mia-llewellyn

[mia-llewellyn]

JOINT

A woman and her adult son navigate loss and what is left behind.

The back garden of a London townhouse.

JULIA sits in one of three scattered garden chairs, dressed in a silk dressing gown and slippers. Her hair is tied back and she has on only a touch of lipstick. She is occasionally taking drags from a cigarette. An overflowing ashtray sits on the garden table close to her side. JACOB can be seen walking around inside the kitchen. He shrugs on a big leather coat. He shoulders his way out the back door. When he sees JULIA he stops, hesitant.

Jacob: You’ve been out here a while.

Julia: Not too long.

Jacob: It’s been at least an hour.

Julia: Oh, you’re finally making use of the watch I bought you?

JACOB ignores her, moving towards the chair furthest from JULIA. He sits down and pulls a lighter and what looks like a cigarette out of his pocket.

 It hasn’t. Been an hour. What does it matter?

Jacob: Must have been chaining them.

Julia: I’m distracted and let the ash build up. Gets all over me. Probably only smoke half.

Pause.

Don’t lecture me please.

JACOB has been struggling to get the lighter to work. JULIA watches him get frustrated before offering him hers. He lights up, sticks his hand in his pocket and takes a long drag.

 I want that back. You’ve stolen all of mine.

Jacob: Yeah.

Julia: Tell me next time you run out. So I know when to get more.

JULIA waits for a response. When she doesn’t get one she looks away. they sit for a long moment smoking in silence. JACOB goes to flick ash onto the ground.

Julia: Jake.

Jacob: Huh? Oh sorry.

JACOB stands and reaches across her to get to the ashtray before sitting back down.

Julia: That stuff smells stronger. I don’t like it.

Jacob: Nah it’s good, Ben brought it back from Amsterdam.

Julia: Wouldn’t have guessed.

Jacob: Better than the last lot.

Julia: Right.

Pause.

It’s just it stinks up the house. So if you wouldn’t mind.

Jacob: I don’t smoke it in my room.

Julia: I know/

Jacob: I close the back door. Stop it getting/

Julia: Okay.

Jacob: So then.

They sit in silence. JACOB schools his face into a warmer, apologetic expression.

Jacob: Sorry, I’ll try not to. Next time I’ll…

Julia: It’s alright.

Beat.

Jacob: Actually I was gonna ask.

 JULIA looks at him then raises her brow.

Julia: Really? Already?

Jacob: I don’t know, Yeah. Nearly.

Julia: You’re smoking so much Jake.

Jacob: Don’t start.

Julia: Look, if I’m the one paying for/

Jacob: I get it.

Julia: Because I don’t have to/

Jacob: I get it.

Julia: Do you?

Jacob: You won’t let me forget!

Pause.

Julia: This is the last time for now, okay? And you’ll go to the job centre tomorrow?

Jacob: Yes.

Julia: Because I can’t just keep/

Jacob: Yes! I’ll fucking go.

Julia: Hey!

Jacob: What?

Julia: (Looking at JACOB like she cannot understand what he is thinking) Why do you have to do that?

Jacob: (Sighing, exasperated) What.

Julia: There, like that.

Jacob: I didn’t do anything.

Julia: You just sighed. Like I’m stupid. Like you think I’m stupid.

Jacob: Oh for fuck sake. You’re delusional.

Julia: Don’t talk to me like that. I’m your mother.

Pause.

 You’re still my boy. I don’t know how you can be so hateful.

Jacob: I don’t hate you.

Julia: Well you don’t respect me. Because I’m not him.

Jacob: Oh come on.

Julia: Caroline says I’m too lenient with you. That you don’t show me respect. After I do so much/

Jacob: Great. That’s fucking great. Now you’re talking about me to your fucking therapist too? Is that what you’re telling me? You need to go to a shrink to know how to cope with me?

Julia: She is helping me with... yes.

Jacob: Is that a joke? I should just leave then? You want me out? Would you like to be completely alone?

Julia: Jacob, no, don’t be stupid.

Jacob: I’m not fucking stupid. Don’t call me stupid.

Julia: Hang on, you’re not being fair.

Jacob: (Louder) What’s fair mum? What am I supposed to think?

Julia: Please. Can we just not? For once, can we not argue?

Jacob: (Settling down) I just wanted a smoke.

Julia: We can’t keep moving around each other in there, never speaking. I’m not just leaving you cash on the kitchen table. I’m not waiting to hear the front door slam as my only indication you’re still alive.

