Artistic Discoveries in European Schoolyards

Michaela Zakutànská (Slovakia) /
Kristiina Jalasto (Estonia)


Salto Mortale (Kombat) : One Plot - Two Plays

Text Extract

1. Salto Mortale by Kristina Jalasto (EE)
2. Salto Mortale (Kombat) by Michaela Zakutànská (SK)

1.
Some large and smaller objects, which are covered in dust having been in storage the whole winter. Strange, colourful items some with details familiar from childhood memories. Detergents, sponges, a water hose. Valter and Oskar, who should be busy gathering together the above mentioned items,but are instead laughing.
VALTER: Hey, who am I? „You are gypsssy rubishhh with a monkey face. How dare you use wordssss like this in front of the elderly? When I wassss your age, children only ssspoke when they were sssupposssed to. You can’t imagine, how I have dreamt of the day when you are gone from here and thissss classss can finally sssstudy normally once again!“
OSKAR: I am sure when Mrs. Hessler was our age, she was still peeing in her pants!
VALTER: „Sssilence please and let’ssss begin with the word game!“ Word game in the eighth class! It’s just incredible how advanced our educational system is these days!
OSKAR: But that’s how the young want to learn these days – through games! Hessler-Pissler! Go on, Hessler-Pissler!
VALTER: Is it R?
OSKAR: Hessler-Pissler!
VALTER: Erm… rotten!
OSKAR: Naughty pants!
VALTER: Sh… Shitface!
OSKAR: Eskimoses!
VALTER: Solarposes!
OSKAR:Toothache!
VALTER: Headset-eater!
OSKAR: Rat-arsed!
VALTER: Demon… Demonishious!
OSKAR: Scavenge snout!
VALTER: What’s that?
OSKAR: I don’t know, you figure it out. What could it be?
VALTER:Is it a snout that scavenges?
OSKAR: How should I know?
Pause.
VALTER: Isn’t it just great that we won’t be seeing that Mrs. Hessler, like never and ever and never again?
OSKAR: Sure never again.
VALTER: Ok, at least for an eternity.
OSKAR: An eternity that lasts six months.
VALTER: That is an eternity. But it would be a worse eternity of the six months we had with Mrs. Hessler.
OSKAR: Then go back to Mrs. Hessler.
VALTER: Go yourself! Well, why don’t you?
OSKAR: I can’t.
VALTER: I can’t either.
OSKAR: I know.
VALTER: Don’t be such an idiot, then.
OSKAR: I’m not.
VALTER: Scavenge snout!
OSKAR: You’re a scavenge snout!
Pause. The boys remember their assignment.
VALTER: Maybe I won’t go back at all.
OSKAR: To where?
VALTER: To Hessler.
OSKAR: How so?
VALTER: Just like that.
OSKAR: And where would you go?
VALTER: I don’t know that yet. Some place… new.
OSKAR: But we are going to new places all the time. Even if they’re already old ones. Always going to new old places. The whole summer long.
VALTER: Well, yes, but we aren’t actually going to those places. We go through them. We went there, looking at everything around there, just like from the small cage from which we mustn’t leave, and then we move on, to the next place. But that’s also the place that we don’t actually go to.
OSKAR: You’re crazy.
VALTER: I’m fed up with this. Aren’t you?
OSKAR: I don’t have a choice. And neither do you, so we had better start scrubbing.
VALTER: But what if this scrubbing isn’t the thing for me, isn’t the thing I should be doing?
OSKAR: How is it not your thing? We were both supposed to do it, the two of us! Sharing the work Fifty-fifty!
VALTER: That’s true, but actually it isn’t really our thing. The thing we should be doing right now, no matter what. It isn’t the thing for us at all.
OSKAR: I would like to hear you telling that to your dad!
Water fight. After that a wet pause.
VALTER: What did your mom say about your mid-term report?
OSKAR: She said that hopefully I can catch up at the next school. She said that there’s still a whole month until the summer break and that I’ll make it somehow. Like always. What did yours say?
