Big Love Lydia Lines - edited script

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 maried 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…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 refuguees.

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, Giuiliano. 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.

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

[she puts another tomato to one side, but too close to the edge so that it

"accidentally&" rolls off the table to the ground, where it splats;]

Oh

BELLA[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…

BELLAMy Eleventh Son

My eleventh son he is on television

He’s 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.

THEODORA

Soaps, you know, and creams, things like,

Theodora

THEODORA

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

Theodora…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.

Oh. But we are related. I mean, you know: in some way.

THYONA

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 the memebrs 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 seams they will. We have nothing against men

OLYMPIA

Not all of us.

But what these men have in mind is not usual.

PIERO

Yes?

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

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 waht she thinks would be right?

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 fire place and just listen to the way he speaks and hear the gentleness in his way of speaking and the carefulness.

ATHEA

I've known men like that, too.

But not all men are necessarily the same.

Sometimes you can hear the whole man in just his voice how deep it is or how frightened where it stops to think and how complex and supple and sure it is

MEDEA

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

MEDEA

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, Medea

ATHEA

I've felt that way myself sometimes.

Still, this man who doesn’t even know us. Who owe us nothing. Doesn’t know what he risks by offering us a place to stay.

ATHENA

There are places in the world where refugees are taken in out of generosity

and often these are the 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 seperates woman’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 good will towards one another, not trying to obliterate those who are not as we are, but learnign 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

MEDEA

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

RIght. You could be right.

THEODORA

and write me notes and give me flowers because I like men

I like men

And, I like to be submissive.

[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?

Why can’t a man be more like a woman?

Able to process. To deal with his emotions. To speak from the heart.

Why can’t a man be more like a woman?

To say what he means. Because if he can, I don’t have a grudge or something against him, we couldn’t work out.

Why can’t a man be more like a woman?

I think it’s wrong to make sweeping judgements 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 into 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…

ELEANOR

Not accepting gifts?

Whoever heard of such a thing? Oh, Leo, these girls!

I suppose they're nervous before the wedding!

We’re not nervous. It’s like Thoyna 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.

Still, you remind me of my father. So kind and gentle. So full of ethusiasim.

THYONA

I'll tell you something, Theodora.

You're the kind of person

who ends up in the bottom of a ravine somewhere with your underpants over your head.

I'm trying to save your neck and you don't even get it!

What did she say wrong?

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 Nickos, 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 are 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,

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 friends of mine and part of the wedding uh, sort of event was an enormous pond that they had built, 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 into the water, the walls of the pond collapsed and it drained out and 1500 fish died, and everyone was looking for survivors. Then, I walked my mother into the water to say goodbye to her, and this imense 25 foot story high tidal wave crashed over me and then I was completly 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. You can’t say I’ll love you if you do that or I’ll love you if you change that because you can’t help your self and then you have to live with whoever it is you fall in love with however their are snd 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.

[The heartbreaking music of the Largo from Bach's "Air on the Gstring&"

and after a moment,

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

What would you like to do to me?

NIKOS

I'd like to kiss you.

Kiss you? But I don’t even know you.