A KINGDOM, A COUNTRY OR A WASTELAND,IN THE SNOW

By Lola Arias

Translation by Jean Graham-Jones © (August) 2006

CHARACTERS:

FATHER: king of the edge

MOTHER: sick queen

DAUGHTERS:

LUBA: the totally twisted girl

LISA: the girl who's always falling in love

REO: the little orphan boy

Translator's notes:

1. In the dialogue, I've translated mamá and papá as Mother and Father. In the play the other characters call each by only the one name, so I've used Mother and Father throughout.

2. Reo, in Spanish, means culprit, accused, criminal, fugitive, bum. However, in the play, it's also a mispronunciation of Remo (Remus in English). Luba, the character claims, means she-wolf, and it's certainly close to the Latin lupa. Luba and Lisa seem to be variants on the Romulus and Remus twin-theme as well, so I've kept them as given in the original. Please note that these names are not common in Argentina.

2

PREFACE

LUBA: History's always about familyA kingdom, a country or a wasteland, in the snowA throne of bones and rabbitsHistory's the return of the orphan-boyA sibling duel on the frontierA dead body that separates the countryfrom the rest of the worldHistory's the virgin's rapeA map traced with pieces of bodies

3

1. The obscene ones

In some snow-covered country, a scrawny family. MOTHER is chopping up meat on a table. FATHER rests seated on a miniature throne. EVERYONE is dressed in decaying pelts.

MOTHER [holding a knife]: When I opened up the belly, I found something soft, pinkish, covered in a membrane. I thought that it was some food or maybe a sick organ but no, it was a fetus. It had its eyes shut, its ears plastered back, a tiny little skinny hairy body. With the knife I opened up the bag, it looked to me like it was moving. I put it in the pot and it began to cook like it was about to be born. When I took it out, it was dead and hard. I tried to taste it and it made me want to throw up. I had to throw it out. I felt really bad. I couldn't stand up without getting dizzy.

FATHER: Did you take the medicine?

MOTHER I have the taste of fetus in my mouth.

FATHER: And the girls?

MOTHER: They went out hunting.

FATHER: Hunting?

MOTHER: Somebody has to go hunting. There are only two female rabbits left in the stable and their pelts are ruined.

FATHER: And the male?

MOTHER: It ran away, made a hole in the wire fence... did you hear that?

FATHER: What?

MOTHER: Wolves.

FATHER: They're hungry or maybe sad...

MOTHER: Luba whistles to them, then the wolves come to her, they lick her hands, her face, her knees, especially her knees. Lisa doesn't like wolves, she's always kicking them....

FATHER: I don't like wolves either... And the reserves?

MOTHER: There aren't any more.

FATHER: You'll have to go to the village.

4

MOTHER: They closed the grocery store, there's hardly anyone left. Without any men, I don't know who's going to hunt, look after the pelts. We have to marry them off.

FATHER: Later on, in summer...

MOTHER: The girls are very restless, they're already at that age. They go after each other with sticks, they throw each other into the snow... they talk about strange things, they call each other by men's names and they kiss on the mouth. A couple of days ago I got up because I couldn't sleep and there they were lying together in the same bed. The two of them, in each other's arms, like they were one body.

FATHER: They're very tight.

MOTHER: Too tight. They need a boyfriend.

FATHER: They have a father.

MOTHER: We all have a father.

FATHER: I was here first.

MOTHER: We're all going to die... someone has to live on and procreate.

FATHER: I'm not going to mate them with the first bum that walks through that door.

MOTHER: Nobody's going to come looking for a couple of sick girls. You should have accepted Fraus's offer, he was willing to keep both of them.

FATHER: Both of them and the house. The big fatty wanted to send us to the frontier. There where there's definitely no sun.

MOTHER: Here we don't see the sun either; we've been living in night for months now.

FATHER: Yes, it's nighttime, always nighttime. Who needs the day? The sun is vulgar.

MOTHER: Vulgar, I like that word...

The door suddenly bangs open. The two DAUGHTERS come in, covered in snow, dragging a sled with something large on it. They fall down on the floor, exhausted, frozen. FATHER lifts them up and seats them on the cot. LUBA is younger and rougher. LISA is older and beautiful.

FATHER: Bring me the alcohol. [FATHER rubs the girls' skin, he gives them something to drink. They gradually come back to life.] You can't go out hunting in this weather.

5

[FATHER observes the object on the sled, goes over to it, begins to throw back the pelts covering it.] It's a bear.

LISA: No.

MOTHER: A sea lion.

LISA: No.

[FATHER pulls back the last pelt and reveals the body of a sleeping man. He's slightly blue and bruised, half-naked and wrapped in dirty pelts.]

FATHER: Where did you find him?

LUBA: He was under a mountain of leaves, next to his body was a note that said: "Take care of me and you will be rewarded."

FATHER: Lisa?

LISA: He was trapped underneath a mountain of leaves and snow. We were looking for animals and we saw an arm sticking out. We tugged on the arm and he appeared, he immediately grabbed onto me, as if he'd been waiting for me.

FATHER [to MOTHER]: Cover him up. It's indecent.

[MOTHER pretends she's covering him, only to uncover him even more.]

MOTHER: I like him, he's like a fetus.

FATHER: It's strange, he looks like an animal, not a man. Is he dead?

LUBA: No, he's breathing, he has terrible breath.

MOTHER: He's cold, frozen... he's hurt.

LISA: When we saw him, we thought he was a beast, so Luba fired. He began to run and then he hurt himself on the branches.

FATHER: You'll have to take him outside, we can't keep this one.

LISA & LUBA: Please, Father, we'll take care of him, he won't make a fuss or anything.

