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Theatre
from the cracks in the psyche of culture
Cathedral
Song
Imagine
you had a dream where you were someone else caught in a massive
drama that
left
you shaking when you woke up. You try to explain your dream. But it
is fragmentary.
You
remember the walls and the darkness of a huge and ancient Cathedral
where Angels
were
carved from the stone.
You
remember having a revelation about your life and the lives of others
who were in some
way
significant to you. Your whole being has been affected by this
dream. You were
shaken
when you awoke. Now, you try to recall what you dreamt and you try
to work out
what
it all meant.
It
was the sound and the darkness. I could feel my soul as if it was as
real as my arms or my legs. I could really feel her surrounding me
amongst the beams of light through the windows. I heard her soft and
gentle whispering from the darkness. Her breathing on my skin! And I
liked her. I loved her.
***
Cathedral
Song
features the haunted worlds of drug addiction and the search for
meaning set against the back drop of pragmatic religious institutions
that are themselves struggling in the new era of globalization and
real politics.
Sample
Text:
They slowly
move away to stationery positions. The Old Women suddenly continue
with their CHANTING and move in procession. Jessie now slowly manages
to sit up. The pain is still there but she gains her consciousness.
The Statues are still and silent.
Jessie
Ever since I
was a little girl, I used to love the way those voices just drifted
and floated around the air in the Cathedral. (Pause) It's not a
religious thing you know. I'm not religious. My Aunty Mary was
religious. She used to play the pipe organ. She's dead now. Died
years ago when I was little. But she used to take me here. I hadn't
been here for years. Then one day I just snuck in. A trap door's lock
was broken. Still is! (Pause) It was the sound and the darkness! I
could feel my soul as if it was as real as my arms or my legs. My
heart! I could really feel a kind of magic surrounding me amongst the
beams of light through the Angels pictured in the windows. I could
feel their emotions and their approval of me sculptured in stone . I
heard their soft and gentle whispering from the darkness. And I liked
it. I loved it. It was like: like a mother. And I was a child. She
offered me the one place where I didn't have to pretend; or act like
I was stupid and: She let me sing. ME. My crappy voice sounded so
beautiful. I felt beautiful. I felt sensual. Like I didn't have to
put on a face and play games. I heard my voice. And I saw myself in
those windows: those beautiful windows of sorrow, kindness and such
pain. They know pain and fear. I know fear every day now. But they
know my fear. (Distracted) Ah look, I know what you're thinking.
You're thinking I was high and tripping out. You're thinking I was
hallucinating and doing drugs. Isn't that right? Well, I'll tell you
what, I never did that shit in here. Never. I could've done. But I
didn't. Never. That would have contaminated everything. I was clean
in here. I wouldn't do that. Guy, my boy friend, he wanted me to. He
couldn't see that it was my place. My space! Me! And yeah! All right,
he made me shoot up with him once. I hated him for it. But I never
did. It wasn't me. You know, it wasn't me. (Pause) I'm sounding like
a junkie. Aren't I! Well that's what I am. I don't want to be. I
never wanted to be. But it's what I've become.
(She shivers)
CROSS FADE
Cathedral
Song
by
Joe Woodward
Presented
by Daramalan Theatre Company at The Street Theatre,
October
23-26 in 2002
NOTE:
The above sample script is available FREE of charge
for reading purposes, workshopping in classes and community theatres
and evaluation of suitability and needs.
Purchase
the whole script for $12 by clicking on the icon:
Production
licence for schools and amateur groups is available for a $120 (AUD)
fee. Professional fees are 10% of gross box office. However, we have
found that scripts offered by Shadow House PITS have had a resonance
in areas which do not have a capacity to pay. Should you wish to
produce any of these works and do not have a capacity to pay and/or
recoup fee costs at box office, then please just let me know. In such
cases, I would just like to get a report on the production and if
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been most gratifying to hear of small scale productions taking place
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- Trinculo's
Shadow
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