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Multi-Purpose Room
Written by Diego Chamy and Carola Gliksberg
- Hello, I’m Carola. I’m going to tell you what my piece is about.
This is a piece about isolation—about physical and mental isolation.
It’s about a confrontation between a character who is very
capable, and another who is constructed around her inabilities.
This is Maru. She’s been working with me for ten years. She’s an actress.
This is Alina. She is going to play my past self. She wants to be an actress.
This is Belén. She’s my assistant, and she will be assisting us during the piece.
As I was telling you, this is a piece about isolation, about people who are able
(Maru can you raise your hand?)
and people who are unable. (Alina can you raise your hand?)
Both are about to be examined on their final thesis and become lawyers.
The difference is that Maru will devote herself to being a good lawyer,
and Alina will devote herself to directing movies.
- I don’t know I can’t stand it any longer. I mean, I don’t enjoy it.
I want to finish and not have to come here ever again.
- Ah... I really love it here. Why don’t you like it?
- I don’t know, it’s not for me... The university, now the thesis... I can’t even remember why I started.
- Ahh, right, of course, ok... And what subject did you research?
- Freedom of the press. But I didn't do much research... - Ahh, yes, of course...
- Why?
- No, I mean, I really need to pass the final exam because I have been offered a scholarship to go to London,
and you’re talking to me so I am losing concentration I need to focus because if I don’t pass the exam I’ll have to stay here another year.
- What subject are you studying?
- I’m studying trusts and estates.
- Ahh...
- Yes, because...
- And how long have you been here? - I started 5 years and 6 months ago.
- A long time.
- Yeah, like everyone else; Like you.
- No. No, I... This is my third year. I’ve been here three and a half.
- Ahh, really? Fantastic you did it quite quickly. - Yes, apparently yes.
- Is this too boring? It’s just that...
I found law very boring. The truth is that I couldn’t understand who in the world could be interested in it.
I mean, for me it was only a place to have critical debates.
Have you ever noticed that it is the places that you don’t believe in, that are the ones in which you feel freer?
Well, I felt that, but my uni friends were more like Maru. They dressed themselves as lawyers before being one.
They wore pastel colors and “cool water”, I don’t know, those kind of things.
And I wanted to take them to McDonald’s for an ice-cream and, bam!, slap the ice-cream on their foreheads and ruin their pastel dresses.
- Do you want? - Ouch!
- Oh, sorry that was annoying.
- No, no, it’s just that...
- I don’t know, I have a nervous tic... I spray it on people all the time. Sometimes I use it on my boyfriend...
- No it’s ok, I just didn’t see it coming, that’s all.
- Ok dry yourself a bit; you’re all glossy.
- Yeah, maybe it could be helpful?
- Well now you’re fresher aren’t you? The water...
- It might help me get the grade, who knows.
Ok, I’m going to take the exam.
- Ok.
- Thank you.
- Good luck.
- Oh, I’m so happy, I finished! You brought me good luck.
- Really? Can you hold this while I go in?
- Ok. Good luck!
- Thank you.
- You’re welcome.
- Hey I finished too. Yes, that’s it, luckily.
And they want to publish my thesis. But I told them to publish yours because I’m not a lawyer.
- Oh, thank you, how nice, thank you, but...
- Yeah, I mean it’s not for me...
- But you just finished, you’ll be a lawyer forever. You are.
- Yes I feel totally relieved... But no, I won’t practice.
- Ahh... you won’t?
What a shame. And what are you going to do now?
- I’m going to the Caribbean.
- Oh I meant in your career. Oh, really? You will go to the Caribbean ahh...
- Yeah, in around three hours.
I’m going home to pack, and...
- Oh, fantastic. You’re leaving now.
- Yeah, I mean it’s like if I had passed the exam I would have flown to the Caribbean, and if I hadn’t passed I would have still flown to the Caribbean...
I mean, I would have flown to the Caribbean to celebrate passing, even if I didn’t pass.
- Great... Ok Have a good trip.
- Thank you.
- What you’ve just seen is a scene from my real life. Well, this is real life too, but this was my last day at the college of law. I was 20 or 21.