LISA: Father, he's a poor little frozen orphan boy, can't we at least keep him until tomorrow.

6

FATHER: Until tomorrow. [FATHER goes to another part of the house. Sacar y poner major ¨Father leaves ¨es más claro porque no se describe cómo es la casa]

MOTHER: Put him over by the fire.

[THE SISTERS drag his body.]

LISA: He moved!

MOTHER: He must be thawing out.

LISA: He moved his hand my way, just a minute ago.

MOTHER: Then put him on the cot.

[The DAUGHTERS drag the body over to the cot. FATHER returns.]

FATHER: No, not our cot, no. Leave him over there, on the floor.

[The DAUGHTERS move the body and then stop. The body ends up in the same place it was before.]

7

2. Tits and hunger

LUBA and LISA stealthily move the body over onto the cot. LISA binds it with a piece of cloth.

LUBA: Did he lose a lot of blood?

LISA: No, hardly any...

LUBA: I could have killed him.

LISA: Yes... look...

LUBA: He's covered in hair.

LISA: He has the face of a man but the feet.

LUBA: They're dirty, raw ... His hands are worn out, fingertips smooth, no fingerprints....

LISA: He must have been walking around on all fours... like a savage. It's like the story of the boy who was raised by wolves. His parents had abandoned him in a basket or a bag in the river and the baby was saved because wolves took care of him.

LUBA: I told you, he's an orphan.

LISA: The she-wolf adopted him and fed him.

LUBA: And didn't he realize that he wasn't a wolf?

LISA: No, because when babies are tiny they're very hairy... And so the she-wolf thought that he was a cub and she let him suck on her tit.

LUBA: How many tits does a she-wolf have?

LISA: Five or six, all along her belly, scattered around...

LUBA: That's why they can have so many cubs, each one has his own individual tit...

LISA: Women have two at the most...

LUBA: There are women with more... they have little nipples coming out of their bellies...

LISA: Other tits?

8

LUBA: They're miniature tits, a little nipple like a girl's... It's a deformity, it's called... supernumerary nipple.

[LUBA and LISA stand there, thinking and watching REO.]

LUBA: And what if he's hungry?

LISA: Yours are bigger than mine.

LUBA: No, look... [LUBA shows her breast.] They're the same size, a handful. [LUBA compares her breast with her sister's.]

LISA: No, Luba, yours are bigger... let me measure. [LISA feels her own breasts, then feels her sister's.] Less than a handful.

LUBA: No, a handful.

LISA: And anyway you have one tit bigger than the other...[Pause.]

LUBA: ... We ought to let him sleep.

LISA: I'll stay, I want to be the first person he sees when he wakes up.

LUBA: No, Lisa, I'll stay. I have the rifle and I'm going to be up writing all night.

9

3. A great big coffin in the middle of the snow.

LISA, holding a light, appears beside her father's cot. She's whimpering. Cortar, se dice después.

LISA: Ow.

FATHER: You got scared.

LISA: Father, let me go, it's not funny.

FATHER: I'm sorry, little girl. You were crying... Why were you crying?

LISA: No reason.

FATHER: Because of him, you were crying for the little orphan boy.

LISA: I was crying for myself, because I'm sad, because I want to get out of this house. I can't stand the cold anymore or the night or the silence. It's like we're living in a great big coffin in the middle of the snow. Sometimes I can't even breathe.

FATHER: Don't say those things, I'm always doing things for you. Remember that I'm the one who saved you from that big fatty who wanted you to be his wife, your mother was delighted...

LISA: Mother's crazy and you're...

FATHER: Don't speak ill of your parents.

LISA: Who can tell me for sure you're even my parents. We don't look anything alike, nothing, not our eyes, not the color of our hair, not the way we talk...

FATHER: That's nature, sometimes animals have offspring that are different, a different color.

LISA: One time I was in the village and I saw a family where everybody was blond, the father, the mother, all blond, identical...

FATHER: Come on, Lisa, that's enough fighting. Let's go to sleep. [FATHER puts out LISA's light. Sounds of movement come from the cot.] Come closer.

LISA: No, move over. My stomach hurts.

FATHER: Let me stay like this.

10

LISA: Turn over that way. [Sounds of pounding and then silence, bodies joined together. Rubbing, bumping. LISA turns on the light.] I can't sleep, tell me something.

FATHER: A story?

LISA: Yes.

FATHER: Thousands of years ago there were two boys who'd been abandoned and raised by a she-wolf...

LISA: You already told me that one, but ... there were two boys?

FATHER: Yes, two: Romulus and Remus. Romulus was the founder of Rome, he killed Remus...

LISA: Oh, yes, I remember, Remus... Why don't you tell me another one.

FATHER: A long time ago, there was a very just man named Lot who lived with his family in a city of whores and fornicators. God was furious with this city and ordered that it be destroyed. But before he did, he took the time to warn Lot and his family, who managed to escape but the mother died...

LISA: How?

FATHER: She was turned into a pillar of salt but that's not what's important... The important thing is that they hid in a cave believing that the world had ended. One night, Lot's daughters got him drunk. They wanted to sleep with him in order to keep the human race going. So they got undressed and began to touch him. He let them do it without realizing...

LISA: I don't understand, a woman would never force herself on a man. Pregunta: me suena un poco raro seguro por ignorancia pero no se puede decir más directamente obligar o violar a un hombre? A woman would never rape a man?

FATHER: The Bible says so, they took advantage of him while he was drunk.

LISA: But if he wasn't aware, he couldn't have... been with them.

FATHER: That's the way it is, that's what the scriptures say.

LISA: They lie. Lot was also a sinner and God saved him, He killed Lot's wife, He set Lot up with his own daughters... God is a father too... [LISA gets up.]

