OUT AND ABOUT. MELANCHOLY (4f, 2m)

A group of friends go away for the weekend to celebrate their friendship. Cracks appear and tragedy hits

Style: realism/non naturalism

HARRIET: It’s dangerous. The bush is so dry.
JESSIE: We want to look at the fire not barbecue a sausage…
FREDDIE: They are off apparently.
HARRIET: Do you want to light up the whole bloody bush?
MOLLY: That wine is good.
FREDDIE: Be careful

FAKE IS REAL (11f, 52m)

This play deals with the issues of body image, peer pressure and communication breakdown in our time.

Style: non naturalistic

CASSIE (enters): There is something intimate, something slow and private… near us, nearby, something other.

(Mascais there,invisible to other characters)

TANYA (enters:) Remember Primary School? We played everyday. We thought we were tough. I laugh now thinking about how we carried ourselves with such great confidence. Remember?

VILLAGE WITH NO DAUGHTERS   (2f, 1m and flexible chorus)

‘Village with no Daughters’ follows the story of Jasmine who works in a sweat-shop for a few cents to produce the type of jeans young fashion-junkies in the Western World so desire, be they stone-washed or bleached or what else.

Style: non naturalism)

Voice: A family disappeared
Second voice: Parts of a family
Third voice: Vanished (beat) all of a sudden
Second voice: The valley is empty
Third voice: Where have they gone?
Second voice: Who?
Third voice: The people?
Second voice: Yes, the people. The men, the women, the children.
Voice: The children have gone?
Second voice: Yes.
Voice: All of them?
Second voice: Yes!

THE BEAUTY OF SCARS   (3f, 1m)

Sally and Sarah know each other since their childhood-days in Western Australia. One day Sally left all of a sudden. Sarah meets Bec and falls in love, but one day decides to look for Sally. She finally tracks her down in Sydney. Together they try to make sense of the dark secrets of their past.

Style: Realistic

Later. Melbourne. BEC and SARAH.
Sydney. SALLY and PAUL.

SARAH: I’m moving to Sydney!
BEC: Why?
SARAH: I need to find Sally!
BEC: She’s in Sydney?
SARAH: Yes.
BEC: How do you know?
SARAH: Well, she’s not here, is she? (beat) I’m going next week. Once I sorted things out…
BEC: Fuck, you’ve tried that for the last three years, you’ve tried sorting things out ever since I’ve met you.
SARAH: I’ll find her.

FLATMATES   (2f, 3m)

A satirical look at the intricacies of shared housing. Three men live together in Melbourne. They have a spare room and look for a flatmate. Jutta, a young woman with a lot of flair arrives. Sparks fly.

Style: realistic

(Lights come up. Milton is sitting at the table, still sleepy.  Coffee cup on table. Jutta leans against cupboard with coffee cup in her hand)
MILTON: Give me that again.
JUTTA: Heini and I got married yesterday.
MILTON (Looking at mug): Is that the coffee we always have?
JUTTA: How should I know?
MILTON: I mean......this is coffee and not perhaps come Columbian drug in disguise?
JUTTA: That’s why Heini’s parents were here yesterday...It was a sort of interview.  We did it all on the quiet....
MILTON: You and Heini???

CAFFEINE   (3f, 1m)

A young woman meets a man. He wants her phone-number and writes it on a ten-dollar note, only to later pay with that note. This comedy follows the journey of the ten dollars and confusion it creates.

Style: realistic

Music. Sarah listens to her i-pod. Daniel orders. The waitress watches him with a smile.
DANIEL: Latte.
WAITRESS: De caf?
DANIEL: No. Don’t like it weak.
WAITRESS (smiles): Me neither. (beat) Anything else?
DANIEL: No thanks. Maybe later.
       Sarah receives a message. She reads it and smiles.
DANIEL: Nice day, isn’t it?
       Sarah cannot hear him.
       The audience still hears her i-pod music.
       That is the case throughout the play.

ICE ON THE RIVER   (3f, 2m)

A woman is waiting for a train, which will never come. She wants to go to Venice, hoping that the spirit of that city will give her back the strength to live and confront the demons of her past. Non naturalistic. Filmic in structure, scene-overlap.