I can’t be exactly sure because I’ve always had problems with time. But it doesn’t matter. The point is that on that day I finished and I was happy.
I really thought that I would never miss it, and now miss it constantly. At the time I really didn’t care if they published my thesis or not, or what they thought of me.
I didn’t care, not because I felt superior or because I was being dismissive of them, it’s just that it was not a place for me; as simple as that.
And this often happens to me that I’m, like, in a place, but outside of it at the same time.
As if I was there for another reason. I don’t quite know...
I think it has to do with the fact that I always wanted to be a director, since forever.
And in the end I did go to the Caribbean, and what you’re going to see now is a scene in the lobby of Meliá Hotel.
And you, Maru, you take the role of a guy. And you, Alina, take my role, when I was maybe 20.
- A guy, what do you mean? - Yeah, a guy like him.
And, I dunno, you like her, and you more or less like him too.
- You don’t know what just happened to me... The thing is that I went to the toilet in my room... It’s awful...
I went to the toilet... I went to have a pee but, I don’t know, I always wear everything... I’m not alone in the room.
So I dunno, I’m there, and I’m about to grab the toilet paper and I see a smile, like this part there I don’t know how to explain you.
Just besides the toilet paper, you know?
- Yes.
- Like the smile of a person. And I didn’t know what to do because I was just like this and I said, “Hello”, and he answered back, “Hello”. I mean,
It was a smile of a person, of a black person, besides the toilet paper, talking to me!
And I dunno... I ran away.
And in the corridor I met my mother and I dunno, we realized that, you know, because the hotel is being renovated...
- Oh, I didn’t realize.
- Yes, and because they are renovating the room next door...
- But which wing are they renovating? Because I’m at the...
- I'm at the penguin wing.
- Oh, I’m at the penguin wing too, but with the sea view.
- I have the sea view too.
- Hm, no, I haven’t noticed.
Can you sleep, with the noises?
- I don't know, they started today. Yesterday there was no hole in the wall.
- Oh, right, yes. Great great, great.
Such weird things never happen to me.
I surf; just that.
- He just told me that he studied law and I told him, “You don’t look like a lawyer.” And he told me, “You don’t look like a lawyer either.”
- You don’t look like.
- No, I know.
I don’t look like a lawyer, everyone tells me. Neither do you.
- Yes, I know. How crazy, right?, that none of us look like what we are.
- Right.
- In any case, they always tell me that I don’t look like one.
- Do you still have some left? Want more?
- No, I’ve still got some left.
- How weird is this parasol thing... I can’t get used to it... so many colors, so many...
- Put this on.
- What?
- Put this on better.
- So much color... I don’t know... fluorescent...
I can’t get used to it.
- Yes, but we’re in the Caribbean and you have to get used to it because...
- I don’t know if I’ll be able to. It’s too strong.
- Yeah, me neither.
- And today I woke up and I thought, “What am I doing here in the Caribbean?”
- Well, that’s what I was thinking.
- I came with my family.
- Me too.
- Ahh, of course.
- I come once a year with my family and I surf.
- Ahh, and do you like me?
- What?
- Do you like to surf?
- Yeah, I like both things.
- What?
- No nothing, never mind.
- Erm... What was I going to say?
Do you want to go to the seaside tomorrow?
- Yes.
Ok, let’s meet at the sea.
- So we’re going to meet.
- Yes.
- And where? Because the sea is huge. I won’t be able to find you.
- Well, I don’t know. There, straight ahead. Do you see there is a small path?
- Ok, there, at what time?
- Around there.
- Alina, after saying “yes”, immediately regretted it. She could’ve said that she doesn’t like the sea or, I don’t know, anything.
Yet she said “yes” even though she hates the sand, she hates the flip-flops that prevent you from getting dirty, she hates the sea, she hates everything related to the beach.
What she really hates are her legs and people looking at her—both things at the same time and neither more than the other.
So I don’t know. In fact what happened is that I invented a story about a mosquito plague in the Caribbean and I ran like crazy around the hotel lobby looking for band aids to cover the bites...
And they gave me fluorescent band aids. I had them all over my legs and I arrived, I don’t know, all worried mentally rehearsing this ridiculous story,
and, I don’t know, when I arrived there he didn’t even look at my legs.
