THE EMPEROR OF SYDNEY by Louis Nowra

DIANE
To pretend to be someone else and get away with it is the greatest escape in
the world. It means that you are no longer living in a fibro house in the middle
of the sticks. Sticks is the wrong word. The soil was too poor to grow sticks.
Stuck in the middle of endless paddocks, surrounded by fibro houses and
losers and violence and welfare mums and ... well, you name it. In my head I
could be a queen, a scientist a model, a dying beauty dying for love. And
then Im rudely awoken by my dad whacking my mother across the face so
hard her cheeks shatter. Who wouldnt want to pretend to be somewhere else,
someone else? Now, before you applaud my sob story, allow me to let you
into a little secret I learnt. Sometimes someone from my background wants it
too much. I was good. Bloody good, but I lacked something not stupidity I
lacked the proper background. One of the most important things I learned was
that the actresses who make it are invariably from comfortable backgrounds.
You see, theyve had those acting lessons since they were five. Theyve been
told theyre beautiful from the moment they open their eyes. If they truly
suffered in life they wouldnt be able to hide it. You need to have no suffering,
no hurt, just the belief that everything will come to you. And it does. I carried
too many thoughts, too many dreams in my head, and they swirled around
and everyone thought it was intelligence. It was in fact hunger, a desperate
hunger to be brilliant, to be adored.
WILD HONEY by Anton Chekhov
ANNA
How can you say that? How can you lie to me, on such a night as this,
beneath such a sky? Tell your lies in autumn, if you must, in the gloom and
the mud, but not now, not here. Youre being watched! Look up, you absurd
man! A thousand eyes, all shining with indignation! You must be good and
true, just as all this is good and true. Dont break this silence with your little
words! Theres no man in the world I could ever love as I love you. Theres
no woman in the world you could ever love as you love me. Lets take that
love; and all the rest, that so torments you well leave that to others to worry
about. Are you really such a terrible Don Juan? You look so handsome in the
moonlight! Such a solemn face! Its a woman whos come to call, not a wild
animal! All right if you really hate it all so much Ill go away again. Is that
what you want? Ill go away, and everything will be just as it was before.
Yes? (she laughs) Idiot! Take it! Snatch it! Seize it! What more do you
want? Smoke it to the end, like a cigarette pinch it out tread it under your
heel. Be human! You funny creature! A woman loves you a woman you
love fine summer weather. What could be simpler than that? You dont
realise how hard life is for me. And yet life is what I long for. Everything is
alive, nothing is ever still. Were surrounded by life. We must live, too,
Misha! Leave all the problems for tomorrow. Tonight, on this night of nights,
well simply live!

SUMMER AND SMOKE by Tennessee Williams

ALMA
Yes, I see! Now that you no longer want it to be otherwise you're willing to
believe that a spiritual bond can exist between us two!But I don't want to be
talked to like some incurable sick patient you have to comfort. (A harsh and
strong note comes into her voice) Oh, I suppose I am sick, one of those weak
and divided people who slip like shadows among you solid strong ones. But
sometimes, out of necessity, we shadowy people take on a strength of our
own. I have that now. You needn't try to deceive me.You needn't try to
comfort me. I haven't come here on any but equal terms. You said, let's talk
truthfully. Well, let's do! Unsparingly, truthfully, even shamelessly, then! It's
no longer a secret that I love you. It never was. I loved you as long ago as
the time I asked you to read the stone angel's name with your fingers. Yes, I
remember the long afternoons of our childhood, when I had to stay indoors to
practice my music - and heard your playmates calling you 'Johnny, Johnny!'
How it went through me, just to hear your name called! And how I - rushed to
the window to watch you jump the portch railing! I stood at a distance,
halfway down the block, only to keep in sight of your torn red sweater, racing
about the vacant lot you played in. Yes, it had begun that early, this affliction
of love, and has never let go of me since, but kept on growing. I've lived next
door to you all the days of my life, a weak and divided person who stood in
adoring awe of your singleness, of your strength. And that is my story! Now I
wish you would tell me - why didn't it happen between us? Why did I fail?
Why did you come almost close enough - and no closer?
Recipet carrie.
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