Atlantis Read online

  Atlantis was first produced by Belvoir at Belvoir St Theatre, Sydney, on 1 November 2017, with the following cast:

  ELECTRA Paula Arundell

  BELLA / DOSSIE / NEW YORK TAXI DRIVER Lucia Mastrantone

  LALLY Amber McMahon

  DIEGO / PANTHER Hazem Shammas

  DAVE / POP-OP / BELLA’S DAUGHTER Matthew Whittet

  Minor roles were shared between the cast members.

  Director, Rosemary Myers

  Set and Costume Designer, Jonathon Oxlade

  Lighting Designer, Damien Cooper

  Composer and Sound Designer, Harry Covill

  Dialect Coach, Paige Walker

  Movement Director, Sara Black

  Production Manager, Sally Withnell

  Technical Manager, Aiden Brennan

  Deputy Production Manager, Roxzan Bowes

  Stage Manager, Keiren Smith

  Assistant Stage Manager, Georgiane Deal

  Senior Technician, Raine Paul

  CHARACTERS

  LALLY

  DAVE, Lally’s boyfriend, Sydney

  ELECTRA, New York City

  DOSSIE, Lally’s grandmother

  POP-OP, Lally’s grandfather

  BELLA, a psychic, New York City

  DIEGO, Kansas

  PANTHER

  MINOR CHARACTERS:

  DOCTOR, female, Sydney

  ANESTHESIOLOGIST, Sydney

  NURSE, Sydney

  SURGEON, Sydney

  PILOT, into New York City

  NEW YORK TAXI DRIVER, female

  BELLA’S HUSBAND

  BELLA’S DAUGHTER

  WAITRESS, at Five Napkin Diner, New York City

  MAN, at Electra’s apartment

  MANAGER, at Duane Reade Pharmacy, New York City

  STAFF MEMBER, at Duane Reade Pharmacy

  DUANE READ WOMAN

  TRAINEE, at Duane Reade Pharmacy

  CUSTOMER, at Duane Reade Pharmacy

  SHOP ASSISTANT, at shoe shop, New York City

  JAKE, NYC date, New York City

  MORGAN, retired oceanographer

  SUSSAN, Morgan’s wife

  PILOT, into Kansas

  KANSAS TAXI DRIVER, male

  DOCTOR, fertility clinic, Kansas

  PASTOR, Kansas

  MAN WITH BEARD, Kansas church

  CAROLINE, aide at Stonebridge retirement community, New Jersey

  ELDERLY FAT MAN, Stonebridge resident

  MIRIAM, Stonebridge resident

  ALEX, Uber driver, Kansas to Miami

  CUBAN MAN, Kendall, Miami

  SECURITY GUARD, Kendall

  MOTHER-IN-LAW of Cuban man

  BELLA’S ASSISTANT

  HOTEL RECEPTIONIST, Miami

  KANYE WEST

  COWGIRL, Las Vegas

  The original production was performed by five actors, each playing multiple roles.

  SETTING

  The settings travel from Sydney to New York, New Jersey, Kansas, Miami and Las Vegas. Within these cities are many different locations that come and go quickly. Many are interiors, such as apartments, chemists, cars, shops, bedrooms and doctor’s surgeries. Some are exteriors, such as streets, mountains, highways, oceans. It is up to the director and designers how to create this. Good luck!

  This play went to press before the end of rehearsals and may differ from the play as performed.

  ACT ONE

  SCENE ONE

  LALLY and DAVE lie in bed.

  LALLY: I know that it’s boring to hear about other people’s dreams.

  DAVE: Correct.

  LALLY: But I’ll just tell you about this one because it’s my most important dream.

  DAVE: How can you have a most important dream?

  LALLY: The one that shaped your life the most. Please listen. You always tell me about your dreams.

  DAVE: When?

  LALLY: A few times! I’m always interested to hear about your dreams.

  DAVE: Well, that’s where we differ.

  LALLY: It’s not a long dream.

  DAVE: Fine, but you can’t get angry if I fall asleep and starting having my own dream.

  LALLY: Deal. So when I was a child, we lived in Miami and I was really sad because we were about move—to Canberra—I really didn’t want I to go. And I really loved panthers—

  DAVE: Wait a minute—is this the dream?