I don’t know, I wish I could’ve done something else, but you do what you can, I guess.
- Hi.
- Hi!
- Oh, you don’t know, I’ve had the worst day ever. I’ve been bitten by millions of mosquitoes. I don’t know, there’s probably a plague or something. Didn’t they bite you?
- No. - I was there, I went to the rocks, and they came like a cloud and I didn’t know what to do, I mean thousands of them.
There are all these things happening to me, you remember I told you? First, the black guy in my toilet,
now the mosquito plague that only affects me...
I don’t know. My body is weird; it’s obviously weirder than yours, that’s obvious.
And besides that, there are all these other weird things happening to me. I mean...
I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to cancel on you. I couldn’t cancel on you and I couldn’t come like this either. So I went to ask the concierge to help me and he gave me all these Barbie band aids...
I think it’s worse. I don’t know... - They are great.
- Did I tell you that once in Scotland someone stole a piece of bread from me? - No.
- Obviously, because we haven’t talked very much, but...
Well, I was on another trip with my mum and my sister, and we were there, and there was like a celebration of - I don’t know what, and I was...
I had bought a baguette, for, I don’t know, for later, and it was there and then they stole it from me, you know?
Of all the things that they can steel from you... It’s more common that they steel your shoes than a baguette.
- Yeah, totally.
- Yeah, that’s why I thought, I don’t know, we can meet another day. I can go back and tomorrow is going to be sunny again for sure, and...
- No, no, just sit down, relax... The issue with the mosquitoes is quite normal here because it’s peak mosquito season...
- Yes, right? That’s what I was saying.
- Look, I always have bites, but then they go away. - How weird that they didn’t bite you.
- No, but from time to time they bite me. Sit down, come on.
- Ok.
- So you don’t want to go into the sea?
- No, I cannot because the thing is that... no.
- Ok, so stay here then, and watch this. It’s gonna be great... Just look.
The water is great. Really really great.
- Yeah, right?
When I was looking at you a theater piece came to mind, a piece that I saw not long ago in Buenos Aires...
There was a motorbike in it, and when the characters rode it, someone turned on a fan and their hair moved with the wind as if they were really driving.
- Ahh.
- Yeah, I dunno, it was great.
- Yeah, great. In any case, there is natural wind here, so we don’t need a fan.
- No, of course.
- From this scene on, we’ll see how Alina will start developing a personality based on her inabilities.
She could have just said that she didn’t want to go to the sea, or she could have said the truth, which is that she was afraid that he would no longer like her when he saw her again at the beach.
But she couldn’t. This way she had to go along with the ridiculous mosquito and band-aid story, and run around the hotel, I don’t know.
Really, it would have been much better for everyone if things had gone differently. For the hotel employees too. But that’s what happened.
- So, was the water nice?
- It was perfect; really good. You have to go in.
- Yes, I like to go in at night...
- Really? You’re overdressed... Isn’t it hot for you?
- No, no...
I’m not too heat-sensitive.
- Ok.. Well, as I was telling you, it was great because... In fact surfing, as with any water sport, erm... Bel?
- It can be dangerous...
-It can be dangerous due to the physical moment, right? Like, for example, to cede the wave that is closer to the current, or for example, not to look at the wave, right?
Let’s just say that in surfing accidents are reasonably rare with the exception of the great Bethany Hamilton, who’s left arm was eaten by a shark while she surfed professionally.
- Oh, I would die.
- But the really interesting thing is that she kept surfing, without an arm.
Let’s say that surfing takes the zen concept of moment, right? One waits for waves, as in life, one awaits the next wave.
- But how? Wait, if you’re surfing, and all of a sudden a shark comes and eats your arm, I mean, that’s not very zen right? That would screw your life up, right?
- Alina, Alina, anyway, I’d never say that. Imagine you’re suffering at the beach...
The “screw your life up” thing.
- Ok, I got carried away.
- Shall I continue? I lost the thread. How does it go?
- ...water conspiring with other natural elements.
- So, as I was telling you, surfing is like zen, because one waits for waves as in life one awaits the next wave. Let’s say, for example, guess where I bought this surfboard.
- Erm...