VALTER: Nothing. I guess my parents didn’t have time to open it at all. They were admiring Anna’s report so much that they almost lost their power of sight.
OSKAR: What did she get this time, for her excellent excellence?
VALTER: I don’t know. It was supposed to be a surprise.
OSKAR: What surprise?
VALTER: How should I know? I’ve never got one of those things, so I still don’t know.
OSKAR: I haven’t either.
VALTER: That’s not the same.
OSKAR: How come it’s not the same? I’ve even got better grades than you!
VALTER: But that doesn’t count! You don’t have to compete with someone all the time, and constantly lose too them. It’s completely hopeless! Girls swot, they like to swot! Why should I suffer because of it?
OSKAR: You’re just not as cute as Anna.
VALTER: You think that Anna is cute?
OSKAR: No your parents do, stupid.
VALTER: What do you mean, stupid?
OSKAR: You don’t get the joke, do you?
VALTER: Great joke! Makes you puke!
OSKAR: Go on, puke then!
VALTER: I don’t feel like it.
Pause. They work on a bit.
VALTER: What do you think, what would you do if you were not stuck here.
OSKAR: I don’t know. Probably would be somewhere, bombing Hessler.
VALTER: That’s quite good!
OSKAR: She deserves it. Why is she always taking it out on us? I would rather be a gipsy than someone like her.
VALTER: You know what?
OSKAR: What?
VALTER: I would bomb them all.
OSKAR: Who then?
VALTER: Everybody, the whole school. Let them fly away. It’s their own fault.
OSKAR: That would be quite good. The revenge of the „gypsies“.
VALTER: Yes, the revenge of the most blond gypsies in the world.
OSKAR: It’s strange that they don’t do anything to Anna.
VALTER: It doesn’t matter, Anna would fly away from the same bomb.
OSKAR: Think so?
VALTER: Of course. She’s a little angel, isn’t she? And angels fly high up in the sky…
OSKAR: And we would be on their side with a helicopter…
VALTER: What?
OSKAR: Well, when they’re flying away because of the bomb, Anna and the other angels, you know?!
VALTER: Oh, yes! Tatataatatatatatatattataaa!
OSKAR: Pabah! Pabah! Tchhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Phhhhhhhhhhhhh!
They shoot from weapons with different calibres and strenght. It’s just a game, of course.
VALTER: Tathathathathathathathat! Phuh!
OSKAR: Peeeeeeeaaaaaaawwwhhhh!
Anna has appeared from somewhere, she’s licking heartily on a huge lolly-pop. Anna is holding a colourful paper bag from which she’s picking things and placing them in her mouth from time to time. She’s observing the boys who at first don’t notice her. When they do notice her, they get angry.
VALTER: What you’re staring at, freak? Go away!
ANNA: Nope.
OSKAR: Hey, beat it!
VALTER: Hello!
OSKAR: Don’t you understand?
ANNA: I can’t leave.
VALTER: What’s wrong with you, then? Have you lost the power of your legs or what?
OSKAR: Why can’t you find your way home? Your house trailer is the biggest and it’s there on the right.
ANNA: I can’t leave. There’s something I have to tell you.
VALTER: Then have your say, don’t just stand there staring ! Well?!
OSKAR: Did you forget?
ANNA: No.
OSKAR: Well?
ANNA: That message for Valter.
VALTER: Well?
ANNA: From Mom and Dad.
VALTER: WELL?
ANNA: It’s that you have to go right away and…
VALTER: Right away? We haven’t finished up here yet?
OSKAR: I can’t do this all by myself!
ANNA: I can see that you have already finished. Anyway, Valter, you must go to mom immediately and help her do one thing.
VALTER: What thing?`
ANNA: How should I know?
VALTER: And what chore did they give you?
ANNA: The chore I am doing right now.
VALTER: And what was the chore? To munch yourself to death?
