SMALL HUT
Children's bedroom, bunk beds.
A curtain placed next to the bed separates the sisters from their mom and dad.
The mom is facing the audience, the sisters cannot be seen, only their voices are heard. Shadows of adults are dancing behind the curtain. In their hands, they hold bags, knives, pig’s heads, pitchforks . . .
LITTLE SISTER: Why aren’t we allowed in the room?
MOTHER: It’s not time yet.
BIG SISTER: But when will it be time?
MOTHER: The room is full of beasts.
LITTLE SISTER: What sort of beasts?
MOTHER: One of them tells you now, the other tells you no, the third one stares you right in the eye and laughs, the fourth is sitting around and is eating a piece of jiggly meat, but her eyes are very good, the fifth one says do it, do it, nothing’s gonna happen, the sixth doesn’t have eyes, the seventh doesn’t have ears, the eighth has no mouth, the ninth is memories, the tenth is death.
BIG SISTER: I don’t understand.
MOTHER: You don’t need to understand. It’s bedtime.
LITTLE SISTER: But where are you going?
MOTHER: I’m going to work.
LITTLE SISTER: And what are you going to do there, Mommy?
MOTHER: I’m going to correct homework. I teach children.
LITTLE SISTER: Were the children good?
MOTHER: Yes.
LITTLE SISTER: Who’s better, girls or boys?
MOTHER: Boys are better.
BIG SISTER: You prefer boys . . .
MOTHER: Yes I do. They lie less.
LITTLE SISTER: But you have two girls . . .
MOTHER: Yes, but you two are not like other girls . . .
BIG SISTER: How do you know?
MOTHER: OK, I’m turning the light off.
LITTLE SISTER: Don’t turn all the lights off.
MOTHER: I’ll leave the one in the hallway on.
LITTLE SISTER: It casts a shadow.
MOTHER: It’s only a shadow.
LITTLE SISTER: There’s a man over there.
BIG SISTER: I want to sleep.
MOTHER: Your sister wants to sleep.
LITTLE SISTER: I really see a man over there. He’s threatening me with his finger.
MOTHER: Nobody will come here. I won’t allow it . . .
LITTLE SISTER: He shows up when you leave.
MOTHER: I’ll beat him up. Who dares touch my little girl! You, get over here. No one will touch my little girl. I’ll teach you a lesson!
LITTLE SISTER: Did you . . .
MOTHER: I did.
LITTLE SISTER: Good.
MOTHER: Sleep now.
SONG (MOTHER sings):
Here kiddy, kiddy,
(She calls the children.)
Come little kiddies, you have no home,
They took everything and brought it to their homes,
I made a small nest, a teeny-tiny hut,
Slight breeze can blow it away,
It hurts, it hurts, but don’t let it,
It hurts, it hurts, but don’t let it.
*
SCENE TWO
THE ROAD
ALICE and her BIG SISTER are in the room, sitting and smoking a cigarette. The curtain has been removed. ALICE’s head is on her sister’s lap. She is caressing her hair. ALICE gets up, straightens her hair. She was crying up until a moment ago.
BIG SISTER: And what will you do now?
ALICE: I probably won’t tell anyone anything. I’ll just leave home.
*
SCENE FIVE
NEST
The HUNTER and the PRINCESS are looking at the building across the street through a pair of binoculars. They share a bottle of wine and a joint.
HUNTER: I would like to have an empty room, a wall full of books and windows through which I could see a sloping hill with a single tree or a river with a single boat.
PRINCESS: I have a different dream. I see rooftops and a small apartment with a balcony looking onto other balconies and rooftops, the rooftops of some old city, and people I watch from there.
HUNTER: What sort of people?
PRINCESS: A woman plucking her eyebrows in front of a mirror, who then sips her coffee on her balcony, who looks down below. She looks down below all day long. It’s always warm. Under her balcony there’s a shoemaker who looks up her skirt.
HUNTER: The shoemaker’s hiding a secret passion: he likes to gather eggs from exotic birds to paint them.
PRINCESS: And then one day he brings her the eggs.
HUNTER: And she makes an omelette.