- I bought it in the biggest surf store, which is actually next to the university for philosophy.
I entered the shop and there was a sign saying: “A surfer in the water is like a soul in the world...” Ellipsis.
- It has very good vibes, the sentence.
- Yes, it sums up exactly what it means to surf. The ellipsis means the great tube, right? For example, the one I just went into. The great tube would be the great wave on which I surf.
- Three waves. Three tubes.
- Three tubes, exactly.
- Cool.
- Let’s say that surfing... it’s not that you see everything pink, but you’re in the water and you feel complete...
Anyway...
- Did you finish?
- Yes.
Why?
- No, it was funny, the sermon on surfing.
No, but cool, I liked it... It was just a weird speech, like...
Did you study philosophy?
- No, no, yes... no, in fact you’re right. I just wanted to show off a bit about surfing, but...
I was in the hotel lobby waiting for the rain to stop and I was drinking caipirinha and reading a magazine and... I promise that everything I said is true.
- Yes.
- It was written there.
In fact there were parts in English that I couldn’t understand and couldn’t tell you about, but it’s all real.
- Yes.
- Well... do you want to go dancing later?
- Erm... where?
- At the hotel’s multi-purpose room... I mean, there’s nowhere else to go.
- Ok, sounds nice.
- Ok, I will see you later then.
- Ok.
- Ok, bye.
- Something that I discovered later is that it doesn’t matter if you like the music or not, of if you like dancing or not. I like music, but I can’t dance.
The only thing that matters is what your body allows you to do, or your belief in what your body allows you to do.
And personally my body allows me very little at least in my head. In real life too, but in my head it’s worse. But I dunno...
There is something that my mum taught me, which is that there are three rules to make things pass unnoticed.
For example, when you go dancing - Alina, you can wear this big bag? - wearing a big bag is one of the rules...
In order to hide, I don’t know, imperfections.
- And on top?
- Mess up your hair, maybe... Yes, you could wear that to cover yourself.
Mess up your hair, and use big shoes. Let’s see those?
Yes, those are alright.
Because the important thing is not to know how to do something, but to avoid showing that you can’t do it.
So, what I’d do, Alina, is move just this part. It’s something that my sister taught me.
It’s like this.
You move here. Not here.
And mess it up here.
Like, big here, you understand?
Big there, everywhere but here.
Smile.
Like this.
And when you arrive, say “Hello” and then you change the subject.
- Hi.
- Hi! I’m glad you came. Great... Are you ok? Do you want something to drink?
- No, not yet.
- Are you sure?
- Yes.
Oh, I hate this music! It’s deafening!
- Oh, yeah it’s terrible, yeah...
- Anyway, you were totally into the dancing, I didn’t want to...
- Right, it’s just that I love dancing and this is a total hit and, you know, dancing is great.
- Look! The midgets that were at the beach today.
- Ahh, yeah, the midgets... they’re staying in the room next to mine, Number 115. There are also some twins, a boy and a girl, complete midgets... They are about to kill each other all the time.
But they are having fun, it’s cool.
- What a big club.
- Yeah, it’s huge.
- But it looks like people come here after going to the beach without even changing their clothes... I don’t know if I like that.
- Ah, is that a hint?
- No, no, I didn’t even realize.
- Ok...
- No, I swear I didn’t notice.
- No, anyway, I took a shower... it’s just that I was surfing and, I dunno...
- Yeah, I had some time, took a nap...
- Listen, if you don’t like this music I have something else that you might like.
- Here?
- Yes.
- What? Are you going to ask the DJ to play it? - No, listen...
It’s a friend’s band. He’s called Juani and he plays in hotel multi-purpose rooms... Because, you know, there’s nowhere else to play...
- Is he Argentinean? - Yes, he’s Argentinean.
- Ah...
- I really like this music this song. I don't know if you'll like it...
- I can’t hear anything.
- Wait, I’ll turn it up.
- Ah, it’s quiet.
- Yeah, I listen to it before I go surfing... it’s relaxing.
- Don’t you fall asleep?
- No, no...
- This is love for me... Getting caught in a wire, and if you’re lucky falling down and not much more.
- Did you like it?
- Yeah, it’s cool.
- Cool, right?