YOUNG MAN: What are you talking about ?
GIRL: Dante. Trust and desire and passion and longing.
        (She kisses him)
Will you go to Venice with me ?
WOMAN: E qual e quei che volontieri acquista,E giugne ‘l tempo che perder lo face,che ‘n tutti suoi pensier piange e s’attrista;tal mi fece la bestia sanza pace,che, venendomi ‘ncontro, a poco a pocomi ripigneva la dove ‘l sol tace.
GIRL: Will you go to Venice with me?
YOUNG MAN: Venice. Why Venice ?
GIRL: It’s so theatrical…so grand. I imagine it to be grand. Everybody is playing a part. The piazzas are like giant stages and you are watching and performing at the same time...people are beautifully dressed, well fed and the setting…!…

AS WE LIKE IT   (5f, 5m)

This is an adaptation of some of Shakespeare’s plays, bringing the main characters of ‘Romeo and Juliet’, ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, ‘Hamlet’,‘Othello’ and ‘The Tempest’ together in crazy romp full of cross-dressing and mistaken identity. Juliet falls for Romeo and soon it is time to die. The plot changes and the star-crossed lovers miraculously survive. Romeo falls for Hamlet and Juliet for Romeo’s ex, Rosalind.

Style: realistic

Music. A party. Drinking, dancing, flirting. Romeo, Juliet, Helena, Ophelia, Mercutio and Hamlet are all slightly drunk. After a while Hamlet and Romeo retire to one side, with a drink.
HAMLET: Romeo. I love mum, I love my mother…in fact I love women in general and I love Ophelia.
ROMEO: So do I, Hamlet, so do I. I mean I like mum too.
       (Pause)
HAMLET: Thrift, thrift, dear Romeo. The funeral baked meats did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.
ROMEO: You don’t…?
HAMLET: Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven or ever had seen that day.
ROMEO: What is it that thou sayest ?
HAMLET: My father, methinks I see my father.
ROMEO: Where ? Are you alright ?
HAMLET: In my mind’s eye, dear Romeo…he’s in my mind’s eye.
ROMEO: Think it no more. You love Ophelia and I can understand thee…she is simply, well…
HAMLET: Angels and ministers of grace defend me ! How didst thou know ?

KAREN   (1f)

Karen grows up in rural New South Wales. Her mother is diagnosed with cancer and the family decides to move to the city to be closer to a hospital. In the light of her mother’s plight Karen too begins to learn about why she is the way she is and confronts the family’s dark secret.

Style: fragmented realism with non naturalistic elements

Darkness.
As the lights fade up KAREN enters a space. She seems to be alone. She carries a box with slides. She feels watched, observed. KAREN’s thoughts are sometimes tender, gentle, sometimes furious, full of anguish and pain – yet she is always unpredictable. There is a bench in the centre with a blanket.
KAREN:
      (Silence)
Can I come in ? … Would you mind…?
I’m not going out a lot…in fact hardly at all…so this a big thing for me… I’m twenty-two…so for the last four years I have been out maybe six times, maybe seven…no more than ten…when I turned adult fours years ago I decided to live in my room and not leave it…
Could I come in ?  (Pause) Strange how I always say this when I am in already…don’t meet many people, never really meet people…
       KAREN feels observed, watched, looked at – but not spoken to.
What a beautiful home this is…with an intercom, I bet with an intercom…so one can check out the voice of the intruder…maybe even with a camera…to have a look…a look.
(Pause) I had a home once…a real home.

HEARTCORE   (2f, 3m)

A young woman tries to deal with the challenges of daily life and the fact that what she dreamed her life would like is far from what reality has in store for her. Will she survive…

Style: highly non naturalistic. Use of Chorus

SHE enters, again naked, staring, carrying the empty boxes. We can still hear the CHORUS, but the sound is fading. The WOMAN has vanished.
SHE: Conceived in a shelter made of air, human air… I am waiting for the angel…(beat)they don’t know that I do, that I am waiting for the angel…they don’t know a thing about… me… (Pause) High up on Dad’s shoulders, high above the faded carpet, I reached straight for the top of our Christmas tree, I reached straight for the angel…we did special things then, special things…what has happened…(Pause) Cheeks, neck, breasts, thighs, belly in full bloom now, shiny, new, untouched…and mine…there are mine, Dad…mine alone. Don’t cut it…don’t cut that hair, don’t…yes I mean it, don’t cut it…it’s fine, it’s nice, it is beautiful…as it is…don’t cut…it. Time will cut it…time will tell…time will forget, time will accept, ignore, judge differently… time will cut…it. Pause) Trust me…I trust you…yes, I trust you…(beat) Leave now…you go…now…leave and say hello…to the new arrivals…in the hall…and say goodbye to the man…who sits at the table and fixes the clock. (beat) Time will tell, time knows and I know… I know everything a traveler needs…

THE CHOSEN   (3f, 2m)

Three people have survived a disaster which destroyed the planet we all live on. Only two of them are chosen to begin again, to start a new civilization. The audience will decide the outcome.