Jacob: Don’t be dramatic.

Julia: I worry about you.

Jacob: Well don’t.

Julia: How? I’m on my own now. I don’t know how to help you.

Jacob: We can’t.

Julia: Can’t what?

Jacob: Help each other.

JULIA looks for a moment like she might protest before sitting back and looking away.

Julia:  Okay so maybe you won’t listen to me. (Turning back towards JACOB) God knows you don’t talk to me. But there are people-

Jacob: Stop it.

Julia: (Reaching out to him) Sweetheart.

Jacob: Mum, Stop! Alright?

Julia: What? What.

Jacob: Would you quit getting involved? Telling me what to do. I can’t bare it anymore. You just go on at me. On and on and/

JULIA pointedly turns her head and crosses her legs away from him. She goes to take a drag from her cigarette but she sees it has gone out. She fumbles for another one. Without looking she motions for JACOB to pass her the lighter. After lighting up she tosses the lighter down on the table.

Beat.

Julia: You came out here with an agenda too, let’s not forget. (Looking at JACOB) I guess I was wrong before, you do talk, when you need something.

Jacob: What would you have us talk about mum? Huh? What, you want us to sit and eat dinner together and… gossip? Or have me listen to you moan about the weed when you’re sat out here puffing away on those menthols like they might ban them tomorrow.

Julia: Well actually, they’re saying in march next year…

Jacob: I don’t talk to you mum. Because all I can hear is how yours is the only other voice in that house.  

Beat.

Julia: You could ask me how I am.

Jacob: You’d tell me anyway. You share a lot.

Julia: We could talk about him. How you’re feeling. If you’d like.

Beat.

Jacob: Why do you?

Julia: What?

Jacob: Why do you pay for it? If you’ll only use that against me?

Julia: What? I- I’m. I don’t. Jake I wouldn’t.

Jacob: I feel like that’s what you’re doing.

Julia: No, no/

Jacob: So why?

Julia: What?

Jacob: Why do you keep lending me…

Julia: (Pause) It’s easier to give you money than spend hours fighting with you. That’s energy I don’t have.

Pause.

Julia: Because otherwise I’m scared, I’m scared that you’ll…

Jacob: (Looks up sharply) You’re scared of me?

Julia: No not scared of you. For you? For me? I don’t know.

Jacob: God! Why aren’t you sick of me? You put up with me, why haven’t you kicked me out already? Why don’t you just tell me to fuck off?

Julia: Because I love you.

Jacob: No, no. Mum come on, we get in the way of each other. I make you upset.

Julia: (Sitting on the edge of her chair as though she wants to reach out to him)  That’s why you need to talk to me Jake. It’s something, you know, we can share. That no one else understands/

Jacob: But it’s not even the same for us! It’s not. I don’t wake up every day and miss your husband.

Julia: I know that, I know that.

Jacob: I, I- miss/

JACOB rubs hard at his eyes with one hand. Beat.

He was who I am supposed to be. (Suddenly standing up, bringing his hands up by his head) But I needed him to tell me how.

Julia: (Reaching for him) Darling/

Jacob: I can’t. I don’t know what he wants me to do. (Slowing down. Pause) I don’t know what to do.

JULIA places a hand on the seat next to her. Without looking, JACOB moves and sits down. She moves her hand just in time.

Jacob: He was better than me.

Julia: Hey now…

Jacob: Better than everyone.

Julia: He wasn’t perfect/

Jacob: Fuck, how did he make everything seem okay, like it was nothing?

Pause.

I mean imagine finding out you’re going to die and you start making your own funeral playlist.

JULIA pauses, then laughs. Suddenly she starts laughing hard and JACOB looks at her.

Jacob: (Smiling slightly) 9 hours long. 

JACOB breaks off shaking his head. Soon they are both laughing, almost hysterically.

JACOB suddenly pushes his head into her chest and sobs. JULIA, initially startled, carefully holds an arm around him. They sit like that for a long moment. JACOB’S breath begins to even out.  With her other hand, JULIA takes the joint out of his loose grip and brings it to her lips. JACOB moves his head up to push it against her shoulder. He gives a small huff of amusement. JULIA starts to slowly stroke his hair.

[mia-llewellyn]

Step Outside

Walking along the Ham side of the river, looking all the time across the water to the other bank at the pocket-sized families and exposed back gardens. The feeling was like turning down a street of your neighbourhood, that for one reason or another, you’d had no business walking down for near a decade. A simultaneous familiarity and unfamiliarity. Having lived all your life somewhere, to make one slight turn and be in an altogether foreign place. 

