Real and Phantom Pains: An Anthology of New Russian Drama. John Freedman

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ

      LENOCHKA: No, Blizzard lives in 834

      SNOWFLAKE: You mean they’re neighbors already? I didn’t know that

      LENOCHKA: Everything everywhere has numbers on it

      MANIAC: Then maybe it’s something else

      SNOWFLAKE: There are so many sick people in the world

      LENOCHKA: Is it true you don’t have a safety chute?

      MANIAC: No safety chute and no insurance

      SNOWFLAKE: You must have some philosophy about that

      MANIAC: My philosophy is that, sooner or later, all of us will be smashed to death against a cliff

      SNOWFLAKE: Isn’t that lovely

      LENOCHKA: Are you a good BASE jumper?

      MANIAC: A good BASE jumper is a live BASE jumper

      SNOWFLAKE: He’s crazy. Did you know that even his hands glow in the dark?

      LENOCHKA: Yeah, he shows that to everyone

      MANIAC: Blizzard and I once got drunk on champagne and we did a two-way jump

      LENOCHKA: Together?

      SNOWFLAKE: I’d never jump

      MANIAC: What about with me?

      SNOWFLAKE: Not in your dreams

      MANIAC: Snowflake, I’m beginning to wonder if you’re a conformist at heart

      SNOWFLAKE: Is that so bad?

      LENOCHKA: You don’t have any principles at all

      MANIAC: You think I don’t have any principles? Man, it’s you that doesn’t have any principles

      LENOCHKA: Yes, I don’t have any principles, but that’s because I get new ones every day. We live in an accelerated age. Everything is speeding up

      MANIAC: Speeding up for some, slowing down for others

      SNOWFLAKE: It’s all so confusing

      (The street. BUSHY-TAIL rides a tram car. Looks out the window.

      MANIAC’s apartment. An enormous amount of people in constant, chaotic motion. Smoke. Music. Someone’s dancing. Someone isn’t. Someone’s watching a DVD. The girls are changing clothes, pulling new things out of bags, brushing their hair, rebrushing their hair, putting on make-up, redoing their make-up. BUSHY-TAIL enters, looks around, takes off her coat. Nobody pays her any attention. BUSHY-TAIL, on the contrary, misses nothing. She’s transfixed by everything she sees, her eyes open wide as she looks for a familiar face in the crowd. She recognizes BLIZZARD, then ORANGINA and sees MANIAC, SNOWFLAKE and LENOCHKA in various places. She listens carefully to the conversations going on around her.

      BLIZZARD (In the bathroom, shaving his head bald): I’m in a mood like roulette – betting on red but the ball doesn’t fall

      ORANGINA (Photographing the process): You have really sharp mood swings, up and down, up and down

      BLIZZARD: Is it that obvious?

      ORANGINA: It’s really irritating

      MANIAC (On his telephone): Six feet? How much is it from the blast pipe to the blister fairing? Wow –

      SNOWFLAKE (On her phone): You’re so cool about your decision it’s absurd

      SNOWSTORM (Leafing through a magazine, going into the bathroom): Would you do me a tattoo?

      BLIZZARD: I’ve been wanting to do one for a year

      SNOWSTORM: Me for three

      SNOWFLAKE: Maybe you’re ready but I’m not

      MANIAC: Federal? Then that’s clear

      SNOWSTORM: What ideas do you have?

      BLIZZARD: I dream about these ideas – birds, patterns, dragons

      SNOWFLAKE: Just because you want to isn’t enough. Nothing can come of nothing

      MANIAC: All right-all right. But where’s the guarantee they don’t decide at the last minute that some cosmonaut would be better?

      SNOWFLAKE: Well, you can think so if you want to

      MANIAC: What can I say, man? You’re cool

      LENOCHKA (On her phone): Listen, I can’t spend my whole life in the process of creating this thing

      BLIZZARD (In the bathroom): I had this dream about Vladimir Vysotsky. I had that dream and I said – that’s it! I’ll do Vyotsky’s profile on my chest!

      MANIAC: No, I can’t say as I’m ready for that. That came out of the blue

      SNOWSTORM: You gonna do Marina Vlady on your back?

      BLIZZARD: Yeah, I already set aside a hundred dollars

      MANIAC: How much you need? 60 thou? Yeah, I got it, I hear what you said

      SNOWFLAKE: No, I’m not depressed. I’ve got too much to do, to be depressed. I’ll give you a call if that happens

      MANIAC: Can you put that in an email? Get it off to me today

      LENOCHKA: You can redo it 60 times over but it still isn’t going to be right! Everybody’s so damn smart. Did you think I was going to go slit my wrists in the bathtub?

      MANIAC: Those fighter jets are his? Holy shit! (Laughs hysterically.)

      SNOWFLAKE: A woman can’t only give with her body. She has to give with her head, too

      LENOCHKA: If you like it, dig it. If you don’t, get over and get on with it!

      MANIAC: Is he offering anything under the table?

      BLIZZARD (In the bathroom): Is that a nice skull?

      SNOWSTORM: You want a skull tattoo?

      SNOWFLAKE: It’s the eternal problem – the battle of reason and feeling

      MANIAC: So what you’re saying is basically everything revolves around these fighter jets

      SNOWFLAKE: I have no idea what to do

      MANIAC: All right, okay. There’s people waiting here

      BLIZZARD: This tattoo drove me wild

      MANIAC: Our project was accepted on the federal level. The President just signed off on it

      BLIZZARD: That’s hot shit

      MANIAC: СКАЧАТЬ