PRINCESS: He becomes very sad.
HUNTER: Then they start to live together.
PRINCESS: No, they don’t start to live together.
HUNTER: Yes, they do.
PRINCESS: No, the shoemaker dies.
HUNTER: Better let that woman with big tits die. Why the silence?
*
SCENE SEVEN
HANSEL AND GRETEL
Wind howls through the trees, arousing fright and horror. It sounds like someone is screaming, it sounds like a woman is laughing, it sounds like a child is crying, causing a bloodcurdling effect.
GRETEL: She turned the lights off on purpose.
HANSEL: I’m fed up with coming here.
GRETEL: I’m not. This is my favorite place.
HANSEL: You admire her.
GRETEL: So what.
HANSEL: I don’t admire her at all.
GRETEL: This house looks like a cookie.
HANSEL: It’s disgusting.
GRETEL: You find everything disgusting.
HANSEL: I love simple houses.
GRETEL: Look at this little table, we can sit here.
HANSEL: I can’t sit here, there’s too much wind.
GRETEL: Is there anything you like?
HANSEL: Yes, you . . .
(HANSEL kisses her.)
HANSEL: Look, the lights just went on upstairs.
GRETEL: It looks like a Christmas tree decoration upstairs.
HANSEL: Stop acting all cutesy.
GRETEL: Why should I stop acting cutesy.
HANSEL: Stop.
GRETEL: I can leave you anytime. I just have to go out on the road, stick my thumb out, and hitch a ride to the city.
HANSEL: Something could happen to you.
GRETEL: We could go inside the house.
HANSEL: Someone’s visiting . . . look at the shadows . . .
GRETEL: So what if there’s someone visiting, even better she’ll invite us in . . .
HANSEL: I’m not sure.
GRETEL: Tell me about all the things you would do for me?
(They kiss.)
(The door opens and lights up HANSEL and GRETEL kissing.)
WITCH: Who’s there . . . Is it you . . .
HANSEL: It depends who you’re looking for . . .
WITCH: How many of you are there?
GRETEL: Two.
WITCH: A girl and a boy.
HANSEL: She’s completely drunk . . .
WITCH: How many kiddies are there?
HANSEL: There’s two of us . . .
WITCH: Sweety, it’s a girl and boy, you won’t be alone. Oh dear, you are big children . . .
HANSEL: I don’t know what’s funny . . .
WITCH: You’re a tough boy . . .
GRETEL: We’d like to sit down for a bit . . .
WITCH: C’mon children, get rid of that mud . . . take off your shoes . . . Take them off, what are you looking at, here take these.
HANSEL: I don’t want to put these on.
WITCH: They’re warm, put them on.
GRETEL: Put them on, I like them.
WITCH: You can take them home.
GRETEL: Really?
WITCH: Take them home.
GRETEL: Thank you.
WITCH: You’re welcome, they’re not even mine.
GRETEL: Whose are they?
WITCH: Who knows? Everyone else who came here? The girl with the note book, she forgot her notebook and her gloves. Plenty of booze here. Drink something, my son.
(The house surrounds them now.)
HANSEL: My son . . .
WITCH: Sweetie, you could be my son. My son is just like you, well, not exactly like you . . .
HANSEL: Where are the glasses?
WITCH: They’re everywhere.
(They look at each other.)
WITCH: Don’t be angry with me, look around, the glasses are everywhere. What do you want now, the small chest?
(He stares.)
WITCH: You want hot or cold?
(He stares.)
WITCH: Do you want the small chest with wrapping paper?
(He stares.)
WITCH: Oh my, I love it when someone is tough. The glasses are inside the piano.
GRETEL: It’s so warm in here.
WITCH: Sweetie, why don’t you cut that hair of yours?
GRETEL: Why?
(Silence, HANSEL wants to sit next to GRETEL but she sits alone on a chair.)
WITCH: Tell me what would you like to do?
(Silence.)
WITCH: Did you bring something of yours?
(Silence.)
WITCH: Go ahead, tell me kids, it’ll be fine . . . Did you come to warm up or are you reporters or do you have that bug pushing you to create . . .
