Alessandro Berti
BLIND LOVE
Nomination Italian Playwrights Project 3th edition (2020/22)
excerpt translated by Thomas Simpson
A white man and a Black woman, seated, laying on a bed, then standing next to the bed, at the window, morning. Then again on the bed, it is Sunday.
Lui: In your opinion, no? . . . I thought. . .
Lei: Mmh...
Lui: That desire is a desire. . . for someone who is still, bound?
Lei: Bound?
Lui: That is...In any case someone...Who you can guide, command...
Pause
Lui: What desire is that? To desire someone that way...
Pause
Lei: (laughing) What do I know...
Pause
Lei: Old mens’ desire...
Lui: Old mens’?
Lei: Yeah, a form of desire for old men...
Pause
Lui: No... It’s all of themn. All men...
Lei: You too?
Lui: For sure.
Pause
Lei: Doesn’t seem that way to me...
Pause
Lui: No, but a Black woman, for example...For a white man can be… Two things completely opposite, entirely...The slave, bound, humiliated...I mean like a fantasy, like imagined, eh...
Or the opposite: the Beast, the wild animal...
Lei: I don’t see myself in that.
Lui: In which of the two?
Lei: Neither one.
Lui: Not even a little?
Lei: Not even a little.
Lui: I mean like a fantasy, like imagined...
Lei: No.
Pause
Lui: You’re right, it’s an old man thing...
Pause
Lui: Anyway men are always old. Men like it better when a body’s still. Unconscious...
Pause
Lei: Distracted...
Pause
Lui: Yeah, that’s right: a distracted body...
Pause
Lei: But you don’t only get excited with a body that’s...
Lui: No, in fact, it’s exactly that distraction, that absence, that increases the excitement…
Pause
Lei: So the absence of presence excites you…
Pause
Lei: Veined with a certain violence...
Lui: Doubt. The hypothesis. If the violence was certain, then no. It has to be subtle. Probable, but impossible to demonstrate.
Pause
Lei: And the other, the presumed victim, has to collaborate… Pretending to submit, let’s say.
Lui: Or really submitting, but not too much.
Lei: Non too much.
Lui: No. If she’s too defenseless it doesn’t work.
Lei: She has to pretend to be defenseless, she has to play the part of the defenseless one…
Pause
Lei: And the Black Amazon, hungry for it?
Lui: That’s the opposite, that works for feminine white men…
Pause
Lei: Why are you talking about these things?
Pause
Lui: I must have dreamt about it.
Pause
Lei: Did you watch a porno film last night?
Pause
Lui: Two or three clips, but distractedly, nothing special. Nothing too demanding.
Lei: Because some porn is demanding?
Lui: All porn is demanding.
Lei: So why do you watch it?
Pause
Lui: I was thinking: the black body is distant, untouchable…Even when it’s violated, beaten…It’s something more. Precisely when someone treats it… As though it were something less.
Pause
Lei: And you like treating it that way? As though it were something less?
Lui: You know...
Lei: You don’t do that. Not with me. You don’t treat me that way.
Pause
Lei: But would you want to?
Pause
Lei: To treat me like something less? Would you want that?
Pause
Lui: But you’d like that?
Pause
Lui: Nooo, I could never do that. Not with you.
Pause
Lei: You wouldn’t like it?
Lui: Why?
Lei: Maybe you’d like it.
Lui: I don’t know...
No, I’d be uncomfortable. With you.
Pause
Lei: And I wouldn’t like it.
Lui: I know.
Lei: But you would.
Lui: No, I don’t think so.
Lei: That’s what you said.
Lui: No, no...
Not with you.
With you no.
Pause
Lei:... But you watch porno. You watched a porno film…
Lui: Porno films don’t exist anymore. They’re just clips, very short.