Style: Non naturalistic. Needs two performance spaces. Audience is directly involved in the outcome of the piece. There are two different versions, depending on the audience’s choice.

A: Some imagine the future being silent.
(beat)
After all the noise and the tumbling…and when the dust has settled on the rubble like a hazy skin…some imagine that there will be stillness, there will be silence.
B: Under gravity the cities have faltered. A series of sharp clicks, rapid and sharp. (beat)
The former population will appear on large advertising boards around the countries and eventually on endless video-loops. (beat)
C: All the buildings have collapsed. Office-towers, apartment blocks, the suburbs and the country-towns, the churches, courts and anything else that was man-made. (beat)
Only three people have survived. Only three.
A: A man and a woman and the other one.

IN THE COMPANY OF WHALES   (3f, 3m)

Maybe we expect sometimes too much from life. Lester is unsure about how to make relationships work, let alone begin them. He seeks counsel.
This is a satirical look at the industry that makes money out of people’s problems.

Style: realism

A park. Sunday. Spring. Sophie and Lester on a blanket.
SOPHIE: Lester…? Who is Tim?
LESTER: Tim?
SOPHIE: Yes.
LESTER: I don’t know. Why?
SOPHIE: I found a photo in your wallet, with a name on the back.
LESTER: In my wallet? You’ve looked in…?
SOPHIE: Sorry.
LESTER: Tim? Well, he’s a friend.
        (Pause)
SOPHIE: Do you love me?
LESTER: Sophie, we’ve been through this.
SOPHIE: You do love me!!

GOING PLACES   (7f, 6m)

A group of young people is embarking on a performance tour to Europe and somehow the performance and real life become interchangeable. This play is a satirical look at the wonderful world of theatre and uses a play by Shakespeare as a backdrop to a contemporary story.

Style: realism

ROMEO: Well then, my love: why these pale cheeks What’s made the roses fade so fast ?
CALLUM: We’ve got a whole scene.
RINA: They don’t wanna hear it. (she exits)
MARCY: Rina…!…What’s wrong with her?
CALLUM: Bad mood.
MARCY: Nice piece.
CALLUM: Thanks.
PETE: You’ve used a bit of other material there too, nice touch.
CALLUM: Where?
PETE: That whole bible-bit, that is from a movie.

ALONE IS BLISS   (4f, 4m)

Most people, like the characters in this drama have their public and their private face and often hide behind a mask to make sure that the truth stays hidden. The oh so familiar phrase ‘I’m fine!’ is given as an answer regardless on how the person is feeling.

Style: realism with non-naturalistic elements

BEN: Good hols?
KIRA: Alright.
BEN: What did you do?
KIRA: Not much. And you?
BEN: I was with my Dad. Mum was busy. She was working right through the holidays. Stayed with Dad until yesterday and then Mum picked me up…it was alright.
KIRA: This is Jess…Ben.
JESS: Hi. (beat) I’m new.
BEN: We’re playing soccer later…just north of D-block, on the little oval, you’re welcome to join us.
JESS: Thanks, but I’d rather not…
BEN: It’s guys and girls!
JESS: I need to unpack.
BEN: What room are you in?
KIRA: She’s with Kelly.

HANGED FOR LIVING   (3f, 1m, chorus)

Mary Webster is hanged one evening for engaging in witchcraft. She is somehow still alive when a soldier cuts the rope in the morning and her body  slumps to the ground.

