Antlia Pneumatica (TCG Edition)

Anne Washburn

• Publisher: Theatre Communications Group
• ISBN:
  9781559368957
• Topic: Literatura
• Subtopic: Arte dramático americano

In Anne Washburn's disquieting new drama, a group of old friends -- most of whom have widely lost touch -- are reunited for the funeral of one their own. Washburn's expertise in blurring the lines between the real and surreal compounds the unease as the friends scour their memories of the past and cope with stark reminders of their own mortality.

Someone is digging into a metal bowl of ice cubes in the freezer.

A pitcher of lemonade with ice cubes is stirred vigorously.

Ice cubes jingle gently as a full glass of lemonade is carried across the lodge.

The phone rings.

The jingling trajectory shifts.

The phone rings.

NINA: Yello.

Mini beat.

Adrian.

Really?

Mini beat.

How did you know I was here?

Nina has appeared onstage, a cordless phone in one hand, the glass of lemonade in the other.

Don who?

No.

Oh. Yes. Don. Don. Right. How did Don … find out?

No not Suzie. Definitely not. (A sudden thought) Don isn’t coming is he?

Uh-huh. Yeah that’s probably better. (Irrelevantly) How is Don?

She hears herself, makes a face.

Oh, that’s great.

Beat.

Of course. No of course. You’re welcome to. Of course. Do you remember the way?

When do you uh

Okay, great. Yes. (Again: not relevant) We can feed you; we’re making a lot of food.

Hears herself, makes face.

All right, (Waves) bye.

She stands there for a moment. Utterly blank.

Then turns. Looks offstage. Gears herself up to say something:

As she walks offstage

Near panic:

Liz!

Sound of a plunge

Sound of someone surfacing, gasping

LIZ: Cold! Cold cold cold! Good! Cold!

Sound of splashing.

Nina speaks alone to the audience:

NINA: I was standing in my cabin and the Sphinx … thing, was at the back door.

The curtain was blowing in front of it, I couldn’t see it clearly but there was and I don’t know where the light was coming from, but

mane, flank, but then a moment of profile, not maw but sharp: nose, lips, jaw—a woman.

And I turned and I was surprised to find that the front door, the door to the meadow with the quote unquote pecan orchard was wide open and the light was just breaking

And I thought it was the wind had blown it open because in the dream there was this incredible wind the night before.

I stepped forward to close the front door, or to walk through it, and I woke up and it was the middle of the night it had cooled off. I pulled the blanket up from the foot of the bed and went back to sleep.

A bird cheep, very loud, like a small cheep heard right up close, like a little bird leaning into your ear and letting loose.

Another cheep.

A saucy trill.

Lights change.

The island is spread with cookbooks, notes, a few bowls and ingredients already in play.

Ula and Liz are looking out through the window toward the river, talking about a mostly red bird and what it is.

ULA: Sometimes birds like that are loud.

LIZ: I think birds which have just the tiniest piece of red on them are the loudest I’ve noticed that. They’re louder than all-red birds.

ULA: I guess they have something to prove.

Sees Nina, waves list.

Really? We’re really making all this food?

NINA: It’s a funeral Ula. Funeral spells food.

ULA: Yeah but who is this for? Just the eight of us.

LIZ: Nine.

ULA: I love to eat, don’t get me wrong.

NINA: I thought you liked cooking.

ULA: I do. I do. I’m thrilled.

NINA: We’re going to make a feast.

ULA: We are indeed.

NINA: But get a swim in first. Liz jumped off the edge of the Blue Hole.

ULA: Finally.

LIZ (Doesn’t love this): It’s very high up, and it’s very frightening. And, it is not a natural thing to do, to jump into water which you cannot see the bottom of.

NINA: So Major. Your whole life.

LIZ: You were not an early adopter of the Blue Hole leap either, might I add.

NINA: Our whole childhood was our mom telling us absolutely not to jump into the Blue Hole from the edge—

LIZ: Which she always did

NINA: Which she always did! And she spent all the years after that telling us to for god’s sake jump, just jump, what were we so chicken about.

ULA: It is sort of exciting.

NINA: You had the benefit of first coming to it as an adult-sized person, and on mushrooms.

LIZ: Oh god oh god oh god don’t tell me, I don’t want to think, you jumped into the Blue Hole tripping and was it even daytime?

ULA: There wasn’t even a moon.

NINA: We had flashlights.

ULA: Yeah but they weren’t trained at the water at the time; I sort of guessed.

NINA: Oh did you do that?

LIZ: Okay there’s a rocky ledgy thing …

NINA: Yeah I’m glad I didn’t know that at the time.

LIZ: And then, but okay but that’s fine, that’s fine it already happened. Don’t tell me anymore. You’re alive, that’s what counts. You’re alive. I’m alive.

NINA (Going off): No one has ever drowned at the Blue Hole.

LIZ: It probably hasn’t been given a real chance.

Refrigerator door opening.

NINA (From off): Where did all the eggs go??

LIZ: You made that big scramble this morning.

NINA: I didn’t use all of the eggs. There was that big pink carton.

ULA: Oh those eggs were very ancient. I tossed them.

NINA: Oh really...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Production History
• Characters
• The Set
• Antlia Pneumatica