In the years following my fathers death my mum got very ill and then very busy. Once I had her back after a year of diazepam and emptiness she began hunting for any hobby she could find. Her choice to join her friends art class proved more successful than any of us could have thought. She would often proclaim that any artistic capabilities her mother had possessed skipped right passed her and onto me and my brother. This was in fact not the case. She had made the same misjudgement about her mothers periodic depression it turns out. She took to drawing and oil painting like the talent had sat dormant in her bones, only waiting on the day she had the hours to spare. Hours and hours she spent at our dining table. The table so covered in newspaper it meant we sat bowls of dinner on our laps on the sofa each evening. A habit my manners conscious dad had always abhorred. 

The feeling I had looking across the Thames at MY side of the river reminded me of my favourite painting of my mums. In subtle oils she had painted the view into our house as though stood at the front door looking in. Our home was essentially a long dark corridor, lit only by the large windows at the back of the house. I often thought about the postal workers and clipboard carriers who would knock on our unseeming door only to be shown the view right through our lives. In the painting mum pasted over the end of the tunnel (our kitchen doorway) a photo of my dad stood against an ancient archway. It was cut from a photo taken on a digital camera some summer holiday in Spain years earlier. Her art teacher had prompted the class to follow the theme ‘outside looking in’ and to include an element of fantasy. Her fantasy was to one day, or any day, open the door to see him on the other side. I understood that desperate desire. To find out somehow that you were wrong all along and nothing had changed and everything was all at once exactly how it had been. 

Watching the path I’d walked every day of my life from an angle I could hardly recognise gave me the same nostalgic pause. 

I glanced over the water and recognised a house. One of these huge places with folding glass doors and a rolling lawn leading down to a dock at the river’s edge. Immediately I knew that I had stood in that house. The memory of sprinting with abandon down that sloped grass, passed stuffy adults in sun dresses and straight into the arms of my dad who stood admiring the hosts parked boat. I could not place myself at any age, nor could I remember why I might have been in this house I’m certain I never visited again. 

[mia-llewellyn]

Digital Marketing Task : Lift 109

VIEWING PLATFORM AT BATTERSEA POWER STATION

Join us 109 metres above the capital by catching a lift up one of Battersea Power  Station’s iconic white chimneys. As the newest attraction at London’s revitalised historic structure, we can offer an unmissable experience. Once you’ve reached our viewing platform, take in a 360 degree view of the city and gain a whole new perspective on London. Make sure to get your tickets ahead of our opening on (date)!

Get the full London experience by riding the city's historic Underground to visit our new Lift 109 at Battersea Power Station. Travel underneath the city before joining us at the very top.

TFL’s Northern Line has unveiled its newest station, making it easier than ever to reach this iconic venue. 

Opening soon, our glass lift will take you up to a 360 viewing platform at the top of the station’s Northwest Chimney. Travel by tube to ride with us up to see views of the city you have never seen before. 

#TakeANewLookAtLondon #OurCityMadeNew

Anyone remember this iconic Pink Floyd album artwork? 

Battersea Power Station has held a longstanding presence in pop culture since it opened in 1935 and it’s being brought back to life once again. 

After your chance to learn about the structure’s extensive history in it’s art deco exhibition hall, you will take a lift up one of its iconic chimneys to take in spectacular 360-degree views of the city from above.

Join us to be one of the first to #TakeANewLookAtLondon

We want to invite you to see our city from an all new perspective.Fast becoming a centre for visitors from all across London and the Globe, Battersea Power Station offers a unique blend of restaurants, shops, parks and cultural spaces. Along with all new attractions Lift 109 offers you the chance to see across the city from our spectacular 360-degree viewing platform at the top of its North West chimney.

Newsletter subscribers 

Promised first information about tickets going on sale or any future discounts on tickets.

First to hear of new aspects or temporary exhibitions taking place in Turbine Hall A (as lift experience will see less changes)

Monthly features - reach out to celebrate any campaigns/ let them know of any brand partnerships.

Digital / Branding Partners:

Samsung or Apple

Launch a photography competition to sponsor our event and advertise the camera on the latest smartphone release. Views of the London Skyline from a new perspective provide excellent and recognisable shots. Gigantic brands with far reaching appeal and advertising potential. 