FATHER: Don't you want to know how the story ends?

LISA: Maybe tomorrow.

11

4. The little orphan boy's bath

Dawn. The ORPHAN BOY [REO] is hiding under the cot. LUBA gets up. They exchange looks, each afraid of the other. The orphan is awkward and a bit of an idiot.

LUBA: Lisa!!!... Hi... Do you feel okay? What are you doing? Come out from under there, come out... [LUBA bangs the rifle on the floor.] We find you lying on the snow, that's why we brought you here. We thought you were dead... [REO opens his mouth like somebody who doesn't know how to speak.] Do you understand what I'm telling you? [The ORPHAN doesn't answer, he only looks at her.] What language do you speak? Are you mute? I-am-Lu-ba... Luba means: little she-wolf. This is my house and I live here with my family: my father, my mother, my sister Lisa. [LUBA goes over and gets under the cot. She hugs him.] Lisa told me, about the wolves...

[They look at each other like a couple of idiots.]

REO: Lu-ba.

LUBA: Yes, Luba, you can talk. [LISA enters, carrying a pillow.] Where did you sleep last night?

LISA: In the stable.... What were you doing with him?

LUBA: Nothing.

LISA: Didn't he speak to you?

LUBA: No.

LISA: And how did he get over there?

LUBA: He moved around half-asleep.

LISA: The truth, Luba.

LUBA: That's the truth.

LISA: Help me, Luba, we're going to give him a bath. [The DAUGHTERS put the naked ORPHAN in a strange bathtub. LISA looks at him, ecstatically, and dumps a pitcher of water over his head.] I'll soap him up, you rinse him off.

LUBA: Be careful around his eyes. [LISA takes off her shirt, she's now naked from the waist up.] What are you doing?

LISA: He was getting me all wet. [LISA frenetically soaps him, touches him.] The water ought to wake him up. [LISA sinks the ORPHAN's head into the water.]

12

LUBA: Stop it, you're going to kill him.

LISA: If he's alive, he'll have to react. [LUBA and LISA fight over the ORPHAN's head. Finally he comes flying up from the bottom of the tub, coughing and spitting out water.] He's looking at me. [REO looks at LUBA and LISA, surprised.] What's your name? [The ORPHAN looks at her.] I'm Lisa. You must be ... Remus.

LUBA: Remus?

REO: Reo.

LISA [to LUBA]: Reo, see, his name is Reo.

LUBA: He doesn't understand you, Lisa, he repeats words. [REO moves his hand to LISA's bare breast.] He doesn't understand you, you don't get it, he doesn't know what he's doing. [To REO.] She is my sister.

REO: My sisters.

LUBA / LISA: No, yours sisters, no, we are sisters, the two of us.

LISA: I'm the oldest, I was born a year before Luba. She almost died, she got tangled up in the cord, that's why her lips are blue.

LUBA: Why do you have to tell everybody that?

LISA: Where do you come from? [REO points toward the outdoors. LISA empties another pitcher of water over his head.] And your family?

[REO, drowning in the water LISA's emptying on him, begins to shake in the tub like an epileptic, splashing water everywhere and sputtering with difficulty, and then remaining motionless on the floor.]

LUBA: He's dead.

[LUBA and LISA go slowly over to the body.]

LISA: No, he's still breathing. [The TWO SISTERS wrap him, imprisoning him in a towel. They take him over to the cot and leave him lying there. LISA covers him.] He must be very confused... he touched me.

LUBA: He touched me too.

LISA: Don't lie, Luba, that drug makes you worse than Mother.

13

LUBA: It's not a drug, it's medicine.

LISA: Same thing.

14

5. The obscene also grow old.

FATHER, drunk and surrounded by a troop of miniature bottles, sings a strange song and dances about. Sacar acotación de danza que haga lo que quiera mientras canta

FATHER [singing]: Once I had a little white lady-lamb... how I loved that little white lamb...

[MOTHER comes in from outdoors, carrying an enormous sack.]

MOTHER: You drank up the entire collection...

FATHER: What does it matter to you.

MOTHER: It's a pity, you took so many trips in order to collect them all. [MOTHER takes a mountain of potatoes out of the sack.]

FATHER: Potatoes?

MOTHER: It's all they had left.

[FATHER goes over and touches the potatoes.]

FATHER: They're frozen.

MOTHER: They were going to throw them out. I asked them to give the potatoes to me while they were loading the trucks.

FATHER: They've already left.

MOTHER: Yes.

FATHER: Better... and the little orphan boy?

MOTHER: I don't think he's awake yet.

FATHER [singing softly]: Once I had a little white lady-lamb....

MOTHER: We could talk to Fraus again, he's a good man. I'm sure that if we tell him...

FATHER: I already told you no.

MOTHER: If it's not him, I can talk with our family down south. There's an old bachelor cousin who has cattle. Maybe he could have Luba. We're not going to find anything much better for her. And we can keep an eye out for one of the pelt traders for Lisa....

15

FATHER: The girls aren't going anywhere.

MOTHER: Before we had the stable, the pelts to sell. Now all we have is the night and the wolves.

FATHER: I don't want to hear anything more out of you. You have a big mouth good for scarfing down food and talking nonsense.

[BOTH are silent. MOTHER peels potatoes.]

FATHER: Am I old?

MOTHER: What?

FATHER: My hands, my neck, the way I talk... am I old? [MOTHER doesn't answer. FATHER gets up.] I'm going to go fix the roof, there's a thick layer of ice forming and it's letting the cold in. [MOTHER looks at him, immutable. FATHER climbs up a long ladder and looks out a window.] We're buried... the snow's covering everything up, the poverty, the countryside. Everything turns white, abstract...

MOTHER: Abstract?

