SCENE ONE
A FILM OF A BEAUTIFUL YOUNG WOMAN, ZOE, APPEARS ON A SCREEN. SHE SMILES AS SHE DANCES TO THE BEAT OF THE MUSIC. THE IMAGE MOVES FROM CLOSE UP TO A FULL BODY SHOT, MAGICALLY THE FILM DISSLOVES INTO THE LIVE ZOE DANCING IN SYNC WITH THE FILM. THE FILM DISAPPEARS AND ZOE IS LEFT STANDING ACKWARDLY CENTRE STAGE. SHE SMILES COYLY AT THE AUDIENCE AND BLOWS A SHHH THEN LOOKS DEMURELY DOWN. GLANCING BACK UP, SHE ATTEMPTS TO ENGAGE WITH THE AUDIENCE AGAIN. A FLICKER OF DOUBT CROSSES HER FACE.

Off stage - Linda whispers “go on” into the microphone.

Zoe continues.

SHE ATTEMPTS TO DANCE AGAIN. SHE USES HER FACE - HER EYES AND HER LIPS TO SIGNAL THE WANTINGNESS THAT WE KNOW AS DESIRE. SHE OPENS UP HER BODY. HER HANDS GO UP TO HER HAIR, RAISING HER HAIR, HER HANDS GO DOWN, DOWN HER BODY, HER ARMS ENCIRCLING SHE TOUCHES HER BREAST AND THEN STOPS.

Linda whispers, “CONTINUE” into the microphone.

ZOE FREEZES.

Linda: What’s wrong?

Zoe: Nothing.

Linda: Why have you stopped?

Zoe: I’ve lost it.

Linda: Start again.

Zoe: This is hard for me.

Linda: Start again.

Zoe begins to dance as the lights fade out.

SCENE TWO

LINDA IS ALONE IN THE STUDIO, WITH HER BOOK, REVIEWING A VIDEO TAPE OF ZOE’S AUDITION. ZOE’S FACE LOOMS HUGE ON THE DOWN STAGE SCREEN BEHIND LINDA. ZOE’S IMAGE COMES INTO FOCUS AS THE CAMERA ZOOMS IN. WE HEAR THE AUDIO FROM THE TAPE AS LINDA PROMPTS ZOE OFF CAMERA.

FROM VIDEO:

LINDA: Come in, come in. So Zoe, tell me about yourself. Looks like you’ve been doing some interesting work.

Zoe: The last thing I did was this movie of the week. I played the best friend of the lead and I had this whole thing that happened that featured me... but I saw it on t.v. last week and they cut my part out. I guess I probably shouldn’t tell you stuff like that but...

LINDA: No, no that’s Okay. Those things happen, that’s just part of the business.

ZOE: So is this a t.v. kinda thing or a feature?

LINDA: Well it’s a.... art.... it’s market will be festivals and things like that, you know, my work is fairly well known in Italy and festivals and... Have you got anything coming up?

ZOE: Well I think I’m going to be working with Robert Lepage in his new work that’s coming up.

LINDA: Robert Lepage, you think you’re going to be working with him?

ZOE: Well yea, he phoned my agent and booked something, but it’s not for a couple of months.

LINDA: I guess he’s organized, that’s really great.
Zoe nods. Silence.

ZOE: Tell me about this project.

LINDA: Right, well I want to be up front with you. The material I’m dealing with is... well..., it’s pretty sexually explicit.

ZOE: Well my agent told me that this was something... had something... I mean to do with feministic stuff. That’s what interests me cuz I don’t just want to do this t.v. stuff. I really want to be challenged.

LINDA: So if there was some nudity it wouldn’t bother you?

ZOE: It wouldn’t bother me if it was done for the right reasons. You know what I mean?

ZOE’S EYES FOLLOW LINDA AS SHE PACES.

LINDA: Well, yes. I would describe this as a feminist reading of sexuality but from, well I don’t know if I would say it’s radical... I’m trying to take my work in a new direction. I’m trying to access a new audience. I’ve created a character who’s really beautiful. Because of this asset she can do anything she wants. She doesn’t want to be some rich man’s prize but she is fascinated by the power of their fantasies. So she goes to work in a sex club. She has a boyfriend who is this kind of ideal lover and their relationship gets all messed up. Essentially, I’m making a film that says sex is an empowering tool that women should use to their advantage.

ZOE: (gushing) Wow. That sounds really interesting.

LES ENTERS THE THEATRE WHILE LINDA CONTINUES TO WATCH THE VIDEO. LINDA IS UNAWARE OF HIS PRESENCE AS THEY BOTH WATCH ZOE’S IMAGE ON THE SCREEN. THE TAPE CONTINUES...

LINDA: I think the work is going to be really difficult. I’m looking for someone really beautiful who embodies the ideal of what every woman wants to look like.

ZOE: Well isn’t beauty like in the eye of the beholder or something? (she giggles)

LINDA: No, it’s not. It’s a small waist, long legs, big lips and a ready when you are kind of attitude. Do you feel comfortable with the way you look?

ZOE: I don’t know... I don’t have like a... I don’t... (they are both a little embarrassed) Doesn’t everyone have something they want to change?

LINDA: That’s an interesting question...

CUT AUDIO ON VIDEO, IMAGE CONTINUES THROUGH LES AND LINDA’S DIALOGUE.

LES: What would you like to change.

Les surprises Linda.

LINDA: I’m embarrassed to say this. She’s not really that pretty. Her teeth are crooked and she’s overweight. I think she’s too old for the part. I see the character is as a youthful sweet 20 year old. There’s a big difference between an 20 year old and a 22 year old, I like the other girl better. (pause) What do you think?

LES: I like this one. She got... I don’t know, she seems really confident. That will work for you.

LINDA: Yea but I’m afraid she doesn’t have an edge. You know. She seems kind of... she’s soft.

LES: Women can be soft you know. Men like that.

LINDA: Well is that right. (pause) The thing I like about her is that you can project on to her, do you know what I mean? Oh, I don’t know, I don’t think she can pull off the material. (LINDA TURNS THE VIDEO OFF) You know what I think...? At the very core of this film that I’m making lies this idea of power. Power, beauty and sex. Sadomasochism and role playing is a way of acting out... I don’t know... all the hurt and pain that you’ve endured in your life. S/M is very theatrical, it’s really charged, I think it’s going to work.

LES: S/M, really? And what do you know about that?

LINDA: Sex is theatrical. I’m talking about primal dramas.

LES: And how do you intend to put your primal dramas on film.

LINDA: Through symbols, every sexual act contains them. Sex is acting out, isn’t it?

LES: Come on. Get real Linda. Symbols?

LINDA: Don’t give me a hard time. I’ve got a favour to ask you. I want you to help me. (They exchange looks) Will you shoot it for me?

LES: And do craft service and drive the talent around?

LINDA: No, this one is professional, it’s organized.

LES: How much?

