No Time Left.

Behind The Glass

The two-act play
by Vladimir Snegurchenko
translated by
Vera Aliseychyk
Maxim Grehovodov
Dramatis personae:
NICK (Age: 25)
APRIL (Age: 30)
ElISE - (Age: 45)
***
The play takes place in the apartment. One-storey house with a high
foundation. This is quite a large apartment in the center of the metropolis. The
tall window on the wall is facing the street, this is what is in the foreground.
Right at the back there's an entrance to the bedroom, to the left at the back
entrance to the bathroom, there is a kitchen. Front of the window on the wall
hangs a large screen. Before the window are three leather chairs, one chair in
the center, the other two - a semicircle evenly on both sides. On the left, before
going to the kitchen, there is a small closet with mirrored doors. The window is
arranged so that if it is inside the apartment, we can see what is happening on
the street. But, if we are on the street, then we can not see what is happening
inside the apartment. At least that's what our characters think, being inside the
apartment. On the street, which we could view from the window, there is
always a lot of people, mostly tourists, this boulevard is for pedestrians.
***
ACT ONE
Scene One.
Episode One.
It's morning. Elise lies infront of the window with the chair behind her. She's
making a birch exercise, the kind of exercise in which legs are lifted along with
the pelvis.
ELISE: How do you think, which part of human body is most interesting: lower
or upper?
After making the birch exercise, you have to make fish exercise three times
faster to analize the blood pressure.
The Birch decreases the pressure and the Fish increases. (Elise takes a lotus
position, looks into the window and talks to passers-by.)
I had a granny. (Puase) She used to say that the most fascinating part of
human body is lower. If one falls in love with what's below, he'll love the rest,
which is the person itself. But I'm different, as the years pass, it gets harder for
me to love people for what's below. Granny, 'till her last breath payed a lot of
attention to what's below. In fact, if people walked upside down, she'd never

look down. But since most people prefere to stand straight on their legs,
granny had to look forward, always considering what's below. She had a lot of
admirers and lovers. But she never got married.
(Elise stands up. Looks into the window. Talks to passers-by)
Who among you think that the upper body rocks? Put your hands in the air!
Now the fans of the lower body, show me your hands! Now we got to know
each other. There are so many of you. You come and go and there's no chance
to remember every single one. (Pause) I'm Elise, simply Elise.What about you?
What is your name? (Points her finger on a passbyer) Don't you remember, or
what? I am a playwrite. And upper part is what I love the most in human being.
But my professinal duty forces me to do a very detailed description of things
below. Now it's my turn to show you what I have in there. I think it's fair
enough. I've often looked inside other people's pants so now it's my turn. I'll
show you what I have below only if that'll entertain you. You may turn away if
you wish, it's upto you. But I don't think that you'll discover America by looking
in there. By the way, do you remember who discovered America? I mean, the
way it was discovered. What do you think about that. (Pause) I'll tell ya. A
powerfull nation. (Pause) Do you consider yourself a powerfull nation? Like,
really powerfull. (Demonstrates her strained muscles) Strong, ya know?!.
(Demontrates a part of her hand) I see you do. So, the powerfull nation
destroyed the weaker nation.
Yeah. (Smiles. In fact she always smiles that Alice) That's the way America was
discovered. Or rather covered. (Smiles) To it's indigenous people. (Smiles) But
do you remember, I promised to show what I have below. Remember? It's quite
intimate for me. I'm really nervous 'cause it'll be my first time. But you want it
don't ya? You may disagree with it but that's the way it is. Am I right? You came
for this didn't ya? (Talks to herself) To see what Elise has below. (Stretches her
pants and looks inside. Laughs) I think I rush the events. You're not ready yet. I
still haven't got used to you. Though... I don't wanna shock you. (Sighs)
Although my manager would have been happy if I could shock you. Do you get
it? As for me, I don't think that it could make me any happier. I didn't tell him
about it. I already showed him what I have below. (Smiles) You get it? You see...
I often say this word, you know, don't try to look like you don't understand,
you're not dummier than me. Yes, we're slightly going back to our question, to
our favorite topic.What's above and what's below. (Pause) It's an old Taoist
pensee. (Smiles) What's beneath (Points down) resembles what's above.
(Points at her smile. Shows her tongue) And so the powerfull nation destroyed
the weaker one. And that's the way America was formed... I hate America for
that. (Turns away and sighs) I hate us because the America appeared. (Smiles)
You know what they say? (Lifts her finger and speaks factitiously) I gave you
life, I will take it... Well of course I don't mean it. Americans are really nice.
Pretty much like Spanish and British. But it's not about people, is it? It's
rather...W-what are we talking about anyway? (Speaks tougher) C'mon, c'mon
use your brain (Pause) of course if it's a part of your plan... Right now I'm going
to show you what I have below and we'll find out what I have above... Now
then, the powerfull nation destroyed the weaker one, terminated it. The
powerfull nation (Lifts her hand with the pointed finger) is what's below. And
the weak nation (Covers her pubis with an open palm) is what's above. The
disgrace to a weaker nation gives birth to things like 'terrorism' .

Episode Two.
(Nick and April enter the room. Nick recently had shower his hair is wet. April is
sleepy, she just woke up.)
APRIL: Who are you talking to?
ELISE: These folks. (Points on passers-by)
APRIL: Oh, all right then.
ELISE: It's not all right. I think they hear me.
NICK: No way.
ELISE: I'm quite sure.
NICK: They're outside the window. That's not possible.
ELISE: I know, but still... (Alice looks at Nick then at April. They don't
understand her) I spoke to them and I'm completely sure that they've heard
me.
NICK: Where did you sleep?
ELISE: Here in the chair.
NICK: You've been dreaming it.
ELISE: Perhaps
APRIL: And what the conversation was about?
ELISE: I wanted to get undressed in front of them.
NICK: Are you insane or something? Why would you do that?
APRIL: It doesn't matter. What the chat was about?
ELISE: Don't remember... What was your dream?
APRIL: Oh, I had some spooky nightmare. Like I am at classes at school and I
have my first monthlies. I wear skirt and the blood flows down my legs, I'm
shocked I don't understand what's going on. I think that I'm dying. I stand up
and everybody starts laughing at me. I don't understand why they laugh seeing
the girl dying right before their eyes. They keep laughing and suddenly I feel
some kind of embarrassment, I want to cry, but I can't shed a single tear as like
someone had closed my tear valve and opened another one, completely
different. The teacher sees it and takes me out of the classroom. Then I spend
a whole week at home, afraid of going back to school.
NICK: Is that the first time that you had this dream?
APRIL: No I see it very often.
NICK: This really happened to you?
APRIL: Yes (Pause) Well no, not with me. My schoolmate. She was a really
stuck up girl. She couldn't even walk into the restroom if other girls were there.
She'd always run away from their attention. I was among the girls who laughed
at her when something like that happened to her. Since then, three or two days
befor my periods I have this nightmare. (Long pause)
ELISE: What was your dream, Nick?
NICK: Well, I had that dream... I'm not even sure if that was a dream or just my
personal fancy. I was interested with one question.
ELISE: What question, Nick?
NICK: What?
ELISE: What question interested you in your dream?
NICK: If one collects all the worlds piss accumulated in one day, how much
that'll be?...

ELISE: Per day or in 24 hours.

NICK: Per day. I mean...Including nightime. In 24 hours.
APRIL: What about you, Nick. What is your pissing prime time, night or day?
NICK: What are you trying to point at? I've just been in the shower. Helps me to
wake up. I sleep at night. Everybody sleeps at night. Twenty four hours, on
earth, in different time of day and night.
ELISE: Well, a big swimming pool of some fancy resort if not bigger.
NICK: What about a month?
APRil: I think pool would be enough to satisfy your interest.
ELISE: Nick's interest, if you don't mind.
APRIL: I don't mind.
ELISE: I just wanted to clarify that.
APRIL: Yes, sure.
NICK: I'm starving.
APRIL: Yeah, it would be nice to have some breakfast. Let's look at what we
have. I'll just go brush my teeth first.

Scene Two.
Episode One.
April, Nick and Elise stand infront of the window and stare at people. They hold
their toothbrushes. Nick holds a tube of toothpaste. He squeezes some paste
on Elise's and April's brush, but April gets just a little drop of it. April takes hold
of a tube and puts as much paste as she needs. They brush their teeth
thoroughly. April picks a glass of water from the floor, gargles and spews into a
bowl that stands at her feet. Hands a glass to Nick. He repeats the procedure.
There's no more water in the glass. Nick used most of it. He goes away. You
could hear the sound of running water. Nick brings a full glass to Elise. All this
time they stare at people who walk behind the window. Elise takes a glass from
Nick and rinses her mouth. Steps to April. Unlike Nick she doesn't bend to
spew, and that causes numerous white stains on her legs. Actually Elise's feet
are all in stains as well. But April wears skirt, and Elise wears pants. April
contemptuously points her head noting Elise's discourtesy. Nick takes all the
brushes, glass and toothpaste. Puts it all in a bowl. He goes away without
turning his head from the window. April leaves as well. Elise sits in the
armchair in the middle of the room. Looks into the window.
Episode Two
Nick's back. He sits into a chair left from Elise. They look into the window
silently. But Nick peeps on Elise once in a while. It seems that Elise is watching
someone particular, apparently living through his feelings.
April comes back. She rolls a two-tier snack table with tea, cups, some
sandwiches, cereal, pack of milk on top of it, and bowls, spoons, some fruit,
chocolates and small packs with different kinds of sugar below. April sits in a
free chair. The table stands between April and Elise. But no one can reach it
but April.

