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• Women on the Ledge : ONE-ACT PLAY

Women on the Ledge, translated by Gwynneth Dowling

ONE-ACT PLAY

Context:

This is the second half of the play. Woman 1 and Woman 2 have been talking about their lives and what they see below, while waiting for Woman 3 to arrive.

Sample text

Sliding down a drainpipe, Woman 3 arrives, dressed in a nightshirt. She is pregnant.

WOMAN 1:

We thought you weren’t coming this time either.

WOMAN 2:

Any later and you’d have missed it.

WOMAN 3:

It’s because he’s not sleeping. When he drinks his sleep’s all over the place. But … it’s beautiful up here. You can see everything.

WOMAN 2:

That’s nothing. Wait and see.

WOMAN 1:

Everything’s clearer. Like it’s all stretched out. The whole world, right to the horizon. It’s cold, though. You didn’t tell me it’d be so cold. And it’s so blowy. You feel like you’ll be blown away.

WOMAN 1:

Put more on you tomorrow. And come earlier, this isn’t how it should be, all of us arriving scattered. Come earlier tomorrow.

WOMAN 2:

To watch the colours of the light changing.

WOMAN 1:

And to chat with your friends. We talk less and less these days.

WOMAN 3:

Doesn’t that bin lorry look tiny? It’s so sweet. It’s got this kind of special light. Like it knows it’s carting off the worst of each household. Orange peels, oily sardine tins. His motorbike magazines, his entire collection of bike magazines. I’ve thrown them all out … his swimming medals from when he was a boy, photos of his mother. I wish I could throw out his bad mood, his boredom, his cold body.

WOMAN 2: (Looking below. Pointing to someone.)

I feel sorry for that boy. I often meet him in the lift. He’s always got dark circles under his eyes, and I used to think ‘Poor kid, up all night studying’. One day he started to cry on me. Right there, in the lift. He told me he couldn’t stand the pressure any more. His parents think he studies law, but he’s really studying road management, even though he wants to be a vet. How many do you think he’s taken now?

WOMAN 1:

At least three dozen.

WOMAN 2:

Why do you suppose he wants them?

WOMAN 1:

Must be collecting them.

WOMEN 2:

Collecting number plates?

WOMAN 1:

It takes all sorts.

WOMAN 3:

I see now how right you both were. The traffic lights. The smell of vanilla. The little ant trails. Look at the cat, there. Its fur is gleaming. My voice, it seems lighter. The air’s crystal clear. I want to be an astronaut. Or have a child who’s an astronaut.

WOMAN 2:

Ssshh.

WOMAN 1:

Here it comes. There. Sunrise.

Sunrise covers their bodies in light, like an orgasm. Silence. Without a word, they wave goodbye to one another and go back the way they came.

Copyright

The above sample taken from the translation Women on the Ledge by Gwynneth Dowling is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Entry written by Gwynneth Dowling. Last updated on 3 May 2011.

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