about the (re)making project

Please feel free to take the plays from this project and use them freely as a resource for your own work: that is to say, don't just make some cuts or rewrite a few passages or re-arrange them or put in a few texts that you like better, but pillage the plays as I have pillaged the structures and contents of the plays of Euripides and Brecht and stuff out of Soap Opera Digest and the evening news and the internet, and build your own, entirely new, piece--and then, please, put your own name to the work that results.
But, if you would like to perform the plays essentially or substantially as I have composed them, they are protected by copyright in the versions you read here, and you need to clear performance rights. For professional performance rights, contact Thomas Pearson of International Creative Management at tpearson@icmtalent.com or 212-556-56600. For amateur performance rights, contact Libby Edwards at charlesmeeplays@yahoo.com.
- Charles Mee

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Big Love

by C H A R L E S L . M E E


CAST OF CHARACTERS

Lydia
Olympia
Thyona
Bella/Eleanor
Piero/Leo

Giuliano
Constantine
Oed
Nikos


Blackout.
Full volume: wedding processional music:
the triumphant music at the end of Scene 13, Act III,
of Mozart's Marriage of Figaro.
Lydia walks up the aisle,
looking somewhat disoriented,
carrying a wedding bouquet,
in a white wedding dress that is disheveled,
a little torn in places, dirty in spots.
She steps up onto the stage,
goes to the bathtub,
drops the bouquet on the floor,
takes off all her clothes,
or simply walks out of them,
steps into the tub,
leans her head back against the rim, exhausted,
and closes her eyes,
her arms thrown back out of the tub as though she were crucified,
as we listen to the music finish playing.
Now, quietly, sweetly, restfully,
Pachelbel's Canon in D
is heard,
and Giuliano steps onto the stage,
a glass of wine in his hand.
He is a young Italian man, handsome, agreeable,
weak and useless.
He seems a little surprised to see Lydia there
apparently napping in the tub.
This is Italy:
rose and white.
If Emanuel Ungaro had a villa on the west coast of Italy, this would be it:
we are outdoors,
on the terrace or in the garden,
facing the ocean:
wrought iron
white muslin
flowers
a tree
an arbor
an outdoor dinner table with chairs for six
a white marble balustrade
elegant
simple
basic
eternal.
But the setting for the piece should not be real, or naturalistic.
It should not be a set for the piece to play within
but rather something against which the piece can resonate:
something on the order of a bathtub, 100 olive trees,
and 300 wine glasses half-full of red wine.
More an installation than a set.
It is midsummer evening--the long, long golden twilight.
Giuliano and Lydia speak, quietly, and with many silences between their words, as the
music continues under the dialogue.
[Note: there are lots of Italians in this play,
but I don't think the actors should speak in Italian accents--
with the sole exception of Bella--
any more than they would if they were doing Romeo and Juliet
or the Merchant of Venice.
Except for Bella, these are English-speaking international travelers.]
GIULIANO
Hello.

[she opens her eyes]
LYDIA
Hello.
GIULIANO
I'm Giuliano.
LYDIA
Hello, Giuliano.
GIULIANO
And you are....
LYDIA
Lydia.
GIULIANO
Lydia.
I don't think we've met.
LYDIA
No.
GIULIANO
You've just-arrived.
LYDIA
Yes.

GIULIANO
That's your boat offshore?
LYDIA
Yes.
GIULIANO
A big boat.
LYDIA
Well...it belongs to my family.
GIULIANO
You've come for the weekend?
LYDIA
Yes, oh, yes, at least.
GIULIANO
You're friends of my sister.
LYDIA
Your sister?
GIULIANO
My uncle?
LYDIA
Your uncle?
[silence]
GIULIANO
I don't mean to be rude, but...
[with a smile]
who was it invited you?
LYDIA
Invited us?
GIULIANO
You didn't come to the party?
You mean: you're not a guest.
LYDIA
Oh, you mean, this is your home.
I'm in your home.
GIULIANO
Yes.
Well, it's my uncle's house.
LYDIA
It's so big.
I thought it was a hotel.
GIULIANO
We have a big family.
LYDIA
I'm sorry I just...
GIULIANO
It's OK.
Where do you come from?
LYDIA
Greece.
GIULIANO
Greece. You mean
just now?
LYDIA
Yes.
My sisters and I.
We were to be married to our cousins, and
well, we didn't want to, but
we had to, so
when the wedding day came
we just got on our boat and left