  LALLY: No, this is background information.

  DAVE: That wasn’t in the deal. You can’t give background information to a dream.

  LALLY: If you had’ve let me tell you it, I’d already be done now.

  DAVE: Okay, fine.

  LALLY: So I loved panthers—

  DAVE: You said that!

  LALLY: You’re ruining it. If you’re not interested I can’t tell you.

  DAVE: I already told you I wasn’t interested!

  LALLY: I dreamt that I was at the going-away party at my family’s house. But it was only kids. All the grown-ups were out. My cousins were there and my brother. And other kids I guess. And a knock came on the front door. And through the window on the door, I could see a head. It was the head of a panther. The panther said, ‘I’m going to eat you guys’.

  I said, ‘Wait! Why don’t we play hide and seek and you eat the first one of us you catch?’

  ‘Alright,’ said the panther. And it began to count to ten. All the kids ran around—looking for somewhere to hide. I could hear the panther counting—one, two three, four, five, six … we were running out of time. And then I remembered—the secret room, behind my parent’s ensuite.

  DAVE: Was this a real secret room?

  LALLY: Not in real life. But in the dream I suddenly remembered it and it was very real. I ran into it—it was just this ordinary, very small room, sort of tan and brown colours. It was the perfect hiding spot from the panther. But my cousins Bobby and Martin were already in there. They told me that I couldn’t fit in there with them. They were crouching on the ground. And they kept saying I had to get out. I was so upset with them. But I left, back through the ensuite, and I came out into my parent’s bedroom. Now the panther was in the backyard, outside my parent’s bedroom, outside the glass sliding door. ‘Nine. Ten,’ said the panther. And then it told me, ‘I’m going to eat you’.

  ‘Wait,’ I cried out, as it came inside. ‘Can’t we just be best friends instead?’

  And I couldn’t believe it, but it said, ‘Yes’. And after that we were best friends. I was so happy. I couldn’t believe that I got to be best friends with the panther. We were so happy together. It was like being totally in love I guess. We were in this cocoon, where nothing mattered because we got to be together. But then my last day at school, there was this kid, this scrawny boy named Corey, who was hanging out with the panther. I went up to them. And the boy’s father came over and told me, ‘The panther is Corey’s best friend now’.

  ‘No—no—the panther is my best friend …’ I told him.

  ‘No,’ said Corey’s father. ‘Your family is moving to Australia. The panther would have to be in quarantine. You can’t be the panther’s best friend.’

  The panther and I looked into each other’s eyes and then he and Corey went to another part of the school. And I sat and sobbed. I wept, with a broken, broken heart.

  DAVE: That’s your most important dream that’s shaped you?

  LALLY: I never forgot that panther.

  DAVE: I wonder if it’s forgotten you?

  LALLY: We moved away from Miami to Canberra soon after that. I cried all the way on the plane and at one point deliberately peed in my seat. To see if I’d get away with it. I did. And I’ve never been back to Miami. Though I think about it all the time.

  DAVE: But you’re always going to the US.

  LALLY: I go to New York
all the time to try and do theatre stuff and to New Jersey to see my grandparents. But not Miami.

  DAVE: What have you got against Miami?

  LALLY: It’s the opposite. I don’t go back there because it’s so special. I was only ever there as a child. So Miami is like childhood to me. I remember my cul-de-sac as being a tropical Smurf Village. And our house had aqua carpet, the same colour as the water at Miami Beach. And white tiles like the sand. I used to pretend to be on a boat floating on that carpet for hours. If I go back there as an adult, it might not be magic anymore. I want to keep it magic. I want to believe that the panther is still there.

  DAVE: But he left you for Corey.

  LALLY: Only because we moved.

  Pause.

  DAVE: When I was a kid, Daffy Duck was my very favourite cartoon. He was my role model.

  LALLY: You basically are Daffy Duck! You’ve modelled your whole personality after Daffy Duck!

  DAVE laughs and laughs.

  DAVE: It’s true.

  They snuggle into each other.

  I’ve thought about it and I think that skin-to-skin contact is actually quite good for humans. It really seems to be raising my serotonin levels.

  LALLY: Well, don’t just think that you’d get that from anyone whose skin you came into contact with. It’s unique.

  DAVE: Common human experience.

