image: christinecowern.com

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

Overheard in front of the TD Bank Machine at Kensington and Baldwin

Jay, 49, wears tight jeans with holes in the knees and a jacket with a large patch on the back. He holds a beer can. Eliza, 32, wears a similar outfit, and she smokes a cigarette.

Eliza: You know who I never see anymore?

Jay takes a drink of his beer.

Mitts.

I never see Mitts anymore.

Jay: Me neither.

Eliza: (Calling out) Mitts, where are you?

(Getting louder) Here, kitty, kitty, kitty!

You never call, you never fucking write!

Several shoppers stop and stare.

Eliza stares down into her beer. Her eyes fill up.

Jay slaps Eliza lightly across the back of the head.

Jay: Don’t.

Eliza: She’s probably dead. She probably got hit by a car.

Jay: Maybe she found a rich family and went to live with them.

Eliza: Maybe.

Jay: Or maybe she wondered on to the set of a cat food commercial and became a star.

Eliza: Maybe.

Pause. Both take sips of their beer.

I don’t think so.

What happened to her?

What happened to all the cats?

This neighborhood used to be full of cats, and now I never see any cats, ever. Where did they go?

Pause.

Jay looks at Eliza.

No, seriously, where did they go?

Pause.

The city came and kidnapped them all.

Pause.

Catnapped them.

Eliza looks down into her beer. Jay looks at Eliza.

____

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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