- Natalie in the morning
- Nigeria (site specific)
- Triage

draft:

The Magician

Nigeria to be featured in Neanderthal Festival at the Cultch . Nigeria runs July 21st- 25th. Directed by David Bloom.

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First 15 pages of Nigeria – NigeriaScript

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Martin Gover Interview here

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Francesca and Jeff

First performed at Vancouver Firehall 2008

Francesca is sitting at a desk, going through files (ideally on a laptop –but  paper files work)

Has a calculator and cell phone (ideally smart phone/blackberry) in front of her. She is tallying totals.

There is only one chair at her desk. It’s a desk for salespeople to prepare

Francesca is waiting for her turn to meet with the head buyer of a large chain store. She is expecting a large buy.

Jeff watches Francesca for a while

Then takes a chair from the corner and sits at Francesca’s desk

Francesca notices, but keeps working, hoping he will move on

He doesn’t

Pause

FRANCESCA                                                        I don’t mean to be rude – but I have this desk – you can use –

JEFF                                                                       You don’t recognize me?

Francesca studies  him. Then goes back to working

FRANCESCA                                                        Sorry.

JEFF                                                                       Huh.

Pause

FRANCESCA                                                        O – your with Telco – right?

JEFF                                                                       No.

FRANCESCA                                                        Then…sorry – look could you use that desk – this is for immediate suppliers.

Pause

JEFF                                                                       Jeff – from Orton.

FRANCESCA                                                        Jeff?…from…(a shock-fear ) –Christ!

Jeff calm, never takes his eyes off Francesca through the following

JEFF                                                                       How you doing Fran?

Francesca is looking around for help

Francesca gets up to leave

JEFF(sharp)                                                         Sit….

Sit.

Francesca  fighting  herself….sits. Barely touching the chair

Pause

JEFF                                                                       I see you’ve done well for yourself.

Pause

JEFF                                                                       Wall-Marts favourite.

Pause

JEFF                                                                       And I hear… they’re thinking of taking you in-house  – they’re very impressed…. they’re going to give you a hell of an order.

Pause

FRANCESCA(rough)                                        And you know all this…how?

JEFF                                                                       Company car, expense account,  people are losing jobs and homes and yet Simpson and Jaden cant get enough of you…that’s great.

Pause

FRANCESCA(trying to find a calm tone)                                 I’m very good.

JEFF                                                                       Yes…

Pause

FRANCESCA                                                        What do you want?

Jeff shakes his head, shrugs

Francesca is looking around, she has moved her cellphone  into her lap. Hidden

JEFF                                                                       Your safe. Your absolutely safe ..I’m..

FRANCESCA                                                        On parole?

Jeff laughs

JEFF                                                                       No no..no..

FRANCESCA                                                        What do you want?

Jeff gets up

JEFF                                                                       So.

Surprised then.

FRANCESCA                                                        Yes.

Surprised.

beat

I thought -

JEFF                                                                       Those were the days though right?

FRANCESCA                                                        What?

Jeff  goes to the window, back to Francesca

JEFF                                                                       Fran I have to tell you my memories of those days are -

FRANCESCA(standing) I have a meeting. I need to –

Jeff turns, looks at Francesca

She hesitates, then sits

Beat

JEFF                                                                       Confused? Confused times?

Jeff moves around now

Pause

JEFF                                                                       Ambiguous..perhaps…ambiguous times

Pause

JEFF                                                                       It was a different time though wasn’t it?

Pause

JEFF                                                                       What do you remember from those times Fran ?

They were different don’t you think? We were different – weren’t we?

Fran?

FRANCESCA                                                        I don’t remember.

JEFF                                                                       We were .

Remember ?…when there  was  just you and me- and we were  close? – not confused, ambiguous – close –  remember those times?

before…

what did you say – you used to say this thing – what was it?

FRANCESCA                                                        I don’t remember.

Pause

JEFF                                                                       You said – we will have blue skies, blue skies and a life that will stretch forever.Together.

Pause

FRANCESCA(under her breath)                  Horizon.

Beat

JEFF                                                                       What?

I’m sorry – I didn’t hear you.

Fran?

