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    Frenchtown: A Drama about Shanghai, P.R.C.
    Frenchtown: A Drama about Shanghai, P.R.C.
    Frenchtown: A Drama about Shanghai, P.R.C.
    Ebook177 pages1 hour

    Frenchtown: A Drama about Shanghai, P.R.C.

    By Lawrence Jeffery

    ()

    Read preview
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherIndependent Publishers Group
    Release dateSep 4, 2018
    ISBN9781550963328
    Frenchtown: A Drama about Shanghai, P.R.C.

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      Book preview

      Frenchtown - Lawrence Jeffery

      Formatting note:
      In the electronic versions of this book
      blank pages that appear in the paperback
      have been removed.

      FRENCHTOWN

      A DRAMA ABOUT SHANGHAI, P.R.C.

      Lawrence Jeffery

      Publishers of Fiction, Poetry, Non-fiction, Drama, Translations and Graphic Books

      Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

      Jeffery, Lawrence, 1953–

      Frenchtown : a drama about Shanghai, P.R.C. / Lawrence Jeffery.

      ISBN 978-1-55096-302-1

      I. Title.

      PS8569.E44F74 2012 C812'.54 C2012-906212-X

      eBooks

      978-1-55096-332-8 (epub)

      978-1-55096-333-5 (mobi)

      978-1-55096-331-1 (PDF)

      Copyright © Lawrence Jeffery, 2012

      Cover Painting (The Legend of Warloads – detail) by Lui Liu

      Published by Exile Editions Ltd ~ www.ExileEditions.com

      144483 Southgate Road 14 – GD, Holstein, Ontario, N0G 2A0

      PDF, ePUB and MOBI versions by Melissa Campos Mendivil

      Publication Copyright © Exile Editions, 2012. All rights reserved

      We gratefully acknowledge, for their support toward our publishing activities, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Ontario Media Development Corporation.

      Exile Editions eBooks are for personal use of the original buyer only. You may not modify, transmit, publish, participate in the transfer or sale of, reproduce, create derivative works from, distribute, perform, display, or in any way exploit, any of the content of this eBook, in whole or in part, without the expressed written consent of the publisher; to do so is an infringement of the copyright and other intellectual property laws. Any inquiries regarding publication rights, translation rights, or film rights – or if you consider this version to be a pirated copy – please contact us via e-mail at: info@exileeditions.com

      The author can be contacted at: lawrencejeffery@hotmail.com.

      for
      Anson Chan Fang On-sang
      with gratitude
      and abiding affection

      CONTENTS

      ACT I

      ACT II

      ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

      FRENCHTOWN

      SHANGHAI, P.R.C. – 1995

      CHARACTERS

      KATE: Born in the USA. Caucasian. In her 70s.

      DJ: Born in Canada. Caucasian. In his early 40s.

      CAT: Born in the P.R.C. Chinese. In her late 20s.

      HONGYONG: (Grand & Courageous) CAT’s son. He is 10.

      SAM*: Born in the P.R.C. Chinese. In his early 30s.

      JAMES: Born in Canada. Caucasian. In his late 70s.

      RONGJI*: (Solid Foundation) Born in the P.R.C. Chinese. He is 45.

      *RONGJI and SAM can be played by the same actor.

      ACT I SCENE I

      The sitting room of a flat on the second floor of a three-storey apartment building in Shanghai’s former French Concession. The building was built in the 1920s. The ceilings are high. The walls are grey. The room is dark. The room is cluttered with dusty Chinese antiquities—rolled-up carpets, cabinets, screens, tables and lamps. Some objects are rare and precious, others are oddly common, tattered and cheap. Nothing is done to draw attention to the objects. All are displayed as if possessing equal rarity or beauty. It is difficult to understand the logic behind the collection. Is this a sophisticated collector or a compulsive collector who happens— from time to time—to stumble upon a real treasure?

      Nothing in the flat works properly. Lamps must be turned on or off by screwing or unscrewing the light bulb. Some telephones work better than others—all are battered and old. And their plugs are in constant danger of disconnection. The heating comes on or turns off according to its own logic.

      KATE is in her mid 70s, tall and strong. She was born in the USA. She speaks with a hybrid accent—modified by the foreign languages she speaks and the decades she has spent living outside the United States. To her left is a dog basket covered in a blanket. RUBY, her ancient Shih Tzu sleeps under the blanket. The only source of heat is an electrical unit high up on the wall to her left. When the heat comes on it blows warm air across the top of the room. Red ribbons are attached to the unit. They float out and flutter on the warm air. There is a large oval oeil-de-boeuf window behind KATE’s right shoulder. Through the window we see a patch of sky, the edge of a roof and the white wall of the building across the alley. Oddly, it seems as if the sky, the roof and the building wall seen through the window are in colour while the interior of the flat is in black and white.

      KATE sits on a large sofa centre stage facing the audience. She is wrapped in a blanket against the cold. A lamp arches over her shoulder illuminating a book she reads. She wears glasses and holds a magnifying glass. She wears gloves with the tips of the fingers cut off. Books litter the sofa and spil onto the floor.

      (A buzzer sounds once—harsh and aggressive)

      SILENCE

      (The buzzer sounds again)

      SILENCE

      (The buzzer sounds. The note is held for five seconds. KATE looks up from her book, she reaches over and picks up the telephone)

      KATE:

      Wei? Ni-hao. Hello? (She hangs up the telephone. The buzzer sounds twice—two short bursts of noise. KATE rises from the sofa—throwing off the blanket as she goes. She goes to the oeil-de-boeuf window, unlatches it, swings it out and open, leans out and shouts) Hey! Up here! (She takes some keys from the windowsill and throws them into the alley) Catch… It’s the red one… Got it?

      SHORT PAUSE. (KATE shuts the window and returns to her place on the

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