Big Love - Lydia Lines

GIULIANO Hello

Hello

GIULIANO I'm Giuliano.

Hello, Giuliano.

GIULIANO And you are....

Lydia

GIULIANO Lydia. I don't think we've met.

No

GIULIANO You've just—arrived.

Yes

GIULIANO That's your boat offshore?

Yes

GIULIANO A big boat.

Well...it belongs to my family.

GIULIANO You've come for the weekend?

Yes, oh, yes, at least.

GIULIANO You're friends of my sister.

Your sister?

GIULIANO My uncle?

Your uncle?

GIULIANO I don't mean to be rude, but... [with a smile] who was it invited you?

Invited us?

GIULIANO You didn't come to the party? You mean: you're not a guest.

Oh, you mean, this is your home. I'm in your home.

GIULIANO Yes. Well, it's my uncle's house.

It's so big. I thought it was a hotel

GIULIANO We have a big family.

I'm sorry I just..

GIULIANO It's OK. Where do you come from?

Greece

GIULIANO Greece. You mean just now?

Yes. My sisters and I. We were to be married to our cousins, and well, we didn't want to, but we had to, so when the wedding day came we just got on our boat and left so here we are.

GIULIANO Just like that.

Yes

GIULIANO Just walked away from the altar and sailed away from Greece.

Yes. Where are we?

GIULIANO Italy. This is Italy.

Oh. Italy. I love Italy.

GIULIANO It's...well...yes. So do I. And your sisters are still on the boat?

Yes, most of them. We came.... [looking around] at least, some of us came ashore. There are fifty of us all together.

GIULIANO Fifteen?

Fifty. Fifty sisters.

GIULIANO [laughing awkwardly] I... I don't think even I know anyone who has fifty sisters. And you were all to get married to your cousins?

Yes

GIULIANO To your cousins?

Yes. We're looking for asylum. We want to be taken in here so we don't have to marry our cousins.

GIULIANO You want to be taken in as immigrants?

As refugees.

GIULIANO Refugees.

Yes

GIULIANO From...

From Greece.

GIULIANO I mean, from, you know: political oppression, or war....

Or kidnapping. Or rape

GIULIANO From rape.

By our cousins.

GIULIANO Well, marriage really.

Not if we can help it

GIULIANO I see.

You seem like a good person, Giuliano. We need your help.

GIULIANO I think you should talk to my uncle. Piero, he has...connections. Just stay right here. If you'll wait here, I'll bring him out.

Thank you.

BELLA So. This is your wedding day?

No.

BELLA You are trying on your dresses because your wedding day is coming soon.

No

BELLA So, it's none of my business. And yet, I can tell you marriage is a wonderful thing. Imagine that: No husbands. At your age. 12 And children. When I was your age already I had three sons. Now, I have thirteen sons.

Thirteen sons.

BELLA My oldest, that's Piero, he stays home here with his mother. He's a good boy. [she puts one polished tomato carefully, lovingly to one side, as though it were her own baby] But too old for you.

We were hoping to meet Piero. We wanted to....

BELLA [ignoring Lydia, continuing] My second son, Paolo, he lives just next door a doctor he takes good care of people here in town [another polished tomato placed lovingly to one side] Married. Five children. A good boy. Paolo, he is Giuliano's father. You met Giuliano?

Yes, and he said we might be able to meet....

BELLA [ignoring Lydia, continuing] My third son, he's in business here in the town, visits me every week every Sunday without fail a good boy. Also married, four children. [another polished tomato tenderly to one side]

Excuse me, but....

BELLA My fourth son he was a sweet child cherubic such little cheeks such a tender boy a sunny disposition

Oh

BELLA he joined the church [she looks at the splatted tomato for a moment, then resumes] My fifth son he also went into business here in town [she starts to put the polished tomato carefully to one side] 14 but then he got involved with certain business associates. . . [she moves her hand out over open space, pauses a moment, then drops the tomato with a splat to the ground] My sixth son he's married to a German girl.[splat] My seventh son he went to America [splat] took his younger brother [splat] and then, two years later, they sent for their brother Guido, and he went to America, too. [splat] My tenth son, he became a politician. [she holds the tomato out over the ground for several moments, in deep anguish, then shrugs, and splats it]

Excuse me, but....