APRIL: Self service!

(Everybody is having tea. Nick is eating cereal. Both April and Alice pick
sandwich.)
NICK: Shall we begin?
(No answer.)
NICK: Now, we have this violence scene. (Pause) Can you imagine?
(No answer. Everybody is looking in the window. Everyone including Nick, by
the way.)
NICK: Some decent woman is raped and beaten by some decent man.
Somewhere in Uruguay. Just to make it simple... Imagine someone you don't
feel sorry for. (Nick takes a look on April and Elise). You got it? (Long pause.
Nick's angry with them because they don't pay any attention. He stands up,
comes closer to the window, watches the passers-by.) You got it? (Pause). Lift
your hand if you've got the picture. (Talks to Elise and April). Let's say, I have
this rape recorded. Do you have any interest to see it? (Pause. Nobody
answers. They just keep looking into the window. Nick pretends that he speaks
to the people outside). How do you think, will it be Ok to show it right now?
Lift your hand if you don't mind. Who's ready to see this recording now, right on
this screen? Any volunteers? (Nick points at the screen. Walks to it. There is a
remote right below it. Nick clicks the remote, and the screen projects the real
time picture of what's going outside. Both women look at the screen for some
time, but not too long. Then stare at the window again. For a moment Nick
thinks that he's caught their attention. But that's not true. Nick's dissapointed.
He talks to Elise and April again.) Who wants to see the terrible scene of
vilence, lift your hand!
APRIL: You see Nick, it's not relevant any more. There are so many of these
rape scenes, and how did you get this picturer of the outside?
NICK: I did nothing, I just turned it on. Right before your eyes. I think I should
switch the channel, there should be something interesting.
APRIL: Piss off and do what you want.
NICK: I didn't get the answer! Who wants to see!? (Nick talks to the screen)
Who wants to see this freakin' rape scene!!? (April and Elise look at the
window, they're not in the mood to talk. April's apparently sleepy. And Elise...
Elise is different, she seems to know something what the others don't.) Allright,
let's do it the other way. (Nick comes to the window and talks to passers-by.)
Who would like to see the live violence scene right now in this room, only
without any beating, just a simple dumb piece of abuse?! Or simply a plain bit
of coitus?! Any volunteers, show me your hands!
ELISE: Hey, do you control yourself?
NICK: Yes, I do! (Nick stares into passers-by.) There are some, here they are,
some of them.
ELISE: Listen, I do think, that some of them would love to do that, especially
with you (Looks at April), if you let them in of course.
NICK: (To passers-by). Hey, I personally invite you to join our company, come
over here be so kind show me what you can! Perharps you could do that right

where you are. Fuck each other! C'mon, you were lifting hands. Don't have
guts, hah? Right over there, grab someone and get laid! Look over there, that
girl's horny. She lifted her hand! C'mon, just two of you, body to body, rock on!
You afraid? Are you afraid!? You volunteered for this!
APRIL: Go and do it yourself!
NICK: I'm not interested. How many people would look around if something like
that actually happend in a public place. How many would faint, how many
would call the police? Or they would stand and stare or film it on their
cellphones. Ok, we're done, thank you. Let's consider this as a simple public
opinion poll.
APRIL: So, do you know how many?
NICK: How many?
APRIL: Do you give a damn?
NICK: Do I give a damn? Yes I do!
ELISE: Why is that, Nick? Why do you need this?
NICK: I wanted to find out more about modern people.
ELISE: Did you?
NICK: Yeah.
APRIL: And what is that you've found?
NICK: I'm afraid to talk of it.
ELISE: You damn right. I have creeps too (Pause)
APRIL: I don't get it, what both of you are so scared of?
ELISE: A-a-ah...
NICK: I'd rather not speak.
ELISE: Yeah, me too.
APRIL: Listen, you both are like a pair of kids. No, like two retards.
NICK: You'd better look after yourself.
APRIL: And what's wrong with me? I'm Ok, you two have problems.
NICK: We're alright. Me and Elise have no problems. It's them who have
problems.
APRIL: Who?
NICK: All of them! They always have plenty of problems. (Points at the
window)
APRIL: Alright, then what's our problem?
ELISE: April, who're you exactly with? Them or us?
APRIL: Me? I'm with them! I'm always with them! Because they're me. They've
alwayse been a part of me. Whose side are you on?
ELISE: April, stop. You have to be on our side is that clear? You have to be with
us, April.
APRIL: Why's that?
ELISE: Because, alright?! Because they'll come and go and we'll remain, 'cause
we always remain, and them, they just walk on by. That's why you have to be
on our side.
APRIL: You serious? You'll vanish! They'll come and go and come and go again!
You'll disappear and they'll just keep coming.
NICK: Where?
APRIL: Nick, gimme a break. Just don't play dumb. You know exactly what I'm
talking about.
NICK: Yeah, but I'm not ready to leave. I've only just begun to live.
APRIL: Ok, than live happily ever after. What's the bother?
ELISE: She's right.
NICK: 'Bout what?

ELISE: We're the ones who'll go, and they will just keep on coming. They like it
here.
NICK: Ok then! April, you're right.
APRIL: Do you really think I'm right or it's just Elise?
NICK: No, I really think so.
APRIL: Honestly?
ELISE: Oh, stop it, April. He'd already told you.
APRIL: No, I want to know. Nick, do you mean it?
NICK: (Gritting his teeth) Yes, April, I mean it.
APRIL: Then apologise.
NICK: To whom?
APRIL: To them.
NICK: For what?
APRIL: Do you think you did nothing to apologise for?
NICK: I think that if you need an apology you should do it yourself.
APRIL: And you think you'll go away with it?
NICK: Hell yes.
APRIL: That's why you have to apologise.
NICK: Go screw yourself.
ELISE: Yes, Nick you have to apologise.
NICK: For what?!
ELISE: You doubted them. You may lose touch, that's a bad sign.
NICK: Just tell me, since when you started believe in signs?
ELISE: Since now.
(Nick looks nervously on way, then the other. He wants, he wants... Nick
doesn't know what he wants now, but he knows exactly that he doesnt want to
apologize to anyone. He even knows that there is no any God, but there is
something else, something completely different, and it is much more powerful
than God, it is a hundred times more powerful than God. And its him, Nick
himself. He feels himself almighty. And he understands that it was provoked by
the pressure exerted on all sides. It seemed even to him that passers-by
stopped and demanded also an apology from him. Nick overcame this pressure
of human emotions. And he believed that he would never, even in his thoughts,
doubt his divine mission. Which, as Nick felt, was only the beginning point of
his limit. And where is his limit? Nick had no doubt about it, there was no any.
There are no any limits.)
NICK: Oh yes! (Pause.) But you, Elise, doubted them at first too, you were at
first on my side. Whats the matter, what has happened?
ELISE: (Elise speaks to passers-by.) I was wrong, sorry. (Pause. Nick is silent.)
Nick! (Pause. Nick doesnt answer.) Nick, now it's your turn. (Pause. Nick
doesnt answer.)
APRIL: Nick, if you dont apologize now! (Pause. Nick doesnt respond.) If you
dont apologize now, I will do it for you.
NICK: But I dont give a damn about them, you know?! That's it, they will come
and go, come and go! And what?! And what?! Nothing. And we go on bothering,
and thinking about each of them. We are afraid to miss even one of them. We
mess about them, come to know them, and nurse them like children. Examine
them, and try to emulate. It is they who will go away, April, and we will stay!
And they dont give a damn about what will be with you tomorrow, the next
day, on any day when they dont need you until they need you. And that is

what reality is, cruel reality.