- Yeah, it got me...
- How?
- I don’t know...
- Well, if you want we could go to hear them play live.
- Yeah, sure.
- Ok, let’s go.
- I dunno, I also think that...
- Alina, not that... Don’t touch each other. That is not what love is for me. Especially not in public, it’s not very elegant.
- I didn’t realize that I touched her.
- Yeah, anyway...
It doesn’t matter. Let’s do the scene at the gym. It’s just that I don’t like people touching each other... And in public it’s awful.
- Ok, sorry.
- I always hated gyms. They are ridiculous. Hair extensions everywhere, sunblock all over the place, fluorescent colors, Rambo music and people looking themselves in the mirror...
I don’t get it. It makes me sick. The word “protein bar” is... I don’t get it, really...
I always... There are always people eating bananas, I mean, everything about them is awful and I don’t get it.
I mean, sometimes I go too Not much, because it’s not my thing and... I dunno, everyone goes to places they don’t like sometimes.
But each time I go I feel totally uncomfortable because I don’t get it. I don’t know, in high school I always managed to avoid physical education class.
I mean, I was good at swimming, so on the first day I negotiated with the teacher that if I won a medal, then I didn’t have to do anything for the rest of the year.
That’s basically how my high school days passed.
- Hello there... So are we doing some exercise?
- No.
- No?
- No.
- I see you are a bit hot and sweaty...
- You always say that...
- Yes...
- No, I’m ok.
- Are you ok?
- Yes, I’m waiting for my mum.
- So you don’t want to tone up?
- No, no, I’m ok... Well I don’t know.
- Do you want some water?
- No, thanks.
- I know this great exercise to tone up my back to avoid cramps when I surf.
It’s called “Angry cat / Happy cat”. Want to see it?
- Yeah.
- It’s easy, you can do it anywhere... It’s cool. Look.
Angry cat, happy cat, angry cat, happy cat.
- Like and angry cat and a happy cat.
- Yes, that’s it.
- Another thing I really hated was playing tennis. When I was young, around 10 or 12, I can’t remember, they took me to Pancho’s tennis school, in Martínez, where I lived.
And, I dunno, I thought it was totally ridiculous. Tennis in itself is already ridiculous because it’s lonely but tennis school is ridiculous and nonsense all at once.
Well, the thing is that I used to get some alcohol from somewhere and put it in the other kid’s drinks, so everything was much more exiting. And, I dunno...
Obviously Pancho ended up letting me go... With a lot of love, he let me go.
Maru, you can play Pancho, if you want. There are some rackets over there.
Alina, you can play me. You are around 10 years old.
Over there is Libertador Avenue. And those are the tennis balls and, I dunno, Maru, try to give a lesson.
- Well... Ok Caro, how are you? Everything ok? Have you had your soup so you will be strong today?
- Tea.
- Oh, tea, of course. You drink tea, I drink soup, hehe.
- Yes.
- Ok, let’s start with the usual. First of all, warm up. Jumping...
Come on Caro, copy me. Jump a bit. - Wait, I'm fixing my hair.
- Come on Caro.
Well, what we’re going to do today is this: we’re going to do a bit of drive-backhand-drive-backhand. If you’re not strong enough to do the backhand, hold the racket with both hands, ok?
Tac! Like this. Ok?
I might shoot you a lob... a smash. If you can’t, tac! Do it like this, ok?
Let’s start.
Come on.
It doesn’t matter, a bit better. Calm down, calm down.
Ok, another one. That wasn’t good, but...
- Pancho...
- Yes. Here, remember.
Caro, something which is very important: always turn your side to the net, never face it. If you stay facing it, it looks like you are cooking vegetables in a wok.
Come on, once again, there it goes.
- I can’t keep them in Pancho, I don’t know, I don’t do it on purpose...
- Yeah, ok, but here, because otherwise who is going to pick them up afterward? There it goes.
Better! Great.
- Pancho, have you ever... Are you a famous player?
- Nope.
- Have you ever appeared on TV?
- No, Caro. Concentration, ok?
- A few days ago I went to a restaurant with my mum and my sister, and we saw Gabi Sabatini. And my sister asked her for an autograph.