FATHER: Yes, that, abstract. [MOTHER leaves the potatoes and begins to take her clothes off. She removes her shoes. FATHER looks at her foot, fascinated.] You're going to bed?

MOTHER: No, I'm going to take a bath.

FATHER: Your foot is so white, languid, long... [MOTHER takes off her other shoe, shows off her other foot.] And that one is lovely too.

[MOTHER continues undressing.]

MOTHER: Last night I had that dream again.

FATHER: The one about the idiots?

MOTHER: The world was full of idiots that drooled and fornicated with each other like animals and I ran holding this enormous womb... did you see it sink into the lake?

FATHER: That boy drowned, he stayed under the water.

[MOTHER continues undressing.]

16

MOTHER: But, you're sure he drowned? You put him in head first, like I told you, holding on to him by the feet...

FATHER: I already explained it to you... [MOTHER slowly moves toward the tub.] Can I take a bath with you?

MOTHER: No, better not, I'm going to take a bath with the potatoes.. If you want you can bring me the hot water.

17

6. Me

REO, cleaned up and wearing a woman's nightgown, in front of the table. LUBA, seated at his side.

LUBA: Come on, eat, hold onto the spoon. The way I taught you. [REO takes the spoon and raises it to his mouth. LUBA stops him.] Mashed potatoes.

REO: Smash potatoes.

LUBA: Mashed potatoes. [REO looks at her.] Mashed potatoes, before potato; fur coat, before rabbit. [REO wants to eat, LUBA keeps hold of the spoon.] Rabbits, before fetuses; fetuses, before God. Do you understand? Eat. [LUBA takes out her little notebook from inside her skirt and writes in it.] October 4th: today Reo learned how to say mashed potatoes and he doesn't eat with his fingers anymore. He still doesn't understand the relationship between potatoes and mashed potatoes. Could it be that potatoes are more abstract than mashed potatoes? [LUBA looks at him and keeps writing.] I wish I knew how to explain the world, but some things just cannot be understood. [To REO.] Before mashed potatoes, now nothing. Before, the past of all things. Before--do you understand? [REO does not understand.] Before. [REO throws his plate onto the floor.] No.

REO: No.

LUBA: No, we don't do that. Pick it up. [LUBA picks up the plate and throws it again, to show REO what he shouldn't do.] No, not that.

REO: Pick it up.

[BOTH go over to the plate and pick it up. REO throws it down once more.]

LUBA / REO: No...

[LISA enters, holding a mirror. She smiles at REO.]

LISA: What's going on here? [LISA picks up the plate from the floor.]

LUBA: No, don't pick it up, he's the one who has to do it.

LISA: You were making a mess.

LUBA: No, can't you see I'm teaching him.

LISA [to REO]: I brought you a present. [LISA gives REO the mirror to hold up in front of his face. REO looks at it, shyly at first, then he starts making faces.] sacar acotación That's you. [LISA takes the mirror and looks at herself.] And this is me.

18

REO: Me.

LISA: No, not you, me.

LUBA: He doesn't understand you.

[LISA looks at herself.]

LISA: Me.

[LISA holds the mirror in front of REO. He looks at himself and doesn't say a word. LISA holds the mirror in front of LUBA. LUBA covers it up with her hand.]

LUBA: I don't like mirrors.

[LISA starts the round over again. She looks at herself and says "me"; she holds the mirror in front of REO and says "me"; she holds the mirror in front of LUBA and says "me."]

REO: Me, me, me...

LUBA: He doesn't understand what me is. Can't you see?

LISA [to REO]: This one is me. [LISA holds the mirror in front of the plate.]

REO: Me.

LISA: No, the plate doesn't have a me. [LISA holds the mirror up in front of the wall.] The wall doesn't have a me. It's can't say me.

LUBA: Because it can't say me, that means it doesn't have a me?

LISA: Yes.

LUBA: So then when Reo wasn't talking, then he didn't have a me... when did his me happen?

LISA: Well, when he began to talk.

LUBA: So it just suddenly happened and before then he didn't have it? You're just making it up.

REO: Me, me, me... [REO beats his spoon against the plate.]

19

7. A miniature virgin.

LISA arranges the figures of a miniature Nativity scene. She positions the sheep, the shepherd, the Virgin Mary, all the while jabbering something we can't understand. Every so often, she raises her eyes to Heaven.

MOTHER enters, with a medicine kit. She looks haggard. She takes out some latex gloves from among the needles and bottles.

MOTHER: The two of them are wrapped up together in a corner of the stable like two little girls. The smallest one has red eyes and a strange fever...

LISA: And the other one?

MOTHER: The other one has lost a lot of fur, I put some medicine in her meal but she spit it out. We'll have to mate her soon because she's the only one left who can.

LISA: I thought that the bigger one was a male, but I never looked at its privates.

MOTHER: Well, they're there. The male has testicles in front of a hairless pink penis. It's like a scab... and the orphan boy?

LISA: His name is Reo.

MOTHER: Can he talk?

LISA: A little. He's very shy. He doesn't know what a family is.

MOTHER: He has problems, doesn't he? With understanding...

LISA: It doesn't seem so to me.

MOTHER: How did he end up abandoned?

LISA: I don't know, he doesn't like to talk about that.. I know they left him in a forest.

MOTHER: But he must have parents.

LISA: Yes, but he can't remember anything. That's why he doesn't talk so well, but Luba is teaching him.

MOTHER: What is she teaching him?

LISA: To talk and behave like a person, sometimes he's a little rough.

MOTHER: And is he learning?

20

LISA: I don't know. Luba won't let me sit in on the lessons. She says that if anyone's there, he gets inhibited and can't learn, that it's better if they're alone. I couldn't teach him anything, I get distracted. I'd rather she teach him; I bathe him, I take him out for walks...