(Nick turns off the screen and leaves.)
APRIL: (To passers-by) Excuse him.
ELISE: (Defiantly.) What?!
APRIL: (Piercing Elise with her glance.) Got!
ELISE: Oh, who do you think you are?!! (Elise follows Nick out.)
APRIL: One more minute ... One more minute and they will come back.
(She follows Nick. Blackout.)
Scene Three.
Episode One.
(Night. April and Nick stand in a glimmer of light by the window. They look at
passers-by. Though its late, but now and then someone passes by. The built-in
floor lamps shine under their feet. Their faces are hardly seen. The lamps shine
like small spotlights. The rays draw a thread of light along the entire ceiling.
The voices sound like in the confessional. Sometimes a distant Elises heavy
breathing is heard. It seems that Elise has fallen asleep.)
NICK: You know, when I first met this woman, she didnt even want to talk to
me.
APRIL: Why?
NICK: I think so because she was so much in love with her husband that she
could not afford to even just talk to a strange man. She talked to everyone, but
never to anyone in private. It applied of course to males. If I asked her a
question, meeting her somewhere in the corridor, she did not answer. I followed
her. She came out to a crowded place so that everyone could hear and that
was the only way we could talk. But you know, I have never once told her what
I really wanted to say. I couldnt afford to let anyone except her hear what I'm
saying.
APRIL: And what did you want to say to her? (Nick doesnt answer) I didnt talk
to you because I wanted you to insist on, you know, to insist on the
conversation. I wanted to feel you need me. (Long pause. Nick doesnt respond
at all.) I mean, it was she, she who thought like this. (Pause.) I mean, I think so.
(Pause.) I mean, I think she thought like this. (Nick looks at April as if he wants
her to decide on what any of them thought.) And what did you want to say to
her, Nick?
NICK: I cannot tell you, I feel still a bit awkward about it.
APRIL: But who is she?
NICK: She? (Its getting interesting for Nick to play this game. He even seemed
to April unusually mysterious and Nick noticed it.) Sorry
APRIL: Do you still love her?
But now Nick has thought it all was pretty silly. April never seemed to Nick
original in heart-to-heart talks. But one couldnt help noticing that in her daily
reflections about life. But Nick is a romantic and he didnt want to become
someone's property. He realized that now he will have to hear the conversation

out. And it can drag on for the whole night. There can be even undesirable
consequences. That is, undesirable consequences after momentary weakness.
And usually this ended sadly for Nick. He was very sensitive about it when
someone took offense at him.
NICK: Yeah. (Pause.) I dont know. I think its pointless. Even after she had
divorced her husband, what made me extremely happy, I didnt come up to her
and didnt speak to her of my love.
APRIL: But why?
NICK: I guess because I'm used already not to speak about it, and I guess I was
afraid that if I told her she would not understand and would refuse me. (Nick
invented the answers now on the spur of the moment. If were going to play,
lets play till the end, he decided. But doubts still lurked in his mind, so he was
careful.)
APRIL: But how could you be afraid, even without having tried to do this, at
least the slightest hint of that?
April ... April, she was still a little embarrassed by herself. She wanted to feel
her heart full of feelings, freedom of her love. But there, in the heart, as if a
drying well destroyed all her blossom. She was choked with thirst. She wanted
to get drunk with Nicks hard-heartedness. But she couldnt overcome her
embarrassment. And now she realized, to the boot of all that, that its not a
matter of embarrassment, that's not the point. A drying well in her heart was
destroying her blossom. Thats what April was worrying about. Love was fading
because of lack of moisture, theres nothing worse. It seemed to April that she
realized something. She felt better, her heart began slowly to melt.
NICK: Yeah, I guess you're right.
April had a hope again to flash back to her childhood and to fill her heart with
true love. She remembered the girl who had her first period. April began in her
thoughts to apologize to her. And it seemed to her the girl even forgave her.
April kissed and hugged her, shook her fist at the whole class, and then took
her home, explaining on the way that it's not at all terrible what happened to
her. After that April had never this nightmare.
APRIL: But maybe its not too late to do this? (April thought for a moment that
her emotional experience is directly related to a communication with Nick.)
NICK: Yeah, maybe its too late. (Nick didnt understand why he couldnt think
of it before. Maybe it was really just an illusion and not a love as he thought.)
No, it's not too late. Thanks. Thats for what I love you and have respect for
you, that you understand, deeply understand people.
Then April keeps talking, but not to Nick, she talks to another Nick, it seemed
to her that Nick is something more than it seemed to him.
Perhaps thanks to such attitude Nick became a little better, a little purer, so to
say.
She goes on talking to the innermost Nicks thoughts, maybe one day he will
manage to talk to it.
Perhaps because of this, because of her attitude to him, Nick listens carefully
to all that April says. He seems to find some hints in her words, some signs for
himself.

APRIL: You know, the last two years before the divorce, it was very difficult for
me. I regretted I had acted so. Day by day I regretted more and more that I had
acted like this, and reproached myself for this act. I could destroy our lives. He
loved me very much, cared for me. He would have been a wonderful husband
for almost any woman. But I could no longer bear this deception. And when he
started drinking in the second year of our life together. (Pause.) Well, how could
he not drink? How he could not drink, I didnt love him at all. I married him just
somehow to take my mind off of longing for people, for you, of cold and
indifferent glances. And when he started beating me...
NICK: Who, your husband?
APRIL: My ex-husband.
NICK: Did he beat you?
APRIL: Oh, yeah! Sometimes even battered me.
NICK: Bastard, brute, no one can beat you.
APRIL: No, no. This helped me a lot, helped me to switch off, to seek oblivion,
to reduce my pain. You know, physical pain turned out to be much milder than
mental anguish.
NICK: Really?
APRIL: Yeah, I am saying it to you as a woman.
NICK: Hey, maybe he beat you not too hard? (Pause. April doesnt answer.)
Well, how often did he beat you?
APRIL: Whenever he was drunk. Whenever he wanted to have sex. I had never
wanted him, well, there was perhaps the time when I wanted him, but, you
know, having sex without love is boring. And he felt it. At first he didnt
understand of course what was happening, just felt it. I saw that he felt
something, but I managed somehow to conceal it the first year. And then he
exposed me. (Pause.) I faked my orgasm far too unnaturally. He realized that I
didnt love him and even didnt want him. His mind fitted all pieces together
like a complex jigsaw puzzle. He understood all and after that started beating
me. (Pause.) He comes, and then starts making a row and beating and beating
me. Then drinks and beats me again, and so all over again.
NICK: Yeah... Yeah...
APRIL: And then I had a slight hope again. Remember you called me one day?
(Pause. Nick doesnt answer, he doesnt remember it. The pause began to
seem awkward and April went on.) Well, after that I dreamed about you more
and more. And I thought it was a sign, I had a hope, I had a small chance to
become happy.
Pause. April looks at Nick. Nick feels a bit uncomfortable, a bit ill at ease, as if
he was asked to share his single bed with someone else. April doesnt like that
she has put Nick in an awkward position. Well, damn it, so be it, let him be in
an awkward position! When I finally start thinking about yourself?!! April
thought so, but she could never step over her complex not to be intrusive.
Next time, definitely next time so she justified her decision to back away for
a short while from her plans about Nick.
APRIL: I divorced my husband and waited for you to call me, that is, to call me
up when you need me. Well, you called me once, so I decided that soon you
would call me again. I realized that I could wait a long time, as long as you
need. (Pause.) Understand?

Nick could not remember when he had called her, however hard he tried he
could not remember. That is, he knew exactly that he had never called April.
But now, when she told him the story, now he began to doubt. But maybe he
had really called her?. Nick remembered that it was him who had called her
with an offer to come to this apartment to observe people. He called not on his
behalf, but as if at Elises request. And it was the only time he had called her,
and this was a few days before they came here. But now Nick a bit shocked by
these memories because he hadnt met April before that call.
NICK: Yeah, a very sad story. In principle, even like mine. But ... No, no, I dont
think that her husband beat her. Its impossible. Probably when she realized
she fell out of love with him, she divorced him at once. It seems he couldnt
keep her love for long. (Pause.) Oh, by the way, they also spent about two
years together. (Pause.) Yeah, about two years. (Pause.) Two years! Apparently
its something like a trial period. (Nick is speaking with emotion to passers-by.)
If you have been living together for two years and everything is fine, then
you're made for each other! (Pause.) Sort of, yeah? (Pause. They look out of
the window.)
Blackout.
Scene Four.
Episode One
Morning. April, Nick and Elise stand by the window and are going to brush their
teeth. The same procedure as the last time. Nick takes the pot away and
returns. April goes away to bring breakfast. Elise sits down in the center
armchair, it's her favorite place, rolls up cannabis. Nick sits down to the right of
her, he was standing all the while, until Elise sits down. They look out of the
window.
ELISE: When do you usually brush your teeth, before meals or after?
NICK: Usually I brush as soon as I wake up.
Elise begins to smoke.
ELISE: Do you want hashish?
NICK: Yeah, I think I'll take a couple of hits.
Nick smokes and gives a roll-up back to Elise. April wheels a tea trolley.
APRIL: Self-service.
She places it as usual near her armchair, the other come up, take something to
have a snack and sit down in their armchairs again. Today everyone drinks
coffee. They thank April with a nod as they pour a cup of coffee for themselves.
ELISE: April, want to smoke?
APRIL: What is it?
ELISE: Weed.
APRIL: No.
APRIL: Why not?

APRIL: I have enough impressions for now.