FRANCESCA                                                        Horizon – I said horizon… that will stretch forever

JEFF                                                                       Did you? – horizon?- horizon that will stretch?

I like “life” better – makes more sense – why would you say horizon?

FRANCESCA                                                        What do you want Jeff?

Jeff sits

Fran edges her chair away from Jeff

JEFF                                                                       I came to visit you – did they ever tell you that?

FRANCESCA                                                        Who?

JEFF                                                                       I don’t know – the nurse – your parents…your father wouldn’t let me into the hospital room…he thought I was involved I guess… he didn’t tell you I had come by?

Pause

JEFF                                                                       He became quite …belligerent towards the end…the old man

Pause

JEFF                                                                       I came, here, to offer forgiveness -

FRANCESCA(almost a sob of pain)           Oh -

JEFF                                                                       I came here – to you – to offer you, give you the gift. Forgiveness

Pause

Francesca shakes her head bewildered, becoming angry , and with anger, braver

JEFF                                                                       You see the gift –

FRANCESCA                                                        I heard I heard – the gift the gift.

JEFF                                                                       Yes..yes..

Pause

FRANCESCA                                                        Forgiveness  - forgiveness? – what the fuck are you talking about ?– what kind of -

Jeff moves to perhaps take her hand, or touch her shoulder

Francesca leaps back

FRANCESCA                                                        – get  away from me, – don’t you dare . Don’t you. Dare.

Jeff sits down

FRANCESCA                                                        There’s people here – I could yell, they’d-

JEFF                                                                       They wont do anything

FRANCESCA                                                        There’s cameras-

JEFF                                                                       – everywhere – monitored all the time . I know.

FRANCESCA                                                        Go away

JEFF                                                                       You’re safe.

FRANCESCA                                                        Go away

JEFF                                                                       So…yes

A gift…

For you…

that allows…you…

to forgive

me

Pause

Francesca  slowly begins to laugh

And then more and more until she is convulsed but convulsed by sobs.

Jeff paces.

JEFF                                                                       You know what I remember when I think about you and me now?– Francesca ?– do you?

Jeff is behind Francesca – he leans to her ear,

JEFF( sharp) Francesca!

She jumps and is frozen

JEFF                                                                       You know what I remember when I think about you and me now?

Pause

JEFF                                                                       Do you?

Francesca shakes her head

JEFF                                                                       Pain…

Jeff gets up and walks to her. She is unable to move

JEFF                                                                       There were times, when you would move, and then move and then move and your face would be , close, so close – this close…a kiss…your arms, your hands..touching me, a finger on my skin…your eyes….a kiss…a touch….

Pause

Jeff shudders.

JEFF                                                                       Pain.

Not like your pain. Your pain was something quite normal, quite expected – a slap – (he slaps his hands close to Francesca)

Francesca jumps

JEFF                                                                       Brings a bruise. A fist to the breasts…stiff fingers to the kidneys…a cracked rib…completely normal, expected – action and consequence – but you…you…to me…you were blue skies – you were rose petals  – you were birdsong, you were pulsing skin–  you were broken glass, the broken blade…stuck…turning in my gut…you were like warm wet …

beat

Jeff(soft)                                                             Pain

Pause

JEFF                                                                       So…

Jeff sits

And waits

FRANCESCA                                                        I cant…breathe…I cant breathe..

Jeff moves to her

FRANCESCA                                                        Get away , get away

Jeff moves away

JEFF(starts  soft)                                              Fran…

Fran…

(sharp) Breathe. …

Breathe Fran, for a few seconds breathe

Pause

Fran ignores his request

JEFF                                                                       Ok, try this..

Fran -listen to me

Do this -close your eyes ….close your eyes

Francesca shakes her head

JEFF                                                                       Do it

Pause

Francesca closes her eyes. Then opens them. Jeff hasn’t moved. She closes them again

JEFF                                                                       What do you feel? – tell me?

Pause

FRANCESCA                                                        Nothing

JEFF                                                                       No energy

FRANCESCA                                                        Nothing

JEFF                                                                       No danger

FRANCESCA                                                        Nothing

JEFF                                                                       No fear

Beat

FRANCESCA                                                        Nothing

She opens her eyes

pause

FRANCESCA                                                        I heard you -

JEFF                                                                       Came to a bad end?

