Between Seven and 8
pre-show
[show audio 1]
House lights. The audience begins to enter, as they were not there before. This I already know with certainty. What a spectacular thing, to have certainty.
As the audience is still entering, so does the cast. They place their suitcases on the stage and examine the contents, preparing. Eventually, YANNICK turns on a light, starting the pre-show music. The cast packs away and presets their belongs, taking the places for the beginning of the show.
As YANNICK lifts the light, House lights go to dark. The music ends and the lights all shut off. Blackout.
show
PROJECTOR ON - the whole cast is illuminated.
the following is very quick and light, and a little awkward, with some improvising, stumbling and smirks. Evoking the mood of the very beginning of an interview.
LUCAS: What's your name?
YANNICK: Yannick. Do you want my full name?
LUCAS: I don't know if it matters. Sure.
YANNICK: Yannick Jan Henninger Tanguy Trapman-O'Brien
LUCAS: and what are you doing?
YANNICK: I wanted to bring everyone here together so we could try to figure out what missing is.
LUCAS: What do you mean?
YANNICK: Like "I miss you." I had just never really felt it. At least, I felt like I hadn't felt it. And it came up a lot, and it clearly meant a lot to a lot of people, and I wanted to know what that was.
LUCAS: Did you try looking it up?
YANNICK: Yeah, it didn't really help.
LUCAS: So what did you do?
YANNICK: I asked people. Strangers, people on the street, around the city. I tried to translate foreign words for missing, to see if there was something you couldn't say in English. I offered to help people send letters to their loved ones if they'd tell me about who they missed.
LUCAS: And then?
YANNICK: I still didn’t understand. I realized I couldn’t do this alone. So I asked you guys to help me sort it out. Because you’re my friends.
LUCAS: So did you figure it out?
YANNICK: We’re about to try.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
YANNICK turns on the light, and the following Audio plays:
{"No one can create a real out of a conditional story; in the light of the simple declarative statement of actual existence, "would have been" and "as if" loses its ontological status. In a way, it doesn't count, though without it, we would have no imagination: we would be truly prisoners of ourselves. But the shadow that this conjectural story casts over my real one is not a shadow of regret, but of the knowledge - to which we all must reconcile ourselves - that one is given only one life, even though so many others could have been." }
Meanwhile, the projector screen swerves away to project on the Audience Left wall. A pattern is laid down, and the title of the first story is written by Lucas; "Silver and Copper". The projector is then cleared, and another pattern is laid down on the screen. Slowly, the projector turns and this pattern falls across the stage.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
[ Silver and Copper ]
The light finishes swiveling back to reveal interview lighting. YANNICK and SANYU are illuminated, ATTILIO and GUILLAUME are in darkness. SALBER is off-stage.
YANNICK: What's your name?
SANYU: Sanyu
YANNICK: Hi Sanyu
SANYU: Hey
YANNICK: And can you tell me about yourself?
SANYU: I went to London for Uni. Um.. I have two brothers and one sister, I'm the youngest in the family. I'm very stubborn (laugh). I fight for what I want.
YANNICK: Great. Umm… who did you write to?
SANYU: I wrote to my friend in London … Uh I thought it was important to write to her even though we just spent a summer together.
YANNICK: Why is that?
SANYU: She's … well she was first uh, an acquaintance, and then I roomed with her in London and then I realized I just love this person. And we've been talking over Skype and whatsapp, and whenever I tell her I miss her, she's always like "I miss you more," and I feel like if I send her a letter she'll under … she'll actually understand that. It was a struggle leaving London, leaving HER in London, cause she, I left in her in my room and right now she's in the room I had. So I was like I'll write to her, let her know that I'm still with her.
Lights switch from SANYU TO ATTILIO
GUILLAUME: Okay, well. What's your name?
ATTI: Attilio. I'm 23 years old. Born March 26th 1990. I am a theater major, I'm an actor. I'm a producer, and uh- that's it.
GUILLAUME: Okay. If you want to tell me who you wrote to and why?
ATTI: Ok, so, this was very hard. I had no idea who to write to. I went through all my family back in Chile, but you know I don't really keep in touch with them frequently and maybe some friends or something, but I don't keep in touch with my friends from Chile. Hum, so I was forced by time, I had to make a decision, and I decided to write to my dog.
Guillaume: Ok
Attilio: So I wrote it to my dog, and I wrote it to my dog because if there's anybody, any person from the family who I don't keep in touch with that much, it's my dog.
