photo by Joe Mazza and Brave Lux

Monday, November 18, 2013

Nostalgia Isn't What It Used To Be

                                                            Nostalgia Isn’t What It Used to Be
                                                            By Jacob Juntunen

Actors:
1: A woman.
2: A woman older than 1.
3: A woman older than 2.

Setting:
Two chairs are set next to each other. One chair is set behind them, forming a triangle. An empty glass jar, lid on, is on the ground in front of the two chairs.

(1 and 2 sit in the chairs next to each other. 3 sits in the chair behind them. 1 and 2 are mid-conversation. 3 is not present.)

                                                            1
…and then he just left for Berlin! And because you wouldn’t wire me money, I had to come home!

                                                            2
(picking up the jar) You were in Paris for a month and this is all you got me?

                                                            1
Mom! Are you even listening?

                                                            2
What is it? It looks empty.

                                                            1
Don’t open it!

                                                            2
Why not?

                                                            1
He’s going to be in Berlin at film school all year. If you could just loan me some money—

                                                            2
I’ve already taken out loans for you to start college in the fall.

                                                            1
Who cares about college?

                                                            2
You did, before you left.

                                                            1
Mom. He’s perfect. He’s an artist. He’s French. He’s twenty-five and—

                                                            2
Seven years older than you doesn’t sound perfect to me.

                                                            1
—he’s already worked on a film that was in Cannes.

                                                            2
He directed it?

                                                            1
He was a production assistant, but even that’s really impressive—

                                                            2
When did you start caring about movies? I thought you wanted to be a lawyer.

                                                            1
You wouldn’t believe the films he showed me.

                                                            2
I bet I wouldn’t. I got you a month in Paris for your high school graduation and you brought me an 
empty jar?

                                                            1
It’s not empty.

                                                            2
It looks empty.

                                                            1
I said don’t open it. You’ll ruin it. Like you ruin everything.

                                                            2
What have I ruined now?

                                                            1
If you’d just changed the plane ticket and wired a little more money, I’d be in Berlin with him.

                                                            2
Why didn’t you just go?

                                                            1
My plane was leaving the next day!

                                                            2
Who cares? I thought he was perfect?

                                                            1
He is.

                                                            2
So you let a little thing like a plane ticket get in the way? You couldn’t have been that convinced.

                                                            1
How would I have gotten home?

                                                            2
If it was one of his romantic movies, you wouldn’t have come home at all.

                                                            1
I don’t speak German.

                                                            2
You could have learned it. It can’t be that different than French.

                                                            1
You don’t understand.

                                                            2
What don’t I understand?

                                                            1
You’re old and you’ve never been out of the country. Everything’s brighter in Europe. Everything glimmers. That’s why I brought you the jar.

                                                            2
It’s just a glass jar.

                                                            1
That’s all your old eyes can see. But one night, after it stopped raining, he took me up to the Sacred Coeur, this beautiful old church on top of a hill. We climbed these grey stone steps through this old neighborhood, and the iron-black lampposts had halos of light in the misty evening. The cobblestones were slick, and they reflected the lights from the shop windows. And when were on the top of the hill, the lights of Paris stretched out in front of us through the wet sky, like an impressionist painting, like energy, and I was so excited I spun around, and laughed, and he laughed, too, and the light streaked around me, like red and green lightning, and then I slipped and fell, and I was laughing while he lifted me to my feet. And then he kissed me. It was electric.

                                                            2
So you brought me a jar?

                                                            1
There was a little market nearby, and I bought an empty canning jar, opened it, and put the air of Paris in it for you. That’s what’s in the jar, the air from that night.

                                                            2
Thank you, honey.

                                                            1
And if you’d let me go to Berlin—

                                                            2
You’re eighteen. I’m not stopping you, but I’m not going to pay for you to go. I will pay for you to go to college.

                                                            1
But I’m never going to feel like this again—

                                                            2
Maybe not. But there are pros and cons to that.

                                                            1
If I’m ever a dried up husk like you, I’ll kill myself.

(They stop. 2 returns the jar to the floor. The three women move clockwise so that 2 and 3 sit in the chairs next to each other. 1 now sits in the chair behind them. 2 and 3 are mid-conversation. 1 is not present.)

