Our Daughters, Like Pillars
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OUR DAUGHTERS, LIKE PILLARS By: Kirsten Greenidge Contact: Mark Orsini/ [email protected] 212-765-5630 No portion of this script may be presented or performed without written permission from the persons listed above. Draft date: 4/6/20 Development/Production History OUR DAUGHTERS, LIKE PILLARS (formerly AND MOIRA SPINS) was first commissioned by The Goodman Theatre, Robert Falls Artistic Director, with Tanya Palmer as Director of New Play Development. It was presented as part of The Goodman’s New Stages New Play Festival in October, 2016. In July, 2017, it was workshopped and presented as part of The Huntington Theatre Company’s Playwrighting Fellows Summer Workshop series, Peter Dubois, Artistic Director, Lisa Timmel Director of New Work, and Charles Haugland, Artistic Programs and Dramaturgy. The workshop was directed by Jade King Carroll and dramaturged by Phaedra Scott. OUR DAUGHTERS, LIKE PILLARS was scheduled to be produced in spring, 2020, at the Huntington, under the direction of Kimberly Senior, dramaturged by Charles Haugland, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. OUR DAUGHTERS, LIKE PILLARS is a work of fiction. Draft Date: 3/31/20 2 CAST OF CHARACTERS Lavinia Shaw Williams mid-late forties Octavia Shaw Curtis mid-late forties Zelda Shaw late thirties Yvonne Shaw early seventies Missy Shaw late fifties, Bajan Paul King early to mid-thirties Morris Williams fifties SETTING A summer rental, North Conway, New Hampshire. The present. Draft Date: 3/31/20 3 ACT I A large back yard with deck and patio, stonework. There is grass and landscaped earth. OCTAVIA sits, laptop in lap. She looks blankly at the laptop, then types a bit, then stops. She looks up, around. She breathes in, deeply. OCTAVIA is about to exhale when LAVINIA bustles in with a glass pitcher of ginger- lemonade. LAVINIA takes in the view. LAVINIA turns to OCTAVIA. LAVINIA: How do you like it? OCTAVIA: Oh, it’s wonderful. I love it, Vinnie, I really do. LAVINIA: Me too. I love it, too, but Morris has an earful to say about every inch. Every corner he turns in there, he’s got a comment. OCTAVIA: He doesn’t like it? It’s gorgeous. LAVINIA: It is, of course it is. I made sure it is. Next time he says something I’m going to tell him he can tuck all those shouldn’ts right up his— OCTAVIA: Oh, Vinnie, that’s not nice. Be nice. Why would you want to say something like that, now? LAVINIA: It’s ours for the week, so just relax. Just let yourself go. Let yourself: unravel… Draft Date: 3/31/20 4 LAVINIA dramatically, physically, unravels: Flop…flop…LAVINIA reaches for OCTAVIA and OCTAVIA swats LAVINIA away. LAVINIA stops. LAVINIA: Are you thirsty? The whole thing startles OCTAVIA. OCTAVIA: Ahhhhh. LAVINIA: Are you thirsty? OCTAVIA: Jesus, Vinnie. I thought we were lying down, relaxing, unravel— LAVINIA: Here, have something to drink. LAVINIA pours. LAVINIA: It’s lemonade. It’s ginger-lemonade. It’s divine. Drink. OCTAVIA: Oh, sure. In Brussels I think I had some. LAVINIA looks at OCTAVIA. LAVINIA: Brussels? OCTAVIA: Me and Tim. We were there for that fellowship. LAVINIA looks at OCTAVIA. What. LAVINIA: Brussels. Draft Date: 3/31/20 5 OCTAVIA: Brussels. Yes. Me and Tim— LAVINIA: Up at the end of the week? OCTAVIA: Yep. Yes. Up at the end of the week he said. She holds up her phone. I’ll give him the address. And yes. Me and Tim in Brussels. Had lemonade just like that. LAVINIA: Tim good? OCTAVIA: That’s what that look was? About Tim? LAVINIA: No. OCTAVIA: No? LAVINIA: No. I’m sure he’s fine. OCTAVIA: What was that look? LAVINIA: It was…It’s: Tim and I. OCTAVIA: …Serious? LAVINIA: Tim and I. Not Tim and me. OCTAVIA (Amused): You’re crazy. LAVINIA: Well you’re the one writing the book, Draft Date: 3/31/20 6 OCTAVIA Trying to. LAVINIA I shouldn’t even need to say these things It is Tim and I. You should be happy you have me to help with these things. OCTAVIA: Oh so true, where on earth would I ever be? LAVINIA: And I remember, of course I remember. OCTAVIA: Brussels. LAVINIA: I just didn’t know Brussels was known for lemonade. OCTAVIA: In Brussels there is no lemonade? LAVINIA: Not like this there is not. OCTAVIA: No, no, I could have sworn we had something like this/there— LAVINIA: Mumma said she couldn’t remember her recipe: I called Zelda: and asked for hers, but