck aloft. Their jaws snap longingly
at his heels. DR. BUCK shrieks.)

DR. BUCK
Please! I only wanted 
to help you…

THIRD WOLF
Please, Alpha Wolf, 
we’re all so hungry…

ALPHA WOLF
Wait, my loves. Does 
he say he’s sorry? 

DR. BUCK
If you could let me 
go back to the labs 
and recalibrate, we 
could try again! It 
could work this time…

ALPHA WOLF (to Dr. Buck)

But we don’t want it 
to work. 
(To the other wolves)

Friends, we were gathered 
together here by a medical
mistake. We learned much 
about each other, ourselves. 
The time has come to embrace 
our true path. We are werewolves, 
will always be werewolves. 
And a medical accident must 
be cleaned from the world… 

FEAST! 

(He drops Dr. Buck among the snarling
werewolves. They hide him from view
with their strong, hairy bodies as they 
lovingly rip his life apart.) 

(BLACKOUT)

THE END.