Four Plays

Copi

Description

This collection brings together four of Copi's best-known works for stage: Eva Peron, The Homosexual, The Four Twins and Loretta Strong. Set on the borderline of reality and delirium, and featuring such charismatic icons as Eva Peron and Greta Garbo, they are imbued with Copi's trademark racy wit and manic pace, intended at once to shock the bien-pensant and to open up radically new insights.The product of one of the most talked-about dramatists in the French language since Arrabal and the advent of the theatre of panic, Copi's works continue to shock and challenge all they come into contact with.

Informations

• Publié par: Alma Books
• Date de parution: 01 janvier 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780714546339
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Four Plays
Copi
Translated by Anni Lee Taylor

ALMA CLASSICS




alma classics an imprint of
alma books ltd
3 Castle Yard
Richmond
Surrey TW10 6TF
United Kingdom
www.almaclassics.com
Eva Perón (1969), L’Homosexuel ou la difficulté de s’exprimer (1971), Les quatre jumelles (1973) and Loretta Strong (1974), first published in French by Christian Bourgois éditeur
These four plays first published in Great Britain as Copi, Plays Volume 1 by John Calder (Publishers) Ltd, 1976
This new edition published under the title Four Plays by Oneworld Classics Ltd, 2012
Translation © Calder Publications, 1976, 2012
Front cover image © Ganesha Balunsat
Photograph of Copi © Jerry Bauer
Printed in Great Britain
isbn : 978-1-84749-230-2
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not be resold, lent, hired out or otherwise circulated without the express prior consent of the publisher.


Contents
Four Plays
Publisher’s Note
Eva Perón
The Homosexual or The Difficulty of Sexpressing Oneself
The Four Twins
Loretta Strong


Four Plays


Publisher’s Note
Copi was born in Argentina on 22nd November 1939, but lived in France for many years. He was already well known as a designer and cartoonist when he started to write for the theatre, where he had an instantaneous success, rapidly becoming one of the most talked-about playwrights of the time. These four plays all had successful Parisian productions, and Copi himself acted in all of them except The Four Twins . His special brand of surrealist, scatological irreverence for almost everything, and the humour and originality with which he introduces such real-life characters as Eva Perón and Greta Garbo into his plays, put them into a category of their own, shocking and disturbing but giving new insight into the no man’s land between dream and reality.


Eva Perón


CHARACTERS
Evita
Her Mother
Ibiza , Evita’s brother
Perón
Nurse
The first performance of Eva Perón was given at the Théâtre de l’Épée de Bois by Groupe TSE in 1969 with the following cast:
Eva Perón Facundo Bo
The Nurse Manucha Bo
Ibiza Jean-Claude Drouot
Mother Michelle Moretti
Perón Philippe Bruneau