BELLA My eleventh son he is on television 15 on a soap opera with the stories of love affairs and godknows whatnot [she starts to drop another tomato to the ground, thinks better of it, puts it on the table] he's not killing people

No

BELLA [she saves the tomato] he loves his children [she saves it]

That's a good thing

BELLA My youngest son he likes to ride the motorcycles he likes to be in Rome with the young movie actresses and the parties [she starts to splat another tomato, then takes it back and puts it gently on the table] he's my baby

I see.

BELLA So, what do I have left? Now you see why I love my Piero so much, and want to protect him, my first born, who is too old for you. [silence] You're staying for dinner?

We haven't been invited.

PIERO May I offer you something?

No, thank you

PIERO Coffee? Tea?

No thanks.

PIERO Something to eat?

No, thank you.

OLYMPIA Soaps, you know, and creams, things like,

Olympia....

OLYMPIA You know, we've been travelling, and when you've been travelling you hope at the end of the journey that you might find some, like, Oil of Olay Moisturizing Body Wash or like John Freda Sheer Blond Shampoo and Conditioner for Highlighted Blonds

Olympia....

OLYMPIA I know this is not a hotel, so you wouldn't have everything, but maybe some Estee Lauder 24 Karat Color Golden Body Creme with Sunbloc, or Fetish Go Glitter Body Art in Soiree,

Olympia....

OLYMPIA or some Prescriptives Uplift Eye Cream, not in the tube: firming, Mac lip gloss in Pink Poodle just some things to make a woman feel you know fresh

Olympia....

OLYMPIA Thank you.

Really we were mostly hoping to ask you to just: take us in.

PIERO Take you in?

Your nephew Giuliano says you have some connections.

PIERO Oh?

And that you can help us.

PIERO Well, of course, this is a country where people know one another and, Giuliano is right, sometimes these connections can be useful. If, for example, you were a member of my family, certainly I would just take you in. But [he shrugs] I don't know you.

LYDIA [thinking quickly] Oh. But. We are related. I mean, you know: in some way. Our people came from Greece to Sicily a long time ago and to Siracusa and from Siracusa to Taormina and to the Golfo di Saint'Eufemia and from there up the coast of Italy to where we are now. So we are probably members of the same family you and I.

PIERO Indeed. It's very enticing to recover a family connection to Zeus. And, where is your father, meanwhile? Is he not able to take care of you?

Our father signed a wedding contract to give us away.

PIERO And the courts in your country: they would enforce such a contract?

It's an old contract. It seems they will. We have nothing against men—

OLYMPIA Not all of us.

but what these men have in mind is not usual.

PIERO OK. Well, then, what if I were to say, yes, I can do my part, in fact, I'm not a bad person entirely, some people think of me even as a generous person, and I can help, but why should I help you? Shouldn't I rather look around at the world and say: no, not these people perhaps but someone else has the greater claim on my attention.

But we are here.

PIERO Yes?

We are here on your terrace. Why do you look for someone else? Look for someone else, too, if you want, but we are here.

PIERO And yet I know nothing about this dispute. I don't know whether these fellows have some rights, too. What shall I do if they come to me and say you've abducted our women give us our women or we'll shoot you?

Shoot you?

PIERO What do I know? I don't know what sort of fellows they are. I should put myself, perhaps my life on the line— knowing nothing— and also the life of my nephew my brother next door my brother's sons. I put their lives on the line for what? to save you whom I've never met before I don't know what this is about why would I do this?

Because it's right.

THYONA What choice do we have? [silence]

Shall we ask your mother what she thinks would be right?

PIERO You're right. Of course. You're right. I beg your pardon. Of course I'll take you in. I don't know what I was thinking.

Thank you.

OLYMPIA I've known men who have a good side, Thyona.

