Afterimage (2 page)

The chorus in this play is built from the eight characters listed above. While they seem to have moments of omnipotence, chorus lines dedicated to a particular character are unique to their perspective and emotional arc and should be approached as such. The goal is to create the sense of communal storytelling, both in first-person action and in third-person commentary.

Afterimage
was written to be performed in an electrified environment. Artistic Fraud’s production included a set made of copper, and costumes wired to transmit live DC current. While the voltage was kept low and every precaution was met to ensure the safety of all actors and staff, the living electricity component allowed for all effects listed in stage directions. Thus, where noted in the play, sparks, flashes, fire, and the like were manifested quite literally in production.

Afterimage
was accompanied by an original score for voice and guitar-string harp performed by the ensemble.

Afterimage
received its premiere production from Artistic Fraud of Newfoundland at the Enwave Theatre of the Harbourfront Centre in Toronto on April 16, 2009, as part of World Stage. The company was as follows:

Lise: Mary-Colin Chisholm

Winston: Christian Murray

Theresa: Melanie Brooks

Jerome: Kevin Woolridge

Leo: Colin Furlong

Maggie: Petrina Bromley

Leonard: Phil Churchill

Connie: Melanie Caines

Director: Jillian Keiley

Score and musical direction: Jonathan Monro

Set design: Shawn Kerwin

Costume design: Marie Sharpe

Lighting design: Renate Pohl

Technical director: Rick Banville

Production manager: Erin French

Stage manager: Flora Planchat

Assistant director: Anita Rochon

Assistant director: Michael Worthman

Afterimage
was written with generous assistance from the Canada Council for the Arts. Artistic Fraud developed the piece with pre-production dramaturgy by Iris Turcott, and post-production dramaturgy by Sarah Stanley.

Lights up on WINSTON, his back to us. He stands centre stage, looking up at a hydro pole. In his hand is a downed power line. A pause on this.

Chorus (Winston):
It does strange things to people, to not be connected.

The others enter as they speak.

Chorus (Lise):
People need to feel that spark.

Chorus (Maggie):
In our town, people need hope, that’s all. And when they need hope they need the priest.

Chorus (Lise):
Sssh.

She plucks a harp string.

You hear that?

MAGGIE shakes her head no.

Chorus (Winston):
What people need are men who can climb.

He takes the line and walks to the hydro pole, begins to climb through the following.

Chorus (Theresa):
People are afraid. That’s all.

Chorus (Leonard):
Afraid of the future.

Chorus (Lise):
The past.

Chorus (Jerome):
Red hair.

Chorus (Theresa):
They throw rocks.

Chorus (Jerome):
Call names.

Chorus (Connie):
Here, the doctors they always arrive late.

Chorus (Lise):
The nurses, they need to be brave.

Chorus (Maggie):
In our town…

Chorus (Leonard):
Pictures can’t help it, they tell the truth.

Chorus (Leo):
Even when you don’t want it.

Chorus (Lise):
But the truth is worth telling.

Chorus (Connie):
Like how love can hit you hard, leave you bleeding.

Chorus (Leonard):
And promises are hard to keep, but secrets even harder.

Chorus (Leo):
In our town, fire reveals everything.

Beat.

Chorus (Leonard):
The future is a burden.

Chorus (Lise):
But people want to know it.

Chorus (Connie):
And when they want to know it, they go see Lise.

A public place now, LISE is face to face with CONNIE and LEONARD. She surprises herself with what she says.

Lise:
Congratulations.

CONNIE and LEONARD look confused and guarded.

Leonard:
For what?

LISE smiles and suddenly reaches with both hands and touches CONNIE’s stomach.

Behind and above them, WINSTON has made the connection between the downed wire and the pole and he is brutally shocked, a shower of sparks, noise, the buzz of the current through the space. The harp strings now powerful and loud when plucked, music.

An emergency. WINSTON falls slowly from his height. MAGGIE races to prep the hospital space.

Everything settles.

WINSTON is laid out, MAGGIE with him. LISE stands a short distance away, staring, entering and stopped dead in her tracks by the sight of him.

She speaks and startles MAGGIE.

Lise:
Doctor not here yet?

Maggie:
Jesus.

What are you doing up here?