  LALLY: Unique.

  DAVE: Regular.

  LALLY: You’re a jerk.

  She kisses his cheek. He smiles.

  DAVE: I have to write two whole chapters of my bookity tomorrow. I’m getting close to the actual murder.

  LALLY: Exciting! I can read them as you go?

  DAVE: Good.

  LALLY: If we ever get married can it be in Las Vegas? By Elvis?

  DAVE: Okay, time to fall asleep. I’m putting on Alex Jones.

  We hear the screaming voice of Alex Jones, the US conspiracy theorist and podcaster, ranting.

  Ah, so relaxing.

  LALLY looks up at the audience.

  LALLY: [to the audience] Hi, everyone, I’m Lally Katz. I’m a playwright and I wrote this play. I know I should give a disclaimer to stop me from being sued and say that it’s work of fiction and none of the characters are based on real people. But to be honest, almost everything in it is true and absolutely every character in it is based on a real person. Now obviously, I’m an actress playing Lally, but that will actually be better in terms of showing emotional truth. Thank you for coming. I really hope you enjoy it.

  SCENE TWO

  LALLY: [to the audience] Now a year later. I’m onstage performing in the theatre downstairs here during a dress rehearsal for a show I wrote about psychics I had dealings with in New York.

  [As psychic] Your vagina is cursed. Your vagina smells like rotting corpses to all men. Not to women. Only to men. A woman could be in bed wit you all day and not smell a ting. But to all men, your vagina is a cemetery of rotting corpses. Until you pay to remove this curse.

  [To the audience] After rehearsal I come offstage. But something’s wrong. I’m not feeling so good.

  SCENE THREE

  LALLY: [to the audience] By a bin on Oxford Street in Sydney in the middle of the day. I am throwing up in the bin. Dave is holding my hair behind my back.

  [To DAVE] Sorry. I’m sorry.

  DAVE: It’s okay. You have nothing to be sorry about.

  LALLY: [to the audience] A woman walks by and puts her burning cigarette butt in the bin next to my face.

  DAVE and LALLY look at each other and laugh.

  [To the audience] In the waiting room of the ultrasound place. I come back out, hobbling because my right side is in so much pain. I sit next to Dave.

  [To DAVE] There is something on my ovary. He’s not sure what it is.

  DAVE thinks about this.

  DAVE: What if you’re pregnant?

  LALLY: If I am then it would be an ectopic pregnancy. And we haven’t really had sex for ages …

  [To the audience] I realise that he actually seems happy about the thought of my being pregnant.

  [To DAVE] Do you want to know something gross?

  DAVE: What?

  LALLY: He said my system is full of poo. He’s Chinese and he said, ‘You are full of poo-poo’. Imagine if that’s what the problem is—just that I’m full of shit.

  They laugh.

  SCENE FOUR

  LALLY: [to the audience] In the doctor’s office later. I am sitting in front of her desk, crying. She is a nice woman, attractive, Eurasian.

  DOCTOR: Do you want me to explain it to your boyfriend?

  LALLY nods, crying.

  LALLY: Yes please. That would be great. Thank you.

  [To the audience] I go out into the waiting room.

  [To DAVE] Davey, the doctor wants to explain stuff to you.

  DAVE looks tense. He nods. He comes.

  [To the audience] In the doctor’s surgery, he sits down, looking tense, looking super polite.

  DOCTOR: Hi, how are you going?

  DAVE: Good. Thank you.

  DOCTOR: There’s a very large cyst on the right ovary. Now the fear with a cyst this large that has grown this quickly is that there is a chance it’s cancerous. Lally will have to have surgery to have it removed. I’ve booked her in with a very good gynaecologist. The best one in Sydney, in my opinion. She has an appointment with her on Wednesday. So that’s in three days’ time. But the other worry with a cyst this large is that it can be very heavy and lead to the ovary twisting inside her.

  LALLY: [to the audience] I suddenly feel so sad for him. He looks so scared, but he isn’t focusing on it, he’s focused on being super alert, nodding ‘yes’ and ready to take in all necessary details. I cry more because I think how he lost his mother and now suddenly we don’t know what’s going to happen with me and how this sort of thing probably makes him remember that.