ELISE: Your loss.
They smoke by turns with Nick. Make power hit, when one takes a "hit" of a
joint, turning it around so the lit end is inside the mouth, and blows the hit out
into the mouth of another. Then they make the so-called Gypsy's Kiss, when
one inhales the smoke and then blows it into another mouth. They have fun
and feel good. April is watching all this, it annoys and bothers her. April's afraid
to admit to herself that she's just jealous. She looks now at them, now turns
away from them.
ELISE: April, want a power hit? One power hit? (April keeps silent.) Come on,
April! (April keeps silent.) Nick, go and blow a hit to April.
NICK: Why me?
ELISE: You're younger than me. (Archly.) And you're a gentleman!
NICK: It doesnt matter, everyone is equal in love and we have a democracy in
our country!
ELISE: Nick, dont start all over again. You'd better go and blow a hit to April.
NICK: Okay! Mind you, you've asked yourself.
ELISE: Yes, yes, go and relax! (Smiling.)
NICK: Just for you.
Hes about to go to April, but April turns away in the opposite direction. She
seems to have indeed a lot of impressions.
NICK: She doesnt want.
ELISE: Well, go, what if she wants.
NICK: She turned away, she really doesnt want.
ELISE: Well, okay, leave her alone. Theres a democracy in our country, youve
said this?
APRIL: A democracy is in the ass!
Elise and Nick smoke nervously the last hits.
ELISE: And what is like, April?
NICK: The democratic ass is probably when you put your ass when you want
and to whom you want. And where you want.
ELISE: Or to someone to have profit from it, right?
NICK: How come?
ELISE: Well, if April is to profit from putting to you her ass, and she easily puts
it, then its a free democracy, which as April has said is in the ass. Did I get that
right, April?
APRIL: No, not right.
ELISE: Then how? (April keeps silent.) Well, then how, April? (April doesnt
answer.)
NICK: April, April, April, April, April...
APRIL: Shut up!
NICK: Oh, we know even such words?
ELISE: (Significantly.) Democracy.
APRIL: Democracy is your ass is considered to be the same as mine. But my
ass does at least something, even if it puts to someone. And your sweet bottom
does fucking nothing, just sits on the mums tit, hiding from everything, and

pretends to equal rights.

ELISE: Oh, really? And your bottom does quite a lot?!
April doesnt take this remark as referring to herself.
APRIL: Well, this means that democracy is fucked up . Fuck such a democracy.
Everything should be at least as under tsarism, as in the days of the Russian
Empire. Some think and command, and the others grind away at a factory or sit
in front of a telly or a computer. Because if you cannot and dont want to
fuckin' think, and cannot simply make a decision by yourself. And you just
think, what the others have, wishing you had it as well. So how can you be
compared with the person, who thinks and deliberately makes a decision? He's
worth ten, a hundred of you! And his vote, for example, in presidential elections
is equated with your vote. So what happens? Half the country is miners, the
other half is at factories, shops or pensioners who still live in the Soviet Union,
everyone in his personal union, the others went abroad for a better life. And
there is the same situation in those countries, the same situation is
everywhere, a democracy is everywhere. And who will go to the polls, who will
vote and on what criteria? Its they who will do. Therefore, we are all in the ass,
and our state and democracy are in the ass. You come from the factory, gorge
and goes to sleep. What do you know about that, for whom you can give your
vote? No, I'm not saying that they are all stupid, but judge for yourself, for
whom they give their votes? For the one who tells you that he will give you
more food next year, will reduce taxes, will make gasoline cheaper and will stop
the war after they had sucked all the petroleum out? For what people are fall?
For such promises! And I'll tell you that they feed us with such or similar
promises on TV, in newspapers, in the campaign trail, in these fucking election
leaflets. Do you know who is tougher? Those are tougher who throw away more
money on the campaign trail, this is the money that you work off, grinding
away at your plants. You understand? You see what I'm driving at? The
promises given to us, can be given by any moron, by absolutely any moron,
you understand? And the same morons come and vote for him, because they
are in the majority. And if they dont come, then someone will vote for them
anyway. At least, in our country it is so. In my beloved country! And a clever
man, well, there is no point for him to vote for someone. Because his vote is
nothing compared to the total mass. Yes, he can understand the essence of
things. Because he doesnt believe the words, he understands what is behind
the words. And usually there is nothing behind the words. Because this is
mostly how matters stand, there are two candidates for whom the majority has
voted. As if there is any difference between them. But we are told that there is
one. And now elect, people! And start by means of people stirring things up,
arranging meetings and turmoil. Mind you, not people themselves, but
someone by means of people, with their hands. But people dont understand
that horseradish is no sweeter than black radish. Therefore, the guys who know
the political crap, only their votes should worth the votes of the whole plant,
you know? Then this will make sense.
ELISE: Where to find them, these guys?
APRIL: And I tell, I tell you. If you have a higher education, then your vote
should be worth twenty votes, if you are PhD, for example, you should be worth
much more, and so on. A hierarchy, a hierarchy should be.
So, if we talk about democracy, it will be easier for me to warn from the very
beginning that you and your democracy are in the ass.

Because they (pointing at the window) can only dispute that it was better to
live under one president and worse under the other one, and under this one it's
the pits... To tell the truth, I dont give a damn who our president is. The first
thing I'll ask you Hey, guys, it's all certainly cool, you just tell me one thing,
under what political system you live? And they will answer me with pride - Well,
we have democracy! Oh, then fuck your democracy and our talk about it in the
ass. And I dont want to talk about that at all, and I dont give a damn about
politics, and advise you the same. Dont give a damn about politics, all
together. Or rather, about democracy.
Long pause. Everyone looks closely out of the window. They seem to figure out
who among the passers-by is worth more votes than others.
Blackout.
Episode Two.
Nick, Elise and April rummage in the wardrobe. They try on different clothes in
front of the mirror. It is very uncomfortable for them, the mirror is a part of the
wardrobe, and sometimes they have to wait a long time while someone
rummages there. They comment on what is happening, they find it funny and
amusing. Oh, threads, threads, look at these threads! But it does not matter.
Blackout.
Episode Three.
Nick, he is dressed as a Marine. April and Elise, they are dressed as flight
attendants, standing along the edges of the stage, going to play Battleship.
You know, theres such a game. Each of them has a high tablet with Whatman
paper A1 on it, with 10x10 grids. Each of them can see only her own tablet. But
during the game they try to see the enemy ships in the window reflection. Nick
is pleased that they support him, playing his favorite game. Elise and April
draw their ships with a marker and shoot at each other, interrupting constantly
Nick. Nick is in the center, in front of the window, he speaks to the passers-by.
NICK: Well, I've always wanted to serve in the Air Force. Air Force! But it so
happened that I joined the navy. (Nick looks over his outfit. Smiles. The uniform
fits him well. Nick likes it, he smiles. Elise and April turn sometimes back to
look at Nick, they like him too.) And, to tell the truth, Im not sorry for that. By
education I am a (Pause.) Why did I put on this uniform??
ELISE: Now we're going to bomb the enemy ships! Come over to my side,
Nick!
(But Nick considers himself to be a captain of two ships at once. Nick raises his
hands in the air and gives the command FIRE! April and Elise begin to bomb
each other and do it rather severely.)
NICK: Well, I say, the military, you know, who have already served there, or
Well, no matter. So, well! They like, they adore, you know, with or without
reason, if its a holiday or a parade to put on their uniform, in which they

served, and to stroll through the city. To walk, strolling around, to show off, you
know, even those personal dirks on them, different badges and trinkets.
Handsome men, in short. And especially those, how are they called? Shoulder
marks, thats it! Shoulder marks! Everything in the world happens because of
shoulder marks. Why am I saying this? Not because Ive put on this uniform
and want somehow to justify it all. No. I hate military men. You understand? I
dont understand how can one of his own accord to agree to be a murderer?
You see what I'm driving at?
APRIL: (Shes shooting, she finds it funny.) No, Nick, we don't understand, now
we dont understand anything!
NICK: The whole army, especially today, it is only the business interests. How
can one of his own accord to become a mercenary? How can one kill people for
money? Do you understand? I was taught, everyone was taught that a killer, a
killer, its bad, to kill is bad. Do you understand? It's just for show. Today the
entire countries, states call up tens of thousands of mercenaries, tens of
thousands of killers each year, and this is considered to be the heroism! You
just try to understand this nonsense. This is your doing too, because you agree
with this. Its worse than cannibalism, you know? What's there? You killed one
and youre full up for a week. And here? In bundles! In a minute, in a second
they kill people in bundles. And what? Not a cannibal for a hundred thousand
years is able to devour so much flesh. And this means that there is someone
more tougher. It's us! Civil and full up people of the 21st century. Do you
understand? We kill each other in bundles. Do you think the Second World War
is the worst thing that we had? Do you think that now there is no war? Yes,
theres no war, theres no war formally, but it is more severe than World War II.
Just statistics, just think of statistics! How many people die now every year, and
how many at that time, each of those five tragic years. What was at that time
weve finally counted, at least approximately. And how many of them die in the
world, people just like you, with a beard and a smell of perfume. Who has
counted? But count everyone, without exception, we are interested in the
number of bodies. And compare, taking into account, of course, percentage by
the population size, now and at that time. Compare them! The difference isnt
favorable to us. (Speaking to April and Elise.) Girls, you'd better do a
striptease! (Nick smiles.) Here one more thing. When you'll count, count up the
percentage of people who are mentally dead while you're at it. Do you
understand? Who have completely disillusioned with everything! Who have lost
irrevocably the glint in their eyes! The living dead men, who cannot be raised
from the dead. It is very important too. Perhaps its the most important thing.
(April and Elise imitate an explosion. Sudden blackout.)
Episode four.
Evening. Nick and Elise are with flashlights. They shine now on their faces,
now through the window, sometimes on each other.
NICK: Here must be somewhere the knife switch.
ELISE: Its useless, there will be no light till morning. April is tired, shes gone
to have a rest. Let's just shine on each other. I wanted to tell you, well, today
youve got carried away with your theory of military men.
NICK: And you thought I was fit for nothing?