Guillaume: Hm.
Attilio: And I think more people should write letters to their dog.
Guillaume: Ok.
Lights switch back to SANYU and YANNICK
SANYU: We kept each other company and she'll snuggle up in my bed. So, we always, if she was um, if she, if she need—if she didn't want to sleep in her bed, or in her room, she would always be in my bed.
She reads my eyes better than anyone has of all my girlfriends. Even when I'm doing nothing with them, she's like, "I know what you're thinking." And then, she's selfless, and I, it made me wanna become more selfless, and kept on saying, "you don't need to worry about me. Just, I'll worry about you," you know? And it was nice.
back to ATTILIO / GUILLAUME
Attilio: —you know that whenever the dog would pee in the house, they would, they would try to train him, I would go run away and protect him. He fell asleep in my bed sometimes, like he, like he only sleeps in mine. Always the same, always the same. It's like continuous; it's like that loyalty. If I ever, I sort of learned that from him... So like I am this and I have undying loyalty to people, and whenever they screw up, whenever they do, I always like... I love them. And I think I kind of learned it from him.
Lights switch back to SANYU and YANNICK
SANYU: —because she's so joyful you know? But then when she talks about things that really hurt her, you see that she has some deep pain, and she doesn't want to be reminded of it. She told me, that "Sanyu, these people are really hurting me, but I can't live without people, like I need you guys around, I want to know if you're okay, you're my chu-buubuuu, " but she's like "they're hurting me and I can't leave them." And I said well you shouldn't hang around people who hurt you so much, and she's like "No but then that's mean! You know they depend on me." I'm like "they do not depend on you. If you want me to go you should tell me to go." She's like "No. I'll get sad if I'm not around people. "
back to ATTILIO / GUILLAUME
ATTILIO: I think that he has a big issue with missing, because whenever he meets people and the time they are separated, he's very worried they'll forget him. Ah.. 'cause, because he considers himself to be very forgettable, right? And he's always afraid of that, and he feels like he has to make an impression on people, because if he doesn't, they'll go away and they'll forget me. And I think there's something worse than dying in life, and it's is being forgotten. We have this sort of temporary thing, so I try to make some sort of connection, beyond that. So if they miss me, there's something permanent.
LUCAS: What do you mean by that?
ATTILIO: I don't know it just came out of my mouth.
Lights switch back to SANYU and YANNICK
YANNICK:
Do you think it's fair that we want these people to give endlessly?
SANYU:
I think it's fair to them because that's who they are. That's them. And so to put these barriers around them is not allowing them to live to their fullest.
back to ATTILIO / GUILLAUME
GUILLAUME has exited in the darkness, leaving behind the microphone in his empty stripe of light. ATTILIO looks over, sees it, and crosses to that sliver to pick it up. He speaks.
ATTILIO
When I dated my girlfriend, I told her I would always love her, no matter what happened. That if things got sour, and we weren't together anymore, I'd always carry a little part of her in my heart. Because that's how love works. Right? I thought she had the cutest smile.
meanwhile, lights come back to reveal YANNICK and SANYU together. YANNICK removes the light from his bag and turns it on. During the following, they dance through a series of embraces, then part.
We met Australian. She is from the town I used to study in which is called Toowoomba. we lived in the same college compound, but we never spoke. But after the first class of the second semester where she saw me, she actually waited outside class till I got out just to talk to me. So that was very nice of her.
We traveled the world together. We would chase each other across continents in the hope of being in the right place at the right time. We'd fight. We'd laugh. We'd cry. Mostly, I'd cry. But above all, we grew. We grew. We changed, we loved, we messed up, and we put stuff together again.
Last year, we talked about living together after graduation. We talked about making a life with each other. I told her I would always love her.
It's 2014, and I'm about to graduate. My girlfriend and I aren't together anymore. And as I stand here, talking to you, I wonder if a part of her actually is in my heart. I wonder if a part of me lives in her heart after all. I wonder if these pieces long for each other. And most of all, I wonder if she ever thinks about me, and I wonder if, when I say her name, she can hear it from across the sea.
lights fade out on ATTILIO (yes we can do that with a projector)
SANYU turns off the song, and sits by it alone in a strip of light.
SANYU grabs her sleeve
I have lots of bangles. When people ask me what they should get me, I say a bracelet or something I can wear on my wrist cause then it’s like I always have them with me.
for each bangle, SANYU roles up her sleeve to reveal
This bangle is from my close friend, back home. she made it.