LINDA: Don’t do this bullshit money thing with me. Union rates.

LES: (laughs) Union rates, right. I don’t work for union rates any more.

LINDA: Not even for an old friend?

LES: Are we old friends now?

LINDA: Do we have a choice?

LES: Why haven’t you joined the real world? You can’t continue to make work for peanuts.

LINDA: Yea. You know god damn well that I’m one of the most talented...

LES: I can’t. I’m sorry.

LINDA: I’m really disappointed. I remember a time when you thought that you could change the world, when art was the only thing that mattered.

LES: Art, no one cares about art, or artists who just put their neurosis up on screen.

LINDA: What a bullshit thing to say. I’m describing the world and if the world is neurotic, so be it.

LES: You’re describing yourself.

LINDA: Are you saying that I lack objectivity?

LES: Accusation is your department.

LINDA: And your ability to gracefully move from one natural disaster to another is yours. Someone has to remind you of the old cause and effect theory. Look, I don’t want it to go this way. You’re brilliant, I need you to help me.

LES: Where’s the script.

LINDA: I don’t have one.

LES: That’s great Linda. I’d be absolutely delighted to work for low pay on a project that’s going to be made in the edit suite.

LINDA: I know you, don’t make me beg.

LES: If t.v. work comes up, I can’t turn it down. You can have me if I’m available.

LINDA: Nothing seems easy anymore. Aren’t things supposed to get easier? I’m not supposed to admit this to anyone but I’m panicking.

LES: Yea, well, we’re all panicking.

LINDA: Why is that?

LES: It’s not our turn anymore.

LINDA: Oh God, don’t say that. I feel like I’m just starting. What am I doing?

LES: (bursts out laughing) You do this to me every time. I’ll tell you, I’d rather work with a man. Men keep their insecurities buried away.

LINDA: Yea! Well I can read you like a book.

LES: I try to keep in touch with my feminine side.

LINDA: I’m not sure that you’re in touch with anything. Why do we get so much fun out of hurting each other?

LES: Frankly, I’m sick to death of it.

LINDA: What are you getting at?

LES: You live in your head.

LINDA: If I lived in my body I would be like this.

LINDA NEEDLES LES WITH HER FINGER. LES PUSHES HER HAND AWAY, SHE NEEDLES HIM AGAIN. LES GRABS HER BY THE SHOULDERS AND THEY KISS.

THE LIGHTS SHIFT.

 

SCENE THREE

A SILHOUETTE OF ZOE APPEARS BEHIND A SCREEN. LES COMES INTO THE SILHOUETTE AND BEGINS TO OPERATE THE CAMERA, FORCING ZOE TO LIE ON THE BED. LES IS ROAMING OVER ZOE’S FACE WITH A VIDEO CAMERA. EXTREME CLOSE UP OF ZOE’S FACE APPEARS ON THE SCREEN, HER VOICE FILLS THE ROOM AS SHE SPEAKS:

Zoe: The manager of the club that I worked in liked the girls to have scars, he said it added character; he pandered to a rough crowd. I met a man who was in the business of manufacturing scars and it made sense that we fell in love cause I needed his scars for my work. Of course everything changed when we got too close. It’s funny about that boundary thing, is it the skin, that fine membrane wrapped around the body, that organ that breathes, and responds to touch. The skin gives itself over - that delicate pierceable membrane that separates you from me. And memory, stored in this little fleshy tissue I need another layer to protect me from...

 

SCENE FOUR

LINDA IS ALONE IN THE STUDIO WRITING IN HER NOTEBOOK. FRED ENTERS.

FRED: Hi, I’m your five o’clock. (He enters the space and Linda remains preoccupied.) Cool place.

LINDA: Fred, have a seat.

FRED: Do you mind if I smoke?

LINDA: There’s a bylaw here.

Fred stretches his lanky body into a slouch, puts his hands behind his head and smiles at Linda. He lights a cigarette.

FRED: Have you had a long day?

LINDA: (caught off guard, she relaxes) Yea, I have.

FRED: Am I the last person you’re seeing?

LINDA: Yes, as a matter of fact.

FRED: Do you think you found him?

LINDA: (interested in Fred) I have a few possibilities.

FRED: Can I be one of them?

LINDA: Here’s the scene. I’ll read it with you.

(reading) I want to talk.

(Fred looks up at her with intent.)

LINDA: I want you to tell me the moment, the exact moment when you realized you didn’t love me anymore. I want the exact moment.

FRED: There was no exact moment.

LINDA: So you admit it, you don’t love me.

FRED: That’s the problem with you. It’s black and white, there is always a line to cross. Your always looking for precision, the moment, you don’t believe in attrition, your search for perfection...it just wore me away.

LINDA: I showed you a flaw; you saw that I needed you. I want to know what’s important to you.

FRED: Honesty, commitment, fidelity.

LINDA: That’s bullshit.

FRED: You’re afraid.

LINDA: Everybody is afraid. That’s too easy. Tell me something that I don’t already know.

FRED: I feel like everything I believed in has evaporated. There was a point... that was the point, it was when I could see the past start to repeat itself into the future and I got... I got... bored.

LINDA: I’m boring? That’s humiliating.

FRED: That’s why I’m leaving.

LINDA: How dare you.

FRED: You are too much for me. When I first met you you were the most dynamic woman I had ever met. You were like this beacon, this magnet. I thought “This is someone I want to be with” I thought... I had this great romantic vision that we were going to do some very... I don’t know... once we were together you started to defer, you started to lose the thing that drew me to you. It’s like you lost your nerve. I really wanted you to drive the car.

LINDA: Good.

They put the papers down.

FRED: Is this personal?

LINDA: No it’s fiction, I made it up. Can you relate to it?

FRED: Not really. I feel like I’m auditioning to be your boyfriend. (awkward pause, but Fred doesn’t back down) So... this piece is about love?

LINDA: Do you think so?

LES ENTERS

LES: According to Linda there are five necessary conditions for love to exist. Exclusivity (to Fred), do you know what that means, freedom, obstacle and transgression, they go together, domination and submission, they go together too, and beauty.

THE LIGHTING SHIFTS, ZOE IS ISOLATED. SHE HOLDS A SMALL MIRROR IN HER HAND WHICH CATCHES THE LIGHT, REFLECTING IT TO THE AUDIENCE.

ZOE: Imagine falling in love as a correspondence of minds; of thoughts; it is a simultaneous firing of two spirits engaged in the autonomous act of growing up. And the sensation is of something having noiselessly exploded inside of each of them. Around this event, dazed and preoccupied, the lover moves examining his or her own experience; her gratitude alone, stretching away towards a mistaken donor, creates the illusion that she communicates with her fellow, but this is false. The love object is simply one that has shared an experience at the same moment of time, narcissistically; and the desire to be near the beloved object is at first not due to the idea of possessing it, but simply to let the experiences compare themselves, life reflections in different mirrors. All this may precede the first look, kiss or touch; may precede ambition, pride or envy; precede the first declarations which mark the turning point-for from here love degenerates into habit, possession and back to loneliness.

