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

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СКАЧАТЬ This is called taking a leap into reality

      PART TWO

      AWE

      BLIZZARD walks out onto the street. Breathes in the fresh air. Claps himself on the pockets and realizes he forgot his cell phone. Thinks. Decides not to go back. Pulls eye drops out of his pocket and releases drops into his eyes. Wipes off the tears and goes looking for his car. He vaguely remembers where he parked it. Puts on his Gucci sunglasses and checks out the people walking by, hurrying to work in the morning. He smiles at everyone, delights at a simple sunbeam as if he were a paragon of virtue who loves all people and nature too. Big, fat snowflakes hit him in the face.

      BLIZZARD: We live in a very severe country. Wherever nature has beauty, it’s a severe beauty. Very severe. If there is friendship, it’s severe. Too. Our people are genuine heroes who live – by living their lives. They are very severe people, I would say they are severe in the extreme. Their life journeys – are very severe. And exalted. No sentimentality. No indulgences. People here have always had hard lives. The guy who founded Moscow. And the guy who founded St. Petersburg. (Smokes. Thinks.) Want me to tell you a story about my life? A real, severe life story. A tale of grief, despair, manic-depressive psychosis, sin, debilitating passions and addictions that have come to us from infernal hell itself. Write it down, give people a chance to read it, a tale of weakness and strength, of tears, my heart, fears, love, Adam and Eve, warmth and cold, black and white. I’ll tell you what real whiteness is; when a man no longer sees his own arms and legs, when the whiteness blinds his eyes and he goes blind, goes blind forever. In order to die right here and be reborn. Pure and innocent. Like the white, newly driven snow.

      (BLIZZARD is covered in snow. He comes out of his reverie but can’t find his car. He has no idea where he left it. Keeps looking, finally finds it. Standing next to his Lexus is VOLODYA. He carefully looks over the license plate then carefully looks over BLIZZARD.)

      VOLODYA: This your Lexus?

      BLIZZARD: Yes

      VOLODYA (Shows his badge): May I see your ID?

      BLIZZARD: Sure. My pleasure

      VOLODYA (Looking over BLIZZARD’s ID): Open up your trunk

      (BLIZZARD opens his trunk.

      ORANGINA, LENOCHKA, SNOWFLAKE, MANIAC and SNOWSTORM with BUSHY-TAIL. They lie around on rugs and pillows, drink tea from China tea cups and smoke a hookah. The girls’ bared shoulders sparkle with glitter, SNOWSTORM’s head lies on ORANGINA’s stomach, she combs his long locks with her fingers.)

      ORANGINA: No matter what you say I’m always the man in relationships. I always make the decisions because men are weak, regardless of how physically imposing they might be

      LENOCHKA: They’re all a bunch of unflappable wolves

      SNOWFLAKE: They are utter babes

      LENOCHKA: They play with their toys and think they are the center of the universe

      ORANGINA: A man is a babe is a babe is a babe and then, suddenly, he’s an old geezer

      SNOWFLAKE: They are incurably infantile

      LENOCHKA: No, I don’t need men at all. I can’t even think about men any more

      SNOWFLAKE: Men should not be thought about at all

      BUSHY-TAIL: What’s that supposed to mean?

      SNOWFLAKE: You have to play with them. If you think they are thinking, think again – they are thinking something else entirely

      LENOCHKA: Or they aren’t thinking at all

      SNOWFLAKE: A man is not susceptible to being remade. You’ve got to take him in the bag he comes in and then just put him where you need him

      ORANGINA: On the other hand, how can you do without a man?

      SNOWFLAKE: You can become a lesbian

      LENOCHKA: You can give yourself up to total nihilism

      SNOWFLAKE: But that’s carrying it too far

      (LENOCHKA’s phone rings but she doesn’t answer it.)

      MANIAC: Husband?

      LENOCHKA: He’s no husband. He’s a cad. A maniac.

      SNOWFLAKE: How many times have I warned you? Don’t ever admit anything. We deny everything.

      LENOCHKA: But he’s the one who said only the truth can save our relationship (Cries.)

      ORANGINA: Lenochka – fresh air and fresh fruit

      SNOWFLAKE: Here, I can give you a pill

      LENOCHKA: What is it?

      SNOWFLAKE: Why can’t a person just have a regular pill, a tranquilizer?

      LENOCHKA: Will it help?

      SNOWFLAKE: In twenty minutes

      MANIAC (To BUSHY-TAIL): People suffer from a lack of understanding of their own sexuality and by the age of 30 they lose their mind incontrovertibly

      SNOWFLAKE: Every person thinks in his or her own box

      MANIAC: A hotbed of psychic ailments

      LENOCHKA: A global failure to communicate

      MANIAC: This is horrible, what they’re saying here. Just horrible

      ORANGINA: It’s incontestable

      MANIAC: A bunch of old wives’ tales and laundromat philosophy. A gaggle of amateurs!

      BUSHY-TAIL (Distracted, looking out the window): They predicted it would snow by late morning and, sure enough, it began snowing late in the morning.

      SNOWFLAKE: Snow white white

      ORANGINA: As white as white can be

      LENOCHKA: I have the sensation we are flying upwards

      BUSHY-TAIL: Where I come from in the Far North nobody ever clears the snow away. They just clear out narrow passages. The snow drifts stand higher than a person’s head. And people there don’t walk like they do here. There they kind of shuffle their feet. Because they are used to spending so much time walking on ice. It’s always cold and dark and people light fires and they don’t ever complain to anyone. That’s because they think it’s like that the whole world over. Life there’s hard.

      (The street. VOLODYA and BLIZZARD stand by the Lexus. VOLODYA looks through the trunk. BLIZZARD looks at his watch and at VOLODYA. He clearly has begun to be nervous.)

      VOLODYA: You can close it now

      (BLIZZARD closes the trunk.)

      Take off your glasses

      (BLIZZARD СКАЧАТЬ