A Ten-Minute Play

By Catherine Filloux

To "Odette Piovanacci Filloux and John Daggett"

Cast of Characters:
(1 woman/1 girl/1 man)
 

ODILE - A pied noir, French-Algerian woman
MAURICE ? Her father
HORSE - Odile as a girl

Place:  France
Time:  Present
 

The Lessons of My Father

 (MAURICE lies in hushed  stillness in his coffin.   ODILE enters, uncomfortable in  elegant clothing, taking a  Clementine from her pocket.   A clock, marking time,  chimes.)

 ODILE
Papa...Papa...In ten minutes they will take you to the church...For your sake I'm trying not to look pious and hypocritical.  (Adjusting her expression.)  It's hard. 
(Looking at Clementine.)  For you, just like in Heaven.

 (She waits, looking at him  closely.)

 ODILE
Your joke, your Tall Tale?...You invite everyone to the funeral and have the last laugh...Aren't you going to surprise me? 

 (She puts the Clementine in  her pocket and starts to  exit.) 

 ODILE
I knew I shouldn't have trusted you. 

 (HORSE, Odile as a girl, runs  past her, looking at creatures  lying on the floor.)

 HORSE
Papa, papa!  Come here!  What happened to the tadpoles?  (Picking up a creature.)  What is it...?

 ODILE
A frog.

 HORSE
The tadpoles turned to frogs while we were sleeping...!

 (Maurice bolts upright in his  coffin, his younger self.)

 MAURICE 
And leaped out of their bowl.  (To Odile.)  As any normal frog would do. 

 (Horse gathers the creatures  in her skirt.)

 HORSE
But what's happened to them? 

 ODILE
They dried up.

 HORSE
Outside of their water home.  I'll put them in the ice chest, the cold will bring them back to life, I know it.  They're so tiny...

 MAURICE 
My Horse...

 HORSE
I must hurry. 

 MAURICE 
I'm afraid the freezer will not resurrect them. 

 ODILE
They're dead.

 HORSE
Dead, Papa?

 MAURICE 
Yes. 

 HORSE
Is it for good?

 MAURICE 
Yes, for good.  Now, you are a brave person, my Horse.  Death isn't necessarily so bad.  Sometimes, you have to laugh in the face of it.  (He laughs with glee.) 

 ODILE
Laugh? 

 MAURICE
They're all so pious at those funerals!  And so hypocritical!  You know what I'd love to do? 

      HORSE  ODILE
No.          Yes.
 
 
 
 
 

 MAURICE
Run an announcement of my death in the O-Ran paper with the date and time of the wake at our house.  All the people will arrive with their gloomy, lugubrious faces.  (Miming.)  Your mother will lead them solemnly into the living room and then when they're all here I'll enter, straight and dignified, like this.  They'll be left flabbergasted, and I'll have the laugh of my life!  The last laugh.  (Laughing.)  Eh?  What do you think?  Not bad, huh?...

 (Horse giggles.)

 ODILE
It's not real.

 HORSE
Maman would never agree to let you play the trick.

 MAURICE 
Here, in Algeria, the story is what is important, my Horse, not the reality.  It's what we call a galéjade.  A Tall Tale.  You embellish it to fit the occasion.  (To Odile.)  A good laugh is always more important than anything else.  Right?

 ODILE
A good laugh, Papa?  I'm nothing like you taught me to be. 

(Maurice beckons to Horse, looking down into a hole as we hear turbulent  sea rushing into the hole with a loud, sucking sound.)

 MAURICE 
Now, would you be afraid to go down there?

 HORSE
Yes, very afraid, Papa. 

 MAURICE 
Pofft, there's nothing to be afraid of.  I'll take you down and then you can see for yourself.

 ODILE
See what?

 HORSE
What do you mean?  How?
 
 

 MAURICE 
I'll hold you by your feet and lower you down, then you can have a real good look!

 ODILE
At what?

 MAURICE 
You can do anything. 

 HORSE
I don't know.

 MAURICE
I'll see to it you're not raised as a sissy, but the hard way, hardened to hardship.  You must always trust me.  I'm your father and I wouldn't wish anything dangerous for you...Don't you want to have a better look?

 HORSE
Okay... 

 (He takes her by the feet and  lowers her down into the hole.)

 ODILE
Wait a minute.

 MAURICE 
Well, how is it down there?...