I've known men you could sit with after dinner in front of the fireplace and just listen to the way he speaks and hear the gentleness in his way of speaking and the carefulness

THYONA I know a man who will say I want to take care of you because he means he wants to use you for a while and while he's using you so you don't notice what he's doing he'll take care of you as if you were a new car before he decides to trade you in.

I've known men like that, too. But not all men are necessarily the same. Sometimes you can hear the whole man just in his voice how deep it is or how frightened where it stops to think and how complex and supple and sure it is

THYONA The male the male is a biological accident an incomplete female the product of a damaged gene a half-dead lump of flesh trapped in a twilight zone somewhere between apes and humans always looking obsessively for some woman

That's maybe a little bit extreme.

THYONA any woman because he thinks if he can make some connection with a woman that will make him a whole human being! But it won't. It never will. Boy babies should be flushed down the toilet at birth.

I know how you feel, Thyona.

OLYMPIA I've felt that way myself sometimes.

Still, this man who doesn't even know us who owes us nothing doesn't know what he risks by offering us a place to stay. There are places in the world where refugees are taken in out of generosity 29 and often these are men who do the taking in because people have the capacity for goodness and there could be a world where people care for one another—-where men are good to women and there is not a men's history and a separate women's history but a human history where we are all together and support one another nurture one another—-honor one another's differences and learn to live together in common justice reconciling our differences in peaceful conversation reaching out with goodwill towards one another—-not trying to obliterate those who are not as we are but learning to understand learning to take deep pleasure in the enormous variety of creatures—Oh, Nikos, you found us.

NIKOS Lydia, why did you run away from us?

What?

NIKOS Lydia, isn't this your wedding dress?

Yes

THYONA He's giving in, don't you get it? These men and their deals.

Right. You could be right.

[and, finally, Lydia joins in, too, until all three women are yelling their words over the loud music and throwing themselves to the ground over and over]

Why can't a man be more like a woman?—-Plainspoken and forthright. Honest and clear. Able to process. To deal with his feelings. To speak from the heart to say what he means. Because if he can I don't have a grudge or something against him we couldn't work out. I think it's wrong to make sweeping judgments write off a whole sex the way men do to women we could talk to each other person to person get along with each other then we could go deep to what a man or a woman really can be deep down to the mysteries of being alive of knowing ourselves to know what it is to live life on earth

OLYMPIA Maybe we should think about it. Some people go on honeymoons, too.

Olympia

OLYMPIA They go to places where there are hammocks and white sand and people hold them by the waist and lift them up out of the water splashing and laughing and they dive underwater without the tops to their swimming suits and the sun sets and people drink things through straws

Olympia....

OLYMPIA and they listen to the waves and even make love in the afternoon and even like Giuliano says to be submissive because, to me, submission is giving up your body, and your mind and your emotions and everything to a someone who can accept all the responsibilities that go with that. And I myself enjoy the freedom that submission gives me. 43 I like to be tickled and tortured and I like to scream and scream and feel helpless and be totally controlled and see how good that makes someone else feel. It is for me the most natural high. It is so much better than taking drugs. You can just relax and enjoy yourself and feel alive and free inside.

I think we're losing the point. Like shouldn't we be leaving?

ELEANOR Not accepting gifts? Whoever heard of such a thing? Oh, Leo, these girls! I suppose they're nervous before the wedding!

We are not nervous. It's like Thyona says. We don't want wedding presents!

THYONA I don't have a problem with guys either. This is not about sunshine and olive oil. This is about guys hauling you off to their cave

[to Leo] Still. You remind me of my father. So kind and gentle. So full of enthusiasm.

NIKOS I'm sorry for the way Constantine seemed a little rude. Well, I shouldn't put it all on him. I'm sorry for the way that we've behaved

Thank you for saying so, Nikos.

NIKOS I thought, I've always liked you, Lydia seeing you with your sisters sometimes in the summers when our families would get together at the beach. I thought you were fun, and funny and really good at volleyball

Volleyball?

NIKOS which I thought showed you have a well, a natural grace and beauty and a lot of energy.

Oh

NIKOS And it's not that I thought I fell in love with you at the time or that I've been like a stalker or something in the background all these years.