Here’s another from my roommate.
Some of things I never take off my hand.
This bangle is from my mom. She had a gold one too when she was in college and thought it was cool that I had one as well.
This ring is from my dad. It’s our thing. And I never take it off unless someone asks me to.
in sequence, GUILLAUME, YANNICK, ATTILIO, and SALBER each step into the adjacent panel of light and share an item of their own. ["this is from my mother. She says she knows it's tacky", etc.]
SANYU shows her empty arm
This is from my brother. I don’t have a bangle from him. I used to like it that way. People called us twins. I remember sometimes we would text each other at the same time, lyrics or just a phrase that cracks us up. We would wake up in the middle of the night and stomp, making beats with our body then sneak back to bed at the five am call to prayer. Even when we fought, we would pause to laugh before continuing the fight. I never needed a bangle from him.
Four months ago, my parents called me and told me that I needed to travel to my brother and see him. They said he needed me. I was scared because I had never felt distant from him since we both left for University. We no longer shared something... I don’t know what. It took me three weeks to get to him. Three weeks! Just thinking: one of those days may have been his last and I may have not been there.
When I saw him, he looked different. I mean we still had our own lingua and fun but something was missing. I noticed then that he was wearing a bracelet that I had got for him. That was hard to see, ‘cause that meant we were not as close anymore.
So now, when I look at my arm, I know something is missing/[someone is missing me]. Something in him left me and I constantly just want to go find it and replace it in him so that I can fill this empty space on my arm.
YANNICK switches on a little hand-held light, holding it to his ear to hear the audio that plays. As the following audio plays, ATTILIO re-enters and finds his way to the floor, curled up. SANYU exits, then returns to join him.

[… I feel like it’s like magnets. You and I and another person with my dog, we were magnets, and we didn't have charge before, we were just standing. And whenever we met, we stared at each other and became polarised. And you know if you keep magnets opposite poles apart, they still pull towards each other. No matter how small or big. And um, I feel like if something is permanent, then those poles are attracted to each other. And the tug for each other. And it was temporary, then sure they were affected and there was a swell time but there’s no charge to each of them. There’s not … But if it’s permanent then that-it’s part of you, you know, you carry it. That negative charge doesn’t go away.]
________________________________________________________________________________________________
YANNICK turns the light again, then hands it SANYU. Audio plays. projector screen swerves away to project on the Audience Left wall. A pattern is laid down, and the title of the second story is written by Lucas; "New Kids on the Block". The projector is then cleared, and another pattern is laid down on the screen. Slowly, the projector turns and this pattern falls across the stage. SANYU turns off the light
______________________________________________________________________________________________
[ New Kids On the Block ]
The light finishes swiveling back to reveal interview lighting. YANNICK and GUILLAUME are illuminated, ATTILIO and SALBER are in darkness. SANYU is off-stage.
YANNICK: Okay. What is your name?
GUILLAUME: My name is Guillaume, and I'm from Quebec, the French part of Canada.
YANNICK: What do you think Absence is?
GUILLAUME: What's absence? Absence is… My friends, yeah, they're like my grandchildren. They asked me, if I would get a house with them and I said I want to wait , it's this feeling that you know its going to be there forever. But I haven't seen them for nine years and I live in the present. Actually the people I love are with me, in the present. They're good, they're wonderful, generous, but when you have a possession, something tangible, and you loose it too often, you cease to miss it. I've lived in Paris, in Singapore, in Switzerland, in Quebec. So, I guess I don't miss. But they asked me if I would get a house with them. And I said I want to wait, I said I want to wait until the end, so who knows.
lights change to SALBER and ATTILIO.
ATTI: … Yannick why are we standing like this?
YANNICK: I really like it. It's cool.
ATTILIO runs over to SALBER's Panel of light, repositioning her. she responds by repositioning him. He touches her. She touches him.

They dance. The lights expand.
ATTI tries to leave, but SALBER pulls him back.
They dance. The lights expand more, to find GUILLAUME and SANYU dancing as well. ATTILIO leaves again, despite SALBER's clinging. SANYU leaves easily, as GUILLAUME lets her go. SANYU takes ATTILIO's spot. YANNICK takes SANYU's spot. they dance. Another set of departures. GUILLAUME dances alone, SALBER with YANNICK. Finally, YANNICK leaves too. GUILLAUME is still dancing alone, as if no one had left. SALBER has stopped and is staring into the wings.