Lise:
Fresh linen?

Maggie:
Just… just lay it over there.

Beat.

Lise:
Who is he?

Maggie:
Evans. Winston Evans from out Springdale way.

You know him?

LISE shakes her head.

Wouldn’t recognize him if you did.

Lise:
Bad?

Maggie:
Most of his body burnt. You can smell it down the hall. Put most of the crowd off their lunch.

Lise:
But not you.

Maggie:
Or you.

Beat.

Loves yourself a bit of misery, don’t you.

Gets to telling people so much bad stuff, you’ve taken a liking to seeing it for yourself.

Lise:
I don’t tell them the bad stuff.

Maggie:
No?

Lise:
Nothing anyone can do about it, so don’t do much good to pass it on.

What happened to him?

Maggie:
Don’t you know already?

Lise:
It don’t work like that. Tell me.

Beat.

Tell me.

Maggie:
Jesus. The windstorm last night, it took down a line of poles up the shore. The boys doing their best to get the juice back out to the bight, taking most of the morning. This fella on his second shift. Just graduated from the trades program they got themselves down in Stephenville. Up the pole like a fish scared of heights. Too nervous, and too near the lines. Weren’t paying attention. And…

Lise:
Fire in the wire.

MAGGIE looks at her.

Maggie:
Sixty thousand volts. It’s a wonder he’s alive at all.

I had to cut off what remained of the workboots when they brought him in. His… his big toes came away with them, like pieces of leather themselves.

Poor soul.

LISE touches him gently. Beat.

Lise:
He’ll be fine.

Maggie:
What did you say?

What did you just say?

Lise:
He’ll be fine, this one.

MAGGIE regards her, angry.

Maggie:
Not to be made light of, this.

Lise:
I wasn’t.

Maggie:
The man needs hope and good prayer. Not party tricks.

Lise:
I know what he needs.

Maggie:
I mean it, Lise. Leave him be.

MAGGIE stares hard at her. LISE eventually turns and exits.

MAGGIE gives WINSTON one more look and leaves herself.

The man, still and alone. Silence.

LISE slowly re-enters, looks back to WINSTON, speaks quietly.

Lise:
Just fine.

You wait and see.

* * *

LISE, elsewhere, being watched.

Chorus (Leonard):
Lise Lacoeur.

Chorus (Connie):
She’s the devil they say.

Chorus (Maggie):
Never miss her, walking the street.

Chorus (Leonard):
That hair.

Chorus (Maggie):
Like some weird bird. Should be caged herself.

Lise:
This town is cage enough. Eyes beyond the bars, always staring in.

Chorus (Connie):
She’s the devil.

Chorus (Maggie):
Sold her soul, they say.

Chorus (Connie):
Black magic, they say.

LEONARD at LISE’s door.

Chorus (Leonard):
Except the magician hides the trick.

Chorus (Connie):
If there’s a trick to it, bully for you if you can spot it.

LISE’s home. She doesn’t notice LEONARD standing in the open doorway behind her, watching.

Leonard:
Lise Lacoeur.

She turns, stares at him.

The door was open, so.

I didn’t mean to startle you, I—

Lise:
No, of course not. No.

He offers his hand.

Leonard:
Butler. Leonard Butler.

They shake. An energy between them, Butler stares at her.

I’ve come to take advantage of your services. I hope it’s not a bad time.

Silence. They stare at each other.

Is there a problem?

Lise:
No. It’s just… not often I get a man seeking my help.

Leonard:
Call it a curiosity.

Lise:
And how did you come to hear about me?

Leonard:
I dare say there’s not a worm under a rock that hasn’t heard tell of you. And of course we’ve met before.

Lise:
Have we?

Leonard:
Last week. In town. I was with a young lady, you offered your opinion. For free, unsolicited.

Lise:
Yes.

Yes, I recall. Please take a seat.

Leonard:
Powerful thing to witness, Mrs. Lacoeur.

Lise:
Lise, please.

Leonard:
Fascinating, really. Found myself wondering, where would a person learn such a trade?

Lise:
My mother had the sight, and her mother before her.

Leonard:
Passed on then, like your red hair. A blessing.

Chorus (Connie):
A curse.

Leonard:
Heard tell of people who can read auras. Heal by the laying of hands.