Apple will have a local presence as they are leasing 6 floors of office space in the boiler house.

Gordon Ramsey @gordonramsaystreetpizza 

Partnering with them to cater for a promotional evening eg. First visitors to go up in the lift, encourages relationships with local businesses.

Alternatively put on a competition to win tickets for Lift 109 similar to the promotional deal done with Summer Showtime outdoor cinema experience.

Not only a popular local restaurant but is headed by Gordon Ramsey, who is a familiar british brand himself.

Transport For London 

Iconic and historic institution that represents London. 

Coincides with the new Battersea Power station tube station opening, made the power station an accessible and high profile destination in zone 1.

So much potential for advertising space in both trains and stations, for example green park station changed to green planet for bbc show.

Can take advantage of the fact that many iconic TFL posters use art deco design which ties in with the image and history of the power station itself - as depicted in architecture of the Turbine Hall A where our experience begins.

Influencers / Content Creators:

@jimchapman - 2.1m 

London based lifestyle vlogger and influencer, loyal following that has expanded since he has built a family, reaches both young people/ families. 

Gift tickets to promote the experience on his socials

 @esteelalonde - 691K 

Represented by wme - travel and lifestyle influencer

Gift tickets to promote the experience on his socials

@london.travelers - 577k Instagram / 39k Tik tok

Create video for tik tok audiences, depicting it as an unmissable new london experience

London based photographers eg. @justefe / @h_cato / @lakudavies 

Many of whom are black and/or female, capturing London’s iconic landmarks and districts. Their platforms would illustrate the appeal of Battersea architecture and the photography opportunities provided by the unique view from our attraction.

Possibility of working with these influencers on any photography or digital storytelling competitions put on with a brand partner such as Samsung. 

We cannot promise we can take you to outer space, but our glass elevator will take you 109 feet above the capital where you can take in panoramic views to see the city in a way you have never seen before.

Book tickets to ride up to the top of London’s Battersea Power Station.

Lift 109 will travel up its North West chimney to bring you sky high!

[mia-llewellyn]

IN HEAT

A woman surrenders a single day to a young stranger

NAOMI - 33 years old, British

LUCAS - 20 years old, British

EXT. SMALL OPEN SQUARE BURIED IN NICE OLD TOWN, SOUTH OF FRANCE - MIDDAY

A scattering of plastic seating outside a small café.

Woman, NAOMI, approaches holding a map in one hand. She peaks into the café before taking a seat at one of the tables outside. Glancing around she pulls out a cigarette from her bag. She waits a few long moments, impatiently glancing at the beaded doorway. She checks her phone. Suddenly a young man, LUCAS, falls through and into the sunlight, turned towards the café as if half arguing with someone inside. He turns to NAOMI and stops. After a second he approaches.

LUCAS: Bonjour.

NAOMI: Bonjour.

LUCAS: Qu'est ce que je peux vous servir?

NAOMI: (in a bad French accent) Café s'il vous plait.

LUCAS: Avec du lait?

NAOMI: Lait? Oh no, merci. Noir.

LUCAS bows his head and slowly leaves.

CUT TO:

NAOMI’s coffee is almost finished and she runs her finger around its rim. LUCAS watches her as he clears things from the other tables, sorts another customer’s bill, then delays as he makes his way back inside.

NAOMI turns at the sound of children’s laughter. A boy chases a screeching girl round the corner of the street. When NAOMI turns back LUCAS is sitting in front of her. She looks around confused before settling her gaze on him.  

NAOMI: Erm, puis-je, uh, vous aider?

LUCAS: (In a natural english accent) What’s your name?

NAOMI: (giving a huff of laughter) So you speak English now?

LUCAS: Why? Did you think I was French?

NAOMI: Yes.

LUCAS: That’s good. Oh that’s great.

NAOMI: Should you be sitting down? While you work I mean.

LUCAS: My shift is over.

NAOMI: Well then you needn’t be here at all.

LUCAS: I like it here.

NAOMI: Right, you like it here.

LUCAS: Where are you from?

NAOMI: (Debating whether to engage) New York.

LUCAS: No, in England.

NAOMI: (After a beat) Dorset.

LUCAS: Stop. (He jabs at his chest) Somerset. That’s crazy, isn’t it?

NAOMI: Crazy.

Moment of silence. She notices but does not acknowledge him studying her.

LUCAS: Holiday?

NAOMI: Oh.

LUCAS: Are you?

NAOMI: What?