ANNA: No. To pass the message on to you.
VALTER: Wow that was a tough one.
ANNA: What can I do? Life is beautiful, if unfair.
VALTER: Shut up. What do I have to do?
ANNA: You have to go quickly. You know they don’t like waiting.
VALTER: When was I supposed to go, then?
ANNA: Now.
VALTER: How now?
ANNA: Now now.
VALTER: And stop doing everything I was doing here?
ANNA: Looks like it. Bye!
VALTER: You better…
ANNA: You better yourself. And now!
Valter goes unwillingly. But he hurries, because he knows he has to. Pause.
OSKAR: What you’re staring at?
ANNA: Nothing. Weren’t you in the middle of something?
OSKAR: What’s that got to do with you?
ANNA: It seems to me that these yellow thingies over there are still quite dusty. Oh wait, let me look closer. Yeah, very dusty!
Pause.
OSKAR: Go away!
ANNA: Want some candy?
OSKAR: No, I don’t, just go away.
ANNA: I wouldn’t have given you any anyway.
OSKAR: I have to finish up here. Get out of my way!
ANNA: Don’t be so up tight.
Anna keeps eating candy, but she has lost her appetite a bit. Oskar is grumpily continuing the task which he has only half completed.
ANNA: Do you know why mom needed Valter? (Oskar does not react.)Do you know?
OSKAR: Well?
ANNA: Because dad went to town.
OSKAR: Oh. How very exciting.
ANNA: No, it’s not about the ground permits. It’s something else. Do you want to know, what?
OSKAR: Well?
ANNA: We need some reinforcements for this season.
OSKAR: What?
ANNA: He’s going to hire extra people from the outside.
OSKAR: Who then? Why?
ANNA: Well, we do need reinforcements. Dad can’t do all the men’s work by himself anymore. And the big new ride will be here, as well.
OSKAR: But who will he hire?
ANNA: We don’t know yet. He said he has already looked around and that some of them were suitable. But they have to fit in with us, and they need to be able to adapt to our type of life style, you know.
OSKAR: Of course I know, dummy. I have adapted to our type life style quite well.
ANNA: You sure have, but normal people do not. They have to be very flexible.
Valter arrives. He starts talking whilst running.
VALTER: I was just supposed to lift some boxes, because dad’s not here, he’s gone into the town and do you know why?
OSKAR: Yes, new people are coming.
VALTER: How do you know that already?
OSKAR: Anna has just told me.
VALTER: How do you… Hey, who said you can stay here anyway? Get out of here for once and all, and take your smelly candy with you!
ANNA: I was allowed to pick one kilo, as my reward. A whole kilo, of any kind I liked. I chose a bit of all the sorts that were on offer. See, soft candy, chocolate, caramels, candy shaped like little snakes…
VALTER: Get out here once and for all! Get out, you scavenge snout!
Valter pushes Anna causing her king size lolly pop to fall down. Anna picks it up, she smiled wider than you would have thought.
ANNA: I will tell.
Anna leaves very slowly, in a calm and dignified manner. Valter is livid, trembling with anger.
VALTER: This can’t be happening. This simply can’t be happening!
OSKAR: What?
VALTER: She is turning my life into a living hell… This just can’t be happening.
OSKAR: It can, it is happening.
VALTER: But why is it happening? Why?
OSKAR: Because she’s a girl, is good and she’s cute. Remember, I told you?
VALTER: I remember. Yes unfortunately I do remember.
OSKAR: And you’re not. Not a girl, not cute and not good either.
VALTER: Not good? What do you mean I’m not good?
OSKAR: I mean even if you are, you are not as good as Anna is.
VALTER: What?
OSKAR: No, I think you are very good. You’re that good that you’ll finish this here in less than five seconds. I’ll also help you a little bit.Come on!
The boys continue their abhorrent work.