Tell me, what’s it like? What is it that you see?

Lise:
Uh, time. Moving. The way a… a fire moves through a forest.

Leonard:
Uh huh. Pictures.

Lise:
The negative of pictures, darkness and light reversed.

Time, just it’s… it’s turned inside out.

Leonard:
Also heard tell of a seventh son of a seventh son, they say a worm held in his palm would curl up and die in a matter of seconds. Like it was laying in a bowl of pure electrical energy.

Lise:
Seen it myself.

Leonard:
Bullshit.

Beat.

You’re full of bullshit.

Lise:
Why are you here, Mr. Butler?

Leonard:
Curiosity, like I said.

Lise:
I don’t think I can help you.

Leonard:
That young woman, what you told her, us.

Lise:
Unwelcome news?

Leonard:
No news. She’s not pregnant.

Lise:
Not yet.

Beat.

Leonard:
It was inappropriate. The implication.

Lise:
There was no implication.

Leonard:
She happened to be with me, and in a public place.

Beat.

Look, I’m just taking her picture, she wanted her pictures taken. I’m a professional.

Lise:
And you’re married.

Aren’t you?

Beat.

Leonard:
Yes.

That comes with… responsibility. You know that, don’t you?

Chorus (Winston):
Single.

Chorus (Connie):
Unlovable.

Chorus (Maggie):
Alone with her devilry.

Lise:
Yes. I can imagine.

Leonard:
It would be horrible for anyone to get the wrong idea. Telling her she’ll be pregnant. While she’s with me. It would be horrible for her to get the wrong idea.

Beat.

Lise:
Give me that.

Leonard:
What?

Lise:
I need something of yours, personal.

She snatches his handkerchief from his lapel pocket, places it in a porcelain bowl, sprinkles it with lighter fluid.

Leonard:
I feel like you’re not listening to me.

Lise:
You came for my bullshit, and you’ll hear it.

Leonard:
Nobody needs what you have to give.

Lise:
And still people will come.

Chorus (Connie):
Back door, cover of night.

Lise:
Some things people need to know.

Leonard:
You like delivering bad news, Lise Lacoeur?

Lise:
I don’t tell people the bad stuff.

LISE lights the bowl, a brilliant fire and smoke. She stares into the ashes.

Chorus (Connie):
Laid out in front of you.

Chorus (Maggie):
Like a Sunday suit, and with just as little shame.

Chorus (Connie):
Tell you everything. Secrets deep as wells.

Lise:
(present tense)
Read the ashes.

Chorus (Maggie):
The way you’d read the paper.

Chorus (Leonard):
A photo of the future, there in the thing itself.

Chorus (Connie):
Blood in the body of a baby.

Chorus (Maggie):
Blood.

Chorus (Connie):
A child.

Chorus (Maggie):
Blood and pain.

Chorus (Connie):
Pain.

LISE recoils from the image.

Leonard:
What. What!

Lise:
You need to stay away from her.

Leonard:
Excuse me?

Lise:
You need to stay away from her. You will only cause grief.

She sees more. Recoils.

Oh Jesus. Jesus!

Leonard:
You’re trying to scare me now?

Lise:
Can you leave, please. I can’t tell you anything more.

Leonard:
You can’t or won’t?

Lise:
Please, Mr. Butler.

Leonard:
Finish what you started.

Lise:
I can’t tell you any more.

Leonard:
Listen, you bitch—

Lise:
Leave, please.

Leonard:
I’ll have you fucking strung up!

Lise:
Leave! Now!

He considers pressing her further, decides against it. He goes to leave, stops in the door.

Leonard:
If any of this get backs to my wife…

Chorus (Connie):
Secrets. Deep as wells.

He leaves her.

Chorus (Lise):
Secrets.

Chorus (Connie):
The future is a burden.

Chorus (Leonard):
She told nobody else what she had seen, for Leonard Butler.

Chorus (Lise):
Nothing anyone can do about it. It don’t do any good to pass it on.

Chorus (Leonard):
The darkness of the ashes.

Chorus (Connie):
She told nobody of that.

Chorus (Winston):
Or of everything else she saw.

Chorus (Lise):
Winston Evans.

Chorus (Winston):
What she saw for this man. Burned and transformed.

