Coronado - Dennis Lehane [42]
GWEN Maggie Bell
Coronado was performed as part of the closing-night festivities of the Writers in Paradise Conference in St. Petersburg, Florida, on January 28, 2006. It was produced by American Stage Theatre Company and Eckerd College with set design by Scott Cooper. It was directed by Todd Olson with the following cast:
GINA Nevada Caldwell
WILL Steve Garland
WAITRESS Megan Kirkpatrick
PATIENT Julie Rowe
DOCTOR Dan Bright
BOBBY’S FATHER Tom Nowicki
BOBBY Steve Malandro
HAL Drew DeCaro
GWEN Caitlin O’Grady
YOUNG WOMAN Talia Hagerty
MAN Kyle Flanagan
Characters
WILL a man in his twenties
GINA a woman in her twenties
DOCTOR a man in his late thirties
PATIENT a woman in her mid-thirties
BOBBY a man in his late teens, early twenties
BOBBY’S FATHER a man in his mid-forties
GWEN a woman nineteen years old
HAL a man somewhere between forty and fifty-five
WAITRESS a woman of indeterminate age
A MAN and a YOUNG WOMAN
Settings
ACT I takes place in an unnamed bar at various times.
ACT II takes place at the fairgrounds, a parking lot, and the bar, at various times.
ACT I
Scene 1
A booth in a bar where a couple, GINA and WILL, sit.
GINA So how was the trip?
WILL Lotta two-light, three-bar towns. Hartow, Rangely, Coronado.
GINA How is that place?
WILL It’s coming up, I gotta say. Might be nice someday.
GINA So you’re back.
WILL And you’re going.
GINA Just for a week.
WILL A week. Jesus.
GINA We can do two weeks.
WILL Without talking? Maybe. Without touching, though?
GINA I could bite through my lip looking at you.
WILL I could…
[GINA looks over at the bar, then back at WILL.]
GINA This is what I remember—the first time you touched me. The first time you ever laid a finger on my flesh. You remember?
WILL It was after work.
GINA You smelled of Paco Rabanne.
WILL You wore that blue blouse.
GINA You said you hated your car. You said…
WILL Yes?
GINA No, you tell me.
WILL Not fair.
GINA Fair-schmair. And yes it is.
WILL I said…I said…
GINA You don’t have a clue.
WILL I said…I said, “If you were air, I’d never take another breath just to hold you in.”
GINA I always wondered if you heard that in a movie.
WILL Nope. All mine.
GINA Say it now.
WILL I just did.
GINA Not quoting. Say it for real.
[Beat.]
WILL If you were air, I’d never take another breath just to hold you in.
GINA Mmm. Good line. Came as a surprise.
WILL To me too.
GINA How is that?
WILL I don’t know. We never know what we’re going to say, do we?
GINA Sure we do. We say “I need a haircut,” and “I’d like a Fiero,” and “I want a shelf organizer.” And “You look terrific,” and “What’s on at ten?”
WILL Sounds so depressing.
GINA Until you.
WILL Until me…
GINA I could say “What’s on at ten?” to you and not feel existential dread.
WILL Until you, I, Jesus, fuck, I, my god, I mean, do you know I look at you sometimes and I just want to fucking cry? To scream? I want to grab you and squeeze you until your bones shatter. Not really, but you know? I want to tell the whole world that I couldn’t kiss you enough, lick you enough, fuck you enough. There is no enough with you.
GINA You know, you know when you’re inside me or when I just catch a look from you—you’re at your desk, I’m at mine—or when I think of the way you looked by the side of the road trying to jack up the car? Saying, “Stop, Gina. Stop laughing”? I think, my god, this is my life? God gave me this? And I think how I could just spread you on a cracker and eat you whole.
WILL I think, I think, I swear to Christ, how my whole life I felt something missing, you know? Like you were out there, somewhere, and I knew it, I did, but I never found you so I finally stopped looking. I told myself it was a fantasy. A child’s dream. Time to wake up, Will. So I did. I stopped believing and I got on with my life. I got on with my life. But then we met. And we talked. And suddenly I knew what I’d always known but tried to convince myself I didn’t.
GINA What?
WILL That you were the piece of me that went floating off into the ether when they pulled