LUCAS: Here on holiday?

NAOMI: Sorry. I thought you were saying you were on holiday. Me? I’m not sure.

LUCAS: You’re not sure if you’re here on holiday?

NAOMI: I don’t know how long I’ll be here.

LUCAS: Well its beautiful. Lots to do. You shouldn’t leave too soon.

NAOMI: I’ll keep that in mind.

NAOMI counts some euros out of her purse and leaves them on the coffee dish. Gathering her things, she begins walking away.

LUCAS: (Gets up, calls after her) Where to next?

NAOMI: (Glancing back) I’m going to see the Cathedral, maybe walk through the gardens.

LUCAS: Ah the Promenade des Arts! Good okay.

NAOMI gives a small smile.

LUCAS: It’s just you’re going in the wrong direction.

NAOMI slows to a stop. She looks down at her map, turns it then turns around herself. LUCAS is still standing there.

LUCAS: I can show you.

CUT TO:

INT. THE INSIDE OF THE CATHEDRAL.

The two stroll round the cathedral’s interior. Walking next to the tray of candles LUCAS drags his finger through a flame. He snatches his hand away and jogs a few steps to catch up with NAOMI.

LUCAS: Each of these ten chapels are dedicated to Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows.

NAOMI: They’re gorgeous.

LUCAS: Just wait until you see the one of Saint Rosalia. Whoever painted it really butchered that poor face.

Passing by, an old male tourist shushes them and frowns. LUCAS pulls a face once he moves on and prompts NAOMI to cover up a small laugh. LUCAS grins.

NAOMI: (Walking ahead a little) So what about you then?

LUCAS: What about me?

NAOMI: The continent? France? What brought you here?

LUCAS: (Looking at her) The women.

NAOMI laughs

LUCAS: My grandparents. They own a house, a little north of here. In Coaraze. (Pause) When I left university-

NAOMI: You’re a graduate?

LUCAS: Ah, no. I never finished. Left a week after my twentieth birthday. I’ve been here five months.

NAOMI: Oh you’re young.

LUCAS: Irresistibly young?

NAOMI: (Thinking) Haven’t-experienced-life young.

LUCAS: (Laughs) Oh and I suppose you have? What, you’re married? Got a doctorate? Maybe you’ve sailed round the whole world twice already? Experience doesn’t have one thing to do with age lady.

NAOMI holds his eye contact for a breath. She flashes a smile as she fans her face with her paper map.

NAOMI: Lady? Okay, now I feel old.

LUCAS laughs. The tension breaks. They head towards the exit.

They enter a comfortable quiet as they make their way out the cathedral doors and into the sun, now lower in the sky. They walk, Lucas one step in front, down a narrow street. NAOMI rummages for her phone, looks at it for a moment, then drops it in her bag. She returns her attention to LUCAS who is looking up at where the tops of the buildings meet the sky.

NAOMI: What do you do then?

LUCAS: Work, at the café. Look after the house. My grandparents aren’t around much out of season.

NAOMI: That must be lonely.

LUCAS: Sometimes I suppose. (PAUSE) I think maybe you’d know what that’s like.

NAOMI: Oh, you think so?

LUCAS: Just that you, you seem…

NAOMI: (TESTING) What is it you think you see when you look at me?

LUCAS smiles fondly.

NAOMI: You don’t know me.

LUCAS: I know you interest me. But yes that is true. I don’t know you, nor you me. We have all evening to change that.

CUT TO:

EXT. PROMMENADE DES ARTS – EVENING

The two walk through the Gardens. They stop by a wall that looks over the rooftops of the Old Town and the ocean beyond it. LUCAS begins dancing an exaggerated waltz. NAOMI laughs and he leads her in with a hand on her waist. She lets her chest rest against his.

CUT TO:

EXT. AN EMPTY STREET - LATE EVENING.

The temperature has dropped a few degrees but the air is still thick. Lucas holds a finger up, signalling for Naomi to wait. He crosses the street and goes into a nearby shop. Minutes later he tears out, holding a bottle. He grabs Naomi by the hand as they race down the street and off into an alleyway.

NAOMI: (Out of breath) Oh my god. Oh my god. What did you do?

LUCAS: (holding up the bottle) Cognac?

NAOMI: Did we just shoplift?

LUCAS: Would it make you feel alive if I said yes? (searching her eyes before whispering) I paid. I even him let him keep the change.

NAOMI: (beat) You are a mean, mean person.