THE SPELL IS BROKEN

ZOE: Do you believe this?

LINDA: What?

ZOE: That love degenerates into habit, possession?

LINDA: Yes.

ZOE: Why would one bother?

LINDA: This section is really clear Zoe. I’m surprised you don’t get it.

ZOE: Well, what is it then?

LINDA: It’s saying that love is an illusion and that... we must learn to be alone.

Okay, the first thing we have to establish here is that you two are in love. There is a certain physical dimension to their um... Let’s see. Um... Can you guys get together or something. Come here, stand beside each other. Now maybe you could hug each other or something.

EVERYONE STANDS AROUND AWKWARDLY.

LES: Linda? (Beckoning her over.) LINDA AND LES LEAVE

ZOE AND FRED IN THE STUDIO. THEY HAVE NOTHING TO SAY TO EACH OTHER. THIS IS PAINFULLY DRAWN OUT.

AFTER AN INTERMINABLE LENGTH OF TIME LINDA AND LES RETURN.

LINDA: Okay. Let’s just jump in right at the top. Zoe I want you to change. This is a scene that you would be acting out with a client. Fred, I want you to stand in.

FRED: What do you mean?

LINDA: I want you to pretend, I mean act, or whatever, that you have hired Zoe to be this dominatrix.

FRED: If I do this now I’ll undermine all the work I’ve been doing on my character. He’d never do that with her.
LINDA: Right, but we’re just working it for the blocking. You don’t have to do it for real, you can just pretend, I mean act this thing.

FRED: Can I talk to you in private.

LES: Listen, you just need a body, right? I’ll sit in, what do you want me to do?

LINDA: Thanks Les.

ZOE POKES HER HEAD OUT.

ZOE: Just do it from here?

LINDA: For now. Let’s start, (Linda goes over and whisper into Les’s ear) Quiet everybody. Action!

ZOE ENTERS WEARING A DOMINATRIX OUTFIT

ZOE: Can I talk to him?

LINDA: Yes.

ZOE: I don’t know about this any more. I’m not feeling too...

LES: It’s O.K. You are perfect.

ZOE: I’m not...

LES: What.

ZOE: I don’t know.

LES: (indicating to a rope) Use it.

ZOE: Yea.

LES: I want you to tie my hands.

ZOE: What for.

LES: Just do it for me, would you?

ZOE: O.K.

LES: Now this is how I feel when I’m with you. Walk around me. How do you feel?

ZOE: I feel like you’re making me do things I don’t want to do.

LES: And what do you feel like doing?

ZOE: I want to leave.

LES: There’s the door.

ZOE: Look at me... LOOK AT ME. You disgust me.

LINDA: Okay! Questions?

FRED: How did you know what to do?

LES: I’m alone in a room with a beautiful young woman.

ZOE: (embarrassed by what Les said) I have a question. Do people really like to be hurt? I mean... Are a lot of people into this?

LINDA: Haven’t you ever enjoyed being hurt?

ZOE: No.

LINDA: Humiliated?

ZOE: What are you getting at?

LINDA: Fred?

FRED: I like rough sex.

ZOE: Do you?

LES: Now there’s a good question? Do people like to be hurt? We like sensation, wouldn’t you say Linda. Let me see your hands. (to Zoe) You bite your fingers.

Zoe nods.

LES: Does that hurt? (touching a bleeding cuticle.)

ZOE: Yes.

LES: You bit your finger nail down to there and then you picked at it. I remember when I was a kid I was loosing a tooth, a front one, and I had bitten my fingers down to the quick and my thumb was bleeding. I started picking at the wallpaper with my aching thumb, I just obsessively started picking away at it while pushing my wobbly front tooth with my tongue, feeling the aching gaping hole that laid beneath the loose tooth seeing how far I could push it, testing the limits of my pain. It’s about testing endurance really. Well my Dad came in and saw the torn wall paper and he gave me one spanking that I will never forget. I couldn’t sit down for a day.

LINDA: Poor little Les.

LES: That’s another thing we like, isn’t it. Feeling sorry for ourselves, punishing ourselves for our successes.

ZOE: I think we’re crying for love.

FRED: Oh, it’s not that simple.

ZOE: I didn’t say it was simple, you did.

LINDA: Pain is a way of reclaiming power.

ZOE PUTS ON A TEE SHIRT.

LINDA: O.K. Everybody. Let’s keep this thing rolling. Zoe, it’s the telephone scene. Get into position. Bring your feet up, over more. Fred, fix her top would you. O.K. That’s good, pull it down a little bit. Stay there Fred, you can be her eye line. That’s good. O.K. Zoe?

ZOE: How are ya doing tonight honey? Do you want me to tell you what I’m doing right now. I’m lying here on my bed and I’m missing you like crazy. No, I don’t have anything on, honey, it’s so darn hot here, I’m just lying here thinking of you and thinking about what you and me could do together if you were willing. Like what? Like well, my

(ZOE breaks her concentration) Well... I can’t do this. Do I like him?

LINDA: He’s a client.

ZOE: But do I like him, or what?

LINDA: He’s just a client. It doesn’t matter if you like him or not. It’s not about how you feel about him. It’s about the negotiation. It’s a power dynamic.

ZOE: Okay Do I improvise this?

LINDA: Just pretend you’re on the phone. O.K.?

(Zoe clears her throat)

LINDA: Are you O.K.?

Zoe shakes her head. Linda thinks for a moment.

LINDA: Would it help if you did it to Les.

Zoe nods.

ZOE: Do you want me to start now? How are ya doing tonight honey? Do you want me to tell you what I’m doing right now. I’m lying here on my bed and I’m missing you like crazy. No, I don’t have anything on, honey, it’s so darn hot here, I’m just lying here thinking of you and thinking about what you and me could do together if you were willing. Like what? Like well, my breast are really hard, how big, oh, do you like big breast? You do?

LINDA: That’s good. Okay Good. Thanks Les. Let’s work on the kitchen scene. Okay Zoe, you come in.

ZOE LEAVES AND COMES BACK IN.

LINDA: No not like that. More vampy.

ZOE: I thought you said that she went to school in the day.

LINDA: She does but she wants something from this guy. She wants him to notice her.

All the time. She can’t like walk into a room without making, without it being a big scene. Now try it again.

Zoe enters again.

LINDA: No, no, no, no, no. You don’t get it. You know he’s in the room. You come right up to him. He’s the reason that you walked in here in the first place. You like exude this sexual presence.

ZOE: What do you mean? That’s not... I don’t know. You show me.

Linda walks in the room, like a siren out of a forties movie.

ZOE: You want me to walk in like that, that’s a joke. Nobody acts like that.

LINDA: She’s an icon, she’s bigger than life. Try it again.