GRETEL: I did.
HANSEL: I also brought something.
GRETEL: Let’s see what you have. You first.
WITCH: I have to go piss, sweetie. Wait just a moment.
(The WITCH exits.)
GRETEL: You pretended you didn’t want to come here.
HANSEL: I don’t know any more. I don't know what I want or don’t want.
GRETEL: We walked around the house five times, we got lost, we came back, one time we fought terribly and now you’re ready to . . . Where are those drawings? Where are they? Show me . . .
HANSEL: Wait a little, not right away. She’s gross. What can you learn from her? Look how disgusting she is. I want to prove to you that she’s nobody.
GRETEL: No, I have to learn.
HANSEL: Who are you all of a sudden? . . . What happened to you? I don’t want to fight . . . because of a drunken . . .
(The WITCH is back and she’s been listening for a while.)
WITCH: Me, when I drink, my brain works better. I piss often coz I lost my pelvic floor muscles after childbirth. And I don’t have ovaries. They found small bones in one of the ovaries when they took them out. That’s probably because I ate twins. I was stronger then. They found a plastic bag in the other one.
GRETEL: A plastic bag.
WITCH: Oh dear, you’re already drunk sweetie.
HANSEL: Can we show you our drawings . . .?
WITCH: Not now. I first have to get to know you. Not now, maybe not even tomorrow. Maybe we’ll all be dead by then. And then who the hell cares about drawings? I planted flowers over there but the wind, the wind . . . Who the hell cares about the wind? Let’s make cocktails and put some music on. Yes, that’ll be fun . . .
GRETEL: What have you been busy with lately?
WITCH: I had a fight with the neighbor. His dog is idiotic . . .
(HANSEL is laughing.)
WITCH: See, you’re happy now.
HANSEL: I don’t know . . .
WITCH: I’m telling you, pretty boy. You’re lucky not to know your own capabilities.
HANSEL: I know my capabilities.
WITCH: I don’t know my limits.
HANSEL: You don’t know my capabilities either.
(HANSEL leaves.)
GRETEL: He’s a bit confused.
WITCH: Is he?
GRETEL: Yes, he is.
WITCH: Why?
GRETEL: He admires your drawings more than mine. I don’t know what he expected.
WITCH: Yes.
GRETEL: Well, when you imagine famous artists, somehow you always . . .
WITCH: You always imagine their shit doesn’t stink.
GRETEL: I wasn’t thinking in those simple terms.
WITCH: I know, sweetie . . . I’m a lush whose house isn’t tidy.
GRETEL: I wasn’t thinking that.
WITCH: You're far too polite for what you’re trying to achieve.
GRETEL: I’m only interested in the essence, not in the effect.
WITCH: Oh really!
GRETEL: I think your school of thought is outdated.
WITCH: I’m too much of a bitch for you.
GRETEL: What?
WITCH: I like how young women are scared of me. You can’t even begin to understand just how much I hate young women and then when I see they’re afraid of me, and on top of that they're trying to get something out of me, fuck it, I won’t tell you . . . I’m too much of a bitch for you . . . And let me tell you another thing: forget about art . . .
GRETEL: Fuck you . . .
WITCH: Don’t get angry. I can help you if you want. You have to be outside. You just have to. And without fighting. The force is within you. Death is within you.
Listen I’ll tell you . . . but . . . I’m a bit embarrassed in front of men.
GRETEL: Tell me.
WITCH: I’ll die soon. I just don’t want to be in pain . . .
(Wind howling.)
*
LAST SCENE
HUNTER: She fell asleep in the snow. She was drunk and fell asleep in the snow. That’s not a bad death. Good night, beautiful . . . Good night, my child.
WITCH: Daddy, I wanted to ask you to make me a boat so I can sail away.
Daddy, make me a boat, Daddy, I didn’t drink, I didn’t go there, Daddy, keep me safe on the boat, Daddy, it didn’t happen to me, Daddy, my dear Daddy, let’s go on the boat together, Daddy, let’s sail away and you can tell me nice stories Daddy, I want to be born again, Daddy, my dear daddy.