ELISE: Look, I didnt think anything like this.

NICK: No, you thought I was an idiot, and very young in addition.
ELISE: Dont be silly.
NICK: You see, you still think I'm capable of stupid things.
Elisa: But youve said cool about morally dead people. Ive never even thought
of it.
NICK: Nobody thinks of it, its convenient for everyone.
ELISE: And really, how many of them? Probably a lot. Take only the post-Soviet
countries. Imagine, when the Union collapsed, people lost all their savings in
banks they saved up all their lives. Its really so, its possible to die without
dying.
NICK: You know statistics show that Ukraine is the first country in the world for
heart disease?
ELISE: Dont live after their heart?
NICK: Yeah, they suffer. Do you understand? From all this idiocy thats going
on. Nation that is almost morally destroyed. I tell you more, recently I went by
plane, crossed almost the whole of Ukraine, from Kiev to the Black Sea. I was
shocked! (Long pause.)
ELISE: Why?
NICK: What do you think, why?
ELISE: Beautiful?
NICK: Madly beautiful. But this isnt the most important thing, you know?
Fields are the most important. Fields! The whole of Ukraine is continuous
enormous fields planted with everything one can. Grain, potatoes, beets, corn,
buckwheat, by the way, the deficit of which was announced in Ukraine this
year. You know, huge fields, huge, youre going by plane for over an hour, and
they're everywhere, these fields, and its all the black earth. You know, and
somebody eats it all, but not Ukrainians, this I know for sure. That's the worst
thing. Maybe one of them eats all that? (Nicks pointing at passers-by.) I mean,
anyone but not the Ukrainians? They cannot eat so much. I was shocked, I was
just shocked. When you go by bus or by car, you can see all these fields, they
are always well-groomed, despite everything, flower and smell. But, you know,
I went from city to city. To hell with them, with these fields. Then my mind
didnt fit all pieces together. And here, I just flew for the first time over Ukraine.
Imagine, what wealth it is. And someone eats it all! But not Ukrainians, you
understand? It's all transported somewhere! And now you will laugh till your
sides ache. I have already said, but I say that again. Well, in 2010-2011 we
were told that the buckwheat run out in Ukraine. And it disappeared all of a
sudden in the shops. That is, it was in the shops, but the other buckwheat, that
is, the same buckwheat, but 6-7 times more expensive, supposedly the rest. Do
you understand? Surrounded by nothing but fields and buckwheat is over. The
most interesting thing was that the prices for other cereals began significantly
to increase. But then it was the funniest thing I really laughed at, I still laugh
when I remember it. (Laughing.) The Chinese decided supposedly to save us
and began to deliver the Chinese buckwheat. Well, just a case of cucumbers
and the Arab revolutions. The salvation was that this Chinese buckwheat was
only three times more expensive than the buckwheat we had before. I dont
know who eats all these blooming fields, or rather, I wont point a finger. To be
more exact, what does it matter? (Pause.) But on the other hand weve tried
the Chinese buckwheat, its probably a disputable issue too, we must ask the
Chinese about import of their buckwheat. Maybe they will be surprised by this?
But, by the way, people said that the Chinese buckwheat tastes so-so. Well,

why should it taste better! Power of suggestion, Elise, you know, power of
suggestion! (Pause.) We dont know why we say this, why we do it. Maybe
someone at this very moment presses different buttons on the remote control,
and we think that we really want something to say, well, as I'm talking right
now, or to do something, to go out for a meeting, for example, to set off a belt
packed with explosives on my chest, to kill in the name of the resignation of
the former government. Do you understand?! (Pause.) I studied at the Faculty
of Theatre, it was called Academy of Culture, it was 2004 and there was just
then the election fever in the country. Look, I dont want anything bad to say,
but we, at that time, all students, without exception, were forced to go to a
meeting to support one candidate. A supervisor who was in charge of the group
of students answered with his head for that each of us had come to the square
where the performance took place. I speak about students of the Academy of
Culture, and what they did with other students, how manipulated them, I can
hardly imagine. But probably the television needed a pretty picture. Ive
remembered it, Elise, probably, because these supervisors, who led us to the
meeting after our lessons, they were the very same buttons that were pressed.
Do you understand? Someone just pressed his bloody button. (Pause.) One of
those who live on earth, of course. I dont mean the divine intervention, in any
case.
ELISE: It's obvious. (Elises looking at Nick. She thinks she got to know him
from the other side.) Hey, Nick, take off your smart clothes. After your stories it
turns me inside out from a military uniform.
NICK: Really? Not bad, you would be a perfect flight attendant. (Nick goes to
the wardrobe, and changes into informal clothes.) And my name is, you see,
Nick and Nick. Well, there is no such names in Ukraine. Nikolai, thats me real
name, and my father's name was Nikolai.
ELISE: Why was?
NICK: He died on active service, at Stalingrad.
ELISE: Are you kidding?
NICK: No. He went to Moscow in the 90's to work and never returned. (Pause.
Elise thinks shes partly guilty towards Nick for what had happened to his
father, but cannot understand for what exactly.) It happened that way I make,
you see, frequent trips too, run round like a squirrel in a cage. But, as they say,
there is no place like home all the same. (Pause.) And where are we now? (Elise
doesnt answer.) I also dont know. (Pause.) Everything has changed out of all
recognition. (Pause.) I'm sorry, I speak more eagerly, my heart swelled with
hurt and anger. Oh, women, you've got to watch your step with you, you will
out-talk us. In short, some kind of mass feminism, emancipation.
ELISE: Yes, such as we are.
NICK: Yeah! Well, we want, you know, some sort of warmth, womanliness,
encouragement and confidence. And you, women, are trying in everything to
be stronger than men. Not that you can do it any better, but youre really trying
hard. You, women, have too much foolishness, and there is nobody to put it in
the right direction, and you cannot get along with yourselves. People have
almost lost their respect for men, so you shake in all directions. To be honest,
your desire for equality with men bothers somehow, its a real unhealthy
desire.
There, in the back part of the room April appears with a flashlight. It seems she
needs to go to the bathroom. Now she appears, now disappears, blinking with
the flashlight.

ELISE: Why not?

NICK: Because we have different functions, by nature were absolutely
different. And you try to pretend to the male nature, you understand? Thereby
destroying your womanliness and destroying the machismo. (Pause.) But that's
not the point. I wanted all the while to tell you something quite different. I tried
to change gently the subject, but didnt make up my mind.
ELISE: Really, and whats the subject?
NICK: About you and me.
ELISE: Look, youre at your old tricks again? Im 20 years older than you, do
you understand this?
NICK: Yeah, I understand, but it doesnt matter for me.
ELISE: Why it doesnt? It is of great importance, of enormous importance.
NICK: But try to understand that we are made for each other. (Pause.) You
understand me, you understand the gist of what Im saying before I finish
speaking, you believe me, believe what is happening in my heart. You are very
global, you're a very global woman. That is, you can think globally. I have never
met a woman who can think globally.
ELISE: I think youll meet. .
Pause. Elise keeps silent. She is more interested in what a person has at the
top. She realizes that it will be not enough for Nick.
NICK: I just had to be born 20 years earlier, but I stayed too long somewhere.
ELISE: Or I was too quick.
NICK: No, Elise, no.
ELISE: Why not?
NICK: Because you are doing everything right. You're already perfect, because
you're a woman. Well, I blundered as usual somehow.
ELISE: Look, let's not talk about it. Let's not start this senseless talk.
NICK: No, it isnt senseless talk. There is a lot of sense in it, at least for me.
ELISE: Well, talk, talk, you've already intrigued me.
(Elise hugs Nick, theyre kissing.)
NICK: Maybe you're right, Elise, and it makes no sense at all. When well get
out of here, when it will be all over, this will make no sense. You and me - what
is it? An illusion, a dream, real feelings? I dont even know what to say, what I
should talk about. I have a feeling that we move in a circle. Repeat what has
already been said. We say in what we no longer believe. You know, beauty will
not save the world, it was an illusion. And childhood will not save the world,
everyone has been disillusioned with it.
ELISE: What do you mean, talking about childhood?
NICK: Oh, nothing, all kinds of nonsense creep into my head.
ELISE: Oh, and what exactly?
NICK: Well, I remembered something from the Bible.
ELISE: Do you read the Bible?
NICK: Oh no. From my childhood I believed in God, well, I was brought up this
way. Once I read the Bible I believed no more in God.
ELISE: Why?
Nick: Because I realized that I could write as well. If I had a good producer and
PR manager, they would have been able to foist my new religion on people.

And that would be the word of God.

