N o t h i n g i s O u r s

By Rosario Stefanelli

Theatre. Rebelling against a script that has already been written is not easy. But when you break your pride and realise that nothing is yours, maybe it is possible. 
'Nothing is ours. Embrace passion action. And as soon as we believe that it is only ours, next to the illusory conviction of originality there is a mad philosopher of numbers who humiliates it, graphs it, synthesises it until it becomes abstract, far from the case of our creation, ready to annex it to that cosmos which is not humanity, but violent homologation which humiliates the self-determination of man. Man, now reduced to a deplorable monad, is waiting to enter with an impressive force of impact into those parametric and statistical models in which his gesture is only a variable that, although characterised by a single frequency, is still useful as a critical reference not to be crossed, on pain of exceeding a mean square deviation, beyond which there is the dangerous and non-existent freedom'.
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rosario
• Release date: Jun 7, 2021
• ISBN: 9791220811958

Book preview

ACT I FINANCIAL DISTRICT

LIBERTY STREET

Eugenio staggers after yet another sunny day. He slumps down next to his companion Emilio on the steps overlooking the sea at the edge of the financial district. They leave behind them a small square surrounded by bistros, a destination for managers and bankers at lunchtime.

EMILIO The tired companion

Eugenio spreads his arms

EUGENIO pride leads to stupidity

EMILIO what's wrong?

EUGENIO I have to take a shit. I haven't found a place. In Manahattan they won't let you shit anymore, if you don't have a big bank account where you can make a substantial deposit of bile liquids. They're fencing us in. You wake up and you're in a lager. And dazed and dumbfounded, you're in a crematorium and it's already sunset.

EMILIO why don't you sit down. You look tired

EUGENIO Man, the sun doesn't help. This yellow ball is a pain in the ass. It'll smash your head in, and it won't put anything good inside.

EMILIO You should be quiet. Stop standing around like these skyscrapers that never rest.

EUGENIO Fuck off. I don't feel like it. To be you. And move only out of necessity. To go to the canteen or the dormitory.

EMILIO We're in no condition to waste energy. What time did you wake up?

EUGENIO Since I started smelling piss. Those sons of bitches if I catch them....now seems to have passed. Fucking seagulls eat that too

Emilio covers his legs

EMILIO You have to defend them and not just from the cold.

Eugenio is still staggering

EMILIO But how far have you walked? You can't stand up

EUGENIO A lot, very much, until I felt my head burst. I'm a testicle of sweat. We sweat, we overdo it in this city. Even without doing shit. I walked around not knowing where to put my face.

EMILIO as you like it

EUGENIO already. There's always something new around, if you don't have goals to reach. If you don't have pride to be stupid

EMILIO but what is this story of pride?

Eugenio takes a bottle of water and puts it at a distance

EUGENIO And how sad it is to move with the goal (he points at the water). The genius is in the middle. I always hope to lose myself. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't

EMILIO What if they fuck up your water?

EUGENIO fuck them. It's better to get lost in the moment and slowly dry out. Get lost

EMILIO In fact you're later than usual.

EUGENIO Late? We are never late. It's the only luxury we have. And you also want to annihilate it. Or do you have to attack the shift like those assholes of my former colleagues on the seventieth floor? Do you have to crawl at 8.30 a.m. with your skinny ass on the master's scrotum?

EMILIO You're late because you don't want to deal with that stuff. It's a stupid and cowardly excuse that you want to miss. To escape the grey area, you drown in radical chic

EUGENIO …I NEED TO GET FUCKING LOST. DON'T THROW IT IN GROUND ZERO I NEED TO LOSE CONTROL OVER EVERY FLAP OF SKIN THAT CLOTHES ME, OVER EVERY THREAD OF VOICE THAT PIERCES MY WINDPIPE, OVER EVERY FILTHY ORGAN THAT SATURATES MY TIRED CARCASS. IT'S SO PREDICTABLE....TERRIBLE. SO SIMILAR TO THOSE SON-OF-A-BITCH BIRDS WITH THEIR PREDETERMINED TIMES AND PLACES

Emilio smiles

EMILIO It seems a struggle to live in the most dissimilar of ways. And yet we're just a palm away

EUGENIO …YOU KNOW VERY WELL WHY WE ARE CLOSE TO THE SECURITISED ROCKFELLER HIVES I WONDER HOW YOU CAN RESIST IF YOU SUFFER STAGGERING?

EMILIO Because Jesus was on the road

EUGENIO was he walking?

EMILIO a lot

EUGENIO …AND WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR TO MOVE THAT BONY BODY? TO IMITATE YOUR MASTER

EMILIO And what are you waiting for to smooth out the rotten skeleton? You are exhausted. You need a mirror

EUGENIO There is a blue sky

Eugenio lies down. So does Emilio. The two are paired up

EMILIO Ahhhh. This is life. Do you give a shit about someone when you're lying in the sun?

EUGENIO Pride leads to stupidity, and not hope up there in that concrete

Meanwhile behind them, near a kiosk sit two elegantly dressed men. One is JACOB, Eugenio's former boss and the other is Mr Fog, an entrepreneur.

EMILIO you should wander less and relax in the half-light of dull thinking.

EUGENIO and you could be like Jesus. And instead you always break my cock. With the shadows, the hours, the sun that sucks...

EMILIO I try to keep a dignity even in this life

EUGENIO I don't give a fuck about dignity. I am him (points to the sea). Look at it as it meanders through the greatness. He doesn't seem uncomfortable. He is not afraid to show himself, naked, wounded, offended and yet free of all urban paranoia. Does he give a shit about the Nasdaq or the Nyse? Currency trading or wild securitisation? He gets all the sun. He doesn't die in the twilight of wall street and bull balls. He's the only one who can sit around all day and get a tan without looking like a starving slacker. And as long as I'm around him, I'm him. His prosthesis on the money sod. And should I be afraid?

Eugenio stops his voice. There is silence around him. He feels the gaze of someone he can't see at the moment. Eugenio turns around. The two men sitting down look at the man

JACOB we'd better go

The two men get up

EUGENIO Run away, run away. But you can't do it forever

Eugenio runs after the man. He manages to grab Jacob by the jacket. While the other one stays nearby. Jacob manages to free himself by throwing Eugene to the ground who bursts out laughing.

JACOB You are crazy

EUGENIO He is not mad who asks to raise the bastard rate.

JACOB Are you still obsessed with this idea? You should have come after me. There was a