                                                            2
But, Mom, you should use Dad’s insurance money to do something for yourself, pamper yourself somehow. After all that time in the hospice with Dad, there must be something you want to do.

                                                            3
I want to make sure your kids have enough for college. So anything I don’t need to live on will go to that.

                                                            2
But that’s just what I’m saying, live a little! What about Paris? You always wanted to go to Paris.

                                                            3
You brought me the air of Paris in this bottle, and that’s been just fine.

                                                            2
I can’t believe you kept that.

                                                            1
It reminds me of you.

                                                            2
I was a horrid teenager.

                                                            3
Tell me about your girls.

                                                            2
You just saw them at Dad’s funeral.

                                                            3
I didn’t really see anybody at the funeral, honey. I was preoccupied. How are they?

                                                            2
Perfect. Little angels. Joan’s just gotten old enough to bake cookies without me watching, and she’s always doing it. Maybe she’ll be a chef. But she also wants to do ballet, soccer, karate—she’s already a brown belt! And such a flirt. Anytime we go out to eat, she turns around in the booth and smiles at whoever’s behind us, and with just the least bit of encouragement from them—especially if it’s a man—we can’t stop her for the rest of the meal. She’s going to cause the boys real trouble in a few years. And Willa. Well, Willa’s always got her nose in a book. Once we got her glasses, there was no stopping her. She’s already reading chapter books. And when she looks at you, she sees you. I mean, really sees you. She’s the opposite of her sister. Shy. Quiet. But sharp as a whip. Tom just dotes on them.

                                                            3
He’s a good man.

                                                            2
Like Dad.

                                                            3
Not that much like your father. I’ve seen your husband do the dishes. Enjoy this time with your kids. It never comes back. Unless you can find a way to put it in a bottle.

                                                            2
God. What if I’d gone to Berlin?

                                                            3
Who knows? You might have loved it.

                                                            2
But I would never have known Tom or the kids.

                                                            3
But I’ve never seen you as excited as you were when you got back.

                                                            2
And I’ve never said such horrible things to you since.

                                                            3
Just wait until your daughters say those sorts of things to you.

                                                            2
If you won’t use Dad’s insurance money to go to Paris, let me take you. You sent me, it’s only fair.

                                                            3
I’d rather you just put whatever you’d spend on me into the girls’ college fund. It’s not going to be easy when they’re both in school at the same time.

                                                            2
But you always wanted to go.

                                                            3
(holding the bottle) I’ve got what I need right here.

(They stop. 3 returns the jar to the floor. The three women move clockwise so that 3 and 1 sit in the chairs next to each other. 2 now sits in the chair behind them. 1 and 3 are mid-conversation. 2 is not present.)

                                                            1
Why did grandma keep all this junk?

                                                            3
She was an archivist. She collected all these things to remember her life.

                                                            1
And now we have to deal with it all. God, she kept an empty jar.

                                                            3
Don’t open that!

                                                            1
Why not?

                                                            3
I got that for her.

                                                            1
You got her this jar?

                                                            3
It was a gift.

                                                            1
Is there something in it?

                                                            3
In a way.

                                                            1
I can’t believe I’m missing a week of school for this.

                                                            3
Willa can’t be away from the lab—

                                                            1
And I’m just a history major, I get it—

                                                            3
That’s not what I said—

                                                            1
It’s what you meant—

                                                            3
Biochemistry, history, it’s all Greek to me—

                                                            1
Well, I’m sorry neither of us are lawyers like you and Dad—

                                                            3
I don’t even know why we’re arguing—

                                                            1
Because missing a week of classes is just as important to me as it is to Willa! But, just like always, I have to be the one to take care of things while she and Dad do the “important work.” I better not lose my 4.0 because of this.

                                                            3
In twenty years you wont even remember your grades.

                                                            1
Right, I’ll just remember picking up all of grandma’s trash because she couldn’t throw anything away and how my whole college career got messed up—

                                                            3
The only reason your Grandma kept all this stuff is because she never traveled, and it’s all the money she saved that’s keeping you in college.