ZOE TRIES IT AGAIN. THIS TIME SHE COMES ALL THE WAY UP TO FRED AND AWKWARDLY SITS ON HIS LAP.

LINDA: We need to do some physical work on this. Who’s done contact improv. Fred have you.

FRED: Yea, sure.

LINDA: O.K. you two, let’s start at the beginning.
THEY BEGIN A ROUTINE BUT QUICKLY INTO IT ZOE LIFTS FRED ONTO HER BACK AND DROPS HIM.

LINDA: Fred, are you O.K. Good god, this is a bit dangerous isn’t it. Here, let’s go put some ice on it. Take ten you guys. Oh wait a minute, we need to plan for a photo shoot for the poster. It’s just going to be an image of Zoe.

ZOE: Great. Should I bring anything.

LINDA: No it’s just going to be a shot of your body, from the neck down.

ZOE: Oh.

ZOE: I don’t want to do it.

LINDA: We’ll talk about it later. LINDA AND FRED LEAVE.

SCENE FIVE

ZOE: Are you guys friends or something?

LES: We’ve known each other for a long time.

ZOE: What do you think of her?

LES: Linda’s great.

ZOE: But she’s got these weird ideas... I don’t’ know... I’m not so sure I get this. I mean...I don’t know....

LES: How old are you?

ZOE: Twenty-two.

LES: It will be good for you to do this. You’ll get a lot of attention.

ZOE: Yea but what will I be getting attention for?

LES: You’ll be getting attention for anything you do.

ZOE: I don’t understand Linda, I don’t understand this chaotic way of making things.

She’s really obsessed with sex and pain and all this weird stuff. Is she really into all that?

LES: There is an element of cruelty that creeps into relationships but I think that she primarily uses it as a metaphor.

ZOE: I don’t understand that.

LES LIGHTS A CIGARETTE.

ZOE: I never understood why fire is classified as an element. Was it the Greeks? I never would have put fire in that group.

LES: You’re a funny girl Zoe.

Zoe picks up a match and lights it, staring into the flame.

ZOE: It’s more like life. It begins, consumes, grows, gets weak, then dies.

LES: I guess they were thinking of it like a force. Like the oceans.
ZOE: Then they should have included lust.

ZOE LOOKS UP AT LES.

LES: (matter of fact) Lust isn’t tangible.

ZOE: Sure it is.

Out of the blue Zoe walks up and kisses Les. The kiss is tentative, yet bold for Zoe.

LES: (PULLS AWAY) Zoe. I’m sorry.

ZOE: You don’t find me attractive?

LES: That has nothing to do with it.

ZOE: Do you find me attractive?

LES: You’re attractive.

ZOE: But you’re not attracted to me. (uncomfortable silence)

ZOE; Are you gay?

LES: Not really.

ZOE: God, I’m so embarrassed, I feel so stupid. I’ve made a fool of myself.

LES: No you haven’t. How could you be really interested in me, you don’t really know me.

ZOE: But...
LES: It’s not me you’re attracted to. If you could make a connection with Linda I think things would be a lot easier.

LINDA AND FRED WALK IN LAUGHING.

LINDA: That’s a really good idea.

ZOE STOPS LINDA AS SHE CROSSES THE ROOM.

ZOE: Can I talk to you?

LINDA: Sure.

ZOE: I don’t know about this any more. I’m not feeling too...

LINDA: It’s O.K. You’re doing fine.

ZOE: I’m not. I came here to learn something.

LINDA: And?

ZOE: I don’t know.

LINDA: You said you came here to learn something. What?

ZOE: I don’t know.

LINDA: Knowing what you want is the hardest thing in life. As soon as you know what you want then everything else becomes easy. But you have to be careful that you choose the right thing because the biggest disappointment in life is that in the end you get the thing you wanted. You’re lucky, you’re beautiful.

ZOE: And what does that mean?

LINDA: It means that things get chosen for you, you may never have to decide. You have something that everyone else wants.

ZOE: Isn’t that shallow?

LINDA: It’s power and if you have power then the money... everything else follows. It brings freedom and freedom is happiness.

ZOE: Ever since I was a little girl, people have been staring at me. That’s not choice.

LINDA: It is if you use it.

ZOE: What for.

LINDA: That’s up to you.

ZOE: I feel like you’re making me do thing I don’t want to do. You said my character was in control.

LINDA: She’s in control because she’s beautiful.

ZOE: Just because your beautiful doesn’t mean you’re in control.

LINDA: No, of course not. But some confidence comes with the territory. Fred, what do you think?

FRED: I don’t know?

LINDA: Well, what turns you on?

FRED: Turns me on? What do you mean?

LINDA: Well... Do you find Zoe attractive?

FRED: Yea, she’s O.K. What do you want me to say, it’s a hard thing to describe.

LINDA: Are we supposed to do some kind of theatre thing to get beyond this? Come on guys what’s going on here?

FRED: Let’s do some kind of ritual.

LINDA: (ironic) Ritual is it? Well, we could either go out shopping or tell each other stories.

FRED: Let’s tell each other stories.

LINDA: Les?

LES: This is completely stupid. I thought you were suppose to be directing this thing and now you expect me to participate in this group therapy session. I have no intention of doing the work of the writer or the director. If you wish me to do something I will, but I have no need for this Freudian bullshit that is suppose to bring us all somehow closer together. I’m here to shoot a script, not to expose myself in this feigned environment of familial closeness.

Fred: I think you’re afraid.

Les: Don’t be absurd. My private life is none of your business.

Linda: Well make something up.

Les: Why should I?

Linda: Maybe it will invoke some sort of trust. You agreed to be a part of this.

Les: Oh did I. I forgot. Okay but I want you to know that this is completely fictional.

(Linda gets up and massages Les’s back)

LINDA: (Jocular) Are you relaxed Les?

Les: No. I hate this.

LINDA: (still teasing) Did you like your mother?

LES: Fuck off. O.K. Here it goes. I must have been around twelve or so. My family and I... I was the oldest. My next brother was four years younger than me and when we had to, when there was nothing better to do, we would play together. More like it he would force himself on me and I would sometimes allow him to tag along. We lived on a bay in a little settlement made up of itinerant families who like us for some reason or other needed temporary housing. I think I needed to play with my brother that year. As soon as we got there I broke my shoulder and felt ostracized by...

Anyway, I was twelve and my brother and I wandered down to the dock, this little raft like thing, attached to the shore by a wonky gangplank, which floated on, this is the Pacific Ocean by the way, this rather tranquil bay. I guess the thing that grows in the imagination is that this is the ocean. I had never lived on the ocean before, I mean right on the ocean. To a young boy the ocean conjures up intense feelings connected with escape... that one could just sail off and ride the tide to some far away and exotic locale.

