A series of mini-dramas based on public conversations, as overheard and rewritten by local playwright/director Aurora Stewart de Peña.

Overheard on the Westbound King Streetcar between Shaw and Brant

The streetcar is very packed. People’s faces are mushed into other people’s backs. Purses and briefcases poke into thighs. A cacophony of different perfumes fill the air.

Zhang-ye, 82, slight and small in all black, maneuvers her way to the middle of the car. She reaches a double seat. The inside seat is free, the outside seat is occupied by David, 55.

Zhang-ye stops.

She looks at the empty seat.

She looks at David.

David looks at her.

He looks away.

Zhang-ye points at the empty seat.

David does not look at her.

Zhang-ye points again at the seat.

David inclines his head ever so slightly towards the window.

The streetcar lurches forward.

Zhang-ye falls backwards on to Daria, 32.

She rights herself.

David appears to see nothing.

Daria, observing the exchange, steadily becomes red in the cheeks. 

Zhang-ye, gripping a pole, uses her free hand to point at the empty seat for a third time.

David does nothing.

Daria taps David on the shoulder.

Daria: Excuse me.

David does not look up.

Daria: Excuse me!

David does not look up.

Daria: Excuse me, everybody!

This man right here?

She points to the top of David’s head.

This man right here is a fucking douchebag!

Daria exits the streetcar.

Zhang-ye continues to hold her pole.

David stays seated.

____

Aurora Stewart de Peña is half of the theatre company Birdtown & Swanville (the other half is Nika Mistruzzi). You can follow her on Twitter at @Aurorahhh.

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