Fennessy - The House on the Lake

FIRST PRODUCTION The House on the Lake was first performed by Black Swan State Theatre Company at Studio Centre, State Theatre Centre of WA, on 6 June 2014, with the following cast:

DAVID RAIL	Kenneth Ransom
DR ALICE LOWE	Marthe Rovik

Director, Stuart Halusz
Set & Costume Designer, India Mehta
Lighting Designer, Trent Suidgeest
Sound Designer / Composer, Brett Smith CHARACTERS ALICE LOWE , approximately 35 years of age DAVID RAIL , approximately 50 years of age SETTING A room sparsely furnished with a bed, a table and two chairs. There are two high windows with security grilles above the bed. To the side is a door that leads to a bathroom. The entrance door is opposite. There is no internal handle on the door. It has a buzzer and an intercom next to it.

There is no television, mirror or radio in the room. It has a comfortable but impersonal look about it. High up on the rear wall a CCTV camera looks down into the room. SCRIPT NOTES A dash at the start of a line indicates a held thought. A dash at the end of a line indicates a cut-off. A forward slash indicates overlapping dialogue.

This play went to press before the end of rehearsals and may differ from the play as performed. SCENE ONE DAVID is sitting on the bed, wearing crisp hospital pyjamas. ALICE stands with some distance between herself and DAVID . In front of her on the table sits a file, a laptop, and various other documents. She is neatly and conservatively dressed with a white doctors coat and a name tag. From outside we can hear the distant sound of rain.

A cold early evening light streams in through the high windows. Occasionally throughout the play we hear the distant muffled sound of the hospital P.A. system. Its October twenty-second. DAVID looks at his pyjamas, looks around the room. He seems both alert and disorientated.

He looks to the high windows and listens to the rain. ALICE : David? Pause. DAVID : Yes? Pause. ALICE : Do you mind if I sit? DAVID gestures for her to take a seat. Thank you. My name is Alice.

Im here to help. She sits and opens her laptop then taps a few keys on the computer. DAVID : Youre a doctor? ALICE : Yes. Pause. DAVID : Where am I? ALICE : Youre in a hospital DAVID : Why? ALICE : Were not sure. DAVID nods.

Youre okay, David. Youre safe here. DAVID : Safe? ALICE : Yes. Pause. DAVID : Where are my clothes? ALICE : Everythings being looked after, David. Pause.

DAVID : So whats happened? ALICE : We dont know yet Were hoping you can help us find out DAVID : We? ALICE : Whats the last thing you remember? DAVID thinks. DAVID : I woke up here. In this room ALICE : Before that? DAVID : I was working in my office. ALICE : What were you doing in your office? DAVID : Working Pause. DAVID looks around the room. He shrugs and shakes his head.

ALICE : Thats okay Youre okay We need to conduct a series of tests David? You understand? To see where youre at. I thought we might just start with names and see how we go from there. So my name is? DAVID stares at her. Alice and you are? DAVID : David David Rail. ALICE : Good, David. So lets have a think about how we might go about remembering our names, yes? One way that we might use to remember a name is to use what is called DAVID : Remembering our names ALICE : Yes.

DAVID : I dont understand why? ALICE : This is just a simple DAVID : Have I met you before? [ Pause. ] Because you seem familiar. You seem familiar to me ALICE : Do you feel as if we have met before? DAVID : Have we? ALICE : Perhaps I have one of those faces. DAVID : ALICE : Lets just concentrate on names. If you were to try and remember my name what kind of things do you think might help us out, David? DAVID : What do I think might help us out? ALICE : Yes, David. DAVID : One thing, Alice, do you mind? ALICE : Not at all.

DAVID : Do you mind before we proceed? One thing ALICE : Yes, David. DAVID : One thing before we go on I appreciate you are simply trying to do your job and that in the course of executing that task you may have to interact with a whole range a whole spectrum of types but can I ask you, Alice, and its a little irksome so Ill try to phrase this as delicately as I can but could you, Alice, could you possibly stop talking at me as if I were a vegetable? Pause. ALICE : Of course. DAVID : I respect that youre here in a professional capacity but it is a thing Ive noted in regards to health professionals is that there is a tendency to talk down I am very happy for you to assert your authority within your given field, you understand, but you are confusing it, Alice, with broader assumptions. So do you mind? Can we proceed under the premise that perhaps we are both of reasonable intelligence? Beat. ALICE : Of course.

DAVID : Do we understand each other? ALICE : Of course. DAVID : Thank you Why am I here? Beat. ALICE : You have been in an accident DAVID looks around the room. DAVID : An accident What happened? ALICE : Were not sure We need to run a series of tests, David. In order to find out DAVID : Tests ALICE : Yes. Beat. Beat.

ALICE : Its 5:00 p.m. DAVID : Okay. Good So a series of tests DAVID stands and looks at his bare feet for a moment. ALICE : Yes. ALICE makes a note. DAVID : Why? ALICE : Well, as I said DAVID : No I understand what you said, Alice, Im just at a loss to see why I need to / undergo ALICE : / Because, David, you have DAVID : When I feel perfectly fine why do I need to undergo, be subjected to, be made to / jump through ALICE : / David, its a DAVID : This series of tests.

And hence my question. Why? Beat. ALICE : Its a requirement. Pause. DAVID : A requirement. A requirement of yours? ALICE : A requirement.

DAVID : You are just doing your job ALICE : Yes. DAVID : Alright I understand that. I can understand that. Pause. DAVID stares at her. ALICE : Fine.

So names Im Alice DAVID : Will they take long? These tests? Will they take long? ALICE : Why, David? DAVID : Because I have somewhere to be. ALICE : It depends. DAVID : On what? ALICE : On what the tests reveal. Pause. DAVID looks at her. Yes. Yes.

Next? ALICE : Yes. And I am? Pause. DAVID : You are Alice, Alice ALICE : Yes. So if you were to try and? DAVID : Alice in Wonderland. I would associate your name with something else, yes? ALICE : Yes. Good.

DAVID : Good. ALICE : You can associate a new memory, the memory of me with an older memory of something familiar. And what if my name was Wendy? Pause. DAVID : Is Alice not your name? ALICE : Alice is my name but for the sake of argument. DAVID : Wendy? I dont know Wendy in Wonderland. Pause.

ALICE : Lets try a mnemonic device then. Do you know what a /mnemonic is? DAVID : / Yes. ALICE : So? Pause. DAVID : So what? ALICE : For my name. DAVID : Alice or Wendy? ALICE : Alice. DAVID : I know your name, Alice.

Its on your name tag. Jesus Christ, I think weve established your name. ALICE : Lets just try. Pause. DAVID : All Ice. Pause.

ALICE : Good, David, poetics both aural and visual but not a mnemonic. DAVID : Well At Least I Can Entertain. ALICE : Pause. DAVID : Do I get a tick for that, do you think, Alice? Pause. He gets up and looks about the room. Pokes his head into the bathroom.

Apologies, Alice, that was rude of me, its just Im a little a little confused, Alice. ALICE : Yes? DAVID : Why am I here? Pause. ALICE : There was an incident, David. DAVID : An incident? What incident? ALICE : In which you lost time Beat. DAVID : You mean I I fainted? Like a dizzy spell? Beat. ALICE : Were not sure.