Great adventurer, fearless, brave, solitary, just yourself and a new frontier somewhere between god and a humble fisherman

(embarrassed by his passion of his memory, of long forgotten dreams of greatness),

Anyway, my brother and I were on this raft, dragging sticks in the water, tossing them in, watching them float away, imagining that it’s you, floating away. One thing about this raft was that it seemed to be rather precariously attached to the shore.

(he laughs a little)

You know how kids can shift gears simultaneously. We started jerking our bodies around, so that the raft lurched in the water and not being satisfied with that we started jumping up and down violently as if to crack the raft in two. We got this idea that if we rocked it hard enough the raft would break loose and we would be set free to drift on the oceans blue. Well (he laughs) it worked. The raft broke away we started to drift. In a split second both my brother and I rushed to the gangplank to scramble onto shore. We both arrived at the narrow plank, wide enough for one, at exactly the same time. In a panic, I pushed him aside, violently pushed him, my little brother with all my strength and dashed up the plank with the complete sense that I was about to die right there at that very moment. No elaboration, just death and a flash of my tiny life, exploding. I thought I was going to die, I mean it wasn’t a thought, death doesn’t come like a thought all you have is a split second to squeeze out a reaction and my reaction was to push my little brother out of the way. I think that was the moment I lost my faith. I had my first lesson in how things really worked. Here I had been taught to put others first; and now I had experienced, in a really primal way, that the impulse to survive comes before the impulse to protect.

ZOE: Not if you’re a mother. (long pause while everyone looks at Zoe, she’s embarrassed.) I think your story is really beautiful. There is something really exciting about discovery and taking a chance. Something scary and wonderful. (Zoe looks at Linda.) I’m sorry. What happened to your brother?

LES: Nothing, he didn’t even notice.

FRED: Imagine if you hadn’t knock him off, you coulda sailed away on that raft and gotten your dream.blackout

SCENE SIX

LATE AT NIGHT, THEY ARE SITTNG AROUND HAVING A BEER AFTER A HARD DAY’S WORK. ZOE IS THE ONLY ONE NOT DRINKING. LINDA IS GETTING VERY DRUNK.

FRED: Women who get paid for sex, up front, no bartering housework for a place to live and food on the table can be regarded as highly evolved human beings.

LINDA: You’re right. They understand capitalism. They’re able to take a natural resource, albeit non-renewable, and turn it into a cash cow. If they’re smart they build up a reliable clientele and if they have come out of childhood relatively undamaged then they can even enjoy their work with whom they please. To tell the truth, I don’t see working as a prostitute as being that much different from being an actress.

Zoe: Are you saying that? I am so... You think that what I do is like what a prostitute, a whore does.

Linda: How come sex for love is honourable and sex for money is disgusting? The physical act hasn’t changed.

LES: Is that your rationale, you barter sex for love?

LINDA: I like sex, I like it a lot. The last time I had sex was two years ago. To be denied sex, I mean sex is like eating and sleeping it’s that basic. It’s a drive for god sake, O.K. you don’t die without it, but in a way, a part of you does, your skin withers, your tears dry up, your heart calcifies and your bones become brittle, you loose the light the shines inside of you.

Les: You’re talking about getting old Linda.

Linda: If I sold it, I’d be having sex at least once a day and I’d be making a decent living. You know why? Cause I’m really good at it.

Zoe: So why don’t you?

FRED: You mean you haven’t had sex in two years? That’s really weird.

LES: If you ask me I think the whole sex thing is over rated.

LINDA: It’s all about aging, dying and lack of love. Freud said...

LES: Fuck Freud.

LINDA: That’s a good idea. (She bursts out laughing while looking at Fred.) (sobering) It all comes down to power.

FRED: You got this thing with power. If you’re so into power why don’t you work as a prostitute.

ZOE: That’s what I said.

LINDA: Because we are afraid of being powerful. Women are afraid of bucking the system. We’re indoctrinated from birth to be good girls. We are force fed examples of what it means to be good girls right from birth. All the films that we see and novels that we read tell us that girls who sell their bodies end up in the gutter as drug addicts and alcoholics, alone and used up. It would take a lot of energy to work against that ingrained idea. But there are thousands of women who work privately, successfully and happily in the sex industry.

ZOE: (Begins to dance provocatively.) Is this selling your body?

LINDA: (Ignoring Zoe.) If whore is a bad word then I say the worse whore is the whore who promotes the ideology of wife and girlfriend. I mean I see actresses, because they want to work so badly, taking on roles that are perfectly ridiculous interpretations of women.

ZOE: That’s a really stupid thing to say. You’re making a film and you’re using actors. Who do you think stands up there and takes all the risks? Not you, the actor does that. I don’t say anything about your writing. You make me really sick you know. You have no regard for the kind of work that I put into this. You think you’re such a fucking intellectual. Why don’t you put yourself in your own stupid film, I’d like to see that.

LINDA: I have a point of view, a point of view that’s more real, more truthful, more dynamic and thoughtful than anything they have ever seen.

ZOE: (Zoe has taken off her shirt.) Look at me. Is this your point of view?

EMBARRASSED ZOE RUNS OUT. LES GRABS ZOE’S DISCARDED SHIRT AND FOLLOWS HER OFF STAGE.

LINDA: I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t.

FRED GOES OVER TO LINDA.

LINDA: You better be careful.

FRED: Why?

LINDA: You’re young, young is cute, what are you going to be when you’re forty?

FRED: Better.

LINDA: It’s not always better. Things get harder.

FRED: Nothing tells me it’s going to be any different.

LINDA: How can you be so sure?

FRED: I know what I want and I can tell what other people want.

LINDA: And how did you learn all this?

FRED: From my mama. (laughs) Not from books.

LINDA: What happens when you get what you want.

FRED, NOT MOVING, CANNOT LOOK DIRECTLY AT LINDA.

 

SCENE SEVEN

ANOTHER DAY OF WORK, LINDA AND ZOE ARE ALONE IN THE SPACE. ZOE IS BATHED IN A BLUE LIGHT FROM THE PROJECTOR. SHOTS OF CLOSE-UPS OF HER BODY ARE PROJECTED ONTO HER.

ZOE: Man seeks the whole of himself in her and because she is All, she is All, this is, on the plane of the inessential; she is all the other. And as the Other, she is other than herself, other than what is expected of her. Being all, she is never quite this which she should be; she is everlasting deception, the very deception of that existence which is never successfully attained nor fully reconciled... And how exactly would you like me to read this?

LINDA: Just very matter of fact.

ZOE: I can’t relate to this stuff. I’m not all, I’m not other.

LINDA: Don’t you see that this is describing women’s place in society.

ZOE: No, I don’t. (silence) Were you damaged as a child?

LINDA: Yea, like everyone else.

ZOE: So you were abused?

LINDA: I don’t know if I would define it in that way. It’s no big deal really. The usual misunderstanding, the sensitivity of the child coming to terms with the separation from the parents and that struggle to come to terms with one’s self only to learn that one is truly alone in the world and how frightening that really is. Do you have a boyfriend?

ZOE; No.