ELISE: Do you compare yourself with God?
NICK: No, I just think that everything that is happening on earth is the
handiwork of a man. And if God exists, he is somewhere within us. It all
depends on how much we are able to feel in ourselves this divine part. And
then it all depends on where we direct it all. Do you understand?
ELISE: Vaguely.
NICK: Well, we give it either to the common pot, called religion, or we will
cultivate what we have been given from birth.
ELISE: That is, after all, to become God? If you have His part, and you will
actively develop this part, then this part will be all of you?
NICK: No. I mean, I dont know. To some extent it may be so, I do not know. I
just think that God is not the limit, you understand? Everything that a man
does, it is the handiwork of a man, even if so-called God helps him. Everything
that a man does, he can not to do this. But for some reason, people sometimes
do such things, make such acts, that no God ever dreamed of. And it's silly all
this to justify such concept as God, everything that happens in the world.
(Pause.) Once I read on the internet that scientists had made a sensational
discovery. It turns out that people who are blindly faithful, religious fanatics,
people of orthodox beliefs, well, their brain grows a lot dull, unlike an ordinary
person of average ability in all respects, including their attitude to religion.
They are not capable of thinking in its entirety, because they used to entrust
their lives to God. Thus, their brain functions die off because an organ that is
not used will atrophy. But God gave us a brain, so I think we should use it to the
full, equally with feelings, well, muscles of the body. There must be harmony in
all that a person has. But when you sacrifice the brain to develop feelings, I
dont understand it. It looks like a madhouse, the world of passion, and nothing
more. Therefore, I think that these religions, they are a deadlock, I mean, they
have exhausted themselves. All the humanity is at a deadlock, and its
necessary to do something with it.
ELISE: What the Bible says about childhood?
NICK: Jesus said that we can enter the kingdom of God only as children. This
aphorism shocked me most of all in the Bible.
ELISE: Oh, its interesting.
NICK: So, Elise, beauty will not save the world, it will most likely destroy it. As
in the movie The Matrix, remember, everything is very nice, but everyone is
sleeping?
ELISE: Then we're doomed, I dont see anything that could have saved us from
the matrix.
NICK: Cataclysms, Elise, global cataclysms, perhaps it is the only thing that
can save us.
ELISE: Natural?
NICK: Yeah, natural calamities. Nature feels very keenly that we have tough
problems and tries to help us in that way. Very gently wiping more and more
people off the face of the Earth. And each time, making intervals between the
cataclysms, it gives us the opportunity to realize that we are doing something
wrong. It is waiting for us to finally hear it, the nature, not only the
environment, but also our own nature. Do you understand? Nature is tougher
than God, that's in what we must believe and about what books to write. We do
not know our abilities. We do not know what we are really capable of, who we
are at all. We do not know our nature, because it was replaced by technology.
We have forgotten how to feel each other at a distance, because we have a

phone. Mother doesnt feel that her son is in danger, she doesnt feel that her
son is dead, until she was called and told about it. This is not right. The era of
technocracy makes us an appendage, a part of the computer. A man created a
new God, its a computer and everything connected with it. A man is a creator,
and a man created religions as well. Therefore, I think we must have faith in
ourselves, in our stars, in our nature. And its necessary to treat each other as
if we're unique creatures.
We didnt notice it, but April is sitting for a long time in the armchair, from the
moment they were kissing. She just didnt turn on her flashlight, and
apparently sat down very quietly. April is applauding.
ELISE: Oh, April! (Pause.) I think it's time for bed.
NICK: Today we sleep in the same bed?
ELISE: Nick, you and me, we had never slept in the same bed. (Smiling.) April,
are you coming?
April: Yes, Im coming.
Nick and Elise are going away. April is in the armchair, sitting for a long time,
shining a flashlight through the window, falling asleep. Blackout.
INTERMISSION.

ACT TWO.
Scene Five.
Aprils dream.
Aprils dream. But, this maybe cannot be, we cannot say for sure what
exactly she dreams about. The same room, but it is completely empty. Dim
light. April is in the midst of the room, naked and wet. Nick is to the right of
her, near the window, looking all the time out the window. April looks
sometimes out the window, but more at Nick, or rather at his back. She knows
that it's Nick, she cant see his face, but she knows that it's Nick. As often
happens in dreams, we see a stranger, but we sure we know him. That is, his
face is not familiar, but this is the person we know. It is very difficult for us to
think of what exactly face Nick has. But, imagine that Nike has a golden mask
and his voice is heavily distorted. Nick is in black clothes, he holds a remote
control.
NICK: Well, what do you think?
APRIL: (wrinkles her nose, sniffs, feels an unpleasant odour from her.) After
your pool I need a half of my life to wash myself clean.
NICK: Yeah, but it's good for skin, it rejuvenates. My discovery will soon be
applied worldwide.
APRIL: I know. But it is dangerous for nervous system. Its the taste of salt on
my lips. It's pretty disgusting. They say, sperm is useful for skin.
NICK: Yeah, but where can I get so much sperm?

APRIL: Okay, but if every man on earth would come, then how much would it
be for a day?
NICK: Ive never thought about it, I dont know, first of all I would be interested
in how I could manage to convince them all to come on the same day.
APRIL: Well, what for do you have me?
NICK: (Pause. Nick looked at April, he tries to imagine how April could have
forced all men in the world to come in one day. Nothing came into his mind.
Maybe if it could be spread over a year, she would have succeeded. Stop! It's a
trick of April, to make me look at her, Nick thought.) I was in the swimming
pool, I think we should add there a couple of air conditioners.
APRIL: Yeah. (Pause.) You're not even looking at me. You dont like me?
NICK: I have a girlfriend.
APRIL: You know, it sounds like an excuse!
NICK: That's exactly.
APRIL: Well, how long should I wait!!
NICK: Sorry!
Nick turns the remote control to the ceiling, presses the button. The shower is
turning over April. She feels good, she raises her hands towards the water
droplets.
APRIL: Give me a soap.
Nick takes a soap out of his pocket, throws it to April.
APRIL: You could have come up and give it in my hand.
NICK: First wash yourself clean.
April is offended. She soaps herself hard, there is a lot of soap foam. Nick turns
off the shower. April is in foam from head to foot.
APRIL: We have a foam party today?
NICK: Yeah, its a special soap.
APRIL: Your new method?
NICK: Yeah.
APRIL: What is it made of?
NICK: Well, finish washing, then I'll tell.
Nick turns on the shower. April washes off all the foam, no longer soaps herself.
She stands for a while under the shower, she feels good, she is grateful to Nick
that he doesnt turn off the shower. Nick turns off the shower. Nick turns off the
shower, as if he has heard her thoughts. Pause. April looks at Nick. Nick looks
at her. Pause.
NICK: How does it feel?
APRIL: Give me a towel.
Nick leaves, returns immediately with a towel, and gives it to April in hands.
Nick came back without the mask. Yes, it's exactly him, now it's exactly him,
and its his voice, there is no doubt, April thinks. She smiled even a little,
feeling a rush of joy. Nick stands beside her. April slowly wipes herself with a
towel, rubs actively her hair. Pause. April looks Nick in the face, then she looks

out of the window. Nick hold her stare. Pause.

APRIL: (Confusedly.) Nick, you scumbag.
Nick goes out quickly, returns immediately with the clothes in his hands. He
helps April to put her clothes on.
APRIL: (Dressing herself.) I think you're not just scumbag, you're pervert too.
Nick goes to his former station at the window.
NICK: (Points at the window.) I'm just trying to keep up with the times. (Pause.)
Elise will come here presently, she also swims in the swimming pool. (Points at
the window.) Then I will go there. (Pause.) Here, take the remote control, help
Elise to take a shower, while I'm out. And then she will help me to wash, give
her the remote control.
APRIL: (Takes the remote control from Nick.) And what button to push?
NICK: Ill show you. (Takes the remote control from April.)
APRIL: I cannot do that.
NICK: What cannot you do?
APRIL: She's not like that.
NICK: Like what?
APRIL: Elise! She's not like that, she wont wash herself for all to see. (Points
at the window.) She's not like that.
NICK: Well, you know... (Pause.) Shell wash herself without taking off her
swimsuit.
APRIL: Swimsuit?! She wears a swimsuit?! But you didnt give me a swimsuit,
you bastard!! (Goes up to Nick, and gives him a slap in the face)
NICK: You know, Elise is not like that, it wont do anything without a swimsuit.
She would never have allowed me to take off her swimsuit.
APRIL: And I, like, I can, like, I can allow myself just to stand in front of you
completely naked, and take this damned silly shower, fuck, for all to see!
(Points at the window. Pause. Nick realized that he was wrong, protecting Elise
from April, he felt awkward.) And you say after all that, that you, bugger, have
a girlfriend!!
NICK: Yeah.
APRIL: With a big dick?!
NICK: What?
APRIL: Your girlfriend with a big dick and with a big fucked ass?!
NICK: No, April, I'm not a gay, I really have a girlfriend.
APRIL: And who is she?
NICK: Elise.
APRIL: Who?!
NICK: My girlfriend is Elise.
APRIL: Elise, our Elise?
NICK: Yeah, our Elise.
APRIL: She is old enough to be your mother.
NICK: My girlfriend is Elise.
APRIL: Oh, you harp on the same tune, my girlfriend is Elise, my girlfriend is
Elise. You pervert, Nick, that's what you are. (Pause.) She knows something
about it, that you're her girlfriend? I mean, that she is, well, youve got it.
NICK: Yes, she knows. It's all serious between me and her.