                                                            1
Whatever.

                                                            3
Look at this jar. Do you know I almost didn’t go to college because of this jar?

                                                            1
I don’t have time for you to get all nostalgic about every piece of trash, Mom.

                                                            3
I was right that I’d never feel that way again. I look at you, and I’m almost jealous of how pissed off you are at me.

                                                            1
That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.

                                                            3
If I’d let what’s in this jar intoxicate me, I’d have never met your father. You and Willa wouldn’t exist. All those mornings you made cookies on weekends. I must have gained ten pounds. All the moms at soccer and ballet and karate would run away when they saw me coming with tupperware. Do you remember that?

                                                            1
Kinda.

                                                            3
And now Willa spends her days separating DNA, and you’re always off somewhere in Italy trying to understand someone’s interpretation of the Song of Songs, even though he’s been dead for five-hundred years—

                                                            1
The past is important—

                                                            3
I know, I know it is. But the present almost didn’t happen because of this jar.

                                                            1
What’s in it?

                                                            3
Let’s find out.

(3 opens the jar. 3 breathes it in.)

                                                            3 (continued)
Nothing but musty air.


(Blackout.)

Monday, November 11, 2013

The Birds Are Talking

                                                            The Birds Are Talking
                                                            By Jacob Juntunen
Characters:
JANE: A woman.
ALISA: A woman.

Setting:
In a garden.

(JANE and ALISA are onstage.)

                                                            ALISA
What did he say?

                                                            JANE
What he always says.

                                                            ALISA
That you need to take these pills?

                                                            JANE
That I’m making irrational decisions.

                                                            ALISA
He said hiding me here was an irrational decision? Did you tell him about all the bruises I showed up with? How I just need a place to get away from that asshole until I figure out a way to leave him—

                                                            JANE
I didn’t mention you. I was scared to, now that the police are involved.

                                                            ALISA
The police aren’t really involved—

                                                            JANE
I lied to them, told them you weren’t here. That they needed to come back with a warrant.

                                                            ALISA
What about patient/psychiatrist confidentiality—

                                                            JANE
I think shrinks have to contact the police if there’s a law broken.

                                                            ALISA
If you’re so scared of hiding me, then why are you—

                                                            JANE
The birds told me to.

                                                            ALISA
Maybe if your shrink thinks you need medication, you should consider—

                                                            JANE
Aren’t you scared if I think more rationally, I might kick you out?

                                                            ALISA
Yes.

                                                            JANE
There are always two teacups set on my table, and one is for you. I don’t care how irrational it might be.

(Pause)

                                                            ALISA
What are we doing out here? It’s freezing.

                                                            JANE
I like the garden at night.

                                                            ALISA
Do you think the birds will tell you whether to take your meds or not?

                                                            JANE
Don’t be silly. The birds don’t talk to me at night.

                                                            ALISA
Of course.

                                                            JANE
Only in the mornings. And if I take those pills, maybe the birds won’t talk to me at all.

                                                            ALISA
I think that would be the point.

                                                            JANE
It’s just one more example of a man trying to take away the inspiration of a woman—

                                                            ALISA
I don’t think it’s like that at all—

                                                            JANE
Did you know Virginia Woolf heard birds talk to her?

                                                            ALISA
In Greek. She wanted them to stop.

                                                            JANE
I think they gave her inspiration.

                                                            ALISA
She was desperate to make them stop. When her hallucinations started again, she filled her pockets with rocks, walked into a river, and killed herself. I don’t—

                                                            JANE
I think she did that because World War Two was starting—

                                                            ALISA
I don’t want your body fished from a river.

                                                            JANE
Anyway, I’m not hallucinating. I sit. I hear the birds. And I have insight.

                                                            ALISA
Did you tell your therapist you’d take the pills?

                                                            JANE
He doesn’t understand me.

                                                            ALISA
Why are the pills even in the house if you don’t want to take them?

                                                            JANE
He said he’d call the pharmacy and make sure I picked them up.

                                                            ALISA
What was going to happen if you didn’t?

                                                            JANE
He didn’t say.

                                                            ALISA
Did he say you’d need to spend more time in the hospital—

                                                            JANE
He didn’t say! Anyway, you should be happy for the birds. They’re the ones that said to call you.

                                                            ALISA
The birds told you to invite me to stay here?

                                                            JANE
And you haven’t left the house in three days—does that sound perfectly sane?