 HORSE
I'll tell you in a second, I'm looking. 

 MAURICE
That's fine, just call when you're ready.  (To Odile.)  Take the time to have a real good look. 

 (After a moment.)

 HORSE
Okay, pull me up. 

(He pulls her out.  She wipes spray from her face; Odile wipes tears.)

 MAURICE 
Didn't I tell you not to be afraid? 

 HORSE
Oh, Papa! 

 MAURICE
See?  You can trust me.

 ODILE
No.

 MAURICE 
Always remember, there is no difference between a boy and a girl and what they're capable of doing. 

 ODILE 
No difference.  How could you truly say that?  What were you thinking? 

(She adjusts her tight-fitting clothes.  Horse picks up a schoolbag and starts to run away.  Maurice delivers the scene to Odile.)

 MAURICE 
Where are you going, my Horse?  Rushing in, out of breath.  What happened?

 HORSE
Nothing. 

 ODILE
I was at Lise's.

 MAURICE 
What were you doing?

 HORSE
Homework. 

 ODILE
Lise had to leave. 

 MAURICE
Did something happen you're not telling me?

 ODILE
Yes, Papa.

 MAURICE 
What?

 HORSE
I don't want to talk about it right now.

 MAURICE
Maybe you'll feel better if you say it.  You know, you can trust me.

 ODILE
I can't. 

 HORSE
I'm going to finish my homework...

 MAURICE
Look what I brought home from the harbor?  A whole big stalk of bananas.  You can pretend you're in the jungle and each time you pass it grab a banana to eat.  Have fun!  They can only be good for you.  I couldn't resist buying them just to see your reaction!

 HORSE
Lise's father came into the room while I was studying...

 MAURICE
Go on...

 ODILE
Alone.  He began to...I didn't know what to do.  I was ashamed. 

 HORSE
He leaned over my chair where I was sitting and...He put his hand under and all over...

 MAURICE 
It's good you ran away.  How did you do it?

 HORSE
He moved, to the door...

 ODILE
To lock it. 

 HORSE
I quickly got up from my chair.  Ran from the house.

 MAURICE
You're a brave and smart girl.  I'm proud of you.

 ODILE
Why?

 MAURICE 
Listen to me carefully, my Horse.

 HORSE
Did I do wrong?
 
 

 MAURICE 
Most men are not like your friend's father.  They're decent and would never do such a thing, but there are a few like him and because of them you need to be extra careful as a young girl. 

 ODILE
I didn't know.

 MAURICE 
Of course not, Odile.  It was very bad of him to do what he did.  Parents' faults fall back on their own children.  You can see why I'm going to ask you not to go to your friend's anymore. 

 HORSE
Yes...

 MAURICE 
Take a banana.

 ODILE
I'm not hungry.

(Maurice, Odile and Horse face the audience.)

 MAURICE
I went to see that Man!  Slapped him hard across the face. 

 (Odile makes the motion of  slapping.)

 ODILE
Just keep quiet.  You know why I'm doing this.  Don't ever do such a thing again and if you speak against me for what I just did, I promise in tomorrow's paper your actions towards my daughter will be spelled out in detail.

 HORSE
You called him a...

 HORSE/ODILE/MAURICE
Bastard!

(Odile takes the Clementine from her pocket and gives it to Maurice.)
 
 
 

 MAURICE
I always thought Heaven would be lined with Clementine trees and you could help yourself to as many as you wanted!

 ODILE
Papa, we used to ride our bikes to the orchards.  There was a priest Father Clement who invented the hybrid tangerine? 

(The clock chimes the hour.  He gives her back the Clementine.)

 ODILE
I must tell you goodbye now.  I can't breathe. 

 (Bright sunlight as Horse  shouts.)

 HORSE
We're at the top of the mountain, Papa! 

 MAURICE 
Look at the sea, my Horse!  There is the harbor of Mers-El-Kébir and, see, in the distance, Ain-El-Turk where you go swimming?  Now, I must teach you how to breathe.

 (He swells his chest with  obvious pleasure.)

 MAURICE 
You throw out your chest like this...fill your lungs and take a deep breath...Now exhale!

 (He makes a powerful blowing  sound as he exhales.)

 MAURICE 
In order to live well, Odile, all you have to do is learn to breathe.  Not just with your body, but with your soul.  Passionately.  You never let things happen to you. 