LINDA: Why not?

ZOE: I don’t know. (silence) I guess I’m afraid. Guys have always wanted something from me that I didn’t understand. I’m afraid of being hurt.

LINDA: Well then I’ll ask you... Were you damaged as a child?

ZOE: I didn’t have a mother.

LINDA: What happened?

ZOE: She left.

LINDA: Oh, that must of hurt.

ZOE: Yes it hurts.

LINDA: Well at least you know what your problem is.

ZOE: Do you think that knowing that my mother abandoned me makes things clearer and easier.

LINDA: Perhaps your mother was a remarkably brave woman, I’m sure that was a hard thing for her to do. I’m sorry, my mother really messed me up that’s all.

ZOE: At least you had one. I think it makes it hard for me to trust people.

LINDA: It’s not really a good idea... that trust thing. People are very self interested.

ZOE: So you don’t trust anyone either.

LINDA: I’m careful. I keep both eyes open. I decide who I’m going to trust.

ZOE: How can you decide who you are going to trust. Trust is like a feeling, or a way of being that you can’t change.

LINDA: No, no, feelings are choice, it’s self-discipline. You can choose to let things affect you in certain ways. It’s taking control and responsibility for your life.

ZOE: Haven’t you ever been in love with someone even though you know that it’s wrong?

ZOE STARES AT LINDA

 

SCENE EIGHT

FRED AND ZOE ARE LYING ON THE BED REHEARSING A SEX SCENE. LES HAS THE CAMERA IN HAND TRYING TO GET THE RIGHT ANGLE. LINDA IS HOVERING ABOUT.

LINDA: This is boring. This is really really boring. Why are there no new startling situations. Is it because we exhaust the challenges? Try it again. Come in faster. Know this, done that!

FILM APPEARS AS PUNCTUATION THROUGHOUT THE SCENE WE SEE THEM MAKING LOVE.

LES: There is no new territory.

LINDA: I’m tired of being disappointed.

FRED: You have a very negative attitude.

LINDA: Well I’m realistic, I see the limitations.

FRED: Limitations is it? I just see a world of endless possibilities.

LINDA: Men! (flirtatious) I see possibilities, I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t.

FRED: I’m not sure. It sounds like it’s coming from the imagination of a person who has given up.

LES: That seems a bit formulaic. (referring to Zoe’s pose, he comes in and makes an adjustment.)

LINDA: The imagination has limits and if it didn’t it would be incomprehensible. Language is symbolic, my dear, we have to use things that are recognizable. There is a limit and the limit is called meaning.

FRED: You never know what will happen if you go somewhere that you have never been before.

LINDA: Ah, experience and sensation. That’s fine when you’re young, but living from sensation to sensation is...

FRED: You don’t understand what I’m talking about, living without sensation is death. You’re creating artificial sensation. Sensation without... I don’t know, sensation without feeling... without love.

LINDA: I can’t invent love.

FRED: What do you mean?

LINDA: I’m forced to... I guess I invent this artificial, no you’re wrong, love’s not enough.

FRED: Love is everything.

LINDA: Money is everything.

FRED: How can you say that?

LINDA: Cause money can destroy love

FRED: Not true (love)...

LINDA: You were going to say true love. You’re such a romantic, that’s so sweet.

FRED: That’s a condescending thing to say, you know that. Nobody listens to... You know what the most enlighten state of being in the world is... The two-year-old girl.

THE LIGHTS FADE OUT ON THE ACTORS AND LINDA IS LEFT ALONE ON THE STAGE.

 

SCENE NINE

YOU CAN HEAR A LIGHT RAIN ON THE ROOF. A FILM IMAGE APPEARS OF A WOMAN BASHING HER HEAD AGAINST A CEMENT WALL, IT’S BOTH DISTURBING AND COMICAL.

LINDA: None of this belongs here. Wait a second, wait a second, wait a second. (takes a deep breath, to control her shaking.) I want to be touched. I want to be held. Why is that so difficult to say. I want someone to take over the part of me that has to keep saying “You’re strong, you’re beautiful, you’re great, it will be okay, you’ll survive, I’ll look after you.”

Notes on why I don’t phone you.

Because it would make it heavy.

Because we are both afraid.

Because there is nothing to say.

Because you are a figment of my imagination.

Because I would scare you.

Because living in a state of fantasy is safer.

Safeness, caution, and being chosen are better even though I know that this thing will not get acted on, this thing being the impulse, because of the nature of who we are. I could say yes, but I don’t.

The gray areas of fear: I like to be alone, it produces anxiety and anxiety produces work. If I phoned and we got together then that would take time and I am too busy. I am aware ahead of time what all the problems will be.

I don’t want to be with someone who is afraid.

If he made the choice then the footing would be better, men like to make the choice. But...

You are so sweet and I ache to taste your kisses. The inaccessibility of your alien affection is a complete turn on. I won’t phone.

You believe in fate, I believe in action...(she picks up the phone)

Nope, I’m going to wait this one out.

(she takes a drink)

ZOE HAS BEEN WATCHING LINDA THROUGHOUT THIS. SHE COMES FORWARD.

LINDA: What are you doing? (Zoe starts to shake.)

LINDA: What wrong? (Zoe can’t talk.) Tell me. (Linda is comforting her.) What’s wrong?

ZOE GRABS ON TO HER TIGHTLY AND WON’T LET HER GO.

 

SCENE TEN

LINDA AND FRED IN BED TOGETHER.

FRED: Oh God your hair smells great. (He breathes it in. He rolls over on his back and Linda snuggles in the crook of his arm. He plays with her hair, Linda luxuriates in being fondled.) You know my first memory, no that’s not true, but whatever I remember when I was about four years old, the smell of this shampoo, it’s strange eh, the ways that memories come back on you. It’s like I can see the little cone shaped tip that the lather made on the top of my head as I sat in the tub while my mother gave me a bath. I was about four years old.

Linda: Don’t tell me, that was 1975, my third year in university.

Fred: Ouuh, I bet I woulda liked you then, a little hippy co-ed.

Linda: How do you know about hippy co-eds?

Fred: From my ma....

Linda: You’re going to say Mom.

Fred: Do we care?

Linda: No.

Fred: So my mom was giving me this bath. With this Woodbury shampoo, you remember that? It’s like details are crystal clear, my dad comes in and he says “I got go look for Tippy she’s run away.” That was my little dog that my dad had just given it to me, I remember thinking he was the coolest guy around, or thinkin when’s he gonna get home so I can hang out with him, but he was hardly ever home.

Linda: Why do memories of childhood all see so sad.

Fred: I don’t know.

Linda: You know, I never could stand the idea of having a family. That perfect little unit. That notion of the ideal, the perfect little reproducing machine. Families, what a concept. Can’t live with them, can’t live without them. So your dad went out to look for Tippy.

