Akis Dimou, Salty sky (play in progress)
A woman, a man, a summer afternoon, a window, a moon eager to rise away from their words. Centuries before, years later, the same promise of a night without words, the same anticipation of a joy that won’t fit in any poem.
MAN: Are you going to meet –
WOMAN: Yes. But I’m not sure that I’ll find her. Although I am on the right road, I am sure I am. I am sure that at the end of the road, where the last chamomile will have wilted away, Anactoria will be waiting for me, laughing. And I’ll go right into that laughter, dip into it as one takes a first dip into the sea: with fear mixed with yearning.
MAN: How can you be sure?
WOMAN: From the rustle of her dress. Throughout my sleep her dress rustles. I follow her dress… It’s light blue, slightly torn at the shoulders, its fringes a little worn… It’s a garment strictly for travelling, nothing else. Only to take you journeying. This kind of clothing will never trick you. (Brief pause.) I follow her garment and go on… and on…
MAN: Do you get there?
WOMAN: No one ever gets to a love that’s finished.
MAN: In one’s dreams, one can get wherever one wants.
WOMAN: It seems that I don’t want to. (Abrupt pause.) Coffee?
MAN: Water. (Pause.) Why are you staring? Is this the first time someone asks you for some water?
WOMAN: It’s not that.
MAN: What, then?
WOMAN (after a pause): You look…
MAN: Familiar?
WOMAN: Yes… as if… as if I’ve met you before… somewhere… back then…
MAN (smiles): Because you spent a long time looking at my fingers.
WOMAN (smiles): Maybe.
MAN: You are lucky. I don’t know me at all. There are times that I wish so strongly that one could introduce me to myself so that I can start getting to know me. Gradually… starting from little things: the way I incline my head when I hear a silly joke, for instance, or how I put out my cigarette in the ashtray in my office…It’s a cheap ashtray, you know; a beer advertisement. (Brief pause – at the window.) “Sometimes I feel to be among those I never met.” (Abrupt pause.) Look! Fishing lamps
WOMAN: Let’s go!
MAN: Where?
WOMAN: There! Now!
MAN: They’ll have sailed before we get there.
WOMAN: We can make it!
MAN: No way. The beach –
WOMAN: No matter. We’ll stay on the sand.
MAN: Give me a minute to put my sandals on.
WOMAN: Why would you need sandals on the sand?
MAN: The street –
WOMAN: It’s soft, now; all streets go soft after dark.
MAN: I never go out without sandals.
WOMAN: You have to be coquettish, eh?
MAN: It’s not that. It’s – you see, my feet…
WOMAN: Alright, alright.
MAN: Let me explain.
WOMAN: I get it… Put them on, then!
MAN: No, you don’t understand.
WOMAN: You’re so tiresome.
MAN (after a pause): I love you, though.
WOMAN (after a pause): In what way?
MAN (after a pause): As an accomplice.
WOMAN (smiles): Alright, then… Shall we go now?
MAN: Leave it. Some other time.
WOMAN: There won’t be another time.
MAN: The boats with the fishing lights go out every night.
WOMAN: We don’t have many nights left.
MAN: Don’t be so sure.
WOMAN: It’s not me. It’s reality.
Actors: Natalia Dragoumi, Nikos Psarras