Part 1.0 Meet
Lights come up on two performers, a man and a woman at either side of the stage. They are texting on their phones. Slowly they both amble without looking up to centre stage. They start to read as they are texting.
Man A:
We are on stage. You wanted some back and forth. Some Banter.
Woman A
Maybe? So it isn’t so meta.
Man A
So wanky
Woman A
I don’t wank I masturbate
Man A
Nothing is so indulgent as writers making actors pretend that they are doing something beyond acting.
Woman A
Transparency is a bitch. I’m just still trying to get my head around the…you know the form of this thing,
Man A
I’m almost done with form
Woman A
and platform.
Man A
as in the shoes?
Woman A
I’m done with the kitchen table…..I have to teach things and say things and claim things
Man A
is this banter?
Woman A
I don’t think we are, at this stage, on stage. I think we are still …oh no you are right, we are. We are on – stage.
Woman A Looks up at audience while Man A keeps looking at his phone.
Man A
I guess that’s a statement about the current reality rather than stage direction. If this is banter it’s pretty geeky fourth wall performance banter. I guess that’s a statement about the current reality rather than stage direction. If this is banter it’s pretty geeky fourth wall performance banter.
Man A looks up at audience. He turns to Woman A
For some moments they just look at each other. The man acts confident but not by doing anything. Rather he is completely still whilst the woman is somewhat uncomfortable but she doesn’t signal this other than her eyes move around and she looks about just a little. They both look not the audience. Slowly they swap. The man becomes slightly unsettled but not obviously. Meanwhile the woman relaxes and looks out calmly and kindly. None of this happens overtly. Finally the man takes a deep breath. They look at each other.
Man A
So do you remember the first time I saw you?
Woman A
i saw you on a train and my friend Lesley said “He’s a player”
Lights fade. From the side of the auditory a light turns onto a woman (perhaps a handheld touch)
Woman B
I saw you, I can’t remember exactly maybe at Jo’s birthday but I’d seen you somewhere before.
Light goes out as a light on the other side of the room.
From the side of the auditory a light turns onto a Man
Man D
I’d been seeing you for years before I really talked to you
From the side of the auditory a light turns onto a woman
Woman A
You just sat down at our table and began to babble.
From the side of the auditory a light turns onto a woman
Woman C
Yeah I remember you at Mandy’s party. You’d been dancing in that way you do, like a broken helicopter.
all the lights go out replaced by dance floor lighting, mirror balls, and whatever along with pumping music. We see the whole cast moving. Some dance awkwardly some amazingly we see that they are in dance floor conversations. The music stops and a single pulsing light falls on one couple. They are shouting in each other‘s ears as if the music is still playing.
Man D (Shouting and laughing)
Oh momma, why you do that thing?
Woman D
Because I can you silly man.
Pulsing light falls on another couple
Woman B (shouting)
He fucking loves you!
Woman A
Nar
Woman A
Yeah
Woman A
Nar
Woman B
Yes
Woman A
He loves himself, I just happen to be in the room a lot.
Pulsing light falls on another couple.
Woman B
Oh you knew exactly how to get me into bed. You are such a smooth talker.
Man A
We kept texting because it was fun and there was a real connection, you know it.
Woman A
Yeah you’re doing it again saying all the right things.
The lights return to normal and Man A and Woman B begin to walk together around the performance area talking as they walk.
Man B
You want to think that because you’ve constructed a narrative about men wielding power.
Woman B
You do!
Man B
Oh really well why am I always feeling like I never impress you?
Pulsing light falls on another couple for a moment. He starts texting. She waits till he finishes then there’s a notification sound and she reads aloud.
Woman A
So we just text each bother and pretend we are are different people from our past?
Woman A texts then there’s another notification sound
Man A
When was it that I saw you again?
They just begin to talk to each other
Woman A
I saw you or you saw me? They may not be the same thing. But you always assume centre stage, lead actor status don’t you?
Man A
Sorry is that a comment or a correction
Woman A
I was replying to your character as my character.
Man A
So at first it’s just how people meet. You know I saw you blah blah
Woman A
But then we mix it up so it’s like all the people we’ve ever met but…
Man A
Yes and we are never sure about the context. But then we should just
The lighting changes
Woman B
How did you talk me into this.
Man B
Into what.
Woman B
Don’t be coy, into making me fall for you.
Man B
You do realise I’m falling too
Woman B
Woman fall further
Man B
Men land harder
Woman B
Yeah onto your feet
Man B
What is this, battle of the cliches
Lights fade and instantly come up on a different couple so that the beat of the conversation continues.
Woman C
You are a cliche
Man C
Because I take of myself and go to a bit of effort.
Woman C
No I like that but the man preening doesn’t have to be connected to a massive ego.
Lights fade down and come up on another couple.
Woman B (to man B)
So I was down on all fours and he empties this can of dog food onto my back!
All the lights come on and everyone looks at Woman B then turn back as if not wanting to be seen looking. Man B is silently laughing.