Chorus (Maggie):
What she had said at the hospital, of her sight for his good recovery.

Chorus (Connie):
Fear.

Chorus (Winston):
That first time.

Chorus (Maggie):
Winston Evans.

Chorus (Winston):
She saw it all.

Chorus (Lise):
Just by touching him.

Chorus (Winston):
No burning scarves. No furrowed brow or sweat.

Chorus (Lise):
Just by touching him.

Chorus (Winston):
This man. This ruined body. The truth be told, it filled her with pity.

Chorus (Lise):
And so much more.

Desire.

Chorus (Winston):
Desire.

Chorus (Lise):
To lay beside him. To feel the ghost of the voltage still coursing through.

The hospital. LISE stands watching him.

Winston:
Is there someone there?

Lise:
You want a cigarette or something?

Winston:
My grandmother was a smoker. Told me not to start, I’d only get hooked. Horrible feeling she said, to be dependant.

Beat.

You tell fortunes. That’s what they say.

Lise:
Do they?

Winston:
You know they do.

LISE smiles, prepares the washcloth and basin. Silence but for the occasional slosh of water.

What do you see? Now.

Lise:
A man who needs some sleep. I should finish and go.

Winston:
Sleep when I’m dead. Sleep soon enough.

Tell me.

LISE stops washing him. Beat.

Lise:
This is not my job, you know.

Winston:
No?

LISE shakes her head. A silence. Stares at him, the washcloth limp in her hands.

I can’t see you. What are you doing?

Lise:
Nothing.

She starts to wash him again.

Winston:
Feels good. Like you knows what you’re doing.

Lise:
Well, I do work down in laundry.

Winston:
I look that bad, no one else was willing?

Lise:
I wanted to.

Winston:
Did you now?

Lise:
And you look fine. Better than fine.

Winston:
Take your word. But I’m suspecting you a liar.

Lise:
You’re going to be okay.

Winston:
Yeah?

Lise:
You wanted to know what I see. That’s it.

Winston:
That’s what
they
tell me. Tell me something else.

Lise:
Something, like, what? What?

Winston:
Something, anything. They say you knows everything.

Lise:
All right. You… will leave here.

Winston:
One way or another.

Lise:
On your own two feet.

He smiles, unconvinced.

You wanted to hear it.

Winston:
Sure. Tell me more.

Lise:
You will marry.

WINSTON begins to laugh, hurting himself. LISE watches him blankly.

Winston:
Oh, shit. Hurts to laugh.

Lise:
You shouldn’t then.

Winston:
Every time I move. Like it’s ripping open, like it’s—

Lise:
Shhhh.

She washes him. Silence.

Winston:
Feels good.

LISE smiles.

A fine groom I’d make. I can see the photos now.

Beat.

Why did you want to do this? The smell. I can smell it myself. Stronger when they change the bandages. That don’t bother you?

Lise:
I don’t know.

Winston:
Why don’t you stay down in laundry? The nice, clean sheets. Why you want to see this?

LISE suddenly but slowly bends and takes him into her mouth.

A long silence, stillness.

She eventually stands again. Looks at him unashamed.

Lise:
It’ll come back to you. Don’t worry.

You want kids. You’ll have them.

WINSTON is silent. LISE starts to get up, turn away.

Winston:
How many?

If that’s true, then tell me.

LISE thinks, sees it clearly for the first time. Behind her, in the distance, a flash of two children, a boy and a girl, red hair like their mother. It is so clear to her.

And then suddenly something else, a sputtering light. Another child. An incomplete picture. Vague. And then gone.

We are left with the image of two that slowly fades. LISE smiles with a tentative pleasure.

Lise:
Two. A girl, and a boy.

She begins to collect her things.

I’m back in tomorrow morning.

You hear me?

Winston:
I’m not going anywhere.

She goes to leave. He stops her.

You said I’ll have a wife.

What will she look like?

LISE smiles.

Lise:
Like a witch. Red hair, green eyes. Left-handed as well as right. Born on Friday thirteenth.

Winston:
Are you trying to frighten me off?

LISE smiles, a promise to return.

Lise:
A boy and a girl.

She exits. WINSTON lays alone for a second. We can feel him smile.