She hits him on the arm. He pretends to be hurt, flinching and laughing. He starts running again.

NAOMI: Come back!

LUCAS: Let’s go to the ocean!

CUT TO:

EXT. THE BEACH PROMMENADE

Walking along the seafront LUCAS takes small sips of the cognac, looking out at the water. NAOMI smokes and looks at Lucas. She taps his wrist and motions for him to hand her the bottle. They walk a little further.

NAOMI: I left too.

LUCAS looks at her. He looks at a strand of her hair that has crossed her parting. He fixes it then fixes his eyes on hers.

NAOMI: When I came out here, it was to leave something behind.

LUCAS: You escaped.

NAOMI: I escaped.

LUCAS: That’s very brave.

NAOMI: I think it might be the opposite of brave. (Pause) I left my job last spring. After a while in that house I realised I couldn’t stay where I was. I wasn’t ready to go back to England. (pause) I was unhappy. Thought I’d try somewhere hot.

LUCAS: I’m sorry.

NAOMI: I don’t want you to be sorry.

LUCAS: Still, I am.

They look into each other.

LUCAS: You make me nervous.

NAOMI: Funny, you make me calm.

They have stopped walking.

NAOMI: I’m staying near the Port.

CUT TO:

INT. AN APARTMENT BUILDING

NAOMI unlocks the door and makes her way inside. LUCAS is for the first time hesitant in entering her space. Placing her belongings down NAOMI makes her way into the kitchen. Turning from the cabinet with two glasses she finds LUCAS leant against the wall on the other side of the room. The two stare at each other for several moments. LUCAS begins slowly walking towards her. He has one hand on her hip before NAOMI’s phone starts ringing. She goes to her bag, pulls out her phone and rejects the call.

LUCAS: (following the break in tension, crosses to the sofa) Someone important?

NAOMI: (with her back to him)No. I’m not sure anymore.

Lucas: Okay. Come over here then. I can’t think with you over there.

NAOMI walks over to the sofa and sits. Their arms line up on the back cushion. LUCAS stares at where their fingers nearly touch.

LUCAS: Though I’m not sure this is any better.

NAOMI smiles.

CUT TO:

The bottle of cognac is half empty. A bottle of red wine is more than half empty. NAOMI and LUCAS sit closer than before.

NAOMI: What other languages do you know?

LUCAS: (Slowly considering the bumps of her knuckles under his fingers)

Te amo sin saber como… ni cuándo… ni de donde.

NAOMI: Neruda.

LUCAS: Sonnet seventeen. Do you know its translation? You understood what I said?

NAOMI: (Turns head away to sip from her glass) I know Neruda. I don’t know Spanish.

LUCAS: You know what I said.

NAOMI: Stop it.

Lucas: Why?

Naomi: You know why. Because you don’t mean what you say, you’re being ridiculous.

LUCAS: Maybe it’s you who’s being ridiculous.

NAOMI: Don’t act like a child.

Before LUCAS can answer NAOMI’s phone rings again. This time, she walks over to it sat on the table.  She watches the display as it rings out. She places it down. LUCAS stands and approaches her.

LUCAS: Why not?

NAOMI: What?

LUCAS: Why couldn’t I love you?

NAOMI: Stop it Lucas, let’s just move on from this.

LUCAS takes a gulp of wine, places the glass down and moves towards her.

LUCAS: Maybe you’re right, I don’t love you. There is nothing here at all. (Places her hand to his chest) I feel nothing when your hand on my chest feels like my hand also.

NAOMI: You’re quoting him again.

LUCAS: So what if I am.

NAOMI: So be original.

LUCAS kisses her

INT. BEDROOM OF NAOMI’S APARTMENT - MORNING

NAOMI wakes. She watches light cut through the blinds and onto LUCAS’s cheek. An empty expression passes over her features. She closes her eyes. Hearing a ringing from the other room she realises what woke her. She quietly moves out of bed and into the other room before picking up the phone.

NAOMI: Julian. (muffled male voice is heard) Yes I know I’m sorry. I’m- I don’t know- calm down. (takes a breath) I don’t know when I’ll be back. I told you when I left I wouldn’t. (listens) There are a lot more things I need to sort through here. (voice is louder) No, I don’t know how long. Please, can you just give me some time. (she responds with affirmatives as the voice gets slowly calmer) Jules I’ve got to go now (listens) Yes I promise (pause) you too.