________________________________________________________
2. Michaela Zakutànská: Salto Mortale (Kombat)

1.
Some large and smaller objects, which are covered in dust having been in storage the whole winter. Strange, colourful items some with details familiar from childhood memories. Detergents, sponges, a water hose. Valter and Oskar, who should be busy gathering together the above mentioned items,but are instead laughing.
VALTER: Hey, who am I? „You are gypsssy rubishhh with a monkey face. How dare you use wordssss like this in front of the elderly? When I wassss your age, children only ssspoke when they were sssupposssed to. You can’t imagine, how I have dreamt of the day when you are gone from here and thissss classss can finally sssstudy normally once again!“
OSKAR: I am sure when Mrs. Hessler was our age, she was still peeing in her pants!
VALTER: „Sssilence please and let’ssss begin with the word game!“ Word game in the eighth class! It’s just incredible how advanced our educational system is these days!
OSKAR: But that’s how the young want to learn these days – through games! Hessler-Pissler! Go on, Hessler-Pissler!
VALTER: Is it R?
OSKAR: Hessler-Pissler!
VALTER: Erm… rotten!
OSKAR: Naughty pants!
VALTER: Sh… Shitface!
OSKAR: Eskimoses!
VALTER: Solarposes!
OSKAR:Toothache!
VALTER: Headset-eater!
OSKAR: Rat-arsed!
VALTER: Demon… Demonishious!
OSKAR: Scavenge snout!
VALTER: What’s that?
OSKAR: I don’t know, you figure it out. What could it be?
VALTER:Is it a snout that scavenges?
OSKAR: How should I know?
Pause.
VALTER: Isn’t it just great that we won’t be seeing that Mrs. Hessler, like never and ever and never again?
OSKAR: Sure never again.
VALTER: Ok, at least for an eternity.
OSKAR: An eternity that lasts six months.
VALTER: That is an eternity. But it would be a worse eternity of the six months we had with Mrs. Hessler.
OSKAR: Then go back to Mrs. Hessler.
VALTER: Go yourself! Well, why don’t you?
OSKAR: I can’t.
VALTER: I can’t either.
OSKAR: I know.
VALTER: Don’t be such an idiot, then.
OSKAR: I’m not.
VALTER: Scavenge snout!
OSKAR: You’re a scavenge snout!
Pause. The boys remember their assignment.
VALTER: Maybe I won’t go back at all.
OSKAR: To where?
VALTER: To Hessler.
OSKAR: How so?
VALTER: Just like that.
OSKAR: And where would you go?
VALTER: I don’t know that yet. Some place… new.
OSKAR: But we are going to new places all the time. Even if they’re already old ones. Always going to new old places. The whole summer long.
VALTER: Well, yes, but we aren’t actually going to those places. We go through them. We went there, looking at everything around there, just like from the small cage from which we mustn’t leave, and then we move on, to the next place. But that’s also the place that we don’t actually go to.
OSKAR: You’re crazy.
VALTER: I’m fed up with this. Aren’t you?
OSKAR: I don’t have a choice. And neither do you, so we had better start scrubbing.
VALTER: But what if this scrubbing isn’t the thing for me, isn’t the thing I should be doing?
OSKAR: How is it not your thing? We were both supposed to do it, the two of us! Sharing the work Fifty-fifty!
VALTER: That’s true, but actually it isn’t really our thing. The thing we should be doing right now, no matter what. It isn’t the thing for us at all.
OSKAR: I would like to hear you telling that to your dad!
Water fight. After that a wet pause.
VALTER: What did your mom say about your mid-term report?
OSKAR: She said that hopefully I can catch up at the next school. She said that there’s still a whole month until the summer break and that I’ll make it somehow. Like always. What did yours say?
VALTER: Nothing. I guess my parents didn’t have time to open it at all. They were admiring Anna’s report so much that they almost lost their power of sight.
OSKAR: What did she get this time, for her excellent excellence?
VALTER: I don’t know. It was supposed to be a surprise.
OSKAR: What surprise?
VALTER: How should I know? I’ve never got one of those things, so I still don’t know.
OSKAR: I haven’t either.
VALTER: That’s not the same.
OSKAR: How come it’s not the same? I’ve even got better grades than you!
VALTER: But that doesn’t count! You don’t have to compete with someone all the time, and constantly lose too them. It’s completely hopeless! Girls swot, they like to swot! Why should I suffer because of it?
OSKAR: You’re just not as cute as Anna.
VALTER: You think that Anna is cute?
OSKAR: No your parents do, stupid.
VALTER: What do you mean, stupid?
OSKAR: You don’t get the joke, do you?
VALTER: Great joke! Makes you puke!
OSKAR: Go on, puke then!
VALTER: I don’t feel like it.
Pause. They work on a bit.
VALTER: What do you think, what would you do if you were not stuck here.
OSKAR: I don’t know. Probably would be somewhere, bombing Hessler.
VALTER: That’s quite good!
OSKAR: She deserves it. Why is she always taking it out on us? I would rather be a gipsy than someone like her.
VALTER: You know what?
OSKAR: What?
VALTER: I would bomb them all.
OSKAR: Who then?
VALTER: Everybody, the whole school. Let them fly away. It’s their own fault.
OSKAR: That would be quite good. The revenge of the „gypsies“.
VALTER: Yes, the revenge of the most blond gypsies in the world.
OSKAR: It’s strange that they don’t do anything to Anna.
VALTER: It doesn’t matter, Anna would fly away from the same bomb.
OSKAR: Think so?
VALTER: Of course. She’s a little angel, isn’t she? And angels fly high up in the sky…
OSKAR: And we would be on their side with a helicopter…