Style: realism with non-naturalistic elements

A sound. The Goddess enters, looking at Mary. The Soldier in the background shuffles.
MARY: Are you looking for the photographer? (beat) Would you like to get your picture taken with the soon to be deceased?
GODDESS: No. I’m not after any permanent records of the event.
MARY: Oh good. The light’s not very strong anyway. And cameras haven’t been invented yet.
     (Pause)
GODDESS: If the sun would change her position and the shadows would therefore become tenants of the day, then I would send my children, release them from their glass cabinet and send them up the street to where the gathering was.
MARY: The gathering? (beat)  Does this amuse you?
GODDESS: Well yes, it does.
MARY: The gathering, the crowds…the two men behind you?
GODDESS: What men?
MARY: The two men…behind you in French suits and dark glasses…
GODDESS: Ah, these too!

ROADWORK AHEAD   (4f, 3m)

Garry is an ordinary bloke. Honest and decent. From one day to another, he is a changed man. He could even be our next Prime Minister. This play is a satirical look at what it means to be an Australian and the world of politics in this country.

Style: realism

GAZZA: Hey Lizzy, listen to this!
LIZZY (enters): What is it, Gazza?
GAZZA: Sit down, darl…and listen.
LIZZY: Don’t have much time…I know that it is your day off, but I have to prepare for class.
GAZZA: Listen, it’ll take a minute. (reading) The Pope is in Australia, did you know that.
LIZZY: Of course, I’m reading the paper.
GAZZA: He took a couple of days off to visit the outback. His 4WD Pope-mobile was driving alongside a river…and there he observed an Aboriginal man struggling frantically with a crocodile…the poor guy was locked up in its jaws…
LIZZY: Shit!!
GAZZA: Bloody oath! It says here that at that moment a speedboat roared into view…

BAD GIRLS DO THE BEST SHEETS   (12f, 1m)

From the late nineteenth century through until the 1970s these homes took in girls, young women, between the age of 13 and 18 who had been deemed wayward, homeless, deviant, at risk of moral danger or simply pregnant. Thousands of unmarried mothers and their babies passed through these homes, in Australia, in Scotland, Ireland and wherever else. This is a play-version of the musical theatre piece ‘Shivers’.

Style: realism with non-naturalistic elements

IRENE: Why do you want to go there?
THE NURSE: I don’t know…there isn’t much else on offer…
IRENE: But a convent?
THE NURSE: Why not?
IRENE: That’s no place for you.
THE NURSE: It’s better than the hospital I am working at now. There’s no night duty and they wanted a Nurse that is trained…
IRENE: No night duty? A place like that doesn’t exist.
THE NURSE: Well it does! They offered me the job and I asked the Sister specifically about the night-duty and she confirmed it. No night-duty!
IRENE: I don’t believe it.
THE NURSE: Why not?
IRENE: Because I know.

THE WEIGHT OF FIRE    (4f)

A story of compassion, inner strength and the power of living life despite adverse circumstances. Three sisters, three lives, one family.
What would it be like to live with terrorism day in, day out?
What would it be like to bury loved one week in, week out?
What would it be like to live through the unimaginable, to raise a family of witnesses to shootings, suicide bombers, failed peace processes?

Style: fragmented realism with non-naturalistic elements

Arba sits on an old chair. Gunfire is heard from outside. Arba is sitting in a house that is showing signs of destruction. There is a broken window off to one side.
There are a wooden table and a couple of chairs.
Arba is reading.
Time passes.
A siren, shrill and deafening.
Times passes. Leana enters.
LEANA (reading): I wish that you could see me here, be here with me, Arba…and at the same time I wish I would be with you and Miriam.
     She continues with the letter.
Well, I hope that this letter will reach you, Leana…
ARBA (writing): …and that you will come home soon. With love
LEANA: With love, your sister Arba.
ARBA: Arba. (Pause)

LESSONS IN LUNACY   (3f, 2m)

A strange man floats through the sky and randomly beams people far into the netherworld that is milky way, only to make them return soon after as a five year old boy with a short attention span, or a baby or a girl with bad teeth. You might even end up being your neighbour’s wife. A piece of absurd nonsense.

Style: non naturalism

A pool of light. Jeff. half dressed.
JEFF: It could’ve been somewhere else, but we met in a public toilet. I never before…I mean I didn’t intentionally went to the ‘Ladies’…but there she was…Jo!...her!
     As Jeff leaves Jo steps into the pool of light.
JO: When I saw Jeff…I mean I only saw his feet…at first I only saw his feet, because I was sitting down…and had the door locked, naturally…but I thought ‘hey strange shoes’…I must’ve actually said that aloud…’cause he said…
     Jeff pushes her ‘gently’ out of the pool.
JEFF: I wear them only in the office, these shoes…only in the office…she opened the door …and that was it…(beat)…we went out for drinks that night …
     Jo pushes Jeff ‘gently’ to the side.
JO: It was the next weekend…we met on a Friday…
JEFF (now near her): …so it was that night!