Fred: Yea, they looked for a couple of days but they never found her. Little beagle, god she was so cute. We never got another dog. My mom wouldn’t let my dad get another one. It’s like I remember her yelling who was going to look after it. She was yelling she did all the work around the house and nobody ever lifted a finger to help her and bla, bla, bla.

Linda: She’s probably right.

Fred: Yea but I wanted that little dog, I woulda looked after it. She never let me. I think that’s when I started to dislike her.

Linda: The dog ran away, that’s not her fault.

Fred: My dad would do things for fun, and all my mother ever talked about was work, and things that had to be done. Are you awake? Linda?

Linda: I’ve got to go to sleep, I’ve got an early day tomorrow.

Fred: Night, (he leans over and kisses her)

Linda: Fred, don’t tell anybody

 

SCENE ELEVEN

ZOE APPEARS ON FILM HAVING AN EXTENDED ORGASM. THE SOUNDS OF HER ORGASM REVERBERATES AS ISOLATED SOUND IN THE SPACE. THE LIGHT BEHIND THE SCRIM SLOWLY COMES UP AND REVEALS ZOE ON THE MICROPHONE LIP SYNCING HER SOUNDS TO THE IMAGE. LINDA COMES INTO THE SPACE.

LINDA: Thank you, that’s enough.

LES ENTERS

LINDA: What do you think?

LES: I don’t think much about desire, I like to move right to fulfillment and if I can’t then I move on. Desire... You think too much Linda, you’d be much happier if you thought less and just got out and had some fun. I don’t sit around, twiddle my thumbs, and think about what’s wrong with the world. I figure out what needs to be done and I go out and do it.

LINDA: Gee Les, you’re really lucky,

LES: You’ve got a bad attitude, that’s your problem. You sit around and think too much.

LINDA: I don’t know, it just doesn’t seem that simple to me.

LES: You cause yourself a lot of problems.

LINDA: I don’t doubt that.

LES: Like this film that you are all tied up in a knot about. Why don’t you just tell a nice little love story, I’m serious, let me finish. You’ve got yourself all wrapped up in this weird sex thing. I don’t understand it. People go to the movies to have fun, they go to enjoy themselves and eat a little popcorn, go out with their friends look at the movie stars and you know have a good time. But you want to tell the world how wrong it all is. That sucks Linda. You’ve got no right to tell people that it’s all wrong. Who cares. What we need are good role models, some good strong people up there so that we got some sort of hero thing happening so that people can feel good about themselves and see how easy it is to make something good out of your life instead of always thinking about how bad everything is. You know this stuff that you do about guys, guys are gonna take one listen to this and their gonna say, “Shut up ya whinning bitch”, you know what I mean.

LINDA: I’m afraid that I can’t simply have fun, I don’t feel like I have choice. I’m trying to say something. It’s so hard to talk about. This anxiety has been produced in me because, because every time I turn around I have to look at an image of a beautiful woman staring me down and this little voice, no it’s not even a little voice, we’re all affected by it you know. Don’t you ever wonder why life seems so complicated?

LES: You make it complicated, it’s simple really. O.K. I just broke up with my girlfriend, I’m on my own now, but when I want to be with someone I just go out and look.
LINDA: I don’t see the world with the same rosy outlook, I think we have a dark side, we all do, and I am exploring it, it comes up. I’m not going to ignore it. You didn’t tell me you had a girlfriend.

LES: And this dark side, how far do you go with it, murder?

LINDA: No the boundary exists, killing is a crime. Why didn’t you tell me you had a girlfriend?

LES: Do you care?

LINDA: Of course I care.

LES: Why?

LINDA: I don’t know. Why did you break up with her?

LES: She wanted to get married. You’ve always had a sliding scale for ethics and morality.

LINDA: Yea and you’re so rigid that you would sacrifice any human relationship for your sacred beliefs.

LES: Don’t you?

LINDA: You didn’t want to spend the rest of your life with her?

LES: The next thing would of been her wanting to have kids, yea, I’m sorry, I don’t want to have kids. But you acknowledge that something’s are wrong?

LINDA: Of course I do. Do you miss her?

LES. I’m not a monster Linda, of course I miss her, we had a great time together but... we didn’t want the same things so....

LINDA: I wanted to have a kid.

LES: Sometimes you talk as if I didn’t know you.

LINDA: Sometimes I look at you and think you don’t. Do you like Zoe?

LES: She’s a great kid, beautiful girl.

LINDA: What do you think of me?

LES: I don’t know. You’re cool.

LINDA: You mean cold.

LES: Yea it’s a bit of a cement wall.

LINDA: Is that it?

LES: You’re too smart for your own good.

LINDA: Intelligence is a curse. What do you think of me sexually?

LES: I think if I wanted to I could sleep with you.

LINDA: That is an unbelievably arrogant thing to say. What makes you think I would sleep with you?

LES: Wouldn’t you?

LINDA: You’re a dog, you’d sleep with anyone.

Les starts barking, FRED ENTERS.

 

SCENE TWELVE

FRED COMES UP TO LINDA AND GIVES HER A BIG KISS.

FRED: I feel like I’m falling in love. I love that feeling. You know I was thinking the other day about this woman I use to know...

LINDA: Here come the stories.

FRED: I beg your pardon.

LINDA: Stories that new lovers tell each other that explain how they got to be where they are now. So the girl?

FRED: Woman. When do women become women.

LINDA: Twenty-five.

FRED: You’re sure about that. How can you say it so positively?

LINDA: There are things that you have to give up before you get to call yourself a woman.

FRED: This woman... my girlfriend... in college... you sure know how to take the piss out of things. She killed herself, this girl. I guess by your definition that makes her a woman.

LINDA: I’m sorry. Let’s do this okay? I don’t have much time.

FRED: What ever you say, you’re the boss.

FRED BEGINS THE VOICE OVER AS A FILM OF HIM AND ZOE IN BED IS PROJECTED. HE IMPROVES STUMBLING THROUGH THE FOLLOWING TEXT:

FRED: Idle to imagine falling in love as a correspondence of minds; of thoughts; it is a simultaneous firing of two spirits engaged in the autonomous act of growing up. And the sensation is of something having noiselessly exploded inside of each of them. Around this event, dazed and preoccupied, the lover moves examining his or her own experience; her gratitude alone, stretching away towards a mistaken donor, creates the illusion that she communicates with her fellow, but this is false. The love object is simply one that has shared an experience at the same moment of time, narcissistically; and the desire to be near the beloved object is at first not due to the idea of possessing it, but simply to let the experiences compare themselves, life reflections in different mirrors. All this may precede the first look, kiss or touch; may precede ambition, pride or envy; precede the first declarations which mark the turning point -for from here love degenerates into habit, possession and back to loneliness.

FRED: You didn’t write this did you?

LINDA: No.

FRED: I can tell, you know I feel challenged by you, (he pretend boxes her).

LINDA: I’d rather not fight.

FRED: We can decide not to fight.