No, I never....

NIKOS But really, over the years, I've thought back from time to time how good it felt just to be around you.

Oh

NIKOS And so I thought: well, maybe this is an okay way to have a marriage

A marriage.

NIKOS to start out not in a romantic way, but as a friendship

Oh

NIKOS because I admire you and I thought perhaps this might grow into something deeper and longer lasting

Oh

NIKOS but maybe this isn't quite the thing you want and really I don't want to force myself on you you should be free to choose I mean: obviously.

Thank you.

NIKOS Although I think I should say what began as friendship for me and a sort of distant, even inattentive regard has grown into a passion already

A passion.

NIKOS I don't know how or where it came from, or when but somehow the more I felt this admiration and, well, pleasure in you

Pleasure

NIKOS seeing you become the person that you are I think a thoughtful person and smart and it seems to me funny and warm

Funny

NIKOS and passionate, I mean about the things I heard you talk about in school a movie or playing the piano I saw you one night at a cafe by the harbor drinking almond nectar and I saw that happiness made you raucous. And I myself don't want to have a relationship that's cool or distant I want a love really that's all-consuming that consumes my whole life

Your whole life.

NIKOS and the longer the sense of you has lived with me the more it has grown into a longing for you so I wish you'd consider maybe not marriage because it's true you hardly know me but a kind of courtship

A courtship.

NIKOS or, maybe you'd just I don't know go sailing with me or see a movie

Gee, Nikos, you seem to talk a lot.

NIKOS I talk too much. I'm sorry.

Sometimes it seems to me men get all caught up in what they're doing and they forget to take a moment and look around and see what effect they're having on other people.

NIKOS That's true.

They get on a roll.

NIKOS I do that sometimes. I wish I didn't. But I get started on a sentence, and that leads to another sentence, and then, the first thing I know, I'm just trying to work it through, the logic of it, follow it through to the end because I think, if I stop, or if I don't get through to the end before someone interrupts me they won't understand what I'm saying and what I'm saying isn't necessarily wrong— it might be, but not necessarily, 57 and if it is, I'll be glad to be corrected, or change my mind— but if I get stopped along the way I get confused I don't remember where I was or how to get back to the end of what I was saying.

I understand.

NIKOS And I think sometimes I scare people because of it they think I'm so, like determined just barging ahead— not really a sensitive person, whereas, in truth, I am.

I know. Do you know about dreams?

NIKOS Well, I have dreams.

But do you know what they mean?

NIKOS I don't know. Maybe.

I had this dream I was going to a wedding of these old friends of mine and part of the wedding—uh, sort of event— was an enormous pond that they had built, 58 and I was late getting to the wedding so I got someone to airlift me in, and I dove into the pond but, when I landed in the water, the walls of the pond collapsed and it drained out and 1500 fish died, and everyone was looking for survivors but I had to leave to take Yeltsin to the Museum of Modern Art, because I had to get to the gym. So, when I took him in to one of the exhibits and turned around to hug him goodbye, he turned to my mother and said, "Wow, look at that Julian Schnabel bridge.&" There was an enormous sterling silver bridge designed by Julian Schnabel. So I walked my mother into the water to say goodbye to her, and this immense 25-story high tidal wave crashed over me and threw me up over the Julian Schnabel bridge and then I was completely alone in the middle of the ocean until I realized: I had the cell phone tucked into my undies. So I phoned Olympia to come and get me, and she said, oh, perfect, I'll send Chopin— which is the name of her dog— I'll send Chopin over in the car, and then would you take him for a walk and leave the car on 8th avenue? What do you think of that?

NIKOS Well, I think things happen so suddenly sometimes.

Sometimes people don't want to fall in love. Because when you love someone it's too late to set conditions. 59 You can't say I'll love you if you do this or I'll love you if you change that because you can't help yourself and then you have to live with whoever it is you fall in love with however they are and just put up with the difficulties you've made for yourself because true love has no conditions. That's why it's so awful to fall in love.

Lydia and Nikos dance—a long, long, sweet dance. And then, when they stop at last:]

What would you like to do with me?