THE COMMON ROOM   (6f, 6m)

This satirical look at education is set in the inner sanctum of a large school. Sophie is new to the world of teaching and just wants to get into the classroom and inspire young people, but will that be possible in a place where teaching is the last thing on people’s minds?

Style: realism with non-naturalistic elements

MAX: King. Max King. But call me Elvis. I teach PE.
SOPHIE: Okay.
MAX: New?
SOPHIE: Yes.
MAX: Thought so…haven’t seen you…I mean last year you weren’t here…
SOPHIE: No. I’m new…this year I’m new.
MAX: What do you teach?
SOPHIE: I’m first year out…my first teaching job…
MAX: Right.
(beat) What subject…I mean learning area…
SOPHIE: Learning?
MAX: Area. We changed it…Keller feels its more today than subject…it’s more now…and we’re a now school…I mean we’re so today…that we’re now!
SOPHIE: Elvis? They don’t really call you Elvis or do they?
MAX: Meet the boys!

ANDERSON STREET   (4f, 4m)

A quiet street in a sleepy suburb in a large Australian city. Lisa is a bubbly teenager madly in love who lives a carefree life, partying on a Saturday night and working in a supermarket. All her mates do pretty much the same. One day the USA is invading a country off shore and Australia is there to help their allies. This will change Lisa’s life forever. This play is the basis for the musical ‘Anderson Street’.

Style: realism with non-naturalistic elements

LISA: Hey…!!, I’m Lisa…and this is Anderson Street. I live in Number 11… with my Dog Famo and Mum and Pete, he’s Mum’s boyfriend. (beat) It’s great here. See the big gum-tree!? …(beat)...We’ve got lorikeets when it flowers and they shit all over the car… (beat)…Pete hates it! (beat) That’s Pete there…he hates it when his car gets…well…
     Pete enters with a bucket.
PETE: Shit…on me car…I hate it!!
     Pete exits.
LISA: Dad left us last year, the day when he found Mum and Pete out the back. (beat) I miss Dad!
PETE (returning): That is not true. Absolutely not true. He didn’t find us, what did she say?
LISA: Out the back. Out the back, Pete!
PETE: Your mother wanted me. You know how it is. No husband. A muscly neighbour up the street. No milk in the house. She came to ask for a bottle…(beat)…well I said that I don’t have no milk, but she stayed anyway…for a bit of a BBQ and since then…well, …I’m doing the lawns…and I’m cleaning the windows… I’m a bit of a handyman, you know…(beat)…I like her!

IMPOSSIBLE BALANCE   (3f, 2m)

Three women, two men. An intricate relationship-drama set in Paris. Henny desperately wants a soul mate and if he would be a lover too that would be even better. Her friends become very envious when Henny meets Philippe and are trying everything to destroy Henny’s new found happiness.

Style: realism with non-naturalistic elements

HENNY: He was like…(beat)…like he always was…from that moment…
TILA: What moment?
NATHALIE: The moment she has always talked about.
TILA: I can’t recall.
NATHALIE: Henny has talked about this moment for many years now, TILA: For many years.
TILA: I don’t recall.
NATHALIE: You have, Henny, haven’t you?
HENNY: I have told you many times before.
TILA: When?
NATHALIE: When? Tila’s asking when!
TILA: …because I can’t recall when…
NATHALIE: But you must, she has told us many times…
TILA: You say she has, but I can’t recall…
HENNY: Shall I tell you again?

SEARCH FOR A HERO   (3f, 2m)

A small child and a suitcase on a platform of a large train station in Europe. Trains are not running anymore. There is the threat of a bomb. Everyone’s eyes are turning to the child and its suitcase…

Style: non naturalism

The lights come up. A child alone.
(Silence) A woman with glasses enters.
(Silence)
A man in uniform enters. A sound.
MAN IN UNIFORM: No trains. (beat)
WOMAN WITH GLASSES: What?
MAN IN UNIFORM: No trains!
WOMAN WITH GLASSES: No?
MAN IN UNIFORM: The train-station is closed.
WOMAN WITH GLASSES: But my train is leaving in half an hour. I thought I’d better be on time. I’d like to leave. Not now. In half an hour.
MAN IN UNIFORM: Passport.
WOMAN WITH GLASSES: What?