MOTHER: Dressed like a woman.

LISA: Father won't loan us his clothes. Anyway, Reo doesn't care.

MOTHER: He looks like a hairy doll...

LISA: He's very masculine and intelligent, Mother.

MOTHER: But he spends all his time with Luba. It looks like they understand each other, they're like little animals.

[LISA tries on a dress and strikes a strange pose: her hands together and her gaze up toward the sky.]

LISA: Who am I? Look at me closely, who am I?

[MOTHER goes closer to LISA and walks around her.]

MOTHER: Grandmother?

LISA: No, Mother.

[LISA changes her pose: her hands cradling a baby, her eyes on the child.]

MOTHER: Is that a baby? [LISA smiles and changes her pose again.] A fisherman.

LISA: No, Mother, the Virgin Mary. Don't you see? I'm just like her.

[MOTHER looks at her daughter's slight body once more.]

MOTHER: That dress is a little tight on you.

LISA: Give me the scissors...

[LISA goes over to the kit.]

MOTHER: No, don't touch the medicine kit.

LISA: I'm not the one stealing your little bottles.

MOTHER: Your sister says exactly the same thing.

21

LISA: It's her, Mother, didn't you see her eyes? There are days when she looks like she's in some other world.

MOTHER: I don't know, I don't know which one of you it is, but you're both killing me... You get your little hands into the kit, you change the labels on me...

[LISA looks at her own body.]

LISA: For several days I've felt nauseous, queasy. I feel bad.

MOTHER: I feel bad.

LISA: We can never say anything to you without you looking like you're going to die.

MOTHER: I am going to die... at any moment.

LISA: Well, then... go ahead and die.

[MOTHER rummages around in the kit, she nervously tosses out some little bottles, which LISA picks up. Sacar acotación, muy explicativa]

Did you have an annunciation?

MOTHER: What?

LISA: Did anyone come to announce to you that we were going to be born? Some angel in a dream or maybe a voice...

MOTHER: No, when I was pregnant, I used to have nightmares, I dreamed about idiots.

LISA: You didn't like it?

MOTHER: Newborns are just a formless mass of flesh that can't talk or walk; only keep on exploiting their mother's body. When you two were born, the very same tits that gave you milk nursed the rabbits. I still have the teeth marks on my tits to prove it.

LISA: We were scrawny little things, you always liked the rabbits best.

MOTHER: Animals are born knowing how to do everything themselves.

[LISA takes out from among her clothes a miniature figure of the baby Jesus.]

MOTHER: And what does the baby Jesus have to do with this?

22

LISA [crying]: The baby Jesus brings happiness, everyone loves him. He's born and he dies every year, in the same position, with his arms on the cross... I'm going to marry Reo and we're going to have a son. We're going to go live far away, someplace where it's always summer.

MOTHER: Your father won't let you.

LISA: He won't have any choice but to accept it. He wouldn't want this little piece of flesh not to have a father.

Lisa sale, Madre se queda organizando las botellas.

Reponer esta acotación porque da fin a la escena.

23

8. The Sleigh

A body is sleeping on its back: it's dressed like a woman and completely covered by pelts. FATHER comes in, he's slightly drunk.

FATHER: Lisa, are you asleep? I brought you some potatoes. [FATHER sits down on the bed next to the body.] Are you mad at me? [No answer.] Aren't you going to eat? If you want, I can tell you a story... the one about Abraham... [Something gets adjusted under the pelts.] When Abraham turned 100 years old, God gave him a son named Isaac. But one day, God asked him to return Isaac to Him, He appeared to Abraham in a dream and he told him: "Abraham, take your son, whom you love, and go to Mount Moriah. There you shall offer him as a burnt offering."

Abraham took his son by the hand and began to walk. It was a dark morning, it was very cold, the son's hand trembled in his father's hand. The son turned around and saw his house disappearing over the horizon. Then he looked at the firewood and asked his father: "Where is the little lamb?" But Abraham did not respond. When they got to the top of the mountain, Abraham placed his son on top of the firewood, he bound him and took out his knife. Isaac's neck was whiter than snow. Abraham drew the edge of his knife near and when he was just about to slice his son's throat, an angel stayed his hand: "No, Abraham, it was a test, don't kill him." Do you understand, Lisa? It was a joke... He wanted to know if Abraham feared God enough to kill his own son... Did you like it? Let me lie down, don't carry a grudge... [FATHER touches something strange, he throws back the pelts and holds a light close to the body. REO's idiotic face comes into view.] What are you doing in Lisa's bed? [REO doesn't respond.] Answer me. I know that you understand what I'm saying. [REO, mute and motionless. FATHER shakes him.] Lisa says you have problems, that you don't understand, that you don't remember anything. I think you remember everything. Nobody forgets his past. Aren't you going to talk? Did they cut out your tongue? [FATHER slaps REO's face so he'll react. REO looks at him, unblinking.] I am the Father. Don't look at me like you don't understand. Lisa wants to get married and her idiot of a sister is in love but doesn't say a thing. Even my wife repeats your name in her dreams and cries. I don't believe a word of that story about the wolves... Lisa mixes stories up... I was an orphan too. My parents died when I was very little, they left me only a book, I raised myself, I was self-taught... I've traveled all over the world: the Orient, the desert, and I ended up here, at the end of the world... Would you like to see my collection? [REO remains motionless. FATHER takes out his collection of miniature bottles. He shows them to REO.] See? This one's from Russia, the Alps, and the red sun... [FATHER drinks and then offers REO a drink.] This one is typically oriental, because of the colors... [REO takes one of the bottles.] No, no, I'll give it to you. [BOTH drink and exchange little bottles. REO doesn't know how to drink.] You'll like this one... [They BOTH drink.] Come on, let's get up. [BOTH are drunk; es un poco abrupto decir que los dos ya están borrachos, tal vez major decir que Reo empieza a emborracharse ya que el padre ya está borracho desde el principio de la escenaFATHER drags REO.] Let's go to the sleigh... to the sleigh... [REO resists, he can't stay on his feet. Mover la acotación abajo que es más coherente FATHER goes to look for the sleigh and brings it back. REO doesn't want to get on but he can't stay on his feet Come on, sit there, hold on... [FATHER sits REO down and pulls the sled by the rein.