- Ahh, Gabi! What’s up with Gabi? How was she? She’s great. We’re good friends because we trained together in the same club when we were young, you know?
Next time you see her say hello, from me, Pancho, ok?
Come on, come on. What we’re going to do next is practice volleying, ok? A volley is a short shot, ok? It’s tac, tac, tac! Pass me another one, Bel. If you suddenly... Yeah, go on.
- Are all courts this same orange color? They should make them in other colors too.
- There are also grass courts, but...
- Oh, no. I’m afraid of grass.
- Yes and it can hurt your knees...
Ok, let’s practice volleying, as I told you? Volleys are short shots, tac, tac, tac, understand?
You have to be careful with the slide, which is very short. Like this, understand? Come on.
Caro are you ok?
- Yes.
- Come on.
- Great, very good Caro. Much better. Evidently...
- I’m a bit tired.
- That was my fault, sorry.
What is it?
- I’m a bit tired.
- Oh, do you want water?
- Don’t you want to come for an ice-cream with me?
- Caro, we’re in class.
We still have 10 minutes.
Let’s finish and then we can go for an ice-cream, ok?
- But I’m dead.
- Caro, are you interested in coming to play tennis?
I’m guessing you’re not interested...
Shall I call your mother?
- Call her if you want.
- Ok, I’ll call her.
- Anyway, I always do things that I don’t want to do.
- Alina, like me, is always in places she doesn’t want to be.
When I was young I had pronunciation problems and a speech therapist used to come over and make me do exercises. There was only one that was fun.
She made me hold a cookie here, on my tongue, and swallow.
Well, we just ended up drinking tea all the time, and in the end she couldn’t stand it any longer and told my mum,
“Miss, I feel I’m stealing your money. I have to stop visiting your daughter.”
So she was another person with a lot of love that had to leave me.
So as time went on I thought that when you are incomplete, as I am since I’m always in my head in the idea of “Carola”, people have to leave you, because you’re not there.
Or maybe you leave them, I don’t know exactly. It doesn’t really matter anyway. What matters is that now I’m here, for example, and I don’t know what I’m doing here.
I’m not an actress. I’m a director. I always hated actors. I don’t get them at all. And it makes no sense that I’m here.
I don’t even know how to act, and I’m not acting right now. I’m just being myself. I don’t know.
- Caro, I was listening to you... There are some things that I’m not going to comment on, like the fact that you hate actors... ok, I don’t know.
But then you say that you don’t know what you’re doing here, that you wrote it but you don’t like acting, you don’t like exposing yourself, that you don’t know what you’re doing...
I don’t know, I sometimes I think that I’ve been playing you for ten years, you know?
I’ve been playing you for ten years. Now Alina plays you. I don’t know. I feel like a total looser, but ok, it doesn’t matter.
And then, for example, I think... Diego, who co-wrote this piece... Will he like it? Did he see it? Did you show it to him? I don’t know.
- I’m here just because I’m here.
- Sorry that I’m telling you this, but I was holding it in during so many rehearsals... Sorry that I am only telling you now.
- Yes, anyway, I’m here just because I’m here and because nobody plays me better than myself.
And also because... Bel, can you call Diego in Berlin to see what he thinks about the piece?
- But it’s not that I want you to call him, I mean...
- Call him.
What then?
- No, just that.
- I only... I mean,
one issue: the invitations...
- Yes, we were talking about it.
- Because at the beginning you said that our photos would be, I don’t know, on the front.
And now there is another image, which I really love, it’s much more conceptual but it’s not the same...
I gave the invitations to my mum... My mum doesn’t understand anything... She doesn’t know... Our names were small like this... And she can’t see very well...
So I think that they are not very helpful for us, but...
Ok, I don’t know, I don’t have much experience, but I don’t know.
- Anyway, if she sees you on stage I guess she’ll understand that you’re acting and it doesn’t matter.
Bel, are you speaking to Diego?
- Yes.
- Can you put him on the speakers?
- He’s upset.
- It doesn’t matter...
- Two years I worked with Carola. She drove me crazy for two years. She came here she stayed over you understand? For two weeks.
She drove me crazy. She drove me crazy for two years and now you keep driving me crazy. What else do you want? What else do you want?