FRANCESCA                                                        Something

JEFF                                                                       You were, to me –

FRANCESCA                                                        Unforgiveable.

JEFF                                                                      Unforgettable. For me

we had a relationship didn’t we? – I mean a regular – true -boy and a girl – we went out – we went to parties – we danced.

How long did we go out?

FRANCESCA                                                        You cannot be forgiven

JEFF                                                                       You thought I looked good – you said…

You think I still look good?

FRANCESCA                                                        Christ – You always looked good Jeff – that was never in doubt – I was  (she laughs)  the most envied girl in Orton – Christ.

JEFF                                                                       I was, for a moment, the happiest boy

She looks at him

JEFF                                                                       I was.

You were…radiant, beautiful…and an ache…

a knife on  bone

Beat

So – here you are…here you are…ten years? – is it ten years already?

FRANCESCA                                                        and  you want me-

You want me to get down and beg –

JEFF                                                                       summon- summon the –

FRANCESCA                                                        You want -

JEFF                                                                       It doesn’t, at this time Fran, matter what I want.

Pause

FRANCESCA                                                        I have a meeting.

JEFF                                                                       I am offering you   –

FRANCESCA                                                        I heard.

JEFF                                                                       Try it.

Please.

Pause

FRANCESCA                                                        Do you remember exactly why I was in the hospital Jeff – are you quite clear on that?

JEFF                                                                       Pretty clear

FRANCESCA                                                        And do you remember why you didn’t visit me there?

JEFF                                                                       I did visit -

FRANCESCA                                                        Because my father  had a police watch posted, they felt you might try again. They felt you might not be finished. With me. There was a general feeling in the air that you would be finished with me when I was dead…,and at that point thanks to the wonders of modern medicine – I wasn’t quite dead.

JEFF                                                                       I came to visit you -

FRANCESCA                                                        And when I eventually hobbled out of that wonderful institution, sewn up, raw, bleeding at every step, at every slight  pressure on my…hobbled out and saw that grey sky –fog, no sun, and I-

JEFF                                                                       I was there –

FRANCESCA                                                        and there was I remember, on the drive home, I remember quite clearly – through the fog -a heron – I think it was a heron, a large thin bird  …

A heron

And it watched me with a sort of…

JEFF                                                                       I saw you leave – I watched your car -

FRANCESA                                                          And during the days the weeks of my “recovery” at my parents house – I would see it , her, I thought of it as a her, quite often, always alone. Standing quite happily,alone.Peacefully alone…

By the stream or sometimes huge in the sky – wings bigger than I could possibly imagine…fathom… and that Heron, alone, by herself seemed the perfect vision for me

Pause

JEFF                                                                       Why?

FRANCESCA                                                        I have no fucking idea Jeff – it just seemed at the time, like a lot of things seemed at the time- sane. I don’t know why. Jeff. Do you know why I thought you were sane, or anything you did was sane. Do you?

Because now, now from the distance of …whavetever  it is -

JEFF                                                                       Ten –

FRANCESA                                                          – I see I must have been  completely – insane. A complete fucking lunatic to even let you….

Looks hard at him

They told me you were dead

JEFF                                                                       Ah..yes….

FRANCESCA                                                        Yes…

JEFF                                                                       So -

FRANCESCA                                                        So I have no  idea then Jeff – why I would pay any attention to a fucking heron. Ok?

And I have a meeting

JEFF                                                                       You are not, you are absolutely under no… obligation do you understand that?

FRANCESCA                                                        I have a meeting.

JEFF                                                                       When I leave, you will still have a meeting – nothing is happening that requires us, you, right now  - so…

…so…

Its yours to take or leave. Not mine

Pause

FRANCESCA                                                        I have a good life – comfortable –clean – I have…

I have friends – good friends, close friends…. and I have a comfortable – well fed …life , I have-

JEFF                                                                       You have half a life

FRANCESCA                                                        I do not want your gifts ok?

Your spiritual…breakthroughs..or …

You.

Here.