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REO goes round in circles on the sleigh, he's completely nauseous.] Now it's my turn. [FATHER sits down, and REO takes the rein, making the sleigh go in circles.] Faster, like the dogs, fast... [FATHER yanks on the rein and hurts REO. THEY begin to fight. REO tries to strangle FATHER with the rein. LUBA comes in carrying a notebook and when she sees that they're fighting, uses the rifle to try to separate them.]

LUBA: Enough, that's enough, Reo...

FATHER: He tried to kill me.

LUBA: Reo? [REO keeps quiet, he's flushed. LUBA helps BOTH of them get up.] Father, it would be best if you'd go lie down.

FATHER: Don't feel sorry for me.

LUBA: No, Father.

FATHER: He started it.

LUBA: It's alright, Father...

FATHER: Don't look at me with that face...

LUBA: It's the only one I have, it might be ugly but it's mine. [FATHER exits.] What happened? [REO doesn't answer.] You can tell me.

REO: He talked to me about Bram, little lambs... He said you in love with me. [TN: Reo speaks a fragmented, elementary language throughout most of the play.]

LUBA: He told you that? When he's drunk he says and does anything.

REO: True?

LUBA: The only thing that's true is your marrying Lisa. Do you know what that means?

REO: No...

LUBA: Marriage is becoming father and mother, just like them.

REO: She... She asked for... She gave me kiss.

LUBA: I'd rather not know.

REO: She says love and future... you teach me.

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LUBA: I can teach you the world. I can't teach you how you have to be... I brought you a notebook. [LUBA opens the notebook, it's filled with drawings and writing.] Do you remember? What was this?

REO: House.

LUBA: And this?

REO: Rage.

LUBA: No, marriage, no, I already explained this to you. Look: house, man, hand, family, tree, sun.

REO: Sun?

LUBA: Sun is light, in the sky. [REO looks up.] No, here there isn't any sun. Outside, no, not outside either. It doesn't matter, we'll scratch out that word. These are verbs: to be, to eat, to suffer, to love, to kick, to ask, to lose, to remember, to mess up, to betray, to kill, to die...

REO: I understand.

LUBA: Well, then write a sentence with these words. [REO takes a pencil and writes.] [LUBA reads:] "To be is to mess up and to die." [LUBA laughs.]

REO: Father tells truth.

LUBA: What?

REO: There are things I member. [REO puts his hand on LUBA's leg. LUBA takes his hand and holds it.] An old woman. Molly. She gave me lot to eat. She live alone in the mountain.... She didn't talk, we sleep with Death.

LUBA: Death?

REO: Death, black dog, no eye. Three of us sleep together. She told me hot. She asked for things. For me do it, touch her between legs. It smelled.

LUBA: Why didn't you tell me that you could remember?

REO: Before no. Now, some words bring memories.

LUBA: What I was a little girl, I couldn't talk or sleep. I was really afraid that everyone thought I was crazy. I'd spend the night with my hand between my breasts, waiting for my heart to stop beating. Sometimes I'd cry out, "I don't want to die." And the wolves would answer me back with their howls.

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9. Revelation.

In the semidarkness MOTHER is advancing toward REO's cot. She has her medicine chest. She lifts up the bedding while REO remains motionless. With the light, she illuminates REO's body until she gets to the lower part of his back and she shudders. MOTHER sits down next to REO, each looking at the other strangely, without saying a word.

LISA enters. MOTHER runs away, outdoors.

LISA: What did she do to you? [REO doesn't respond.] Did she touch you?

REO: No, don't know... no.. Looking at me here... [REO shows LISA the lower part of his back where he has a scar.]

LISA: Was she looking at your scar?

REO: Yes, scar...

[LISA goes over to REO and lays him back down in his cot.]

LISA: Time for sleep. [LISA exits rapidly in the same direction as her MOTHER.] Mother... Mother...

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10. Suicide and birth.

LISA, covered in mud, is throwing up in a bucket. LUBA holds her hair back. REO, motionless, watches.

LUBA: Take a deep breath.

LISA [from inside the bucket]: I can't.

LUBA [to REO]: Get more water.

LISA [pulling her head out]: She was near the lake, hanging from a tree, naked and frozen. She looked like a statue. And the wolves... [LISA interrupts herself in order to vomit. REO holds her by her hand.] The wolves were biting her feet. They had blood in their mouths and were looking at me. I tried to run them off, but I couldn't. They were destroying her, they'd go off into the snow with bits of her flesh... [LISA gets nauseous, LUBA too.]

REO: We're all going to die.

[BOTH girls look at him.]

LISA: The last time, we talked about babies. She told me to be careful, that some relations engender idiots. That if my son was an idiot the best thing would be to drown him at birth...

LUBA: Your baby's fine. Nothing's going to happen to him. [LUBA gets LISA into bed and sits down next to her.]

LISA: Why did she tell me that?

LUBA: She was envious.

LISA: And I told her to go die. "Die," I told her....

REO: Mother cantent live...

LISA: You say "couldn't"...

LUBA: No one wants to live but not everybody hangs himself because of it.