  DOCTOR: The problem with that is, that the ovary will lose access to blood and will die. Now we want to avoid that happening. So if Lally’s pain increases, or if she begins to be in pain when she’s just sitting or lying still, then it could mean the ovary is twisting, and if that happens, go straight to emergency. Go to St Vincent’s, because that’s where the gynaecologist is. Do you have any questions at all?

  DAVE: Is there some sort of pain relief she can have in the meantime, because she really is in a lot of pain when it comes on. Or will the pain relief mean that we don’t know if it’s twisting?

  DOCTOR: Absolutely, I’m giving Lally a script. And don’t worry, if the ovary begins to twist, the pain relief won’t be enough to mask it.

  LALLY: And I’ll definitely have to postpone my show?

  DOCTOR: Oh yes. I’m sorry.

  LALLY nods, crying.

  SCENE FIVE

  LALLY: [to the audience] Night-time in the Regent’s Court Hotel room. I am very sick. My right ovary is twisting. Nothing is working to stop the pain.

  She is crying, shaking. She sits on an armchair—coiled up, trying to get in a position that stops the pain. DAVE is leaning down to her, kneeling.

  [To DAVE] Oh, Davey, it hurts. It hurts. Oh, Davey—I don’t know, man—

  DAVE: It’s okay. You’re going to be okay. Remember that the pain comes on really strong and then it goes.

  LALLY: Davey, it’s my fault. It’s my fault. Because I thought it might be—because of what the ultrasound guy said about me being full of poo—I thought maybe that was the real reason for the pain—so I had a laxative. They said I could have one—but I shouldn’t have—I was okay before that—it’s because I had the laxative. I’m sorry.

  DAVE: It’s not because of that. I think this was going to happen no matter what you did.

  LALLY: It’s my fault—because I messed around with the psychic in New York. I shouldn’t have done that. I can feel her around us.

  DAVE: It’s not because of the psychic.

  LALLY: It’s too big a coincidence. She said my vagina was cursed. And now this. But I pai
d her! I paid off that curse! So why is my ovary twisting?

  DAVE: It’s just what it is. It has nothing to do with psychics. Besides, they’re frauds.

  LALLY grabs his hand.

  LALLY: Oh, Davey—yikes—oh God, this really hurts—I’m so cold—I don’t know, Davey …

  DAVE: Okay, now remember that the pain comes on and then it goes. Remember that. Remember that soon the pain is going to be gone.

  LALLY: Okay, Davey.

  DAVE: And when the pain goes, we’re going to go the emergency room. Okay?

  LALLY: Okay. Oh God, this is bad, Davey.

  DAVE: Remember how it feels when the pain passes. Focus on that.

  LALLY: Okay.

  SCENE SIX

  LALLY: [to the audience] The anaesthesiologist, who is funny like a stand-up comedian, wheels me towards surgery.

  ANESTHESIOLOGIST: Uh-oh—here comes Nurse Ratched. Don’t tell her I changed the port for your IV. She gets very territorial.

  LALLY: [to the audience] I wave goodbye to Dave.

  [To DAVE] See you in a couple hours I guess? I’m very high from this morphine. I like it. Hopefully I won’t die in surgery.

  DAVE. You’re going to be fine.

  LALLY. I love you, Dave.

  [To the audience] Even though I’m high, I notice he doesn’t respond. He never says it. But I thought I could trick him into it now. I wake up. There are nurses around. They’re talking like I can’t hear them.

  [To the NURSES] I’ve got a tube in my nose.

  NURSE: That’s right.

  LALLY: Um … I seem to have a tube in my nose.

  NURSE. Just leave it alone please.

  LALLY. Did they have to take my ovary?

  NURSE: Wait for the surgeon.

  LALLY: [to the audience] Time slips. The surgeon comes in.

  SURGEON: How are you feeling?

  LALLY: Did you have to take my ovary?

  SURGEON: I took half of it. If you’d already had children, I would have taken the whole thing.

  LALLY: What will happen to the half left over?

  SURGEON: It might survive. Or it might wither and die.

  LALLY: Is that dangerous?

  SURGEON: No.

  LALLY: If I want to have children should I do it soon?

  SURGEON: Honestly, after this, and you are turning thirty-five, if I were you and I wanted children I would start trying as soon as possible.