VALTER: What?
OSKAR: Well, when they’re flying away because of the bomb, Anna and the other angels, you know?!
VALTER: Oh, yes! Tatataatatatatatatattataaa!
OSKAR: Pabah! Pabah! Tchhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Phhhhhhhhhhhhh!
They shoot from weapons with different calibres and strenght. It’s just a game, of course.
VALTER: Tathathathathathathathat! Phuh!
OSKAR: Peeeeeeeaaaaaaawwwhhhh!
Anna has appeared from somewhere, she’s licking heartily on a huge lolly-pop. Anna is holding a colourful paper bag from which she’s picking things and placing them in her mouth from time to time. She’s observing the boys who at first don’t notice her. When they do notice her, they get angry.
VALTER: What you’re staring at, freak? Go away!
ANNA: Nope.
OSKAR: Hey, beat it!
VALTER: Hello!
OSKAR: Don’t you understand?
ANNA: I can’t leave.
VALTER: What’s wrong with you, then? Have you lost the power of your legs or what?
OSKAR: Why can’t you find your way home? Your house trailer is the biggest and it’s there on the right.
ANNA: I can’t leave. There’s something I have to tell you.
VALTER: Then have your say, don’t just stand there staring ! Well?!
OSKAR: Did you forget?
ANNA: No.
OSKAR: Well?
ANNA: That message for Valter.
VALTER: Well?
ANNA: From Mom and Dad.
VALTER: WELL?
ANNA: It’s that you have to go right away and…
VALTER: Right away? We haven’t finished up here yet?
OSKAR: I can’t do this all by myself!
ANNA: I can see that you have already finished. Anyway, Valter, you must go to mom immediately and help her do one thing.
VALTER: What thing?`
ANNA: How should I know?
VALTER: And what chore did they give you?
ANNA: The chore I am doing right now.
VALTER: And what was the chore? To munch yourself to death?
ANNA: No. To pass the message on to you.
VALTER: Wow that was a tough one.
ANNA: What can I do? Life is beautiful, if unfair.
VALTER: Shut up. What do I have to do?
ANNA: You have to go quickly. You know they don’t like waiting.
VALTER: When was I supposed to go, then?
ANNA: Now.
VALTER: How now?
ANNA: Now now.
VALTER: And stop doing everything I was doing here?
ANNA: Looks like it. Bye!
VALTER: You better…
ANNA: You better yourself. And now!
Valter goes unwillingly. But he hurries, because he knows he has to. Pause.
OSKAR: What you’re staring at?
ANNA: Nothing. Weren’t you in the middle of something?
OSKAR: What’s that got to do with you?
ANNA: It seems to me that these yellow thingies over there are still quite dusty. Oh wait, let me look closer. Yeah, very dusty!
Pause.
OSKAR: Go away!
ANNA: Want some candy?
OSKAR: No, I don’t, just go away.
ANNA: I wouldn’t have given you any anyway.
OSKAR: I have to finish up here. Get out of my way!
ANNA: Don’t be so up tight.
Anna keeps eating candy, but she has lost her appetite a bit. Oskar is grumpily continuing the task which he has only half completed.
ANNA: Do you know why mom needed Valter? (Oskar does not react.)Do you know?
OSKAR: Well?
ANNA: Because dad went to town.
OSKAR: Oh. How very exciting.
ANNA: No, it’s not about the ground permits. It’s something else. Do you want to know, what?
OSKAR: Well?
ANNA: We need some reinforcements for this season.
OSKAR: What?
ANNA: He’s going to hire extra people from the outside.
OSKAR: Who then? Why?
ANNA: Well, we do need reinforcements. Dad can’t do all the men’s work by himself anymore. And the big new ride will be here, as well.
OSKAR: But who will he hire?
ANNA: We don’t know yet. He said he has already looked around and that some of them were suitable. But they have to fit in with us, and they need to be able to adapt to our type of life style, you know.
OSKAR: Of course I know, dummy. I have adapted to our type life style quite well.
ANNA: You sure have, but normal people do not. They have to be very flexible.
Valter arrives. He starts talking whilst running.
VALTER: I was just supposed to lift some boxes, because dad’s not here, he’s gone into the town and do you know why?
OSKAR: Yes, new people are coming.
VALTER: How do you know that already?
OSKAR: Anna has just told me.
VALTER: How do you… Hey, who said you can stay here anyway? Get out of here for once and all, and take your smelly candy with you!
ANNA: I was allowed to pick one kilo, as my reward. A whole kilo, of any kind I liked. I chose a bit of all the sorts that were on offer. See, soft candy, chocolate, caramels, candy shaped like little snakes…
VALTER: Get out here once and for all! Get out, you scavenge snout!
Valter pushes Anna causing her king size lolly pop to fall down. Anna picks it up, she smiled wider than you would have thought.
ANNA: I will tell.
Anna leaves very slowly, in a calm and dignified manner. Valter is livid, trembling with anger.
VALTER: This can’t be happening. This simply can’t be happening!
OSKAR: What?
VALTER: She is turning my life into a living hell… This just can’t be happening.
OSKAR: It can, it is happening.
VALTER: But why is it happening? Why?
OSKAR: Because she’s a girl, is good and she’s cute. Remember, I told you?
VALTER: I remember. Yes unfortunately I do remember.
OSKAR: And you’re not. Not a girl, not cute and not good either.
VALTER: Not good? What do you mean I’m not good?
OSKAR: I mean even if you are, you are not as good as Anna is.
VALTER: What?
OSKAR: No, I think you are very good. You’re that good that you’ll finish this here in less than five seconds. I’ll also help you a little bit.Come on!
The boys continue their abhorrent work.

