Shipwreck (Dual Audio/Stage Edition)

Anne Washburn

• Publisher: Methuen Drama
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781350219076
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: American Drama
• Index: Literature

From across the room I saw the President, torchlight playing across his visage.
And the violins began, and the low rumble of the timpani.
I screamed. I ran.
An old farmhouse upstate. Snow is falling. Mountains are falling. Something is breaking apart. You are formally invited to dinner with the 45th President of the United States. Anne Washburn ( The Twilight Zone, Mr Burns ) returns with her sinister and sensational play, now updated in a special dual edition to coincide with its audio premiere on WNYC Public Radio, to be aired in October 2020 in partnership with New York Public Theater. As part of a bold experiment to write a history play about the present, this edition includes both the stage and audio versions of the play, as well as extensive commentary from the writer herself about the significant changes made to it in reaction to the unprecedented crises and protest movements of 2020.

PART ONE

Act One

We’re in a farmhouse. In the middle of nowhere. In winter. But don’t worry – we’re surrounded by the warmth of Our Own Kind, and the comforting sound of a fire in a hearth.

Allie Omigosh this place is so warm! What a relief!

Jools (laughing) What were you expecting Allie? Wind, whistling through . . . cracks?

Allie No you know, these old farmhouses, and the boiler’s old

Jools No the boiler’s great.

Allie That’s great!

Jools The boiler is great.

Allie Because I thought what happened was people bought places for the first time, and didn’t think about checking the boiler, the boiler’s a disaster . . .

Jools It’s a great boiler, practically brand new.

Bit of a pause.

Allie You made sure it was a great boiler?

Jools It was just a great boiler. We lucked out.

Allie You did luck out.

Jools We lucked out. The foundation is good too.

Allie Huh.

What about the roof?

Jools Oh . . . the roof. It would have been nice to have known.

Allie (sympathetic; relieved) Hoo boy.

* *

Allie (to Andrew) Andrew they own a lake!

Andrew You own an entire lake? Get out of town.

Jools Pond. It’s really more of a pond.

Allie A mini lake! How old is this place?

Jools How old? Check this out: 1776.

Allie No.

Andrew 1776? No shit.

Jools Well, the kitchen, supposedly. I mean, you know: real estate agents.

Allie Kitchen’s that door, right?

Jools (to Allie) Go for it.

We hear Allie pitter away.

Jools 1770s definitely. This room is mid 1800s. Upstairs is the 1950s.

Andrew Oh really? I didn’t realize that.

Jools The paneling?

Andrew I thought it was something wonderful paneled over.

Jools Nope.

Allie returns.

Allie I think I can sort of see the 1776 I mean, the kitchen ceiling is low.

Jools Exactly. The original floor back there is brick.

Allie Oh are you going to?

Jools We’ve talked about it. Brick is a pain in the ass to clean though.

Andrew But you’re going to take up the vinyl.

Jools For sure. Eventually. When Jamie is out of college.

Allie So are there beams or something? Under the tin? Beams.

Jools In 1776 this place was a shack. Okay but guess what: guess what, guess what.

Allie What.

Jools Guess how many families.

Allie In the shack? Exciting. Twelve. Four. (This is a more serious guess.) Three?

Jools No, I mean over the

Allie Oh

Jools the span – generations . . .

Allie Oh. Okay, (Setting out to guess.) um. . .

Jools One.

Allie One? You mean . . .

Jools Yes. One family. Here.

Allie Same name whole time?

Jools Same name. Good at sons I guess.

Andrew That’s amazing

Jools Right?

Allie And sort of weird and sad that they had to go or decided to go or had to go do you know?

Jools It feels very sad, or maybe it isn’t sad at all. We know nothing about them! We totally asked. The seller was not forthcoming.

Allie Don’t you feel sort of guilty?

Jools Ohmigod, no. Not at all. Or: not really.

Andrew Are you going to leave the farmstand up?

Jools Oh . . .

We can’t decide. No, probably. It’s misleading.

People spot the structure, they slow down, they see that it’s

Andrew Empty, bereft, a blasted hollow heath of a farmstand . . .

Jools And then in their hearts . . . they probably judge our worth as farmers – which is annoying. So we’ll probably take it down.

But I have fantasies.

But really, no. We’ll probably take it down.

* *

Outer door opens. Closes. Stomping sound.

Inner door opens. Jim and Mare.

Jim Whoooee! That’s cold for you, right?

Jools That would be cold.

It kind of sounds like people are hugging each other.

Welcome, Strangers.

Allie How was the birth?

Mare Long.

Jim Very long.

Mare Longer than it should have been.

Allie But everything worked out. You look cheerful.

Jim Mother and child resting comfortably as the saying goes.

Mare It was scary for a while, or I thought so, Megan, she’s a slip of a thing, how much can the human frame bear? And tiny little Hannah, how much of this can she withstand?

But the Doula was a very steady character. She said: sometimes it just takes a while, and sometimes it’s just hard.

Jim They were champs, all of them. Champs.

Mare You know what the Doula said, which I thought was great, she said: your life is transforming; it shouldn’t be easy, it shouldn’t happen in a moment.

Jim Anyway we left all three of them flat on their backs asleep. And

Mare And a pot of soup on the stove and a casserole in the fridge. And Megan’s mom will be there this afternoon.

Allie (ever so slightly intangibly appalled) You two are extremely good friends, I must say.

Jim The very best. And now would be a great time for a hot thing. A hot warm liquid thing.

Jools Bourbon do you?

Jim I was thinking of cocoa, a day like today cries out for a hot cocoa, no?

Jools I don’t know that we have any. Tea?

Jim (countering) Coffee?

Jools Probably. Let us go take a look.

Jim Hon?

Mare Absofuckinglutely.

Jim (as they’re heading off) Luis making it out?

Jools Yes! Yes! He swears he is!

Jim Heard it before. I ta...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Part One
• Part Two
• Part Three
• Part One
• Part Two
• Part Three
• eCopyright