image: 2221yonge.com

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

Overheard at the Timothy’s at St. Clair and Yonge.

Renelle, 34, stands in line with Irina 63. They are dressed conservatively, and hold matching binders with “Syllabus 13/14” written on them.

Renelle: That’s what’s in style these days. That’s what those kids are wearing.

Irina: Well, they look like criminals. And, I mean, they don’t just look like criminals. They look stupid.

Renelle: Well, people probably thought we looked stupid, too. 

Irina’s mouth presses into a straight line.

Renelle: And it shouldn’t matter. It shouldn’t matter what the kid is wearing. They’re supposed to have the training to see through a situation and deal with it fairly. And it’s not fair, I’m sorry. The kid was 110 pounds soaking wet alone, with a cheap pocket knife. He’s not a threat to seven cops with guns and back-up, no matter what he’s wearing.

Irina: He looked like a gang member. They might have thought more were coming.

Renelle: There is no bigger gang than the police.

Irina: MS-13. In Ecuador.

Renelle: In Canada.

Irina looks at her binder.

And gangs?

Come on. It was just one kid. Even if he was a member of a gang, he didn’t have back-up then. He’s just one kid with a stupid little knife. If you ask me, I’m more afraid of the police. 

Irina: What if he had hurt someone?

Renelle looks at Irina. She takes a sip of her coffee. She opens her binder.

Renelle: Did you see that they changed the Shakespeare requirements for 7 English?

Irina stares at her hands, she gulps back a lump in her throat.

Irina: Sometimes people panic, and they do the wrong thing. Cops are human, too.

Renelle: Well, then they should act like it.

Irina: That’s the most human thing. To be wrong.

____

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.

For more, follow us on Twitter at @torontostandard, and subscribe to our newsletter.