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- Woman in a taxi crossing New York
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Woman in a taxi crossing New York (2010), Carlos Be
- Woman in a taxi crossing New York : ONE-ACT PLAY, excerpt 1 , ONE-ACT PLAY, excerpt 2 , ONE-ACT PLAY, excerpt 3 , ONE-ACT PLAY, excerpt 4
Woman in a taxi crossing New York, translated by Gwynneth Dowling
ONE-ACT PLAY, excerpt 1
- Context:
- Edith is in Vardøger’s taxi driving through New York. Her thoughts (in italics) reveal the disjointed and unsettled state of her mind.
- Sample text
-
- VARDØGER:
I want you to feel good, Edith.
- EDITH:
How do you know my name?
- VARDØGER:
Your name?
- EDITH:
Yes, my name.
- VARDØGER:
The label. On your suitcase.
- EDITH:
On my suitcase.
- VARDØGER:
In the trunk of the car. Don’t leave it behind this time when we get there. I’m sure you won’t. Time seems to go backwards when someone drives well, don’t you think? Einstein said that, too.
- EDITH:
By the way…
- VARDØGER:
Yes?
- EDITH:
Nothing.
- VARDØGER:
What?
- EDITH:
Nothing.
- EDITH:
Where are we going? I told him. I must have told him but I can’t remember. What’s the meter reading? Doesn’t he have a meter? He’s going to charge me whatever he likes. Have I any money? I’m not sure if I took … Haloperidol. The bag’s full of Haloperidol. Telephone, purse, Haloperidol. Why so much …? My daughter. He’s taken her. He and his lover. And all I sacrificed for him. Too depressed. Too much Haloperidol. Give me back my daughter and the touch of her little ears when she was born. How soft, like a dog’s. I’m dying to stroke the ears of the driver’s chihuahua…
- EDITH:
Can I?
- VARDØGER:
Of course. He loves it, he’s spoilt.
- Copyright
-
The above sample taken from the translation Woman in a taxi crossing New York by Gwynneth Dowling is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
ONE-ACT PLAY, excerpt 2
- Context:
- Edith was contemplating suicide. Perhaps she has already committed it. Vardøger reflects on the possibility of multiple scenarios existing at once.
- Sample text
-
- EDITH:
So, are we travelling to the past?
- VARDØGER:
Maybe you had a future?
- EDITH:
It can’t be.
- VARDØGER:
You might think it can’t be. But, if you prefer, think of yourself still with the barrel of the gun in your mouth in that shithole of a hotel. And you’re searching your memory, faster than the speed of light, for something that will stop you pulling the trigger. Or better still, you’ve just pulled the trigger and the bullet’s passing through your skull while your whole life passes before your eyes in a fraction of a second and bam! Pizza against the wall. They say that’s what happens but if I were you I wouldn’t believe it. No one’s lived to tell the tale.
- EDITH:
Who are you?
- VARDØGER:
Sorry?
- EDITH:
What’s your name?
- VARDØGER:
Vardøger.
- EDITH:
Var…?
- VARDØGER:
Vardøger. V, A, R, O with a line. See?
- EDITH:
Yes, yes.
- EDITH:
I read it on his licence but I didn’t know what it was. It’s his name. Vardøger.
- VARDØGER:
Red light. Hold your breath. Do it. Frank’s doing it too. Do it! When you’re that still, you feel like you’re on the point of every single direction. Time is fluid, natural, alive. And it thinks. Time thinks. And sometimes it makes its own mind up about a lot of things that happen. And it shows it. Like now. You must know that. Know it. Right now time is burning like a scorpion in flames. Green light.
- Copyright
-
The above sample taken from the translation Woman in a taxi crossing New York by Gwynneth Dowling is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
ONE-ACT PLAY, excerpt 3
- Context:
- Confused about where she is, Edith painfully remembers her past and the loss of her daughter.
- Sample text
-
- EDITH: The room is white. Perhaps I never left here, never took a taxi to that dump of a hotel. Perhaps I blew my brains out right here. I have to hurry. All my things in my suitcase except her, except him. He took her. Have I just arrived or am I leaving? I don’t know. All I know is that this isn’t my home and there are 200 horses pounding in my head. He took her with his lover and now all three of them live together. Happy, I know, without me. And I’m admitted here. This is not my home. Why I did it, don’t even think of leaving, don’t even touch the girl, I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you and the girl before you cross that door. Do you hear? I’ll kill you both! She recorded it all. His whore of a mistress.
- Copyright
-
The above sample taken from the translation Woman in a taxi crossing New York by Gwynneth Dowling is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
ONE-ACT PLAY, excerpt 4
- Context:
- Edith talks to her daughter in an ambiguous scene. Is Edith really talking to her daughter, or is this a fantastical conversation?
- Sample text
-
- GIRL:
Mummy. Have you come back?
- EDITH:
She can see me?
- VOICE:
She’s a child. She can. Don’t take long saying goodbye to her. She can’t come with us.
- EDITH:
How far do we …?
- VOICE:
We still have a way to go.
- EDITH:
How far do we have to go? I’m not going to be able to. I’m not brave. Give up my own daughter?
- VOICE:
Yes.
- EDITH:
I love you, little one. I’ll always love you. And forgive me for what I’m about to do.
- GIRL:
Don’t worry, mummy.
- EDITH:
And you are well? Yes?
- GIRL:
Yes.
- EDITH:
I love you.
- GIRL:
I know.
- Copyright
-
The above sample taken from the translation Woman in a taxi crossing New York by Gwynneth Dowling is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Entry written by Gwynneth Dowling. Last updated on 25 May 2012.
