Posted by Tracy
This is a little play John wrote for a group of us (i.e. writers) who meet every so often -- expressing his anger and bemusement at the racism focussed in Northam at the moment.
If anyone ever wants to use it, they are welcome.
The Gathering: a half-act play for six players
by John Kinsella
Players 1-6 are seated in something approximating a circle. A small room. Maybe an office, but could be a work crib room, a shed, or any other confined space. The players are without identifying characteristics. The allotment of player identities among the group of actors is ascertained in as arbitrary a way as possible. They stand when they speak, otherwise remain seated. In the background, Dvorák’s New World Symphony is playing quietly.
Player 1
Sine qua non.
Player 2
Veni, vidi, vici.
Player 1
Bellum omnium contra omnes.
Player 3
Alea iacta est.
Player 2
E Pluribus Unum.
Player 3
O di immortales!
Player 5
And so say all of us.
Player 6
Not quite. Shelley quotes the correspondence of Voltaire at the beginning of Queen Mab: ‘Ecrasez l’infame!’
Player 1
And Lucretius.
Player 4
What about Lucretius? By whose authority?
Player 1
Six lines. Too many for me to recite. My Latin is shaky.
Player 2
I love that line from Mab: ‘The chains of earth’s immurement...’
Player 6
You need to be wary of propaganda in an environment of privilege and learning.
Player 4
Too true, brother [or sister], too true.
Player 5
I made a rhyme today:
They place refugees in hot places.
Hot places cast faces on 'races'.
Player 2
Not much of a rhyme, that. All the same, disturbing.
Player 5
Then how about:
Inland they make a stand.
That’s a single line with an internal rhyme.
Player 2
Who makes the stand?
Player 5
I am not much of a critic.
Player 1
Power to the people...
Player 4
That’s copyright. Do you have any idea of the cost behind a cliché? The legal ramifications of specifics.
Player 3
Surely it’s just populism. No price on that!
Player 2
Too right there is. I’ve worked hard.
Player 3
For whom? For us?
Player 2
Too right. I’ve worked hard.
Player 1
Some bloke is cruising around town calling the old army camp a sacred site. A couple of sporty-looking women have ‘bomb the boats and ‘sink the boats’ on their bright red t-shirts.
Player 4
And the wheat is about to be harvested.
Player 2
And the wheat is about to be harvested. I’ve worked hard.
Player 1
What would Cicero have said on the floor of...
Player 3
...empire...
Player 5
or some other player. Not just Cicero? How about one of his cronies? A fly-in fly-out rouser of rights? Pick a name, any name.
Player 1
Quid pro quo.
Player 4
Primus inter pares.
Player 3
Goodnight. Sleep tight. New world orders have to be processed.
Player 2
Not in my backyard. I’ve worked hard, hard, hard!
Player 1
Acte est fabula, plaudite.
Hear, hear!
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