LISA: Father told me that she'd often threatened him she was going to kill herself.

LUBA: When I was a little girl and we'd be taking a bath, we'd pretend to drown, to see who could stay underwater the longest. She'd let me stay under only a little while, and she'd ask me not to pull her out, she said that she could last half an hour under the water.

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LISA: She had problems with the medicine kit.

LUBA: I thought she was never going to die.

LISA: I thought she was already dead.

REO: Father?

LUBA: I haven't seen him all day. He left very early. He said he was going to the village to get things for the ceremony...

LISA: He doesn't know anything?

LUBA: I don't think so.

LISA: We don't have to tell him. It's better if he thinks she went ... on a trip.

LUBA: Why are you going to lie?

LISA: He's already in a bad way. Since the baby, he's been getting drunk until he passes out.

REO: He gave me, he took me on the sleigh.

LUBA: You're crazy.

LISA: No, I'm not crazy. This never happened. Nothing happened. If he finds out, he's not going to want me to get married or have the baby.

LUBA: What's wrong with the baby?

LISA: He says it shouldn't be born... The best thing is for me to get married, that way we can go far away, the three of us.

[The THREE look at each other over the bed. LUBA rummages through the medicine kit and takes out a dirty letter.]

LUBA: Is that Mother's?

LISA: I don't know, it was next to the tree.

[LUBA leaves, with the letter in her hands.]

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11. The lovers.

LUBA reads her mother's letter. She begins to desperately sacar pack her bag. She packs very little clothing, some books and a great number of pill bottles. She takes her little notebook.

LUBA: December 3rd: the sun embeds itself in the snow, it's summer. I've polished the sleigh so that I can get away from here. I will never write again...

[REO enters.]

REO: We going?

LUBA: No, I'm going. Mother left me a letter, it's horrible. I don't want to see any of you ever again.

REO: I love you.

LUBA: You don't understand, you don't know what it / that means.

REO: Yes, I understand, you explained the words to me.

LUBA: And Lisa?

REO: Lisa too.

LUBA: Too what?

REO: She loves me too. And I like her, she's pretty.

[LUBA throws a book at his head.]

LUBA: You're an idiot, Mother was right... [LUBA bursts out crying. REO lies down on top of her. They look at each other.] You and I look so much alike... Lisa too. [LUBA runs her hand over his back.] The scar... Do you know why you have that scar?

REO: No.

LUBA: When you were very little, you fell down on your back against some rocks.

REO: How do you know?

LUBA: Mother told me... she wrote me. [REO kisses her while clumsily starting to take her clothes off.] What are you doing?

REO: I don't know.

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LUBA: No, no, it'll be better if you don't, it's not right.

[LUBA gets up, and REO pursues her, insisting.]

REO: Why?

LUBA: Because we're relatives...

REO: Relatives...Lisa and Luba sisters... I'm not relative...

LUBA: Relatives are family. Do you remember what that means?

REO: Yes. Me no like that word.

[REO begins kissing LUBA again. They go at each other while taking off their clothes until there's a heap of clothing on the floor along with objects from the suitcase. They climb into bed, they begin to awkwardly touch each other. They cover and uncover themselves while kissing and touching ( que se entienda que tienen sexo torpe y rápidamente furiously. After a couple of sexual? movements, they stop. They stay there, looking a little sad.]

LUBA: Different than with my sister?

REO: With your sister never happened. We kissed. One night she jumped on me, she smashed me and I bit her. Never again in my bed.

LUBA: You were never with her? And the baby?

REO: Baby?

LUBA: Lisa's pregnant.

REO: She told me father. I don't know. I don't understand rules here, I don't know maybe what say.

LUBA: Lisa was always Father's favorite. They'd go off hunting alone, he told her stories, they'd laugh just the two of them. I felt they ignored me. Mother was never home and I was left alone, playing with the wolves. Mother wanted us to be the same, she made us the same clothes. Two identical, deformed twins: the same stockings, skirt, little fur coat, but she was so pretty and I was so scrawny.

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12. Freedom looks like a rifle.

REO is carrying LUBA's rifle on his shoulder. LISA lies flat on her back next to the bucket.

FATHER enters with a big sack, he opens it and we see enormous hunks of meat.

FATHER: I found it outside, near the lake. There was a pack of wolves fighting over it, but they got scared when they saw me and I got the prey. I don't know exactly what kind of animal it is but it looks like it was something pretty big.

[LUBA and REO look at it. LISA doubles over and throws up into the bucket.]

FATHER: What's going on?

LUBA: She doesn't feel good.

FATHER: Just now when we can have a great dinner... where's your mother?

[The THREE look at the meat, they're about to cry. The THREE answer at the same time, their voices overlapping.]

REO: She went walk in woods.

LISA: She went shopping in the village...

LUBA: She went to visit some relatives in the South. She said she'd be back in a couple of days.

FATHER: You're all three idiots, retards.

LUBA: She said it was important, that a cousin was sick but that in a few days she'd come back.

FATHER: In a few days... But tomorrow we'd agreed to have the ceremony. We're not going to be able without your mother...

LISA: Yes, yes, we can.

LUBA: We can't put off the wedding. Lisa doesn't feel well and the baby could come at any moment, today we were talking to him in her belly and he gave three kicks. He's ready and he can't be born without his parents being united in matrimony.

FATHER: She must be up to something, she's sick. Just yesterday she was out of her mind, her hands were trembling and she was talking about tragedy. She said something terrible was about to happen, that she'd seen it in her dreams. She took a lot of pills but

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got worse. I fell asleep, and when I woke up, she wasn't there. I thought she'd gone to the stable but no, she'd left... She's crazy, really crazy, I don't know what to think anymore...

