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A farce in three acts

  • Farce
  • Satire
  • 9-character play
  • 7 women, 1 man, 1 either
  • 85 min
  • Advanced
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Synopsis

Every Thursday, at Mireille’s flat in Bordeaux, a book club discusses the novel of the month. Tonight its author, who writes under a pen name and whom nobody has ever seen, has promised to come. Not one of the seven readers has got to the end of it, the bathroom is leaking, and the plumber is due between six and ten. At eight o’clock sharp, the doorbell rings.

The living room of a large flat in Bordeaux overlooking the Garonne, on a Thursday evening in October, today.

Casting

923 lines
  • MIREILLE Female role, Senior 71, widow of a wine merchant, founded the Thursday club in her flat twenty-three years ago.
  • BÉATRICE Female role, Senior 84, retired literature teacher, the club’s senior member.
  • JUDITH Female role, Senior 67, retired gallery owner, Mireille’s friend since school.
  • CLAIRE Female role, Adult 47, anaesthetist at the hospital, a club member for four years.
  • NINA Female role, Adult 33, bookseller at a big bookshop in the town centre, in the club for three months.
  • ELENA Female role, Adult 52, Mireille’s daughter-in-law, club secretary, keeps the minute book.
  • ROSE Female role, Adult 58, retired night nurse, a club member for six years; brings the canelés.
  • JONAS Male role, Adult 46, plumber, called out that same morning for a leak.
  • CAMILLE No gender marker, Adult early thirties, handles events and contracts at Éditions de l’Estran, a small publisher in La Rochelle.

Contents

  1. Act One
    • Scene 1
    • Scene 2
    • Scene 3
    • Scene 4
    • Scene 5
  2. Act Two
    • Scene 1
    • Scene 2
    • Scene 3
    • Scene 4
    • Scene 5
    • Scene 6
  3. Act Three
    • Scene 1
    • Scene 2
    • Scene 3
    • Scene 4

Excerpt

Act One

Scene 1

(Mireille’s living room. Five doors: the front door, onto the landing; the kitchen; the bathroom, which connects to Mireille’s bedroom; Mireille’s bedroom; the guest room. Armchairs in a circle around one taller armchair, empty. A clock that has stopped. On the coffee table, a stack of identical books. Elena sets out glasses, a notebook under her arm. Mireille comes out of the bathroom with a bucket.)

MIREILLE

One drop every four seconds. I counted.

ELENA

And the plumber?

MIREILLE

“Between six and ten.” That’s what they told me this morning on the phone. Between six and ten. Like the tide.

ELENA

It’s quarter to seven.

MIREILLE

Then he’s late for six and early for ten. He’s exactly halfway through being late.

918 more lines, 18 scenes

The rest is waiting in the file.

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