CHARACTERS:
FRANK, a tailor
TILLY, a bank teller
FRANCES, a hairdresser
JOAN, a British nurse
LORENZO THE UNFEELING, a psychiatrist
JULIAN, a cello player
TIME: the Present Moment
PLACE: Illinois
NOTES:
~Melancholy in this play is Bold, Outward, Sassy, Sexy, and Unashamed. It is not introverted. It uses, instead, the language of Jacobean direct address.
~However, be sensitive to the moments of delicacy, fragility, and sadness inside of the farce.
~Having said that, actors are encouraged to look out of the window often, climb in and out of windows, throw open balconies, throw themselves on couches.
~The pace is often faster than real time. Transitions should hurtle.
~Don’t be afraid of sincere melodrama.
THE SET:
Many windows, a chaise, and several doors from which to enter and exit rapidly. A mirror. A potted palm. A chair. A few chandeliers. Or lamps. Perhaps a real balcony, opening into the night air.
1. Frank offers up his defense
FRANK: (to the audience)
I would like to propose to you—this evening--a defense of melancholy.
Cello music from Julian.
Proposition 1--
That melancholy is a necessary bodily humor—
that there is a certain amount of necessary mourning--
due to things that grow and pass--
rice, the moon, wheat, childhood, men’s hats, tides on a marsh, fingernails—
Which leads me to:
Proposition 2:
That melancholy
is a disappearing emotion—
there is no place for it in the afternoon—
out the window—to observe the passage of time—
we are depressed--
but are we melancholy?
Are we capable of melancholy?
Which leads me to:
Proposition 3:
if disavowed—
the repressed melancholia may lead to other disturbances of the mind—
may I here remind you of the god-mother who was not invited to sleeping beauty’s baptism—
she took revenge.
She took revenge!
Proposition 4:
That we must anatomize melancholy—
take stock of the causes:
stars a cause
love a cause
death a cause
morning a cause
afternoon a cause
evening a cause
the odd times in between morning afternoon and evening:
a cause.
No more cello music.
Frank looks out the window.
He raises the blind.
2. Tilly asks Frank why he is like an almond
Tilly walks up to Frank.
Frank’s back is to Tilly.
She taps him on the back.
Frank turns around.
TILLY:
Why are you like an almond?
They look at the audience.
They exit.
3. The Unfeeling Lorenzo
Lorenzo has an unidentifiable Italian accent.
LORENZO:
My name is Lorenzo.
You would think,
with a name like Lorenzo,
that I would feel great passions.
Sadness, violent anger,
unbridled lust.
But my lust is bridled or not at all.
My anger too is bridled.
And my sadness-there is a cap on it, so it cannot get out.
Lorenzo, who plays the harp, in the dark, you might think.
Lorenzo, with kisses like Mediterranean apples, you might think.
But no.
It is I: Lorenzo, the unfeeling.
The Unfeeling Lorenzo.
I am an orphan. I was found on the door-step of a candy store.
I was raised on sweets, in an unspecified European country.
I felt myself to be European.
I spoke an unspecified European language.
I lived on a street with cobblestones.
I wore a tan scarf.
But I did not suffer like a European.
No. I was--happy.
One day my long-lost
mother appeared on the steps of the sweet-shop.
She was wearing a black skirt and black gloves
and a little black veil.
I smiled at her.
My God, he smiles like an American! she said.
Like he’s smiling for a picture!
How white his teeth are!
And how straight!
(It was very disconcerting,
as you might imagine,
for my mother.)
How could I have given birth, she said,
to this child?
Suffering, she announced,
is a brand of citizenship!
Then she walked out the door.
So I moved to Illinois.
I feel—normal here.
People say: you have such understanding eyes,
Lorenzo.
I look into your eyes and I feel I can deposit my pain
right there—like a coin, into a hole.
I have an office.
It is here.
Come in.