ATTILIO re-enters from SL, rolling a large suitcase, which places in the US Center of the stage. SALBER comes to him as GUILLAUME continues dancing alone.
[ _______ ]
RADIO hiss, a weather forecast begins

Meanwhile, ATTILIO enters dressed in winter clothes, opens the big suitcase and stands inside. He hands SALBER an envelope. SALBER. She takes it, holds it for a second, and then tears it into little bits. a beat. She then throws them over ATTILIO's head. They both smile. Then ATTILIO is rapidly disrobed and pushed into the suitcase.
GIGI exits SR
the weather forecast plays slowly fades into music
SALBER zips up ATTILIO in the bag, then crosses slowly downstage Left. SANYU ENTERS from SL and puts another suitcase on top of ATTILIO's. She exits SR.
Salber begins to speak
GIGI re-enters from SR, putting on a dress shirt. He crosses to the suitcase, gets out a suit jacket on a coat hanger. YANNICK enters from DSL, SANYU enters from SR.
SHE WONT COME
SALBER
It's my friend in Germany. We've never met. We've been pen pals for almost—25 years? 20 years. Yeah. Now we've started, uh, facebook-ing. (laughing) He's um, He's a nice person. He's very funny. He's a, outgoing, and He's a positive person. He's always so chill, down to earth, he doesn't get mad. he's never said that he was angry or sad, so .. whenever I received his letters—those days there were no emails—I was_ happy reading. And uh, English is not my first language, and to be able to write back to him and communicate with him, I struggled or I did my best to learn English. So it's like an educational part for me, and I appreciate it. I was a fan of 'New Kids on the Block'—the band—and uh, there was a magazine, "Just Seventeen Magazine," yeah. So I was looking for pen pals who shared the same interest in 'New Kids on the Block,' so, since then we've continued together. For 25 years.
But I’ve never met him. Because he's in Germany, and I'm here. I've been to Germany but uh, my trips were not really planned so I didn't get the chance to meet him. But every year we plan to meet next year, and apparently this year it will happen. End of 2014 he's coming here. Although, last night I was checking his Facebook account and I saw that he has a girlfriend. Girlfriend, engaged, married, pregnant, he won't come (laughing) .
it’s like, you have everything in the world. But, you don't have that person to share with her. When I see his pictures on Facebook, I feel like my eyes tear up, like "aw, when will I meet him." he's my best friend. And yeah, I do miss him. he makes me positive. | GUILLAUME goes over to SANYU, setting the coat hanger on her finger. Dresses. GUILLAUME then goes to YANNICK at Center stage, who mirrors him. 3 tugs. Hair. check the face. Nod. GUILLAUME goes back the suitcase, removes a sheet and table settings. As the sheet comes down, SANYU and YANNICK set the carry-on bags as chairs. GUILLAUME Artfully sets two places at the table, lights a candle, then sits. 17 count. YANNICK enters (having changed out of a suitcase); wearing something date-ready, and heading for the table. On the way he stops, reaches into another suitcase, and withdraws two plates (perhaps two little desserts), which he sets on the table. He is not who Guillaume is waiting for.
GUILLAUME waits expectantly.
GUILLAUME finishes his dessert.
On line of dialogue “End of 2014 she's coming here. Although, last night I was checking her Facebook account and I saw that she was engaged. Engaged, married, pregnant, she won't come”, GUILLAUME picks up the other plate and with his fork scrapes the dessert onto his own plate. He eats this too, still waiting.
|
LUCAS:
What do you mean by that?
SALBER
I’m not sure it just came out of my mouth.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
SANYU turns on a light, then moves to hand it to LUCAS. Audio plays.

We clear the stage. GUILLAUME steps forward, setting the large suitcase upright. If possible, he wheels it downstage. He unzips it, but does not open it all the way yet. YANNICK joins him.
LUCAS projects title of the Third story, but it's too small. YANNICK uses his shirt as a screen. The projector is then cleared. LUCAS turns off the audio
________________________________________________________________________________________________
[ _______ ]
________________________________________________________________________________________________
LUCAS: Have you ever read "The Little Prince?"
YANNICK: What?
