Medea Redux [PDF]

Zitiervorschau

an extract from

Medea Redux WOMAN:

we met at the room. ‘s a terribly hot day, at least for December it was, ‘s how i remember it, anyway, and we were tired from travel, but he was there, as promised. Hardly seemed any older, which kind ‘a sucked, i thought, ‘cause i’d changed — i mean, look at me right? — and it was this big moment for billie, ‘s all excited, and we even hugged, and it was in that second, as he leaned to kiss my cheek, his head turned toward me, and maybe it was just the light, the sun coming in the room, but i saw something there, there in his eyes … he loved this boy, all that shit he’s said to me years ago, it was true about kids. he loved ‘em. but also … he was satisfied. i could see that, satisfaction on his face … because he’d gotten away with it. that’s what i saw, shining in his eyes, as he moved forward to kiss me. he’d beaten fate … and gotten away with it. [Beat] after dinner, we had a bucket of store bought chicken in the room, billie got a couple of packages — one was a book of myths, imagine that — he said he wanted to see us again before he left. he had to run to school for about an hour, a science fair, i guess, but he’d be back. he promised he’d be right back. the last time i saw him, there at the door, he mentioned that word, that … umm, well, whatever, he said it and smiled, as he stepped out onto the balcony he smiled at me and whispered, ‘maybe it’s not our fault after all. i mean, we’re just human right?’ [Pause.] billie was already in the bathroom. we’d driven straight through, and i could hear the water running. he was in his bath. god, he loved the tub! since he was tiny, he loved it. so, i knew he was in there, the water filling up around him, and ‘lady day’–‘s what he liked to call billie holiday, ‘s her nickname, and he called her that- playing on his tape player. ‘stormy weather’. i ahh, went into the room, the bathroom, and could see him there, through a little opening in the liner he had pulled shut, eyes closed and the steam coming up. he didn’t really struggle, couldn’t actually, the shock of it, i suppose, when the recorder first hit the water … there was really only a quick kind ‘a snapping sound, like the pop of a flashbulb or whatnot, and then the softer sound of him, billie, as he kicked a second or two in the water. i turned the taps off a little later … [Beat] after, i just sat there, on the linoleum, and watched him, lying in that cloudy pool of bath water. his eyes open and so still. i thought i could almost see, i mean, if i squinted, i could almost make out … ‘adakia,’ that’s the word. the word i was trying, you know, that’s it. ‘the world out of balance.’ you can look it up if you wanna, but i’m sure that’s the one … i knew it’d come to me, if i waited long enough.

Neil LaBute

In this extract from ‘Medea Redux’ a woman describes how, as a teenager, she had a child by one of her teachers. The son, Billie, is now grown up and they’ve met the Father for the first time in many years. The Father is overjoyed at meeting the son he’d never known but the woman is determined to have revenge on him. Neil LaBute (born 1963) is an American film director, screenwriter and playwright. His plays and films are edgy and unsettling portrayals of human relationships. He became a Morman while studying at University but in 2000 wrote an off-Broadway play entitled ‘Bash: Latter-Day Plays’, a set of three short plays (Iphigenia in Orem, A Gaggle of Saints, and Medea Redux) depicting essentially good Latter-Day Saints doing disturbing and violent things. This play resulted in his being disfellowshipped from the Mormon Church. It is interesting to compare LaBute’s work with other playwrights in the Anthology such as Edward Bond, Steven Berkoff, Sarah Kane, Martin McDonagh, and Simon Stephens, along with Euripedes’ ‘Medea’. Neil LaBute’s other plays include ‘The Shape of Things’, ‘Autobahn’ and ‘Fat Pig’ and the film and play ‘In the Company of Men’.