MIDNIGHT TEA   (3f, 2m)

Erin and Joe were the perfect couple, but Erin has tragically passed away. Joe tries to come to terms with it, but Erin ‘haunts’ him, appearing daily but only visible to him. Joe plans to spend a weekend with his new girlfriend in a quiet country house. A terrible storm traps them there and Erin appears…
 
Style: realism with non-naturalistic elements

BEC: Joe loves me! (beat) I know that.
JOE: She did not kill herself. Erin loved life. She loved me! (beat) What we had was right…felt right.
ROB: She wanted to die…
ERIN: No one really listened. Okay, a car crashes, it explodes… that’s messy let me tell you! How did it happen!? Well, I don’t know.
     (Pause)
It was a nice day. The sun was lazy, blinking with one eye. The clouds slept and in the distance I could hear the sound of rolling waves. (beat) The ocean was always a special place of mine, so when I crossed that bridge…you know the bridge that connects the mainland with the peninsula…(beat)...When I crossed that bridge I was dreaming of the sea…but the car had the better of my dreams… suddenly a jungle was floating towards me…I was thinking of an endless midnight, and Joe was somewhere choking on sulphur and dirty ice…and my eyes were burning into his head…I hit the water and the sea was boiling and ate my brain instantly. By morning they found me. The sea was calm…(beat). Day was night and night was day and Joe was me and I was Joe…

THE COMMITTEE    (7f, 7m)

This satirical look at education is set in a run down school. Suddenly a glimmer of hope, because the school has inherited a large sum of money from one of his most trusted employees who was tragically passed away. A committee is formed to decide how to best spend the cash. Everyone thinks frantically, but don’t forget that there is always the headmaster…

Style: realism

Emmy and Daisy, both in Nurse’s coats are clipping roses.
EMMY: It’s a beautiful day, isn’t it? (beat) Daisy!?
DAISY: What?
EMMY: It’s a beautiful day.
DAISY: It is, Emmy, it is. I thank the Lord every day for giving me health and happiness and such a rewarding job.
EMMY: The roses are looking healthy again!
DAISY: And so do you, dear Emmy!
EMMY: Ah, stop it!! (beat) This is the only flowerbed left in the entire school…everywhere else dust and dirt, dust and dirt!
DAISY: It’s not lookin’ good! (beat)
       The phone rings.
EMMY: Was that the phone? My hearing’s going rapidly. Is that our phone?
DAISY: It is. (beat)  I’ll get it.
EMMY: I’ll get us a cuppa. Yes? You’d like one, I know (you do )…!

MEMORY STICKS

A desolate place. Wires are singing. Wheels turn. Rinny and Venga near each other and yet not. Both carry a mobile phone. There is a laptop. A character has slept for fifty years is thrown into a world that is not human anymore.

Style: non naturalism

A desolate place. Wires are singing. Wheels turn. Rinny and Venga near each other and yet not. Both carry a mobile phone. There is a laptop.
RINNY: I got a message! (beat) From him! Venga! From him! He’s send me an SMS. Wow!!
VENGA: I got one yesterday.
RINNY: You?
VENGA: Yeah!
RINNY: From him?
VENGA: Yeah!
RINNY: Really?
VENGA: Yeah!
RINNY: The Thai, you know.
VENGA: The tie? (beat) Rinny!?
VENGA: The tie?
RINNY: Yeah! The Thai!
VENGA: He never wears one

ETERNAL FLAME   (10f, 9m, extras)

A satirical look at reality television put on the stage. Mandy and Sam are in love. Sarah is very jealous, because she loves Sam more than Mandy. A strange voice interrupts the characters constantly and tells them what to say, in fact forces them to behave in a certain way. This a musical theatre piece without any live music. It’s all mime.