Evita , her Mother .
Evita is searching through a trunk for one of her dresses.
Evita: Shit! Where’s my presidential robe?
Mother: Which presidential robe, darling? All your dresses are presidential robes.
Evita: You know the one I mean. The one I wore for my official portrait. The very simple one with camellias.
Mother: Oh, that one!
Evita: Where the fuck did I put that dress! Oh shit!
Mother: You should keep your things in order. You throw your dresses into any old trunk, when you know very well that each dress is numbered, and each number corresponds to a series and each series of numbers corresponds to a different trunk.
Evita: I don’t give a shit about the numbers.
Mother: Exactly! You see the result!
Evita: It’s that damn nurse’s fault. I’ve told her a thousand times to keep my presidential robe in this trunk. Where is she?
Mother: She’s not here. She’s not superhuman, you know. She can’t spend all her life putting your dresses in order. She has a right to relax in her room and listen to the radio from time to time, the poor girl.
Evita : Oh, shut up!
She opens up a second trunk. The Mother puts the contents of the first trunk back in their place.
Mother: Just look at this mess! Here it is! Here’s your dress! Isn’t this it?
Evita: Where did you find it? Give it to me!
Mother: Right here, on the floor. You don’t care where you throw anything. Look how crumpled it is. Such a beautiful dress. I’ll iron it for you for this evening.
Evita: No, I want to put it on now. Go and fetch the others!
Mother: Evita, don’t disturb poor Perón, with his migraine!
Evita: So what! I’ve got cancer!
Mother: Don’t start that again! Cancer! Cancer! Cancer!
Evita ( while she is dressing ): I’ve got cancer! And I’ve just about had enough of Perón’s migraines! An aspirin can’t cure cancer! I’m going to die, you know! And you don’t give a damn. You don’t give a fuck, any of you! You’re just waiting for me to snuff it, just to get the money. Do you want to know the number of my safe deposit in Switzerland, hey, you old bag? I’m not telling it to a soul! I’ll die with it. You’ll just have to beg. Or go out on the streets as you used to. Go and wake the others!
Mother: Don’t speak to your mother like that! I won’t go. I said I won’t go so I won’t. That’ll teach you to talk to me like that. As if I haven’t enough worries without being left in poverty when you die!
Evita: You can wear one of my dresses if you like. But only for this evening. The red lace, it’s a bit too big for me. Catch. Take it, you can keep it, it’s a present. You can wear it with the gold-lamé shawl. I’m going to the lavatory.
( She exits )
Perón! Ibiza!
The Mother puts on the dress. Ibiza enters. Perón enters.
Mother : Is your migraine better, Perón?
( She goes over to Ibiza who zips up the back of her dress )
Do you know what she said? She said she wouldn’t give us the number of her safe deposit in Switzerland. She said when she’s dead I’ll just have to go out and walk the streets. It’s unbelievable isn’t it? Ibiza, do you think I ought to talk to Perón about it?
Ibiza: What safe deposit in Switzerland?
Mother: You know, when she went over to Switzerland last year. Well, she opened a safe deposit and put in all the money from the wool contract with the Portuguese. Well, it seems that each safe deposit has a number. If you don’t know the number they won’t give you the money. And she doesn’t want to give us the number.
Ibiza: So?
Mother: So what’s going to happen to me?
Ibiza: You’ll get a state pension.
mother: Yes! But listen to me Ibiza. I know I can talk to you like a son. You must understand what I mean! I love Perón like a son, he’d never let me starve to death, I know that. But you know very well that a coup could happen at any moment! That’s why she put the money away in Switzerland. If they get rid of Perón, what’s going to happen to me?
Ibiza: You can always rely on me.
Mother: But, look, what if you get killed, Ibiza. You do realize you could get killed, don’t you? It could happen.
Ibiza: But if they kill me, they’ll kill you too, won’t they?
Mother: Me! They wouldn’t dare kill an old woman.
Ibiza: That’s what you think.
Mother: But… they wouldn’t dare kill Evita’s mother.
Ibiza: That’s…
Mother: No! No! What are you talking about? Do you think they’re going to kill us all?
Ibiza: I didn’t say that, but…
Mother: You’re making fun of me! What have I done that’s wicked? They’re not going to kill me just because I’m her mother, are they?
Ibiza: Look, don’t worry about it. There’s not going to be a coup. Why should there be?
Mother: It could easily happen, Ibiza! Remember, it could easily happen. Listen, Perón, I want to talk to you about something very important. It’s the matter of Evita’s safe deposit in Switzerland. Are you listening?
Evita ’s voice : Nurse! Nurse!
Noises.
Mother: What’s the matter with her now!
Nurse ( enters ): Come and help! She’s had one of her attacks! She’s fainted and I can’t get the lavatory door open! It’s locked!
The Nurse and Ibiza exit.
Mother: Oh, the poor darling! Oh, it’s terrible, Perón, it’s terrible!
The Nurse enters, opens her first-aid kit, takes out a syringe, then goes out.
Mother: Oh dear! Oh dear! My poor child! I’m afraid. I don’t want to see her when she’s in such a state. Do you hear me, Perón?
Evita enters, supported by Ibiza and the Nurse .
Ibiza: Sit down. Is that better?
Evita: Let me go! I said that is enough! I could have died, locked in that lavatory and he wouldn’t have lifted a finger. He lives inside his migraine as if it were a cocoon. Everyone dies, you know. It can happen to anyone, even generals in uniform. You! Give me my little make-up case! It could happen to you too, you might even go even quicker than me! Migraines are much more dangerous than cancer. They’re spider’s webs tangling up the inside of your skull. There’s no excuse for migraines. That day they tried to kill me, I was flying through the air covered in blood; he was in the car in front of me and he didn’t even move a muscle. Just stood there with his hand raised, like a statue. It was the crowd who had to come and pick me up. He didn’t even leave his Cadillac. He’s not going to put himself out just because of a cancer, especially when it’s very convenient for him to have me die.
Mother: If I’d known they were bringing me back just for this, I’d have stayed on the Côte d’Azur. You don’t need me here for this! It’s unbelievable! And what’s more you all treat me like a slave, it’s unbelievable! Maybe I am a fool, but I’m sane; I’m not mad! She always gets me mixed up with madmen, it’s not fair! I’ve had enough of it, enough, enough, enough! I’m off, do you hear me! Yes! I’m leaving! I’d rather beg! She can go to hell with her loot.
She exits.
Evita: She doesn’t have a key, does she?
Ibiza: No, I’m certain she doesn’t.
The Mother enters.
Evita: You can go to your room, you!
Nurse: Yes, madam.
Evita: Wait. I had a terrible time finding my dress. How many times have I told you to keep this dress i