                                                            ALISA
You know why I can’t leave— The birds didn’t tell you to call. You would have mentioned it. Three days is plenty of time to explain why you let me stay here—

                                                            JANE
Well, I’m explaining now.

                                                            ALISA
You’re making it up so you don’t have to take the pills.

                                                            JANE
They said to call you and invite you to stay. And you showed up with that pancake makeup under your eyes that wouldn’t fool anyone. It was clear what Andy did to you. That you needed a place to hide.

                                                            ALISA
I’m not hiding.

                                                            JANE
You’re not taking his calls, or leaving the house, or letting me tell anyone you’re here, which sounds like the definition of—

                                                            ALISA
Okay, I’m hiding. A little.

                                                            JANE
And the birds told me your husband would show up—

                                                            ALISA
You don’t really need to be psychic to know he’d come looking for me at the one place where there’s always a teacup waiting for me on the table, my one friend who’s still single and has a place for me—

                                                            JANE
The birds told me that I would need to keep him out of the house somehow. So I told him the birds wouldn’t be happy if I let him in.

                                                            ALISA
Which is totally crazy.

                                                            JANE
But there’s method to my madness.

                                                            ALISA
The birds don’t care if you let Andy inside—

                                                            JANE
Of course not. I just made that up so Andy would think I was crazy and be too scared to try to force his way in. But the birds warned me so I had a plan.

                                                            ALISA
And if you take these pills you’ll see that all this makes no sense—

                                                            JANE
Yesterday morning the birds reminded me it had been 48 hours, and the police would probably be searching for a missing person now, and that I had to be ready.

                                                            ALISA
I’m sorry I got you involved in all this. It’s obviously snapped something—

                                                            JANE
They didn’t have a warrant, so I could keep them out, but Andy told them about the birds and said he was worried I’d done something to you—

                                                            ALISA
Wait, what? You didn’t tell me that.

                                                            JANE
So I agreed to see my old shrink to keep them from trying to get a warrant. And I told my shrink the birds hate Andy, but didn’t tell him I was hiding you. He wanted to know if I was still taking my medication and I told him I stopped. That I don’t need it anymore. That I’m fine now.

                                                            ALISA
I don’t think you’re fine.

                                                            JANE
I come out here every morning and meditate, and I’m fine. I sit right where you’re standing. I cross my legs, hold my hands together in prayer, close my eyes, and try to empty my mind. The thoughts come, and I imagine they’re little birds. I watch my thoughts scamper around, looking for seeds, a mess of useless energy, until they fly away. And I sit for a half hour, watching the birds in my mind, until there’s a moment of clarity. That’s when the birds tell me things. Like Alisa needs help: call her. Offer to let her stay. No strings attached. Do you think that’s a rational decision?

                                                            ALISA
It could be.

                                                            JANE
To hide you from your husband? From the police? When I risk getting sent back to the hospital? Or arrested? That’s what a therapist would call rational?

                                                            ALISA
I guess not.

                                                            JANE
So you want me to take these pills and act more rationally?

                                                            ALISA
I want you to take these pills.

                                                            JANE
Why?

                                                            ALISA
Because you’re more stable on them. You didn’t need to tell Andy the birds didn’t want him in the house. It’s your house. You could have just told him to go home. Meditating in the morning isn’t enough for you. Not to keep the unrealistic thoughts away. What’s the harm in trying the pills again? Take them for a few weeks and see if they help. If they don’t help, then stop taking them. But if they do—

                                                            JANE
What if taking the pills makes me turn you in?

                                                            ALISA
I don’t think you’re keeping me safe because you’re crazy. I think you’re keeping me safe because you’re good. And I don’t think pills will change that.

                                                            JANE
What if you’re wrong?

                                                            ALISA
I’m willing to take the risk to keep the rocks out of your pockets. You’d do the same for me. Anyway, I can’t hide during the entire divorce proceedings. I just needed a place to regroup and recover. You gave that to me. Now take these for me.

(ALISA holds out the pills. JANE takes the bottle.)

                                                            JANE
They make me sleepy. If I take them now, we’ll only have a half hour or so before I need to go to bed.

                                                            ALISA
Just enough time for tea.

                                                            JANE
The cups are set inside. Tea for two.


(JANE takes the pills. They walk inside.)