that’s like blood from a stone. OCTAVIA: Vacation, remember. Be nice. And you can always look on her site. LAVINIA: Site? Tuh. Which site? Who can keep up with Zelda’s never ending hobbies? No, I consulted the big one: The Food Network. OCTAVIA: When’d Zelda say she get here anyway? Draft Date: 3/31/20 7 LAVINIA: Then I cross referenced that with a recipe from the girls in my chat group, and then I got another from a girl at work who thinks she could die and come back as Oprah on the cover of her own magazine with a basket of puppies. LAVINIA: Well drink up. It’ll get warm. OCTAVIA takes a large sip. LAVINIA: But don’t drink too much. OCTAVIA spits her drink back into her glass. LAVINIA: Octavia. OCTAVIA: You said not to drink it. LAVINIA: I meant leave room for dinner. OCTAVIA: Oh. Okay. OCTAVIA drinks from her glass again. LAVINIA: For goodness sake, Tavie. OCTAVIA: What? What now? LAVINIA: That’s even, that’s even worse. That’s disgusting. Now really. OCTAVIA: Well I don’t know. LAVINIA: Give me that. You need a new glass. Now you need a new glass. Draft Date: 3/31/20 8 OCTAVIA: Well, I don’t know. LAVINIA pours a new glass. LAVINIA: I meant, I only meant, leave room. For dinner, for supper. I’m making a supper and you will spoil— OCTAVIA: Oh, you didn’t have to. We could all cook, how about? LAVINIA: Setting up many pots to boil, pouring a glass of wine, and then walking away while someone else actually cooks, is not cooking. OCTAVIA: Then we could order. LAVINIA: Order what? From where? The rock at the fork in the road? OCTAVIA: Uh. LAVINIA This is the woods. No. I am making a supper. I like to do it. OCTAVIA: You like to do it? LAVINIA: I love to do it. And this week isn’t about who cooks it is about being all together. It’s been so long. OCTAVIA: I guess Birdie does always skip Christmas. LAVINIA: So, so long. OCTAVIA: And I make soups: that is what I make. Draft Date: 3/31/20 9 LAVINIA: Mumma’s 75th, that’s how long it’s been, since we all of us, and mum, have been together. OCTAVIA: That was nice, Vinnie. A nice party for mumma. LAVINIA: But this. We need this: One week up here. No politics, no religion. OCTAVIA: Right, Tim’s not here, we can talk about whatever we want. LAVINIA: That’s not what I-- OCTAVIA: He’s just got big ideas. OCTAVIA looks at LAVINIA. LAVINIA looks down and away. LAVINIA: One week to just relax. That rain better hold off. Pause. OCTAVIA looks up at the sky. OCTAVIA: Plans already? LAVINIA: Oh Yes. Yes, yes, yes: Antiquing. OCTAVIA: Everyone else? Agreed on antiquing? LAVINIA: Well I didn’t know your calendar was already filled. Draft Date: 3/31/20 10 OCTAVIA: Oh, my calendar’s open. I just like jet skis. LAVINIA: Ah see there? See you’re getting the hang. You will love it here. OCTAVIA: One jet ski does not equal true love. LAVINIA: I said to Morris myself, I said: You will have to drag me kicking and screaming. I said to Morris this very morning, on our way up to get the keys, open up the house, I said to him: I will never want to leave. OCTAVIA: Yeah, I’m a hard no on antiquing. LAVINIA: What? Why? OCTAVIA: Because sometimes old things make my skin crawl. Because sometimes I think I’d suffocate after an afternoon of looking at them. LAVINIA looks at OCTAVIA. OCTAVIA: Antiquing. The antiquing. Might kill me. LAVINIA looks at OCTAVIA. LAVINIA: That’s a colorful way to put it. OCTAVIA(Overly bright): But of course if everyone else is going. Sure. Let’s all hope for sun sun sun. Yay for antiquing. Wouldn’t want to miss that. A cell phone. LAVINIA (Calls out): LET IT RING. WE’RE NOT ANSWERING ANYTHING UNTIL SATURDAY. UNLESS IT’S THE KIDS DON’T PICK UP. DO NOT PICK IT UP. JUST CHECK IF IT’S— Draft Date: 3/31/20 11 A cell phone rings, then cuts off mid ring. LAVINIA (Calling out): MORRIS, I HOPE YOU DIDN’T— MORRIS (From within): YEA, NOPE. NOT THE KIDS— OCTAVIA: Just make him turn it off. LAVINIA: One time it might be the kids. OCTAVIA: Turn it to vibrate then. LAVINIA: One time it might be that camp, telling us one of them got mauled by a bear. OCTAVIA: Vinnie. LAVINIA: Why’s he lurking around in the house anyway? I told him leave it. I left mine on that table in there. Already has a phone on it: perfect. I said: Go down to the lake: Fish. Swim. OCTAVIA: Oooo. Maybe we play a game ‘til everyone gets here. Morris is always good for a game. LAVINIA: I can’t play Monopoly and cook all that food.