NAOMI lets the phone bounce onto a sofa cushion and veer towards the crack. She drags her fingers through her hair. As she walks back towards the bedroom she snags a cardigan off a nearby chair and puts it on. Pushing the bedroom door open wider she sees LUCAS sat up, swathed in bed sheets. His eyes are glassy and vacant with understanding. She stands leaning at the doorway wrapping the cardigan around herself. They stare at each other for a long moment before he casts his eyes downwards. They see too much pity in each other’s gaze, a guarded apology in her step towards him. She cards a hand through his hair and he closes his eyes. She moves away and Lucas grabs a hold of her hand as it drops. Removing herself NAOMI takes a pack of cigarettes from the dresser, walks through to the balcony and shuts the door behind her.

CRITICAL

My script is a response, in part, to the writing practices and theories of Ernest Hemingway and Gabriel Josipovici that we have studied throughout this module. Through the use of concise dialogue and action, in the absence of detail and description, I intend to reveal more realistically the emotions and intentions of my characters.

Josipovici criticised excessive descriptions in writing, asserting that they get ‘in between us and anything meaningful.’[1] The belief is that these detailed descriptions push a reader away and into an awareness that they are being sold a story. He referred to the ‘dead words’ functioning only to ‘make visible to our imagination what the eye instantly catches.’ His argument is narrow but applicable to my writing inspiration and style. Translated to screenplay, I was working with a medium that already relies heavily on accompanying visuals so, to reflect the practice, my intention was to strip back the lengthy descriptions even further. Using minimal adjectives and adverbs, I committed to having every description of scenery, character or action have a purpose and assist the progression of my story; to avoid ‘dead words.’ This minimalism that Josipovici describes is the very thing that drew me to Hemingway’s work. Characterized by extreme sparseness and simplicity, his bare style has the effect of sharpening the focus of the writing. Initial reading of Hemingway’s work, it appears that not a lot transpires in regards to plot whilst in reality the sparse action makes room for you to see character dynamics and encourages you to draw on emotional insight to realise a lot is being said. I wanted to emulate a story that presents as an unassuming peak into two lives crossing paths but actually exposes the important subtleties of human behaviour.

Primarily my piece is focused on this growing relationship between my two characters, not the scenery which surrounds them, that may detract from their interactions. When writing direction or scene descriptors, I wanted only to detail things which would offer explanations or highlight important motifs. Hemingway’s Hills like White elephants, uses the setting of a train station to represent a junction in the journeys of its two characters and a tension is created with the train’s impending arrival. While scenery offers a lot of symbolism in Hemingway’s short story, I wanted my play to express atmosphere but not one specific location. I chose to pick out small details that would help connect and aid parts of the story. For example, the repeated appearance of the phone, gives it significance and prompts questions that are then revealed in the final scene when Naomi finally picks up. The phone is an interruption and a tether that stops her from being completely removed from the life she wants to escape. An earlier direction sees Naomi watching the children laughing as the boy chases a ‘screeching girl’. This at first seems a distraction from the plot line but offers a metaphor for the chase that is going to commence between Naomi and Lucas directly afterwards.

A further example of symbolism exists as part of the heat theme and imagery that reoccurs throughout the play. The description of Lucas touching a flame, burning himself then running to catch Naomi illustrates a parallel to the wider plot. I wanted to include small things to warn ahead the desire and pain that was going to follow for these characters. Heat and passion remain in the background of the play. I was inspired by my favourite Hemingway novel The sun also rises: Fiesta, in which tensions rise with temperature. I set my place in the South of France, placing two British characters in a foreign country. The idea of the ocean and sun as an escape is a trope linked to travelling and a desire for freedom. This desire manifests itself between Lucas and Naomi as they indulge in haste temptations. The quick progression from meeting to affair was something I struggled to pace but I used to my advantage the setting as an environment for reckless behavior. I wanted to illustrate, as Hemingway seems to acknowledge in his work, that something happens to your mind and behavior when you’re in motion or in foreign countries away from your comfortable. I found the freedom of a screenplay allows for sudden shifts in location and time. This fragmented style allowed me to contain the timeline of one day into a ten-page script. I did not want to be dependent on one location to reflect the lives of the characters. Instead the unfixed space they possess highlights the removal from normal and shift towards reckless abandon. The montage of moving from place to place was inspired by similar sequences in films as well as the moving narrative and setting in Hemingway’s Fiesta. It demonstrates a freedom and hopefully evokes a dreamlike effect. The jumps and unfinished conversations have the effect of breaking up the lineage of their story to indicate a frantic pace.

