CHARACTERS Maggie: Female, 20s, college-educated American girl working as an au pair. Jean: Female, 20s, college-educated American girl working as an au pair. Her: Female, 30s CASTING NOTE Maggie and Jean are not the same race. They shouldn’t read as sisters. SETTING A tiny room in the eaves of a Swiss chalet in the mid 1960s. Servants’ quarters constructed in a time when the class structure was utterly impregnable, bowing just slightly to post-war optimism. Two single beds. A nightstand between them. A radio. A lamp. Little else. The characters never enter or exit except were noted. The scene changes should have the feeling of film cuts. The radio is omnipresent. PRESHOW Music in French, German, Italian mid century hits and snatches commentary from soccer games of the era, commercials, news, any English is faint and BBC proper, and static, lots of static, constantly shifting as a restless listener winds the dial. If there must be a preshow announcement then it’s in the tone of a cigarette ad of the time, chopped up and interspersed with the other sounds. Preferably in French. The room goes dark. The sound contracts.
2. SCENE 1 When the lights come back up, the room is inhabited: Maggie is intent on the radio, Jean watches her. Maggie pauses on something, thinking she’s caught some English. She hasn’t, she moves on. Jean smiles at her. JEAN (singing) Bum, bum, bum. MAGGIE Stop it. JEAN (singing) NBC MAGGIE Can you stop? I’m trying to hear. Jean moves toward Maggie. JEAN (singing) Do do do do do do da do do do doMAGGIE That’s not even radio.
JEAN -Do do do do do-
JEAN - the following program is brought to you in living color on...” MAGGIE Stop. JEAN Hey. I know you’re homesick. MAGGIE I just want to hear what’s going on in the world.
3. JEAN This is the world. MAGGIE It’s not. JEAN Then stop on a French one. My French is okay. I’ll translate. MAGGIE No. JEAN Pardon! Mon français est bon! MAGGIE Oh my god. JEAN Madame a dit j'ai la prononciation naturelle! MAGGIE I am not impugning your prononciation. JEAN You better not be. It was my minor. MAGGIE It was everybody’s minor. J'ai le meilleur-
JEAN
MAGGIE For god’s sake. Ta prononciation est très bonne. Oh! Merci beaucoup!
JEAN MAGGIE
Oh! JEAN Oh!
4. MAGGIE Oh! JEAN Oh! MAGGIE c'est l'extorsion complémentaire. JEAN Doesn’t matter. MAGGIE It does. JEAN No. A compliment’s a compliment. MAGGIE It’s that kindJEAN (re: the radio) That was French. Go back. Between us we can get it. MAGGIE
JEAN Don’t you want to-?
I’m not-
MAGGIE I don’t want to know the news. I want to hear the news. Or something. I want to hear something. In English. JEAN I speak English. MAGGIE No. Mon anglais est très bon.
JEAN
5. MAGGIE You know what I mean. I want... you know. A voice isn’t gonna jump when the bell rings. That hasn’t memorized the Taktfahrplan.
JEAN I’m Walter Cronkite and Edward R Murrow and Chet Huntley and Helen Thomas I have all the gravitas. Trust me trust me trust me
MAGGIE I just want to hear something that sounds like home. JEAN I can sound like home. MAGGIE ... JEAN I can. MAGGIE ... JEAN (singing) “Chock full o’-” MAGGIE Not from you. Jean powers through. Pulling Maggie away from the radio, turning it off. JEAN “-Nuts is a heavenly coffee.” Come on. “Heavenly coffee, heavenly coffee” Maggie lets Jean pull her into a slow dance, putting her head on Jean’s shoulder. JEAN “Chock full o’Nuts is a heavenly coffee. Better coffee a millionaire’s money can’t buy.” ... (MORE)
6. ... I know you’re sad-
JEAN (CONT'D)
MAGGIE I’m notJEAN I know you’re sad but this is an adventure. Okay? MAGGIE Yeah. JEAN It’s our adventure. MAGGIE “The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold” JEAN Exactly. And we found each other, and everything is good. ... okay? MAGGIE ... JEAN Okay? MAGGIE Mmhmm. JEAN Say it out loud for me. MAGGIE Yeah. You’re right. Everything’s good. JEAN It is. MAGGIE I know.
7. JEAN It is. MAGGIE I know. JEAN We could be typing up legal briefs in some grim office in Cincinnati. We could be getting somebody coffee and calling somebody Sir. We could be eating automat sandwiches. But instead we’re in one of the most beautiful places on earth. We’re in the goddamn Alps like goddamn Julie Andrews. MAGGIE I know. JEAN This is a good job. MAGGIE Yeah. JEAN Beats digging ditches. Right? MAGGIE ... JEAN Light work. Out of the elements. MAGGIE Yeah. Sure. JEAN And it’s us. MAGGIE ... JEAN It’s us. MAGGIE It’s us.
8. JEAN Yeah. MAGGIE We’re good at this. We’re good at everything. We’re special and we cannot be denied. JEAN Exactly. MAGGIE Yeah... Yeah. JEAN So everything is good. MAGGIE Everything is good. SCENE 2 Maggie is just starting to put red beads from a dish on the nightstand onto a new string. JEAN Mending and tending and sewing and going and fixing and fixing and fixing and fixing. MAGGIE And making and baking and yarning and darning and fixing and fixing and fixing and fixing. JEAN The work the work MAGGIE The work the work JEAN The work, the work, the work, the work The work is never done.
9. MAGGIE It’s never. JEAN Never. MAGGIE Never. JEAN Her work is never done. ... Maggie keeps stringing her beads. ... JEAN Hey. MAGGIE Hey. JEAN Look at me. Maggie looks up. JEAN X-ray eyes. Maggie goes back to her work. JEAN (re: the beads) You’re so into that. MAGGIE It’s gonna be pretty. Once it’s done. JEAN Yeah. MAGGIE Don’t you think?
10. JEAN Sure. MAGGIE (high drama) These beads, JEAN These beads, MAGGIE These beads. . These beads are going to change everything. JEAN (whisper) Everything. MAGGIE A new look. A new life. No memory of the past. JEAN The power to transform. MAGGIE The power.... ... ... ....... to transform. JEAN A new beginning where anything is possible. MAGGIE Your future awaits and all you have to do is claim it. This new age of hope. and speed and peace and plenty. Jean takes a bead from the bowl, she sticks the bead to her cheek and assumes a pose like a statue of the Virgin Mary crying blood.