Reverberation (eBook)

Matthew Lopez (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2024 | 1. Auflage
96 Seiten
Faber & Faber (Verlag)
978-0-571-39479-1 (ISBN)

Infos

You don't have to tell me everything at once. Just tell me a little bit. And then a little bit more. And you could just keep telling me until eventually I'd know you. After a tragedy, Jonathan has withdrawn from the world, curtailing his social life to brief encounters with men he meets online. When free spirit Claire moves into the flat upstairs, she tries to coax him out of his shell. Drawn together by their desire for emotional attachment, they form a connection, but the happiness they find is threatened as the past reverberates. Matthew López's funny, sexy play about loneliness and longing was first performed at Hartford Stage, Connecticut, in 2015. It received its European premiere, in this reshaped version, at the Bristol Old Vic in October 2024.

Matthew López is the author of The Inheritance, which premiered in 2018 at the Young Vic before transferring to the West End and Broadway. Matthew won the Tony, Olivier, Evening Standard, Drama Desk, London Critics Circle, Outer Critics Circle, Drama League, and GLAAD Awards for Best Play for The Inheritance. His play The Sentinels premiered in London in 2011 as part of Headlong Theatre's Decade plays. Other plays include The Whipping Man, Somewhere, The Legend of Georgia McBride, and Zoey's Perfect Wedding. In 2023, Matthew co-wrote and directed the film adaptation of Red, White and Royal Blue.

Textauszug

Act One

1 After Work

Two apartments in Tottenham, North London: one upstairs from the other and both identically constructed. The upstairs apartment is sparsely furnished. Nothing more than an air mattress in the bedroom and a cheap collapsible clothing rack. Women’s clothes are strewn about – from bras and panties to expensive dresses. Nothing is treated with care. The living room is equally spartan: a camping chair in front of a small, 1990s television that rests on the floor. The walls are bare. Take-out containers and empty wine bottles litter the kitchen countertop.

The downstairs apartment, by contrast, is packed with possessions. Photographs and knick-knacks everywhere. Shelves groan under the weight of hundreds of books. A decent stereo system. A work table that overflows with personal papers, unopened mail, and half-read books and magazines. Large canvases of original paintings cover the walls.

Upstairs suggests transience. Downstairs suggests permanence.

At rise, both apartments are dark. Gradually we notice that from the downstairs bedroom we can hear the sound of two men having sex. Their noise and intensity rises with the lights as we reveal Jonathan (thirty) fucking Wes (twenty-one). It’s pretty intense. Jonathan devours Wes, constantly feeling his body, kissing him. Wes is overwhelmed by Jonathan’s passionate attentions. Wes is a noisy lay, responding vocally to every thrust, his body reacting instantly to every touch from Jonathan, every kiss and caress. Jonathan, on the other hand, is nearly silent. He is solely focused on Wes’s body, on his lips and neck. They fuck for a while. Long enough for us to feel like voyeurs. The fucking grows in intensity. Jonathan works his way up to his orgasm. Wes encourages him along. Eventually, Jonathan comes. He then completely collapses into Wes’s arms. They hold each other in for a few moments. Everything settles into a serene silence.

Then Wes whispers into Jonathan’s ear, kisses him, gets up and heads naked to the bathroom.

Jonathan sits up and stares blankly for a moment. He then gets up and heads naked to the living room. Both Jonathan’s and Wes’s clothes are strewn about on the floor and sofa, exactly where they left them when they tore them off each other. Jonathan grabs one of the two glasses of booze that sit on his coffee table – their unfinished pre-sex cocktails – and downs it. He pours another and drinks it quickly.

The toilet flushes. Jonathan grabs his clothes off the floor and starts to dress. Wes emerges from the bathroom, still naked.

Wes Christ, I’m knackered. That was – (Sees Jonathan isn’t there.) Hey, where’d you go?

Wes comes in from the bedroom.

You’re getting dressed?