Standing like that – here –  turning up here…here…anywhere.

JEFF                                                                       Its just the memories -

FRANCESCA                                                        Oh No…no  -the memories?…O no Jeff – the memories are  gone – banished – hidden –tied down, whipped into a corner, caged behind – O no-now its all in the dreams.

JEFF                                                                       Yes.

FRANCESCA                                                        Yes and  by the way -If anyone ever asks, or if you are ever in need – I know a wonderful pill that allows you to sleep four maybe five hours before the shaking starts – not always…but …

Francesca is shaking her head.

Jeff watches her, then gets up paces, goes to the window, does not look at her

JEFF                                                                       I understand… the emptiness…

the aching – hollow…

nightmare.

A day…then another day.

Then another…day.

Lightless, effortless, fog…

though other people seem to  inhabit it ok…

enjoy it …I guess… after a fashion….ok…

en..joy..

but for me – what is it? – for us – what was it?

…shards of glass…in our sleep…the skittering ghoul …smirking, growling – and we wake – is that waking?…Is this waking?…

FRANCESCA                                                       You have no right.

You have no right to come back…like this  -

JEFF                                                                       You have half a life, not even…

FRANCESCA                                                        You have no -

JEFF                                                                       So I asked, I wanted …I asked…to be able…to offer…you…

Jeff hunched looking out the window – Francesca watching him

FRANCESCA                                                        No.

JEFF                                                                       You know – we all know.

FRANCESCA                                                        I mean – No. I mean..I am unable…I am unwilling…I am…

Pause

FRANCESCA                                                        Jeff – you cannot ask someone – you cannot expect..me

Long Pause

FRANCESCA(soft to herself)                        Forgiveness…Forgiveness?

pause

She looks up at him

Pause

Jeff barely has the strength to turn at look at her

She watches him, turn, painfully to look at her

Long look

Pause

Jeff exits

Pause

Francesca coming back…

She looks around. Looks at her watch. Looks around.

Posture change.

Picks up the order file and exits.

END

I will wait here. At the edge. Not quite water, not quite land… I will wait… I am patient Let the waves pull at my toes. Pull at the sand. Suck away the land. Wash away the traces… But not mine. Not my…traces

You have to be amazed at how much weight they can pull – whole landscapes I hear, whole pieces of countries are being dragged away by these waves I hear – and they just disappear, whole continents – just disappear into the waves… I am amazed…

I had to re-think… my position…that’s the thing .Re-position my…thinking. Well I had to rethink everything -and that is a large undertaking, of course it is…daunting in fact…however… For instance I noticed that I had no colour, no colours at all…maybe a dab of a scarf, a daub of a purse, but full frontal…just… grey and medium…and a wisp of something that might be faun, or might be…what colour is this? ..is this a colour?.. so – I have decided to have colour – re thinking the palette available…I have decided …

For instance I noticed I couldn’t smell the sea, in my room by the sea. The windows were sealed too tight. So I moved to this motel down the beach, away from the Resort End, away from the brand names, away from the franchises… away from the gleaming…away from the drowning.

At the Hilton, tables gleam in the sunset… At the Hilton, glasses gleam in the moonrise… At the Hilton, candles gleam in the starlight… The gleam was one of the things that I didn’t need anymore…..

Here I eat on the beach, the tables planted hopefully between the palms and the vegetation. Here I eat with fat birds hopping from table to table. Here I eat with the water between my toes… There are of course – lizards… But I too am hopeful, among the vegetation – imagining some sort of – consideration. Some appreciation. Expecting…

In the other universe we would dress for a night on the town, but then of course we were younger, then of course we were happy, then of course things had not…unwound…wound down..what should I say? Was there colour?

At the Hilton there were beautiful sunsets. We would eat at sunset, a candle on the table, gleaming, boys in white jackets bring the wine… and Sebastian sits with me.

He says – “Beautiful sunset – you choose it? – it suits you.”

He always says things like that – sort of half mocking, half……something else.

