|
|
|
| Bookbulb Library |
|
 |
Sample
WINDOW
By LEO CAPPÈL
A short play in 3 acts
for 3 actors who can sing
and 3 musicians who feel at home on the stage.
© Leo Cappèl 1999
CAST:
Joany, soprano A young woman, about 20, naive and romantic.
Bev, alto A young woman, slightly older than Joany, more
world-wise and experienced.
Robin, tenor A young man, late 20s, Joany's boss.
Clarinettist Robin's alter ego.
Flutist Bev's alter ego.
Violinist Joany's alter ego.
STAGE DIRECTIONS
The stage is divided into left and right stage by a very obvious white "road-marking". An open window in a white frame is firmly suspended (piano wire) above and in line with this road-marking. For the 2nd and 3rd acts an open door is placed on the road-marking as well, upstage from the window.
Window, door and road-marking clearly separate the man's and the women's worlds.
Props: 3 white sitting-cubes and a guitar without strings.
The only actor ever to cross the road-marking is Bev, during the "Jump-Up" song, 3rd act. Neither Joany nor Robin step across the road-marking at any time.
The two women freely communicate with each other, but during the 1st act are totally unaware of Robin's existence on stage. During the 2nd act Joany does at times address Robin. Robin from his side shows no awareness whatsoever of either Joany or Bev until the 3rd act.
The presence of the characters extends well beyond their physical
boundaries. E.g. by his/her mannerism and movements the flutist must
be clearly an aspect of the Bev personality, the violinist of Joany
and the clarinettist of Robin.
Even Pamela, though absent, is present on stage during the 1st act
in the form of a guitar without strings, mute but still powerful.
ACT 1
ENTER JOANY AND BEV, RIGHT STAGE, TALKING AS THEY WALK ON.
JOANY: All right, so maybe he isn't actually the boss, but he's
important enough to have his own private secretary! And he has
his own office, just for the two of us. And I don't have to
take orders from anyone else either.
BEV: I wouldn't take orders from any man, thank you!
JOANY: Oh, but my boss is different? He doesn't order me around, he
just asks. He's kind of gentle. - - - Yeah.
JOANY SITS DOWN ON HER CUBE.
BEV: Yeah, sure, he just asks you gently. Until he has crawled into
your bed. And out again. In and out. Believe me, Joany, I
know. I've got two kids and I haven't seen either of the
fathers since.
JOANY: But Bev!
BEV: You heard me. Mind you, I love my kids, nothing wrong with
them, even though they're a handful at times. It's men I can't
stand.
JOANY: Now really, Bev, this guy's different. He never even touches
me.
BEV: You mean to tell me the two of you are sitting together in
that little office of yours all day long and he never touches
you?
JOANY: No, never. Well, not the way you mean anyway.
BEV: What's wrong with you guys? Has he asked you out yet?
JOANY: Heck no. Mind you, I don't think his wife would allow him.
BEV SITS DOWN TOO, HAND ON JOANY'S KNEE TO EMPHASIZE HER WORDS.
BEV: His wife won't allow him? What kind of a man is he?
JOANY: Well, it's just that his wife and I have been friends for
years? That's how I got my job in the first place, through
her.
BEV STANDS UP AGAIN.
BEV, ASIDE: There she sits all day long cooped up in a tiny office
with her friend's husband and nothing ever happens! Who would
believe that!
JOANY, ASIDE: And she has never seen either of the fathers since, she
says.
ENTER ROBIN, LEFT STAGE, HOLDING A GUITAR BY ITS WAIST. THIS GUITAR HAS NO STRINGS AND THROUGHOUT THE 1ST ACT IT IS HELD VERTICALLY, NECK DOWN.
ROBIN, ADDRESSING THE GUITAR: But dammit, woman, you can't
just walk out on me like that! One day everything is fine and I ring you
during my lunch-hour to see how you are and to ask: "Are you happy?"
and you tell me you love me, and the next day you come with some
ridiculous story which nobody would believe, but you believe it
anyhow and you get mad at me and you walk out on me!
BEV: You would've thought he'd have fallen for you ages ago, Joany.
ROBIN: Why? Dammit woman, why? Why are you doing that to me?
You know I've always looked after you and things were always so good
between us and you always said you loved me so much and now
suddenly you leave me. Just like that. Why? What has changed?
ROBIN SITS DOWN ON HIS CUBE, STILL HOLDING THE GUITAR IN BOTH HANDS AND STILL LOOKING AT IT.
JOANY, TO HERSELF: She has never seen the fathers since, but at least
she has two kids. She has had two little babies.
ENTER VIOLINIST, RIGHT STAGE, WHILE PLAYING INTRO.
JOANY, DURING INTRO: Yeah, two little babies.
JOANY, STILL DURING INTRO, LOOKS AT BEV'S CUBE, PICKS UP IMAGINARY BABY, CUDDLES IT AND SINGS, ACCOMPANIED BY THE VIOLIN.
JOANY: Always when I rock you, baby,
Always when you smile at me,
Even when you cry a little,
I feel drunk with love for you.
I could hold you all day long,
Kiss your little feet.
I could sing you thousand songs,
Just to help you sleep.
Always when you - - -
BEV INTERRUPTS HERE: For God's sake, woman! Cut out that
sentimental slop. Do you think that's what having children is all about?
Here, give me that brat.