I already wrote you the piece, I wrote the program... What else do you want from me? You send me a million emails as if I had nothing else to do...
And now you are calling me at 4am! What the hell is going on? What’s going on? What’s going on with you? What’s going on with you both? Are you drunk? Are you all crazy?
She sent me thousands of emails, she came to Berlin... What the hell does she want now, at 4am? What the hell is wrong with the frigid Nazi? What the hell is wrong with her?
- Diego just wants to sleep.
- Well, I didn’t want to upset Diego... I mean, it was just a doubt I had. You didn’t need to call him.
And I still don’t understand. You didn’t explain it to me.
- Ok, anyway it doesn’t matter. Let’s make the next scene. The good-bye scene, ok?
- Ok.
- Ok. I will lead, if you want.
- Ok.
- I dunno, don’t change...
- Shall I wear this?
- Yes. You play the guy? Hold hands with Alina. Alina, she holds hands with you.
So, walk, and I don’t know, just talk nonsense, whatever comes to your mind. And walk. It’s not so difficult.
Maru, it would be better if you held fingers instead. Fingers.
Nonsense... walking...
- So did you do the bungee jump in the end?
- No, I told you that I didn’t want to.
- Oh, you should do it, it’s amazing, you can see right across the sea from up there, it’s great.
- It’s great but you can kill yourself...
- Yeah, it’s possible, but...
- Maru, Maru you’re looking at her too much. Maybe a bit less.
- Ok.
But you have a coach. You’re never gonna die when you have a coach. It’s cool.
- It doesn’t appeal to me at all. It’s scary.
- Maru, you’re walking a bit funny.
- So how long are you staying?
- Erm... I’m staying...
- No, Maru...
- I don’t know, I don’t know! You tell me I walk funny but I always walk like this. And you tell me
to hold her hand, but not too much, that I like her but I shouldn’t look at her, to look at her, but not to look at her I don’t know,
you’re not being clear or I don’t understand you... I don’t know.
And besides, why, if these two characters like each other,
why can’t I kiss her or something? I don’t know...
- Because I don’t like things to be shown. I think it’s better if they stay inside.
- Ok, but this way people don’t understand...
- I think that after everything that we have done, people understand perfectly. Don’t they?
- I liked it. I mean, the way we did it last time.
- Shall we do it again?
- Ok, I would have done it differently. But if you want I do it like this.
- Ok, play the music and we’ll do it.
- Holding fingers?
- Holding fingers... nonsense...
- So did you do the bungee jump in the end?
- No!
- Really?
- ...Yeah I jump every day...
- For me, that is what love is. Holding fingers, or hands, and not much more.
Shall we do the last scene? It was ok. Let’s do the end.
Well, in the end I came back from the Caribbean, from that trip that you saw at the beginning,
and I never worked as a lawyer... The truth is that I came back and I started to direct movies and theater pieces, and Maru, since you’re sitting there, you can play Miguel, my brother.
Sit like him. He always comes to see me, and...
- I don’t need this, right?
- Yeah maybe just like that, without anything.
- Without anything?
- Yeah, well, you know how Miguel is... He always comes to see me, regardless of whether he likes the piece or not, he comes anyway.
- Yes.
- Ok?
- And Alina you’ll play me. You have to direct me and... that’s it.
- And what shall I do?
- Just do what I just did. Maru, imitate me. Copy her, she’s an actress.
- Erm... well, you Maru, you have to play my brother Miguel, who always comes...
- Wait, I play...
- You play me.
- I play you as you are now.
- Yes, yes. What I just did. Look, I sit down and I’m you, Alina.
- Yes, but I was already playing you.
- Yes, but now you play me directing, not in the piece. I mean, now, not before.
Too much information, but you get the idea...
- No, it’s ok. Well... erm... so what shall I do?
- The Caribbean part.
- Ok. “Well, in the end I came back from my trip to the Caribbean and I never worked as a lawyer, but directed theater pieces.” Is it ok?
- Yeah.
- Wait. “Maru, you play my brother Miguel, who always comes to see me, you know how he is, he always comes, like, I dunno, like that.
And you Alina will play me, directing.”