Man B
Yeah I’ve done the same. You just wait till someone is passing and you drop a conversation bomb. (Man B raises his voice)
So my penis was completely green and dripping something.
Everyone cocks their heads without looking
Lights fade and come up on..
Woman B
I saw you, sitting alone in a cinema after the credits had rolled, but before the lights came up, I could see tears in your eyes so I didn’t want to intrude. I had come into the cinema early and you were leaving late…. I watched you for a while then hid in the toilets.
Man B
I had no idea, of course. So how long did you stay in there?
Woman B
I’m not sure how long or what film it was but you looked so young. like a small child and then I don’t think we saw each other for 6 months. Though I felt you everywhere and your words turned up everywhere
Man B
No I mean how long did you stay in the toilets?
Lights fade and return to previous couple
Woman A is texting
This is great writing a play by texting. But I have to go now
Man A
Of course right in the middle of our performance. Okay I’ll tell the audience a story while you’re gone.
Woman C
We’d been going out for some time, I can’t remember how long. We went to the beach.
Man C
Oh god that was a weird day, you were so difficult to get to know. You always pushed me away then suddenly
Lights fade then a giant image appears on the rear wall and Man C is lit by a single spot on his face.
Man C
Oh you brilliant wet drama
bobbing alone
on the inflatable lobster
you bought
as a joke.
I said they are no good
in the wind
watching you at a distance
which you seem
always to extend
I turned and
faced the sand
a small shell had
a seaweed stem
with frond a top
it looked like
a cartoon desert island.
For some time I watched
it sway in the wind
I turned back to you
So that you might see
I had found something
Magical
You had gone
now
just a speck of red.
Thank goodness
for the kindness
of dragon boat
practice sessions
Image disappears and lights fade up
Woman C
Yes, that’s it, dragon boating was where I saw you again. Dawn session, wet seats, traffic drone under the Glebe island bridge. You seemed embarrassed to be finally exercising and I was at the helm. You forget I am a barrister, if I don’t exercise I combust.
Man C
Mmm yes. But your timeline is all wrong. We both got into the dragon boat racing thing after you got rescued. At least I think so, was that you on the lobster? You got in the papers and everything. I still have the shell!
Light fades up on Woman D
Woman D
Bloody hell! I just looked at the newspaper cutting I keep in a scrapbook and it’s wasn’t you. I could have sworn….under oath your honor, no right just a barrister.
Light fades up on Man D
Man D
So I can’t remember so well, apparently, but I do remember your energy! I think because you were the helmsman… person is the reason our team did well. Honestly it was a bit like landing in a Roman Galli !
Light fades and fades up on a flat vertical panel of clothes that have been cut up and sewed together so collars, sleeves and trowser legs are hanging all over it. Through one of the collar holes a man’s head pops out. He turns and a sieve under him fills with an arm, then another arm fills, then another next to a collar through which a woman’s head appears. She turns towards the man and as she does so other arms appear through other selves. As the speed the arms move and sway like waves away and towards the speaker.
Man D
Oh I hate labels as much as you and I said that enough times. But I do think that anything you fear getting into means you already are in it.
Woman D
Brain chemicals are hard to translate into day to day living language.
Man D
I mean we both loved falling for each other and the heady chemical cocktail was both intoxicating and frightening.
Woman C
So as the intoxicating stage wanes you realize you really do want to be with this person but you don’t want to fall into a co-dependent trap
Man C
Surely we can make the label what you want? So what if you call it a relationship doesn’t mean you can’t define your own version of what that means.
Woman B (appears through a collar hole)
Woman B
So yeah I think it was you being worried about repeating a pattern that was in society.
Man A appears in the panel
Man A
You used to love coming to my place but I was always on a stopwatch at yours, not really. I always knew it was because you couldn’t handle the expectations you thought I was placing on the thing that we call us.
Lights cross fade to the other side of the stage
Woman A
Can I say here is a junction with two different realities. Me the writer wants to answer this description you wrote about. About a relationship not comfortable about the label. I want to make sense of that as I did above.
However me the character feels frustrated that you just don’t get how difficult it was to be attached to someone who always wanted something impossible. You used me to define yourself.
Man A
Being alone
In a car at night
as a city juxtaposed
upon my screen
slides by
is a thing
is it not
more alone
as darkness
Simplifies
the whole fucked up mess
main roads being
the ugliest part
of the human nest.
Then I slide into the forest
and night becomes alive.
My lights turn a tree into
a skeleton of her libido
a schematic of her time
alone on a mountain
I might not live in her
swirling adjustments
as she makes sense
of mmmmmmmme
not me
Of her not her
of us not us
Or she might not
lay her head on my chest
like that rock perched
so close to that edge
ever again.
So much weight
so briefly illuminated
The configurations of
rough bark scratching
Into light beams
sweeping
around
a
corner
that I can not see around yet.
Then I remember once again
that everything will be okay
because I love the forest
especially at night.
End of Part 1
Part 1 Meet, get to know, remembering how we meet
Part 2 Loose, regret, fight, annoy, being alone
Part 3 Live, being, accepting,