The (Post) Mistress by Tomson Highway

Author:Tomson Highway [Highway, Tomson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: drama, Canadian drama, rural life, musical, music, musical theater
ISBN: 978-0-88922-781-1
Publisher: Talonbooks
Published: 2013-10-25T00:00:00+00:00

ACT TWO

Silence. Darkness. As the lights fade in, MARIE-LOUISE Painchaud is just finishing sorting letters into mailboxes. And humming to herself.

MARIE-LOUISE: (speaking) Daniel Bocquet, 24. Jane McCain, 57. Labine’s Meats and Variety, Jean-Marc’s Pharmacy, Normand Dube, 37, 78, 134, 18 … Ahhh, from Argentina …

The bass line of a tango snaps on. MARIE-LOUISE freezes. As if the entire post office has been thrown into a time warp by this address – and the rhythm that seems to be coming from inside the envelope – time breaks down into extreme slow motion so that, when MARIE-LOUISE moves again, it is as if she is moving inside a dream, or under water. The introduction to the tango builds up to full formation – sensuous, dynamic, the piano eventually joined by the saxophone playing winding, serpentine configurations. Her eyes come up slowly to look at the audience, a smouldering, come-and-see-me-I-dare-you sort of look. And eventually, she starts talking (though, of course, what she is doing is not so much reading as “divining” the letter that she is holding). The moment she starts speaking, time snaps back to normal, as do MARIE-LOUISE’s movements.

She recites “When I Was Last in Buenos Aires, Argentina.”

(speaking free-form over the rhythm of the tango)

When I was last in Buenos Aires, Argentina,

That city of legend, city of love, la ciudad del amor

It was January, the height of summer, there, in Buenos Aires, Argentina,

So it was hot. Hot, hot, hot.

The sunlight was streaming, the people were steaming, I was steaming.

I was so hot, in fact, that I would have rosary beads of perspiration clinging to …

Well … just clinging. To …moi.

Anyway, this, that, and the other

And this, that, and the other and, before you know it,

I end up in this neighbourhood called San Telmo

Where, as it turns out, the cool people live.

I look for an apartment.

I find an apartment

Which is where, and how, I meet this …

This man named … Ariel.

Ariel Juan Antonio Eduardo Pablo Augusto Alejandro Bellavista

That was his name but I called him just … Ariel.

Ariel of the dark eyes, of the large flaring nostrils,

Thick purplish lips, swarthy complexion, very handsome.

The kind of man you see in Argentinian movies, the ones with what’s her name there,

That famous Argentinian movie star who once acted with Eva Peron and hated her guts.

Libertad Lamarque, yes, that was her name, but anyway …

We’re not here to talk about Libertad Lamarque

We’re here to talk about … love …amor

You see, I ended up renting an apartment from this …

This Ariel Juan Antonio Eduardo Pablo Augusto Alejandro Bellavista

Whom I just called simply, as I say, Ariel,

Ariel of the dark eyes, Ariel of the large flaring nostrils,

Ariel of the thick purplish lips, of the swarthy complexion.

And that first night, he came up the stairs because, you see, he lived downstairs from me

And that first night, he came up the stairs

And he offered me …spagetti. Not spaghetti butspagetti,

Spagetti with a hot red sauce, a sauce he himself had made

With herbs which, as he said, came from the jungles

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