 ODILE
You make them happen...

 MAURICE
You make them happen.  Throw out your chest...

 (Maurice and Horse swell their  chests.)
 

 HORSE
...I am...

 MAURICE 
Fill your lungs...

 HORSE
...I'm filling them...

 MAURICE 
Take a deep breath...

 (They take deep breaths.)

 MAURICE 
Now exhale through your mouth!

 (They exhale, making a  powerful blowing sound.) 

 HORSE
It makes me dizzy, Papa!

 MAURICE 
With me here, you won't fall.

(The clock chimes again.  Horse combs Maurice's hair with her fingers.)

 ODILE
To start is, never to end...Along the roads of O-Ran are the telephone poles your own father installed.  Who uses the phones now?  Your mother a seamstress, takes you a little boy to the factory, sets you on the table, the seamstresses play with you, teach you to love women.  You bring me home tadpoles and a baby stork.  At the harbor you look for what is cheap to make us laugh.  Your brother flying across the Mediterranean, killed in a fog crash, plane goes down.  From that day--the day you and I go to identify his body--you never shave your beard or moustache.  Until today when they shave it for you because you are dead. 

 MAURICE
In order to live well, my Horse...

 ODILE
Every piece of history dies, the smoke of the cigarillos you used to smoke, which made your moustache yellow, your laugh, the revolver you kept in your night table, your daughter, they will lower the lid of the coffin and I will never.  Never see...See...Never see you...

 MAURICE
All you have to do is...

 ODILE
                (She sticks out her tongue.)  Ahhhggghhh.  I'm sick.  Langue.  Long.  French-English-French-English...

 MAURICE
Learn to breathe...

 ODILE
I'll go back to the country where I live.  I'll speak English.  My tongue can't wrap itself around the words so I'll stutter.  Look inside, see my throat.  I'm sick.  The lessons of my father...

 MAURICE
Not just with your body... 

 ODILE
I'm almost there, you're almost, they will lower...

 MAURICE
But with your soul.  Passionately.  You never let things happen to you...

 ODILE
Where you are going there are no phones...

 MAURICE
You make them happen...

 ODILE
Cannot reach you, cannot reach you...

 MAURICE
Throw out your chest...

 (Maurice swells his chest.)

 ODILE
They will lower, they will lower, the phone lines installed by your own...

 MAURICE
Fill your lungs.  Take a deep breath...

 (He takes a deep breath.)

 MAURICE
Now exhale through your mouth!

 (He exhales, making a  powerful blowing sound.  She  doesn't exhale.)

 ODILE
They will lower the lid.

 MAURICE/HORSE
You won't fall.

(Maurice lies back down in his coffin.  Odile tries to sing him a song, "Valentine", but says Clementine instead.  She places the Clementine in the coffin.  Horse swells her chest with obvious pleasure.)

 HORSE
In order to live well, all you have to do is learn to breathe.  Not just with your body, but with your soul.  Passionately.  You never let things happen to you.  You make them happen.  Throw out your chest. 

(Odile unbuttons her suitcoat and throws out her chest.)

 HORSE
Fill your lungs.  Take a deep breath.  Now exhale through your mouth!  With me here, you won't fall. 

 (Horse takes Odile's hand. 
 They breathe in together then  exhale.)

 END OF PLAY
 

Catherine Filloux's play, MARY AND MYRA, premiered at Contemporary American Theater Festival (CATF) in Shepherdstown, West Virginia in July 2000.  CATF has commissioned her new play about Cambodia to be produced in 2002. Filloux has also been commissioned by Theatreworks/USA for a new play. Catherine received a 2000 Rockefeller MAP Fund award for her libretto, THE FLOATING BOX: A Story in Chinatown, with composer Jason Kao Hwang; the opera will receive its world premiere at the re-opening of Asia Society1s newly renovated building in October, 2001.  She is the winner of the 1999 Roger L. Stevens award from The Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays for her play EYES OF THE HEART.  Her screenplay by the same name was selected for the O'Neill's 1996 Eric Kocher Playwrights Award.  She developed EYES for Lifetime TV.  Her other plays have been produced in New York and around the country, as well as in Paris and Phnom Penh, Cambodia.  She received her French Baccalaureate in Toulon, France, and her M.F.A. from New York University.  She is a member of New Dramatists.