APRIL: Hows that, all seriously? Allow her to bathe in your bloody swimming
pool in a swimsuit, and to force me, force me to bathe completely naked?! And
then here, in front of these mugs, (pointing at the window) to stand naked and
wash, and you say, all seriously?!!
NICK: Look, we have meaningful relationship with Elise. So she will wash
herself only in a swimsuit, you understand? I cannot allow her to stand here
naked, as you did. This can harm our relationship.
APRIL: I dont understand, how it can harm your relationship?! To stand here
naked and take this bloody shower that you can turn on with your fucking
remote control, for all to see, how it can, damn it, harm some relationship?!
NICK: April, I understand you, but believe me, it can harm me. You dont want
me to have been harmed, do you?
APRIL: (Crying.) To what, Nick, to what can it do harm?!
NICK: Dont cry, April. (Nick hugs her.)
APRIL: To what can it do harm, Nick, to what can it do harm?
NICK: It may harm our relationship with Elise, my relationship with Elise.
APRIL: Fuck! Nick, listen to me, hundreds of women undress in public, do a
striptease in bars, act naked in films, even fuck for money! And at the same
time they have husbands or boyfriends, damn it, who consider them to be their
girlfriends, and each of them has your bloody relationship! And believe me, it
doesnt harm anyone, any relationship, for sure! Everything is fine, Nick!
Dressed and undressed, and its all, no problem, everyone is pleased, everyone
is happy! And it doesnt harm anyone, and it doesnt affect any relationship, on
the contrary, they may become only stronger!
NICK: Im not like that. (Pause. April looks at him as if he were a madman.) It
can badly hurt me.
APRIL: And if I would fuck you right here and now, would it hurt you? (Nick
keeps silent.) And we all here (pointing at the window) would fuck you right
now, one by one, would it hurt you? (Nick keeps silent.) Would it fu.., hurt you,
Nick?!!
NICK: Yeah.
APRIL: Yeah?! Would it, Nick?! Would it hurt you, would it hurt you, Nick?!
NICK: Yeah! Leave me alone.
APRIL: Well, Nick, when I stood naked under your bloody shower, under your
fucking shower, under your damned silly invention in the middle of the room,
that is turned on with the remote control with your world-global buttons on it!
When I stood naked and washed myself clean after your pissed pool. (Pause.
April is crying.)
NICK: Dont cry, please.
APRIL: Dont cry?! It's you, brute, who forced me to stand here naked. It was
you who told me that it must be so, that it must be so, that it is for the sake of
something lofty! But Ill tell you, you turkeycock stuffed with oysters! Ill tell
you! While I stood here (pause), naked (pause), these mugs (pointing at the
window) stared at me! You understand, they were staring at me all the time?
So, how do you think, fucked someone me at that time? (Nick doesnt answer.) I
felt it, damn it, felt that they fucked me! I felt it with my ass, how they fuck me
in all the holes! Do you understand?! (Pause.) They still continue to do so.
Some of them. April is crying again.) I feel it, you understand, Nick, I fell it very
good? (Heavy sighs.) And it's you, Nick, who forced me to undress! So, what do
you think, Nick, should it hurt me? (Nick doesnt answer.) Should it hurt me?!
(Nick keeps silent.) Should it me, Nick, somehow hurt, I ask you?!
NICK: Yeah. Sorry. (Nick hugs April.) I'm sorry, please forgive me. (April tears

herself out of his embrace.)

APRIL: No, Nick, it hurt me not in the least! I liked it! I did it with love. And you
know why, Nick, do you know why? (Nick keeps silent.) Why, Nick?? (Nick
doesnt answer.) N-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-k???!!!!
Nick falls on his knees and covers his ears with his hands.
NICK: Because you're a bitch, bitch, b-i-i-i-tch!!!
April runs up to Nick, hugs him and cries.
APRIL: No, Nick, no, not just because of this! Because I did it for you. Because
you asked me to do it. You made me do it! And I did it. For you, Nick, I did it.
Because you asked me, Nick. Because you needed it, because its important for
you. I did it with pleasure and love, because it was for you. Just because its
you asked me to do it, but not because I wanted it myself, because its you
asked me, its you asked me to do it. And at that time I wanted to do it just
because you strongly asked me about it. Remember, Nick? (Nick keeps silent.)
Do you remember that, Nick? (Nick keeps silent.) Nick, you made me do it, and
I wanted to do it just for you, if you cannot avoid rape, relax and enjoy, you
said it, Nick, you said it? You said it, Nick, do you remember that? (Nick doesnt
answer. April steps aside from Nick. Nick stands up, goes the other way with a
depressed look. April turns abruptly around and goes to Nick. Nick turns
around. It seems to him that April wants to hit him. He doesnt resist. He waits
obediently for the blow. All his protective functions are turned off. April grabs
him by the balls and squeezes them strongly. Nick froze, it hurts him.) So why
you turn away from me now?! Why, Nick?! (Nick keeps silent. April squeezes
stronger.) Why, Nick?! (Nick keeps silent. April squeezes them as much as she
can with her delicate womans hands.) N-i-i-i-k!!! (Nick doesnt answer. It
seems to him that he is just about to faint from the pain. But he is afraid even
to move.) I cannot do harm to this treasure. I love them as much as I love you.
(April gradually relaxes the fingers. Pause. She hugs Nick. She's crying.)
NICK: Ive done what I couldnt do last night.
APRIL: What, dearling, what have you done?
NICK: I have come. (April strokes his back.) The very moment when you just
began to relax your fingers, Ive come, all the while I was having an orgasm.
APRIL: I hurt you, Im sorry.
NICK: It was awesome.
APRIL: I'm sorry if I hurt you.
NICK: April, one of my greatest impressions in the life is now connected with
you.
April: I didnt want to harm, forgive me, if you can, forgive me. I'm a fool, what
Ive done, forgive me if you can. Sorry, Nick, I'm sorry, I'm sorry ...
April wakes up, because Elise shakes her by the shoulder.
APRIL: I'm sorry, Nick, I'm sorry, I'm sorry ...
ELISE: April, go to bed, morning will be soon, why are you sitting here? We
need to have a good sleep, tomorrow is the most important day for us. At ten in
the morning everyone should be ready-fitted.
They leave.

Blackout.
Scene six.
Episode One.
Morning. Everyone sit in the armchair. Elise is in the center, Nick is to the right
of her, April is to the left.
ELISE: (Looks at her wristwatch.) Ten oclock exactly. (Looks at April, then at
Nick.) Today is the last day. And I would like each of us to share the most
important you realized during this time. (Long pause.)
NICK: Really? I lost completely track of time.
ELISE: Maybe it's just as well.
APRIL: And how do you know that today is the last day?
ELISE: You remember, yesterday the light was cut off?
APRIL: Yeah.
ELISE: We were warned that the day before the end the light would be cut off.
Youve just forgotten, we were warned about this.
NICK: Yeah, right, Ive forgotten about that.
ELISE: Nick was talking interesting about childhood, even quoting something.
(Pause.) So, I think I'm getting old, but I have a feeling that childhood is
somewhere about. (Pause.)
APRIL: Is childhood a happiness?
ELISE: Yeah. (Pause.) I think it is, and what do you think? (Pause. April doesnt
answer.) Childhood is a happiness that no longer exists and never will be. This
is like an advance from life. It says here's childhood, and then live as you like.
That is, we cannot preserve it during the whole life, you know?
NICK: I think that we are now in childhood. I think on the contrary that were
still in it. All mankind.
APRIL: Are you saying that all people are happy?
NICK: No, but (pause), it may be even more than childhood.
ELISE: What does this mean?
NICK: Its a dream.
APRIL: What do you mean?
NICK: Euthanasia, slow falling asleep. A beautiful dream, a beautiful death, it is
a flashback to childhood, yes, it's childhood, almost uterine childhood. We feel
good, we disappear in this beauty, in this serenity, in this lulling.
APRIL: What's the good of that, there are many terrible things in the world,
what's the good of that?
NICK: But you have a different world after all. And everythings good in it,
you're in safety.
APRIL: Yes, but how can you be so indifferent to others who dont feel as good
as you do?
NICK: I can. (Pause.) I'll explain it to you. When I see on TV some problems,
war, famine, revolutions, floods, and so on, I feel good, you understand? I feel
good at the subconscious level. And you know why?
APRIL: Because it happens not to you, because you're in safety in front of TV?
NICK: Yeah, yeah! Because someone creates this illusion for me, you
understand? Someone creates for me childhood. I feel good because it's not my
problems! And the worse problems there, you know, the better and safer I feel,