- Perfect. Great. So you, Maru, play Miguel. Sit down. You play yourself. Now I’m me.
- But wait, wait. Wait, now whom should I listen to?
- But wait, don’t speak like this now because... afterward it becomes too confusing.
- Yes, anyway you don’t need to repeat it now.
- Ah...
- Stay in your place and...
- Maru.
- Yes.
- So is it clear? You play Miguel, who came to see me. And Alina, you play me. Understand?
- Yeah, anyway I don’t know... Are we in or out?
- From what?
- I mean, from this, from the piece, I don’t know.
- Now we are in the piece, I mean, in the scene you should listen to Alina, and now you should listen to me.
If you want I can explain it first then we can do it.
- Ok, ok.
- So, maybe you can listen to me first and...
Well, this final scene is about my isolation from my family. The other two parts were about my isolation regarding love and friendship.
This is the most difficult part for me because it’s related to the fact that my family always supports me and comes to see my stuff, and in general they like it,
and my friends come too, but I don’t care. It’s like, I’m not happier now because of that or sadder or anything.
I just stay in my own head. I stay in my idea of myself. I don’t quite know how to explain it, but I guess the piece was about trying to explain that,
the fact that I am still in my head and... I don’t know. That’s how it is. Shall we make the scene? I already explained it.
- What shall I do now?
- What are those things called? The things you do in theater?
- Improvisations, Caro.
- Those.
- An exercise?
- Yes. Imagine.
- Now?
- Yes.
- And they are not “things.”
- Oh, you could have told me before so I could practice. Now I don’t know what to do.
Well, I’m going to do... ok, come on.
There was one exercise that we did at Norman’s on Friday that goes like this, look.
- Oh, it’s great.
- Oh, do you know it?
- Yeah.
- No, you don’t know this one, because we did it...
- Yes, because they are all the same.
- Well... Well, look, it’s inspired by a movie. Now I don’t quite remember which movie, but it goes like this...
- Was it “The Sound of Music”?
- No, another one.
- Ok, ok.
- You play... You were born as a nun, or in a place where nuns are born. And you were never able to choose anything... you were born like this, and suddenly
you are in a moment in which all your *** desires start to appear, you can’t control it, I dunno...
- Are you sure?
- Yes, yes, this is totally for you.
The character is called Emily.
- Emily, perfect.
- A nun called Emily?
- Yes, then... Perfect, then...
I dunno, now you’re going to confess and you’ll say that you don’t want to be a nun anymore, that you want...
- Caro, relax your body, you’re too tense.
- ...you want to go away, to run on the grassland...
So now you’re confessing to God, you’re kneeling... It’s a very strong scene, in which you have to be...
- Sorry, sorry, sorry...
- Bel...
- I wanted to show you something that I learned in a theater class...
- Oh, so now you are interrupting me the scene...
- But I thought that...
- But...
- Wait, wait. Let her...
- Let’s see what she's gonna do...
- No, because I think that it might be helpful for everybody.
- Ok.
- So, the other day I was in a theater class and I noticed that...
- But I've studied 8 years... - Ok, calm down...
- ...everyone was doing... “Because I... I’m a mistake..."
- They ran, you said.
- “Because I’m my worst enemy...”
“Because I’m a honeycomb...”
“Because I’m a womb...”
- Yes, yes, ok... Evidently I’d never direct anything like that. But anyway it doesn’t matter, because I guess it’s clear already from what I said about the isolation...
- Carola...
- Yes.
- Erm... I don’t know if now’s the right moment, but I have to leave soon and I didn’t want to wait till the end... You know what I felt the whole time, from the beginning?
I had I always thought that your problems weren’t vocational, or to do with the fact that you don’t like your legs or...
I don’t think your problems are related to the things you’ve mentioned in the piece...
- Yes.
- I think what you really feel is... very lonely.
That’s what I saw. And the whole time I felt like we should all stand up and hug you...
- Anyway I think you didn’t get it. This is a theater piece, it’s not my real life. So Bel, play the music. Girls, leave.
- You stay?
- Yes, play the music.
- Sorry that I told you this now...
- Yes... really... it’s a theater piece. Let’s go.
Well, the piece is over. Turn off the light. Bye.