He says – “You want to go out later? – we can go up the beach to the Holiday Inn or the Imperial, they have a band at the Imperial.”
“Then let’s go to the Imperial.” I say

Of course I don’t go to the Imperial now, now after the unwinding…after the decision to re- think everything. I go to some dark Mexican place. Mexican music plays Peter was drunk when I met him, ran into him. Literally. At the Mexican place on the beach. What night was that.? One of those nights. Recent I can tell you that…recent. Peter was drunk, but friendly – we discussed – O I don’t know. He wanted to come back to my room, but luckily he threw up in the alley and decided to lie down there. His choice

Pause

Why Mexican? – Because I never went to Mexico with Sebastian, that’s why – and there’s the Tequila – Sebastian hated Tequila…Anne and I used to drink it when we went to Vegas…the big deal…tequila..the girls living dangerously in Vegas…

Mexican music fades down Big band dance music fades in.

Joan dances

We drink champagne at the Imperial, Sebastian and I, quite different then, the early years… the lizards run across the small dance floor and stare at me. I shoo them, flick at them with my hand….

Joan stops dancing looks at the lizards

The tongues flick. In and out. There’s something ominous in the way they do it…

pause

We go back to the Hilton, and throw our clothes on the gleaming bedroom floor…. we turn off the air conditioning and let the sweat run like rivers down the valleys of our gleaming bodies…

Pause

At the Hilton on the beach… The music stops The Hilton in Chicago, I discovered was a different story – the Hilton in Chicago was for “business trips”, a quick, in and out…I gather….still as Anne said then, he was a lucky catch…for me… For her it was more…deliberate…at the Hilton in Chicago…in and out… so I thought perhaps the Hilton at the beach would be the place they would end up….as we always did, as we had…annually….when the winters at home , the dark weather of winter…got to him…our annual pilgrimage back… Its true – you cant go back…we couldn’t go back to our beginning…where there was colour and… consideration… gleaming seas under gleaming skies… the lizards always seemed to have some remembrance of me -I noted that….but the dreams were bad …

Now I think about it – it was I, me, drunk, who was lying in the gutter – wanting to lie in the gutter – Peter carried me, carried me home in fact. Where did he go? – now I think about it…he wasn’t there when I woke up, when I came to…was he?.No I’m pretty sure he wasn’t there

pause

Peter says he is amused by me, but I am …careful. That is our relationship in a nutshell Pause Anne was my friend. Sebastian was my friend…Anne and Sebastian in that universe, Anne and Sebastian how could you miss it? I told Peter –while he was trying to engage

Pause

Peter seems formal. Though not distant… I suspect ulterior motives.

Pause

Sebastian was casual, sex in the kitchen, sex in the car, sex on the carpet where the skin burned, sex in the bathroom..sex at the Imperial, sex with me, sex without me, as it turns out. Money with me, my money without me, as it turns out

Peter on the other hand carried me and my vomit to my room down dark alleys

Pause

Anne was my friend, in that universe, she showed me the ins and outs, the turns and curves of men. The intentions, then the desires. In the end of course she showed me how to turn him, she showed me how to make him go in and out on command. Her command. Anne had experience, she had worked in Vegas, and then Geneva and Brussels with some important assholes from the World Bank, or the European Common market Coalition, or the some bureaucratic fuck fest – her words, not mine – fuck fest. The World Bank, The IMF some Bilateral commission, some fuck fest or other.

Anne was a self confessed expert on orgasms and brand name knock offs – she could tell a Ferragamo from a Korean copy, a Prada from a China made, an orgasm from a cry of despair – though she said the last was the hardest to distinguish, when things were unwinding – she said that was one of the signs in fact of things unwinding, the changing of the planets, the shift in the universe – the cry mistaken for the orgasm, the suppressed rage mistaken for a bad day…

Pause

He took my money, he took my home and then he took my friend, Anne, as Anne said he would. As Anne decided he would. And left me. Nothing. Nothing…

Peter feels there are perhaps circumstances I should consider, sides, shades of meaning – I told him– its greed –its – I was going to say more…but I didn’t.