Style: non naturalism

Darkness. From somewhere a voice, deep and hollow.
VOICE: Welcome! Welcome! (beat) Welcome to all of you! You that have signed the contract. You have therefore given everything over to me. (devious laugh) But not to fear! I’m here to help. Be a guiding star in these times of uncertainty. I’m your GA. Your Guardian Angel! (beat) Now…(beat)… enter this world, enter the stage! Remember you are only here, you are only alive, because of me. (devious laugh) And now be happy, be on your way
And if there’s a problem just call your GA.
     Music.
To all you other people out there: This is a musical. Well sort of…(beat)…Nobody sings! It’s only mime. It’s all pre-recorded. Pre-recorded songs for pre-recorded people, living their pre-recorded lives!
A group of young people enters.
Rochelle, Byba and Masca on their mobiles. Almost continuously. Ben, Tiger, Crusher, Billotti and Venga talking. Trying to get the girls’ attention. Sue, Camilla and Rachel looking forlorn, lost, vague.
Sam and Mandy enter. Very much in love. Sarah enters. She is very jealous. She looks at them.!

FRAGILITY   (2f, 1m)

A cemetery. A grave opens. A woman speaks to us: When I first dreamt of death, I sensed neither blood nor the feeling of exile, the trap of foreign words. There was only the guilt of broken toys and the coffin coming out of our house. (beat) The silence after a tree has fallen, a tree that was forced to fall by the hand of others, that silence is like the silence immediately after death.

Style: non naturalism

WOMAN:
I drove past the cemetery yesterday. You know the one, just at the end of our street. They have grave-sites now on special. Buy one while you still can, the sign said. (beat) Should I? For so long I thought that we’d be buried together…
     (Pause)
Outside the cemetery I saw some people having lunch. They were sitting around a coffin and were eating, from its lid. (beat) You belong to the past now. And what you did yesterday only you will know. How was your first day without me? Was it fun to be free? It wasn’t for me. I drove past the cemetery and watched a glow-worm.
     Change.
YOUNG GIRL:
Mary Mary quite contrary, How does your garden grow? With silver bells and cockle shells. And pretty maids all in a row.
     (Pause)
She looks around, as if looking for someone.

SAME DAY SERVICE   (3f, 3m)

A man brings a suit to a dry cleaning business. The proprietors discover a note in his jacket pocket, a note and a letter. He is planning to kill his wife.
A contemporary crime story.

Style:  realism with non-naturalistic elements

The lights change.
JOE enters into a dry cleaners.
A WOMAN works offstage.
WOMAN (off): I’ll be with you in a second.
JOE (looking around): (beat) I don’t have all day.
WOMAN: One moment.
     Joe tries to make a call on his mobile. No connection. (Pause)
WOMAN(entering): What can I do for you?
JOE: I need this back.
WOMAN: Yes.
WOMAN: We have same day service.
JOE: Tomorrow will do.
WOMAN: Alright. (beat) Name?
JOE: Harold.
WOMAN: Surname? (beat) Contact number?!

ZIMMER FREI

Joachim Matschoss:
Zimmer frei
German
Published by R.G. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt, 1994
ISBN: 3-89406-868-X

WOHIN FÜHRT DER WEG

... Als Frauen, Familien noch entscheiden durften, ob sie ein Kind wollten oder nicht, kursierte ein Witz, den mein Vater mir erzählte.

Eine Frau wurde gefragt: Haben Sie Kinder?
Sie sagte: Ja!
Und was sind Sie von Beruf?
Sie antwortete: Wissenschaftlerin.
Sie sind Wissenschaftlerin und haben Kinder?

Joachim Matschoss:
Wohin führt der Weg? Ein Stück fiktiver Wirklichkeit
German
Published by R.G. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt, 1991
ISBN: 3-89406-289-4

WER FRÜHER STIRBT - IST LÄNGER TOT

Erzählt wird die Geschichte eines Mannes, der, unfähig mit anderen Menschen zu kommunizieren, sich in eine Scheinwelt flüchtet. Seine einzige Verbindung zu seiner Umwelt hat sich auf die Ebene von “Kontaktanzeigen” und gelegentlichen Kneipenbesuchen reduziert. Alle Alltagsbegegnungen mit seinen Mitmenschen enden in aggressiver Konfrontation, und seine Unfähigkeit, offen für und über sich zu sprechen, bringt ihn schließlich schuldlos hinter Gitter.
Das Gefängnis ist für ihn aber etwas Positives, weil sich dort das erste Mal jemand um ihn kümmert.

Joachim Matschoss:
Wer früher stirbt - ist länger tot
German
Published by H.-A. Herchen Verlag, Frankfurt, 1990
ISBN: 3-89184-081-0