LINDA: It’s the fight with myself that I don’t want to have. The one between the idiotic pleasure that you love trying to kill... Oh never mind.

FRED: Here, (he massages her back) relax. You don’t have to use this in your movie, relax.

LINDA: Look, Fred, I’m sorry. I’m not up for a big relationship thing.

ZOE WALKS IN. They all wait for Linda to say something.

LINDA: Okay. Let’s see. I want to... Hold on a sec. You guys just get into bed together.

LINDA BURIES HER HEAD INTO HER BOOK SHE SCRIBBLES SOMETHING DOWN THEN HANDS A PIECE OF PAPER TO ZOE. ZOE READS IT SILENTLY THEN LOOKS AT LINDA.

ZOE: Really?

LINDA: Give it a try.

ZOE: I long for you my darling, the idea of you. The you in heat, the bloated straining you of passion. Victorious and circling, above the me succumbed. Succumbed? You, succumbed?

LINDA: What?

FRED: (to Linda) She means that you’re a cold bitch. (about to cry) I’m sorry. I gotta get out of here.

FRED EXITS

ZOE: Are you in love with Fred?

LINDA: I’ve stopped requiring that to be a prerequisite to intimacy.

ZOE: You don’t need him?

LINDA: I don’t actually need anyone.

ZOE: (SINGING) Everybody needs somebody, sometime. Everybody needs someone to love.

LES: You needed me.

LINDA: Oh come on, don’t put that sentimental bullshit on top of this.

LES: What about what’s his name?

LINDA: It was a little fun thing, we’re not all wrapped up in analyzing each other.

LES: You’re equal?

LINDA: It’s not about equality.

LES: The thing you fought for all your life?

LINDA: Damn right.

LES: So you’re throwing in the towel.

LINDA: No. A good fighter picks the right fight. I want to work on the strip.

ZOE: Okay.

LES: I’ll leave you to it.

LES EXITS

LINDA: So...

ZOE CROSSES HER ARMS.

ZOE: I don’t feel very... If you want to deal with sex honestly, why have you chosen a frigid woman to be your goddess?

LINDA: People like to look at beautiful things. Art still has a link to aesthetics.

ZOE: I thought you were critical of all that?

LINDA: I am.

ZOE: Who defines what is beautiful?

LINDA: I think it has something to do with inaccessibility. Why did you take this on?

ZOE: I thought it might help me.

LINDA: Why do you want to be an actress?

ZOE: I get to be someone else.

LINDA: You’re not happy with who you are?

ZOE: I’m not happy with what I’m suppose to be.

LINDA: Let’s rehearse the scene.

ZOE BEGINS A SLOW STRIPTEASE. SHE TAKES OFF AND ARTICLE OF CLOTHING AT A TIME AND LINDA COAXES HER THROUGH IT INDICATING AND ADJUSTING WHAT SHE WANTS. ZOE IS GETTING MORE AND MORE FRUSTRATED. SHE TAKES OFF HER TOP AND BRA.

ZOE: Here are my tits, where would you like them?

LINDA: I’m sorry, but you agreed to do this.

ZOE: I don’t really understand it you know.

LINDA: Why is it so hard to figure out.

ZOE: You’re asking me to expose myself and you are hiding behind a bunch of rhetoric.

LINDA: Where did you learn the word rhetoric.

ZOE: I’m not an idiot. That’s your problem, you think I’m some dumb kid but I’m not, I’m smart and I’m beautiful. You’ve got a chip on your shoulder.

LINDA: I’m going to admit something to you Zoe. I hate it when women use their sexuality to get people to pay attention to them. You use your sexuality to get people to pay attention to you. I have a problem with that because that’s the way that the world wants to view women and as long as there are women like you using their bodies to gain attention then... I mean I have to scream to get noticed. And you, you, you, just by walking into a room, can cause a riot, people forget what they were saying and you can cause this without even opening your mouth.

ZOE: Why don’t you just pour acid all over me.

LINDA: (furious) Don’t say such stupid things.

ZOE: You are no better than anyone else. You’re just judging me by the way I look. And worse, you’re bitter because you’re no longer young and attractive. That’s what you’re afraid of you know! You judge people based on how they look. You’ve got half a movie shot, I’m gonna walk, and you’re gonna lose everything that you’ve worked for.

LINDA: Wait a second, there’s a principle here. I hired you to do a specific role, you understood that when I hired you, now your telling me that you don’t feel like it, that it seems wrong or that you’re worried that you’re going to be judged?

What the hell do you do for a living?

Zoe goes to leave.

LINDA: Wait a second. (She pauses and then...)O.K. Go.

Zoe turns, as she gets to the door...

ZOE: You don’t care about me.

LINDA: I’m trying to make a point...

ZOE: Yea, but you are creating...

LINDA: (ignoring her) There’s a reason why it’s written this way.

ZOE: What makes this any different than the stuff that you are trying to criticize.

LINDA: My intentions....

ZOE: Good intentions aren’t good enough.

LINDA: We’re supposed to have solidarity not be against each other.

ZOE: Yea well you’d never know that from the way you treat me.

LINDA: What are you afraid of?

ZOE: What am I afraid of!!! It’s you who’s afraid, afraid your film...

LINDA : My film what?

ZOE : Nothing.

LINDA: Finish saying what you were going to say.

ZOE: It was nothing.

LINDA: You were going to say you didn’t think this was a very good project. But you can’t tell, nobody can tell until it’s finished.

ZOE EXITS.

LINDA: Wait!

 

SCENE THIRTEEN

LINDA MOVES TO THE BED WITH HER NOTEBOOK AND LIES DOWN. A FILM OF FRED AND ZOE KISSING IS PROJECTED BEHIND HER. THE IMAGE EXPLODES AS LINDA READS FROM HER NOTEBOOK:

LINDA:

To fill a Gap
Insert the thing that caused it-
And ‘twill yawn the more
you can not solder an Abyss
with Air
There is a pain so utter
It swallows substance up
Then covers the Abyss
With trance
So memory can step
Around - Across - Upon it

ZOE APPEARS ABOVE HER.

LINDA: Are you an angel?

ZOE: It’s a vocation.

LINDA: Does having a vocation make it easier.

ZOE: You said it yourself. You can project on to me.

LINDA: Do I get it right.

ZOE: Right enough.

LINDA: Where do I go from here?

ZOE: You can go anywhere you want to. You can stop being the director.

LINDA: Women need power.

ZOE: They have it.

LINDA: Not in the real sense.

ZOE: They have it in the only way that matters.

LINDA: How did you learn to be so smart?

ZOE: From you. I’m here. What would you like me to do?

ZOE’S IMAGE DISSOLVES INTO HER PROJECTED IMAGE ON THE SCREEN. HER MOVEMENTS SLIDE FROM BEING SYNCHRONOUS WITH THE FILM IMAGE TO DISCONTINUOUS UNTIL SHE DISAPPEARS.THE END