We have always been a greedy people Peter says – We? I say – I seem to recall a time of what? – politeness, deference, consideration – a certain restraint on the impulse to fuck everyone…me… in previous ages. In times gone by – consideration for the public and the private

Peter tries to make a case for growth, as opposed to greed , a time of change arriving as opposed to status quo– I am not listening

Sebastian felt I should increase the hormone therapy – Anne gave me her drugs she said to bury the suppressed rage – I stuck to tequila, in the end. The worm that turns Anne had stopped being amused by me, I noticed. Which was a good thing as I am not easily amused at this point in my…career

pause

I noticed of late, towards the end, that I had forgotten to think of ,myself as something that takes up space in the world. I somehow let myself become…opaque – no light for me, no need for me, thank you – I didn’t need space – space and form is for other people…of course… Anne moves through space. Sebastian shapes form and space – I am..obscure…I am unclear…I am obtuse, without shape or form…how easy to have nothing..I hardly noticed.

Really

In the beginning at the Imperial, at the Hilton, on our bed in our house, I had no need – I had his shape and form, he had my shape and form, we were one shape, one form – uniform…and that was good. That was re assuring that was what I …desired?… but then…and now, when it stopped, when his shape moved on I was left..shapeless.. how long it took me to notice, only now when I have decided to re-think my form and shape I notice I am, without…Anne says its because I don’t eat – Sebastian says I should get out more… Sebastian says I am imaging things and that is not Anne’s perfume, and that is not Anne’s shape on the pillow, it is my shape – but I have no shape so I know he lies.

Pause

I decided therefore to reform. To Re -Form, as..as what?…a woman? Again?… Peter has suggested that I have a wonderful form as a woman – but what does he know – drunk in the alley….and I don’t know if it is so wise in this day and age of greed and consumption – consumption? -yes -also the disease, the wasting kind . Perhaps not as a woman, or a man perhaps I will reform as a fish, a crab – no – as a bird. Fish and crabs are consumed…women are consumed – I will be a bird- I will be a bird. Which cannot be drowned. Sucked into the sea. A bright bird who lives in treetops far from the consuming greedy hands of women and men. I will live as a bright bird in treetops and sing. Sing…what will I sing?

And what about me? Peter says, his feet in the bed beside me, his feet in the sand beside mine-what will I be if you are a bird in a tree? You? -I say – don’t you work for the World Bank, The IMF the fuck fest people? Its temporary he says. And it’s the N.I.C

Aaah… Peter..Peter

Pause

I seem to recall at college I was voted the girl most likely to, because it was noted I had vision, and a great figure…and its true I could, then, envision..a future, dreams, good things, bright sparkling skies over bright sparkling lives….I still have my figure, or parts of it – ask Peter, ask anyone…

I have decided I will become in the fact the woman of a certain age most likely to. Most likely to.

Pause

They say after the first kill you have a taste for it…I don’t find that to be true… After the first kill you become less…you become …drunk in alleys away from the Resort End, planning invisible trips to out of the way places where extradition is an unknown factor…you become careful, you become wary. You become suspicious. Of course I suspect Peter. Of course I am not an idiot. Two people drown within sight of the Gleaming Resorts. Two people drown with, as they say history. My history as it happens. Someone eventually is coming after you. If only for the sake of form.

Though Peter came faster and more suddenly than I imagined… His feet in my bed , beside mine

So now I stand, patiently. The water at my toes. Where it is not quite dawn, not quite… Where nothing is … defined… not quite land…not yet … Not dark – not light, that line of… not me, not you….

And now I hear him, soft on the sand behind me – what does he expect? A kiss…?

A loud gun shot(off) – Joan jumps
Another and another gun shot

Pause

Christ – that’s so…disturbing Even when you hold the gun, feel the trigger moving – you don’t expect…such a commotion…not really…still…pulling a trigger is easier than a lot of other things I have done….for me…for men…for friendship…

Aah Peter Peter… Now we will see what the waves can do …you are no continent….they will have no problem with you.

Perhaps I will wear Blue perhaps I will wear Red, I will walk perhaps naked in moonlight and converse with the sea life, the sand life – the lizards… I will not – I will not be sucked into the sea…

He said it was nothing, he said he would repay, he would refund, he would make amends, he would be true…

But he had said I was nothing He, Sebastian. Had said. About me. To her

And I will not be sucked into the sea. No. I will not.

FADE