JOANY HANDS OVER THE BABY TO BEV. BEV, IMAGINARY BABY IN HER ARMS, WALKS UP AND DOWN.
BEV: See how the stupid kid has shit herself? Do you hear how she's
screaming all night long?
THE VIOLINIST, WHO HAS BEEN LOOKING ON, THROWS UP HIS/HER HANDS IN EXASPERATION, EXITS.
BEV: And you walk up and down and you rock the stupid brat and
finally she falls asleep and you put her back in her cot - - -
BEV PUTS THE BABY BACK ON HER CUBE.
BEV: But by then you're too bloody tired to go back to sleep
yourself.
ROBIN GETS UP AGAIN, STARTS TO WALK TO AND FRO WHILE TALKING TO HIS GUITAR.
ROBIN: You remember our first holiday together? How we had hired
those horses and went riding for a whole fortnight? Just the
two of us? At night we were sore as hell, so we made a game of
putting ointment on each other. Remember? We hardly slept at
all and we swore we would always love each other.
BEV: But as soon as you fall asleep after all she'll start screaming
once more until you're ready to scream yourself and you hate
the man who did that to you. Maybe you hate yourself too, but
you hate that man so much more, you kick him out and you never
want to see him again. - - - Of course he didn't understand. They
never do.
ROBIN: You remember the long evenings close to our campfire? That was
one of the best holidays I've ever had. Retracing the steps of
those old gold-diggers of ages ago. No beaten track, only
rugged bush. Fording the odd river, shooting rabbits for
dinner. You remember that trout I caught while you were
setting up our tent, with the horses on long tethers nearby?
That was the life! That was really roughing it and you said
you loved it too. You really did. - - - Didn't you?
ROBIN WALKS TO THE WINDOW, LETS HIS GUITAR LOOK THROUGH IT, POINTS ACROSS THE RIGHT STAGE AT THE HOUSE. (THOUGH CLEARLY NOT IN THE DIRECTION OF THE WOMEN AND OBVIOUSLY UNAWARE OF THEM.)
ROBIN: You remember the kind of future we were planning then? "See",
you would say, "See, that's where we're going." But now you're
gone. Now when I look where you had pointed I see nothing.
There's nothing there any more. Nothing. Nothing at all.
ROBIN PUTS HIS GUITAR ON THE FLOOR, SLOWLY WALKS BACK TO HIS CUBE, SITS DOWN. ENTER CLARINETIST, LEFT STAGE.
ROBIN SINGS: The shelf of the bathroom mirror is empty,
A lipstick-stained tissue is all that is left.
Apart from that tissue still red with your lipstick,
There is nothing. Why nothing? Why?
At lunch-time I rang you to tell you I love you.
My own voice answered: Just wait for the bleep.
Apart from that unfeeling voice in the distance
There was nothing. Why nothing? Why?
I'm pushing my trundler past shelves full of goodies:
What are we going to eat tonight, love?
Apart from the trundlers and strangers around me
There is nothing. Why nothing? Why?
A pizza sits cold on the bench in the kitchen,
TV is switched on but forgotten again.
Apart from the hours of staring at nothing
There is nothing. Why nothing? Why?
JOANY: Come on, Bev. Surely it's not all bad? There must be good
times too?
BEV: Oh, I suppose so, yeah, at times. But you still need a man.
JOANY: Of course, what's wrong with that?
BEV: What's wrong? - - - Hey, is that what you were thinking of
with that guy at your work, with your boss? The husband of
your friend? But he hardly knows you're there!
JOANY: He does now!
BEV: How come? What did you do?
JOANY: Listen Bev, I'll tell you.
BEV SITS DOWN, HEADS CLOSE TOGETHER.
JOANY: Well, I was kind of dreaming how we had something going
together. I thought maybe he would leave his wife and move in
with me? My flat is not very big, but big enough for the two
of us. It would be nice and cosy. I could even let him have
the sun porch as his very own little room. Maybe I would put a
work table in the corner for him, there's just room enough.
You know how men like to make model aeroplanes or something?
BEV: And then what happened?
JOANY: Nothing. Nothing at all. It was only a dream and - - - eh - -
- yeah, only a dream.
BEV SNORTS.
JOANY: Sort of one-sided? He had no dreams, not about me anyway. I
was just an office machine, a - - - a photocopier. So I got angry at
him. Really angry, you know how it is?
BEV: Yeah, go on.
JOANY: Well, you know how I was friends with his wife? I don't quite
know what came over me, but I told her about my dreams. Only I
didn't tell her they were just dreams. I said: "Pamela, your
husband and I love each other, so we have started to sleep
together."
BEV: What!
JOANY: Yeah, just like that. I was so angry at being ignored, it
simply burst out?
BEV: Wow! And what did Pamela say? Did she believe it?
JOANY: Well, not at first, but when I told her about his birth-mark
in a certain place where it wouldn't show she did believe me.
BEV: Hell, Joany, I, I, - - - you're crazy! But does he?
JOANY: Does he what?
BEV: Have a birth-mark?
JOANY: How would I know? He must have, otherwise Pamela would've
known I just made it up.
BEV STARES AT JOANY, MOUTH OPEN.
JOANY: Anyway, Pamela was so mad, I'm sure she has given him pure
hell. Serves him right for ignoring me.
BEV, AFTER A DEEP SIGH: Good job!
JOANY: Maybe, maybe not.
BEV: Come again?
back to top
|
|
|
Advertisement:
|