Jonathan I thought we were done.

Wes You might be.

Jonathan It’s pretty late / and I have a big day tomorrow.

Wes It’s only / eleven thirty.

Jonathan I gotta be up pretty early.

Pause.

Wes That was … I think that was, like, the greatest sex I’ve ever had, ever.

Wasn’t it?

You just … devoured me. At one point I thought you were actually going to eat me.

Jonathan Listen / I really should –

Wes Could I have some water?

Jonathan Sure.

Jonathan pours Wes a glass of water.

Wes You look different from your pictures. Less, um, less boyish.

Jonathan Are you calling me old?

Wes I’m calling your pictures old. I mean, I knew you were fit but I wasn’t expecting those muscles when you opened the door. I thought you were the bouncer.

Jonathan Oh. Yeah. I’ve started working out.

Wes Yeah, I can tell.

Pretty mental that we live so close, huh? I never see you out and about.

Jonathan I don’t go out a lot.

Wes How old are you?

Jonathan Thirty.

Wes Wow. You’re like the oldest guy I’ve ever had sex with.

Jonathan Thank you?

Wes No, thank you.

Jonathan You’re …?

Wes Twenty-one.

Jonathan Right.

Wes I think we’re pretty good at this, you and me. Good chemistry.

Jonathan Yeah.

Wes Maybe we should make this a regular thing.

Jonathan It’s probably better if we just left this a one-time thing.

Wes Are you kidding? I live two hundred metres away!

Jonathan I just … I’m not really looking for that.

Wes You know your phone doesn’t come with Grindr pre-installed.

Wes puts his arms around Jonathan’s neck and gives him the hard stare. Jonathan is not immune to Wes’s allure. He puts his hands on Wes’s hips and pulls him closer. Wes leans in for a kiss. But then:

Jonathan I have to work in the morning.

Wes You’re killing me.

Jonathan I’m sorry. It’s late and I –

Wes Yeah. Okay. Yeah, it’s cool.

Wes pulls away and starts hunting for his clothes.

I can always go back on Grindr, right?

Jonathan Or read a book.

Wes Or write a symphony. There’s a million things I could be doing right now.

Wes dresses. Annoyed, awkward silence as he does.

Jonathan I, ah …

Wes Yeah?

Jonathan I didn’t mean ‘read a book’ as if you didn’t ever.

Wes I know.

Jonathan I didn’t mean to insinuate that you don’t read because you’re –

Wes A bottom?

Jonathan No, I meant –

Wes I know what you meant.

Wes looks at Jonathan’s books.

You own a lot of books.

Jonathan Yeah.

Wes Well, of course you do. You’re a top.

You haven’t actually read all of these, have you?

Jonathan Maybe half?

Wes I chucked most of my books when I moved here.

Jonathan Why?

Wes They were heavy.

Jonathan But they’re your books.

Wes That’s what Kindles are for.

Jonathan That’s just not the same.

Wes Why? Same words.

Jonathan A book is more than just the words on the page.

Wes You have to admit that they’re helpful.

Jonathan It’s the width of the margins, the smell, the paper stock. It’s tactile, you know.

Wes feels Jonathan’s arms.

Wes You’re tactile.

Jonathan Reading is a physical act.

Wes Like fucking.

Wes starts rubbing Jonathan’s arms and chest.

Jonathan You don’t just engage with the ideas in the book, you engage with the book itself. Its size, its dimensions. Is it a hardcover or paperback?

Wes Hard, definitely hard.

Wes’s hands move to Jonathan’s arse.

Jonathan But on a Kindle, every book has only one edition and it’s the same as every other book. It obliterates uniqueness.

Wes You know how to catch a unique animal? Unique up on it.

...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 31.10.2024
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Lyrik / Dramatik ► Dramatik / Theater
• ISBN-10: 0-571-39479-5 / 0571394795
• ISBN-13: 978-0-571-39479-1 / 9780571394791