Mimosa Campironi
FAMILY GAME
SPECTACLE FOR 5 CHARACTERS AND VR DEVICE
Selection Italian Playwrights Project 3th edition (2020/22)
excerpt translated by Thomas Simpson
Characters
LUI: man, about forty
LEI: woman, about thirty-five
NONNA: old woman
CARABINIERE*:young man from the provinces
XANTIA: Romanian woman, about thirty
VR headset **: visual memory, flow of consciousness, television monitor.
The audience is seated on swivel chairs, each with a VR device. The lead actor is also seated among the audience
The setting portrayed in VR is a house.
The characters giving monologues directly address the audience, such that each spectator feels the story is being told to them personally. In this context, the simultaneous presence of all the characters in the same space is functional to the reconstruction of the events: when a character speaks, the others serve as puppets for the speaker’s imagination (except for the dialogues). The spectator must have the sensation of being a confidant super partes of the characters, stimulating the speaker to discover the rules of the narrative game, as well as participating actively and investigator.
Notes
*The CARABINIERE should be Abruzzese. The words he speaks in English should be pronounced or mispronounced as an Italian with little knowledge of English would.
** The VIVR headset should remain on throughout the spectacle until the moment it is to be turned off. In the viewer, in addition to the fixed set of the house, there is also the visual material of the memories of the characters, the flow of their consciousness/memory. The written directions are references, ideas to be enriched with a visual score composed by the director. The written directions should be taken as input that should remain until the next directions, to be made visible in alternation with the principle setting.
IMPORTANT!
The text written in italics within the monologues is to be considered direct discourse.
The headset turns on.
White noise.
HEADSET
The headset syncs up. The face of a woman, a child and a German shepherd appear on and off, finally stabilizing on LUI and the fixed set of the house.
LUI : So thirsty.
My car… My house…
I I wasn’t able to…
…they…
…the ceiling, the beams, the floors that were up there, the pipes, the water, and all those pieces of things that when broken, cut, shit, they come inside you…
Pieces of body I can’t explain… it’s easy to cut…
all one inside the other…
I began to run, then to walk.
My feet hurt.
A car…brushes past me… the wind of it almost knocks me down…
…stink of gas…
the highway…
…gas, fertilizer…
…Damned…
I’m thirsty. Lights of a truck stop.
I enter the parking area.
Bright lights inside.
HEADSET
Photos of faces flash by. Adults, children, men, women.
LUI : The clock says 4 a.m.
There’s only one customer, and he’s staring at me.
I want to drink.
Gin Neat.
The waitress behind the counter looks at me.
Eyes like a cow.
Little red hat and a lip ring.
No alcohol after 10 p.m.
Gin neat.
She pours the gin, doesn’t ask me to pay.
Disappears in back.
The Gin goes down like water, I can’t explain…
Tv on. Reruns.
A photo appears.
… I drink until I don’t have to breathe any more.
HEADSET
Photo of a man with a black beard.
LUI : TV says… This man, Vito De Luigi, disappeared 7 years ago, leaving behind his family, with no apparent motive. This animation is a 3D reconstruction prepared by our experts…
LUI : My head hurts. Turn down the volume.
HEADSET
The flow of photos begins again, at a faster rhythm.
LUI : Another gin
It slides down, fast. Another, another.
Gin… that makes three.
The only customer waves the waitress over.
They say something to one another…pointing in my direction.
What the fuck do you want?
Turn down the volume!
The waitress cow disappears in back again.
I look myself over: my nails are broken to the flesh, I have no idea how.
Blood everywhere.
I didn’t notice. I can’t remember anything anymore.
HEADSET
Screenshot of Instagram. Photos of sexy, half-naked influencers flash by.
A young man in uniform is eating an enormous sandwich. The telephone rings.
CARABINIERE : Hello, carabinieri.
Nome and surname, please.
Where are you?
How can we help you?
Are you along?
Ah. A man.
Are you in danger?
We don’t send a squad car if it’s not danger.
I understand.
So he threatened you.
Hmm.
Is he drunk?
Ah.
Eeeeeh!
How do you know it’s blood?
You’re guessing, young lady, maybe it’s wine. It happens.
Did he try to rob you?
Did he make unwanted advances?
Eh …. All right, young lady…
…I can’t send you the squad car.
Calm down, calm down. Please calm yourself, ma’am.
Then explain calmly.
Eh? Gin?!
Ah. Disoriented.
Ah. He seems to be crying. In sum… an obnoxious drunk.
Aaaaaah. He had a confrontation with another customer. Who cares…
Ah.
Are you sure?
Really really sure?
The customer says he’s the same man too. Good.
OK fine ma’am. We’ll bring the squad care to check, but you have to calm down.
Hangs up the phone.
Maybe this’ll be the right one.