because it happens not to me, because I can relax and have a rest, looking at
all that while I sit in the armchair. If people are dying there of starvation and
bombings, of viruses, I certainly sympathize with them, and then I will anyway
open my fridge, and my sympathy will turn into a good. Because the full man
does not understand the hungry.
ELISE: Yes, I think that this is the childhood. Nick, youre right, this is the
absolute childhood. But it's still an artificial childhood, childhood for all ages.
APRIL: No, then its some sort of nursery of death, cradle of death, and not a
childhood.
NICK: It is an absolute childhood! Try to understand, just look at that all in a
different way. It's not as good as we think at this moment, and we know it,
though we are in childhood. As a matter of fact, everything is very simple, at
this moment someone is paying for my serenity, for my childhood, for my
satiety. Do you understand? Someone is saying at this moment We'll take it
from one to make the other feel good! And I understand that today I am in the
number of those who feel good, who are in childhood, and the needs are
growing and growing. We are not able to give up comfort that weve used to.
Were just insatiable consumers. And I also understand that I cannot do
anything to help them. I cannot do anything, because if I start to do something
that I have never done before, then I can find myself on the other side. Do you
understand? And what for? To be the one who has been taken from, to give the
one who has occupied my place? No, I will never do this. I have to be
completely counted up, those who give me this childhood have to be sure of
me. I treasure my childhood, I used to live like this. Although I understand that
the better I feel, the more my wealth, the worse someone feels. This means
that one day I will have to pay for my comfort.
APRIL: You always compare yourself with others.
NICK: Yeah! Why not? Cognition comes through comparison.
ELISE: Then try to put yourself in somebody's place who you think feels worse
than you do.
NICK: It's pointless, Elise. Because those who feel worse than I do, they're
anyway on my side. Worse, better, a wife left, a mother died, fell ill and all that.
They are still on my side, they're all in childhood. Someone has better toys,
someone has worse ones, someone has stricter parents, but it is all
childhood.
APRIL: What is then not a childhood?
NICK: I do not know. Everything is childhood, everyone doesnt care.
ELISE: So it turns out that everybody is happy, everybody feels good,
everybody is in childhood, well, who has problems then?
NICK: I do not know. (Pause.) As a teenager I wanted to become a fighter pilot.
Elisa: Is he not in a childhood?
NICK: Yes, he is in his childhood more than anyone! He is at the top, at the
peak of his childhood. Do you understand?
APRIL: No.
NICK: He's in the sky, he's flying! He has a variety of buttons, these radars,
small screens, he's wearing a helmet, a gas mask, hes making a supersonic
flight! This is the peak of childhood, a dream, a happiness, you know? This is a
childhood. (Pause.) And its not a childhood, I'm just now starting to understand
it, not a childhood is what is going on there, after these magic buttons of
childhood have been pressed, when these toy rockets of childhood have been
launched. Its there where not a childhood begins. When you come to yourself
without a leg, without a roof over your head...

ELISE: It turns out that children rule the world?

APRIL: The children who have the best toys. In my kindergarten the one who
had a new interesting toy was in the spotlight.
ELISE: And ruled the world?
APRIL: Yeah. (Pause.)
NICK: April, whats your real name?
APRIL: (Pause.) Martha. (Pause.) When I was at school, we lived then with my
parents in the central Ukraine. (Pause.) Among my peers it was shameful to
speak their native language. They were not held in respect, and they were
jeered at that they spoke Ukrainian. Well, it was out of fashion then. I'm
ashamed to confess but I speak badly our language. It was in fashion to speak
Russian. Even now, English, Russian. (Pause.) When I am asked to tell
something about Ukraine, I say that Ukraine is a stumbling block between
Russia and the USA. Sadly, yeah. I am April, because it was fashionable for me,
because it made me independent. Well, I thought so, when I was at school, and
everyone called me so, April, and respected me highly. I was like a heroine of
an American TV serial. I think that just because of such name I managed
somehow to escape from without. (Pause.) And you, Elise, whats your real
name?
ELISE: (Pause. Elises smiling.) Elise is my real name. (Pause.) I remember in
my childhood, it was the beginning of the 70's, we had constantly anti-Soviet
talks in our kitchen, as I then understood. (Smiling.) My father had a lot of
friends, they often gathered in our kitchen. My father often talked about whom
and how much he gave bribes that his daughter was allowed to have such a
name. He was even suspected of espionage. (Pause.) We have been in the first
wave of immigrants, after the Iron Curtain was destroyed. (Long pause.) So,
Nick, what do you mean, that childhood is a bad thing? I had a wonderful
childhood.
NICK: No, I want to say that childhood never ends. This is a planet of
childhood. This is a universe of childhood. Half the world dream of depriving us
of our land, depriving us of the roots and traditions. Maybe Chernobyl is that
has saved us up to now, if we hadnt it, we would have been long ago a part of
some superpower. The whole life is a big wonderful childhood. At least, judging
by our biographies. And I think that these people (Nick points at the window),
they will never take notice of us, we can shout to them, provoke them as much
as one wants to. But, they are too busy with their lives, their survival. We can
endlessly look at them through the window or watch them on the screen
(pointing at the screen), they won't take any notice of us. Were just a shop
window for them, a shop window, and thats it. And there is no need to hope for
a mutual understanding. They came to do shopping, you know, and they will
pay any money for the product they liked. Therefore, if we dont want to
become a commodity, we must go out of this room and join them, merge into
the crowd. And maybe some of us will manage to remain alive, with their
dreams, and one day we will deceive these people and will find ourselves on
the other side of this room, and they will be in our place, so that well never see
them again and know about their existence. Theyre good people too. (Pause.)
But the story doesnt end, the story goes on. And, remember, Elise, powerful
people destroyed the weak people? (Pause.) It happened just so that today we
are playing the role of weak people, but weak people is what at the top. But
once we played the role of strong people, just history is silent on this matter.
We interchanged, and that's all. Over time, we will interchange again, and

that's it. (Pause.) The whole life is a big childhood. If you want to know more
about a person, look at him as if he were a child. And then you wont have to
take offence at him, or to look for logic in his stupid actions. All around us is a
childhood. Just look at the sky of stars at night (Nick carefully examines those
whore outside), this is a childhood.
Smooth blackout.
Episode Two.
Evening. Almost dark. They sit in the armchairs. Elise is in the center, Nick is to
the right of her, April is to the left. Look out the window. Nick holds a remote
control in his hands.
NICK: I wonder if it works. (Nick turns the remote control to the screen.)
ELISE: Yeah. It always works, in spite of anything.
Nick pushes the button, the screen turns on. The street is seen on the screen,
drowsy tourists are listlessly moving from place to place. But our heroes
continue to stare with indifference out the window. For a while the street is on
the screen. Then the channel switches over by itself. We see a day filming from
a side window of a passenger aircraft. Ukrainian fields spread in all their
beauty before us. Filming accelerates, we cross the whole Ukraine. Then we
see that its Nick who is filming with his camera. Nick smiles at us and waves
his hand. The arrow of the plane indicates that he is flying in the direction of
Uruguay. Nick goes to Montevideo, to establish international relations. The
camera rises above the plane, we see the earth, then the solar system, the
galaxy, the universe. We see the great universe. All of it sway, breathe, twinkle.
This is a childhood Nick was telling us about. The camera moves away, and it
all turns into a cell of a huge living organism. This is a limb of a cockroach. We
see three giant cockroaches crawling about on three leather toy armchairs.
Cockroaches gradually disappear. Emptiness. We see again the evening street,
drowsy tourists are still listlessly moving from place to place. The screen
begins to blink. Its out of order. It goes out.
Episode Three.
Nothing has changed. But from the way how slowly the screen went out, we
had the impression that a considerable amount of time has elapsed for
something to happen. We dont know what happened, but we feel it. One can
feel it in the eyes of our heroes. Something has happened.
April goes up to the window.
ELISE: Something is going on there.
APRIL: When will it be all over?
ELISE: When we all will be dead.
APRIL: And when we die?
ELISE: When we want.
APRIL: How is that?

ElISE: Well, like. (Pause.) I dont understand a lot of things too. It seems just to
me that the only way is to start the hole thing from the beginning.
APRIL: As if nothing had happened?
ELISE: No, we have always lived like that as if nothing had been, as if nothing
had happened. But this is not a way out.
APRIL: Do you think we still have a way out?
ELISE: I guess. (Pause.) Maybe. (Pause.) Someone has to drop out of the game.
(Pause.) And it all depends on who it will be.
Nick gets up. He goes up slowly to the window.
NICK: One you dont feel pity for?
ELISE: Yeah, the most vulnerable.
APRIL: But there are a lot of them, almost everyone.
ELISE: Yeah, perhaps this is the only way out.
Elise goes up to the window, looking at April, then at Nick. Elise realizes that
they are completely defenseless against the oncoming end.
The sound of the door opening from the kitchen is heard.
NICK: Is it the end?
ELISE: Yes. (Pause.) For some is the end, but for some is just the beginning...
The oncoming heavy footsteps are heard.
Blackout.
THE END.

Maxim Grehovodov

dasheip@mail.ru
Vladimir Snegurchenko
rotkaer@mail.ru