[FATHER leaves. LISA gets ups, holding the bucket in her hands and wobbling around.]

LISA: I'm going to go talk to him.

[LISA exits.]

REO: I don't want marriage.

LUBA: Maybe it won't be necessary. There's another way for the three of us to be free.

REO: Three of us?

LUBA: I asked Lisa and she said no, that he was her father and the father of her son, that she couldn't leave behind so many orphans. She said that a son without a father will go mad, that that way we'd be engendering monsters. She ordered me not to do it.

REO: Kill.

LUBA: For years I dreamed about Father's death. When he left the house, I imagined him drowning in the lake and a bear eating him. At first I'd be sad and then I'd feel an enormous relief in my body, an unbearable happiness... Do you know how to use a rifle?

REO: Yes...

LUBA: "One bullet per beast" Father used to say when he'd take us hunting. One time Lisa shot one of the dogs in the ass. We couldn't stop laughing, the bullet went in exactly in his asshole, an amazing shot. The dog was surprised and then he kept walking as if nothing had happened. He walked a good distance and then he lay down as if he were going to sleep and he died.

[REO clumsily aims the rifle in different directions.]

LUBA: No, not like that. You need to keep a firm arm and your eyes on the target.

REO: This?

LUBA: The important thing is to be sure of yourself.

REO: Head chest?

LUBA: The head is the surest. The important thing is not to think. To keep calm so that the beast doesn't get frightened.

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[LUBA points the rifle at REO.]

LUBA: Better yet, I'll shoot.

REO: Why?

LUBA: Because you don't have any experience and you could miss. Better if you stay really close to me and if he tries to escape, you trap him.

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13. The cry, or 1,000 poses for dying, or how death laughs at the scene

A single shot in the darkness is heard, and LUBA's terrified cry.

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14. Falling

REO is carrying LUBA's motionless body in his arms. BOTH are wearing clothing stained in blood. REO lays LUBA down and tries to wake her.

REO: Luba... Luba... [REO looks for and then gives LUBA some water. LUBA doesn't react. REO looks for something to make her react. He tosses around pelts, he hits objects, he shakes her.] Please.... Luba... [REO picks up LUBA, tries to make her stand, LUBA falls down, and opens her eyes.]

LUBA: Reo...

REO: Do you see me?

LUBA: Lisa... [LUBA's eyes tear up.] Where is she LISA? She no es claro, major que diga directo Lisa.

REO: In the snow. Her chest was like a big red, red hole and her red mouth also blood she said Reo and I cantent, she said I love you to me she said to me she said put baby to bed and she turned white her feet and her hands. [LUBA lightly stands up.] She alive when I lifted her her eyes I don't want to die she said and she died with my hand in her mouth I lifted her and she looked like sleeping dreaming another country I buried under the house I opened snow with my hands the earth and I lay her down the baby maybe wasn't dead

LUBA: She shouldn't have been in Father's bed.

REO: It was dark...

LUBA: And he?

REO: Father went for priest another village.

[THEY look at each other's bloodied clothing.]

LUBA: He must be about to return. We have to get ready for the ceremony.

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15. The idea of God

In the middle of the room, a small altar and beyond that a table with potatoes and a large covered bulk in the middle.

FATHER's wearing an enormous pelt. REO is next to him.

FATHER: It doesn't bother me to do it, the priest authorized me, anyway I know the word of God... Did they give you lessons on God?

REO: Luba explained God to me: the great abstraction, the father fatherland, the one that blows words into the mouth of his clay dolls and makes them live...

FATHER: Well, once he was made flesh in a man...

REO: Like me.

FATHER: Well, more or less...

REO: God is silence, He is everywhere but we can't see Him.

FATHER: And Luba?

REO: She feels bad, she'll be here for dinner.

[The BRIDE enters, covered in enormous veils, she places herself beside REO and in front of FATHER. FATHER takes a Bible from the altar and reads a selection, chosen at random.]

FATHER: Do you both promise?

REO: I do. [The BRIDE moves her head in agreement. The COUPLE kisses through the tulle.] Father must be first to try the wedding meat. [REO sticks a knife under the huge pile and pulls out a piece.]

FATHER: I've never tried meat like that.

[REO gets two glasses and serves FATHER.]

REO: A toast.

[Inappropriate music is heard. The FATHER takes the BRIDE and begins to dance, turning and turning.]

FATHER: Let me see you, Lisa, give me a last kiss.

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[The BRIDE lifts her veil.]

LUBA: Father, it's me.

FATHER: And Lisa?

LUBA: Dead, because of you.

FATHER: The blood on the pillow... on the snow.

REO: Father!

[FATHER turns, and REO lifts the covering. The meat has a human shape.]

FATHER: What did you do?

LUBA: It's Mother. She left you a letter.

[LUBA takes the letter out from her wedding dress. FATHER reads and goes pale. REO recites.]

REO: "Dear family: My rabbits have died. I'm going to hang myself. Time has gone against me. Reo, child of idiocy, I would drown you again, I don't regret it. Dear daughters, I leave you my medicine kit and my fur coat. Husband dear, we'll see each other again..."

FATHER: Reo, the one we threw into the lake?

REO: Yes, the idiot.

[FATHER attempts to drive the knife into REO's body, but REO defends himself. THEY fight. REO drags the FATHER over to the bathtub and submerges him in the water.]

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Epilogue.

LUBA with a belly and REO with his head resting on her lap.

LUBA: They say that sibling-love engenders idiot-children. Then we'll start a family of idiots and we'll live happily ever after at the end of the snow. We'll have one, two, a thousand idiot children and we'll let them run, love, die.

They'll get together, they'll have more idiots, and so on and so forth...

BLACKOUT.

END of PLAY

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