By committing to a fragmented structure I feel that it allows to keep somethings from being revealed. This is a step towards the realistic as human behavior is characterized by secrecy and unspoken words. My play’s style is stilted and enigmatic. I wanted to maintain a level of mystery, where the characters themselves are also left figuring things out. There is so much unknown and unexpressed in the use of bare dialogue and jumps in time. I want a reader to feel immersed in the scene without knowing everything that is going on or having it made explicit for them. I did not want to alienate audiences with dialogue that is too heavy. In Hills like White Elephants, the two characters’ exchange little more than a sentence at a time during their continuous back-and-forth dialogue. This is the type of economic dialogue I am comfortable with and believe to be most effective in racking up tensions and holding the reader’s attention. The starting point for my scripts is always dialogue and I find that my character’s start talking before I know what the play is about.

Hemingway’s work heavily fits into a genre of post war literature, wherein he demonstrates a reluctance to inflate or over reveal.  Maintaining parts of the character and story that cannot be accessed offers the realist depiction of human existence. The disparity between thought and speech is also something I have taken from the tone and realism in Hemingway’s work. Providing only glimpses into the lives and thoughts of your characters maintains a truth to your work. William Faulkner used blunt descriptors much like Hemmingway, wherein the omission of crucial details, such as the repeated ‘hitting’ in Faulkner’s Sound and Fury referring to baseball, leave the reader somewhat in the dark for moments throughout the text.

Cyclical repetition and dialogue is something used by Hemingway in Hills like White Elephants, for example ‘you’ve got to realize’, ‘I realize’, ‘you’ve got to realize.’ It creates friction and atmosphere of intensity. The dialogue between my characters include many repeated lines either by one or between them both. For example, ‘I like it here’ and ‘right, you like it here.’ This aids the stilted awkwardness and tension of their first. It also, hopefully, demonstrates a shared sense of humour and a dialogue that is very responsive to one another as though they remain stuck in conversation to preserve every moment of heat or apprehension. Reoccurring phrases, along with economic dialogue, highlight how little is said whilst adding weight to the words that are.

As someone who greatly enjoyed Hemingway’s writing style, I was initially determined to use this opportunity to his emulate prose. What I found was a weak spot in my creative process as I found the prospect intimidating and slow. It became apparent that my strength lay with script and once I accepted this revelation the process became more natural and dynamic. I fortunately found that his bare prose almost begins to take on the shape of a script as it follows characters and heightens the significance of every interaction and word of dialogue over description. His stripped back narration provides a cinematic vision. The translation, characterised by inspiration more than imitation, came from maintaining the bare style and economic dialogue.

Writing in script removes any one character’s perspective or narration but equally does not provide a third person omniscient narrator to assist the reader. Instead the reader or audience must provide their own narration. I took inspiration from Josipovici whose narrative and dialogue is void of judgement. I wanted to remove myself as narrator because I think it lets my characters come to life and build their own dimension. Audience is left room to create worlds for themselves, before being then represented on screen or stage. Mostly importantly the focus remains on the dynamics between characters which is not tainted by over exposure.

I want the play to invoke a feeling lowered inhibitions and a window of time shrouded in desire and escapism. It should create atmosphere, setting and intention without explicit descriptions of emotions expressed. They should be read in the silences, the proxemics and the dialogue.

[mia-llewellyn]

Character study for JOINT

1: It’s stuff like this I don’t give much thought. Sometimes I really don’t like something. The colours in a jumper or that pair of shoes. When it just doesn’t look right and I won’t wear it. Maybe if mum didn’t buy all my clothes.

2: I don’t like buying clothes for myself anymore. I don’t care now. Who am I doing it for?There’s no one to model for. To laugh at when they make me spin and run their hands down my sides. I hate the thought of buying something, owning something he hasn’t seen. So I don’t shop.

1: I grab a jacket off the back of my chair. Think it might be raining outside. Shrug it over my pyjamas. Shove my feet into some trainers. No socks. Don’t even bother getting my heel in all the way. I already know I’m not leaving the house today. No need to shower.

2: I still take pride in choosing an outfit though. It’s the one thing I get to still feel good about myself. Feel like myself.

1: All the clothes I own are covering my floor. I wouldn’t know which were dirty and which were clean. Mum asked for my washing three days ago. She’s always nagging me. What does she care what room my is in? What I wear everyday?

2: Everyday