LUCAS: Once upon a time, on a tiny little planet, there lived a little Prince. The Prince was full of doubt, and so one day he set off to explore. He visited a great many people in a great many places, but still he found no answers. One day, he came to earth-a planet far larger than his own. But though he met many people here, still there were no answers, and the Prince began to lose hope.
It was then that the fox appeared.
ATTI sticks his head out of the top of the suitcase.
YANN: “Who are you?
ATTI opens the suitcase and lets himself out.
ATTI : “I am a fox,
YANN: Come and play with me. I am so unhappy.
ATTI: I cannot play with you, I am not tamed.
YANN: Ah! Please excuse me,
LUCAS: But, after some thought, he added:
YANN: What does that mean--'tame'?
ATTI: It is an act too often neglected. It means to establish ties.
YANN: 'To establish ties'?
ATTI: Just that. To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me. To you, I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world . . .
YANN: I am beginning to understand,
LUCAS: said the little prince.
There is a flower . . . I think that she has tamed me . . .
ATTI: It is possible. On the Earth one sees all sorts of things.
LUCAS: But he came back to his idea.
ATTI: My life is very monotonous,
SALBER: I hunt chickens; men hunt me.
SANYU: All the chickens are just alike, and all the men are just alike.
ATTI: And, in consequence, I am a little bored. But if you tame me, it will be as if the sun came to shine on my life.
SANYU: I shall know the sound of a step that will be different from all the others.
SALBER: And then look: you see the grain-fields down yonder? I do not eat bread. Wheat is of no use to me. The wheat fields have nothing to say to me. And that is sad. But you have hair that is the color of gold. Think how wonderful that will be when you have tamed me! The grain, which is also golden, will bring me back the thought of you. And I shall love to listen to the wind in the wheat . . .
LUCAS: The fox gazed at the little prince, for a long time.
ATTI: Please--tame me!
YANN: I want to, very much. But I have not much time. I have friends to discover, and a great many things to understand.
ATTI: One only understands the things that one tames. If you want a friend, tame me . . .
YANN: What must I do, to tame you?
ATTI: You must be very patient,
SALBER: First you will sit down at a little distance from me--like that--in the grass.
SANYU: I shall look at you out of the corner of my eye, and you will say nothing.
ATTI: Words are the source of misunderstandings.
SANYU: But you will sit a little closer to me,
ATTi: every day . . .
LUCAS: So the little prince tamed the fox. And when the hour of his departure drew near--
ATTI: Ah,
LUCAS: said the fox,
ATTI: I shall cry.
YANN: It is your own fault. I never wished you any sort of harm; but you wanted me to tame you . . .
ATTI: Yes, that is so
YANN: But now you are going to cry!
ATTI: Yes, that is so
YANN: Then it has done you no good at all!
ATTI: It has done me good, said the fox, because of the color of the wheat fields.
YANN: Goodbye .
ATTI: Goodbye,
LUCAS: said the fox.
ATTI: And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.
YANN: What is essential is invisible to the eye,
LUCAS: the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.
SALBER: It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.
YANN: It is the time I have wasted for my rose--
LUCAS: said the little prince, so that he would be sure to remember.
SANYU: Men have forgotten this truth.
ATTI: But you must not forget it.
SALBER You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.
ATTI: You are responsible for your rose . . .
YANN: I am responsible for my rose,
LUCAS: the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.
All begin to clear the stage, except YANNICK, who does not move. Suddenly, he speaks, and all packing stops
YANNICK
What if I'm scared? What if that's the whole reason I started doing this?
What if my problem isn’t that I miss people or that I don’t miss anything?
What if the problem is I don’t want to be missed?
Because I’m afraid.
I’m afraid to ask the people I love to go through pain because of me.
I’m afraid that perhaps the man they will miss will only be a memory - that I cannot be the me they need. That I am long gone and what’s left to them is all wrong.
I’m afraid that I cannot be all things to all people or even enough things to enough people or maybe even anything essential to anyone. Maybe I’m not enough.
Maybe I’m finite.
ATTILIO
What do you mean by that?
YANNICK
I’m not sure it just came out of my mouth.

SANYU, GUILLAUME, and SALBER go to their respective bags and begin packing again ATTILIO embraces YANNICK, and then gets back into the suitcase. YANNICK watches, and then, after a moment, zips up the bag, and exits.
all exit
The projector turns off. The doors open. When the audience exits, they find a person with a sign. "Send a Letter Anywhere"
END
Discussion of "Script"
Add your voice to this discussion.
Checking your signed in status ...