Frangione - Espresso

Copyright 2004 Lucia Frangione Talonbooks
278 East First Avenue, Vancouver, British Columbia, V5T 1A6
www.talonbooks.com Second Printing: July 2008
Electronic edition: April 2016 Cover design by Adam Swica No part of this book, covered by the copyright hereon, may be repro- duced or used in any form or by any meansgraphic, electronic or mechanicalwithout prior permission of the publisher, except for excerpts in a review. Any request for photocopying of any part of this book shall be directed in writing to Access Copyright ( The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency ), 1 Yonge Street, Suite 1900, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5E 1E5; Tel.: () 868-1620; Fax: () 868-1621. Rights to produce Espresso in whole or in part, in any medium by any group, amateur or professional, are retained by the author. Interested persons are requested to contact her agent: Patricia Ney, Christopher Banks and Associates, 6 Adelaide Street East, Suite 610, Toronto, Ontario M5C 1H6: Tel: () 214-1155; Fax: () 214-1155. The publisher gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts; the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program; and the Province of British Columbia through the British Columbia Arts Council for our publishing activities. Cataloguing data available from Library and Archives Canada ISBN-13: 978-0-88922-495-7 (print)
ISBN-13: 978-1-77201-089-3 (EPUB)
ISBN-13: 978-1-77201-090-9 (Kindle)
ISBN-13: 978-1-77201-091-6 (PDF)
to Leila, with whom Ive spoken the language This play is a dark dream Ive managed to stab onto paper.

Real events swirl together with wild metaphors, fantasies, and nightmares. I first came up with the idea a decade ago when I stood beside my fathers hospital bed, his chest broken open and his heart lacerated from falling asleep at the wheel. His condition was so fragile, a few excited palpitations could kill him. Through my tears I was guiltily piecing together a plot line, thinking: What a fascinating way to die. Amante means lover in Italian, and that is the best way I can describe the spiritual energy that comes to me in times of loneliness and grief. Maybe hes female fantasy, maybe hes an undigested bit of beef, a hormonal flush, a chemical imbalance in my brain, or maybe hes Jesus.

I dont know. But Im a lucky woman. It is entirely biblical for Christ to manifest himself as the groom, but we usually picture him at the altar in the suit, not in the honeymoon suite alive and kicking. It shocks even me to read the erotica of Song of Solomon. While I was writing this play, Amante kept barging into my brain. He made sure I didnt skip over the hard parts, he demanded I give all my characters a chance to explain their side of the story.

Amante challenged me to put him on stage and come out of the closet as a Christian and as a Sensualist, and explore the metaphors that have been fig-leafed by the church for centuries. Hes probably going to get me excommunicated. Oh well. Hes worth it. L.F.
January 2004 Espresso was first commissioned and world premiered by Pacific Theatre with the generous support of the Canada Council. The play was dramaturged by D.D.

Kugler* and workshopped with Laurier Dubeau,* Jillian Fargey,* Gina Chiarelli,* Michael Kopsa,* and Kerry Vandergriend.* The workshop and world premiere were directed by Morris Ertman* and produced by Scott Campbell under the artistic direction of Ron Reed at Pacific Theatre, Vancouver, January 24 to February 22, 2003, with the following cast: ROSA : Lucia Frangione*
AMANTE : Todd Thomson* Stage Managed by Allan Thompson
Costume Design by Rebekka Sorenson
Set and Lighting Design by Kevin McAllister
Sound by Noah Drew *Appeared courtesy of Canadian Actors Equity Association. Characters ROSATHE NARRATOR Rosa is a thirty-year-old first generation Canadian woman with an Italian father. Her exterior is a thin, calm, smiling, urbane skin, almost apologetic. It stretches to hold in the red passionate blood that boils just below the surface. She keeps a distance. She prides herself on being objective and recounts this story in order to sort out the voices that live within her, and maintain her sense of reality, thus pushing out Amante, who threatens to woo her into the Divine chaos of Love.

In her subconscious lies The Song of Solomon, a slender book of ancient Hebrew erotica found in the Bible. AMANTETHE UNINVITED SECOND NARRATOR Amante is a swarthy sensual tomcat. Its not clear as to whether Rosa has created him or whether he has created Rosa. He intervenes with truth when Rosa would choose to skip over it, and he speaks when Rosa no longer can. Though she tries to deny his presence, he constantly uses the story to provoke her into responding. He is passionate, earthy, jealous, unpredictable, mischievous, vulnerable, and beautiful.

He is Love. THE RELATIONSHIP Rosa does not want to believe in Amante, but she cant wholly deny his presence. She tells the story of her fathers car accident, in effort to explain him away. Through the telling, Amante aggressively woos her and provokes an acknowledgment of his reality, challenging her to open her heart, though never trespassing her will. THE STORY THEY NARRATE Rosa is the estranged daughter of Vito, who has just been pulled out of a gruesome car wreck and rushed to the hospital. She flies down to see him and is joined in the waiting room by her Nonna, her stepmother, Chinz, and a pack of Italian relatives.

Glamorous Chinz (Vincenza) is full of bravado, a survivor of many disasters. She is a fiery little pit bull of a woman who leaves bright red lipstick on all of her squashed cigarette butts. Love is martyrdom for her and that is why she married Vito. She is ruled by superstition and prays to a passive aggressive Catholic hierarchy of saints and Deity. She is a landed immigrant from northern Italy and Nonna Rosa hates her. Nonna Rosa is the matriarch widow, a wrinkled black olive.

Vito is her favourite son and Rosa is her favourite granddaughter. Nonna can wither any hearty perennial with a single look and her judgment is final. She is mostly silent, when she speaks it is often operatic in its drama. She was forced into marriage at the age of thirteen and she hasnt known independence until now, at the age of sixty-seven.
The playing time of Espresso is approximately one hour and forty-five minutes with one intermission. ACT ONE ROSA strips her bed, she has no clean sheets.

She sits on the mattress with an array of wedding invitations around her, working late. She falls asleep, surrounded by delicate paper with silver and gold filigree. As she slips into a dream, the Song of Solomon lifts off the pages and begins to whisper all around her. AMANTE has been watching her from outside the window, standing in the rain. He enters the bedroom with a mischievous grin and begins his seduction; a clandestine love affair in the middle of the night. She responds to him instinctively, dreamily.

He calls out to the winds in an urgent whisper. AMANTE: Awake, north wind! O south wind, come, breathe upon my garden, let its spices stream out. I have eaten from the honeycomb, I have drunk the milk and the wine. AMANTE shakes his wet hair over her sleeping body, and it elicits a moan of pleasure. ROSA: I was asleep but my heart stayed awake. AMANTE: Listen! ROSA notices him, shes alarmed, confused.

ROSA: My lover is knocking. AMANTE: Open my sister. ROSA: My friend. AMANTE: My dove. ROSA: My perfect one. ROSA slinks towards him, delighted.

His wet hair rubs against her skin and she giggles with a yelp. AMANTE: My hair is wet. ROSA runs her fingers through his hair. ROSA: Drenched with the dew of the night. ROSA suddenly notices that the same text they have just been reciting is written on a wedding invitation right beside her foot. She picks it up, reads it partially.

ROSA: Drenched with the dew Lights change as she realizes hes nothing but a dream. She pulls away from him, he is disappointed, but we sense he is used to disappointment. She gathers up the invitations frustrated with herself for being so stupid. AMANTE: I opened to my love but she had slipped away. I called her name. ( reminds himself ) Never awaken love until it is ripe. ( reminds himself ) Never awaken love until it is ripe.