________________________________________________________
Michaela Zakutànská: Salto Mortale (Kombat)

*1 .the sigh of the green pony *
VALTER, OSKAR: Mid-April. It is afternoon. The boys sit in front of a house painting animals from the children’s arena.

VALTER (talking excitedly)… and I smeared the teacher’s chair with glue! And when she got up, she ripped off the skirt on her ass. It got stuck to the chair, almost the whole thing! Did you know she wears a thong?
OSKAR No kidding? Old matrons like that wear thongs?
VALTER How old is she, Oskar?
OSKAR Thirty?
VALTER Euugh!
OSKAR That’s really gross.
VALTER You think our moms wear…?
OSKAR (convinced) No way! Are you crazy?!
VALTER Shame you weren’t in school, Oskar.
OSKAR (striking a hip-hop pose) No regret!
VALTER (amused) The last day before leaving, that’s when we have most fun. You can fool around, whoop it up all you want and they can do nothing.
OSKAR Damn! I was supposed to help mom clean the guns.
VALTER Guns, guns… these days everyone just plays Mortal Kombat at home.
OSKAR I know.
VALTER My folks bought a new centrifuge.
OSKAR What kind?
VALTER It’s so cool. It’s called the Salto Mortale. We gotta try it out tomorrow.
OSKAR Wow.
VALTER It’s the coolest centrifuge you’ve ever seen.
OSKAR Sounds great.
VALTER (takes no notice and continues with his story) And the teacher wanted to send me to the principal’s office and I told her to get stuffed because I wasn’t gonna see her for six months anyway. Heh-heh.
OSKAR (worried) Valter, you’ll get a poor grade in manners.
VALTER So what? And that’s not all. I also beat up the little hobo gypsy.
OSKAR You’re a hobo.
VALTER I’m not. I don’t give a shit. One more year and I’ll be fifteen, I’ll get an ID and I’ll leave you all. You can come with me.
OSKAR Oh I don’t know.
VALTER You’re chickenshit!
OSKAR I’m not. It’s just…
VALTER Just what?
OSKAR I can’t leave mom alone… and then, who knows what it’s like to live an ordinary life all the time?
VALTER Same as here. You’ll never leave. You’re really chickenshit.
OSKAR I’m not…
VALTER Prove it!
OSKAR (hesitates) You want me to leave?
VALTER No. Paint that pony green.
OSKAR (without self-confidence) No problem.
Oskar starts painting the arena pony green. Anna enters eating cotton candy.
ANNA Hey, boys! Look what I got from my folks! The first cotton candy of the season. Granny started the machine and is trying all sorts of flavors.
VALTER It’s for babies like you!
OSKAR You’re a baby!
ANNA You are babies!
VALTER She’s two years younger, let’s leave her alone. She can’t dig us, she’s a totally different generation.
ANNA I guess you have no idea that girls grow up sooner than boys. I’m almost a woman. Haven’t you noticed?
VALTER That big-titted chick dad painted on the Ferris wheel, that’s a woman! Not you! Tell her something about it, Oskar!
OSKAR (encouraged by Valter, giggling) M&Ms under a blanket!
ANNA (indignant) You’re such morons! I never put my M&Ms under the blanket, I’m not nine anymore.
VALTER Go home, or I’ll hit you with a rock.
ANNA You’re just jealous, Valter! You’d get cotton candy too if you got some praise from the teacher in your gradebook.
VALTER Praise? For class activity? I actively try to avoid any praise. It’s for kindergarteners.
ANNA (angry) Mom and dad already know what you did to your teacher today. And you can bet you’ll get a scolding for it! When you finish painting the arena, you should go help dad load the carousels. So make it snappy! (Anna notices that Oskar is painting the pony green.) You’re in trouble you two! Big time! Mom!
VALTER Shut up! (tries to silence her) It was Oskar!
OSKAR Me?

Valter leaves.

OSKAR Don’t you dare give me away!
ANNA What’ll be my reward?
OSKAR I don’t know.
ANNA You’ll be a servant to my dolls!
OSKAR You still play with dolls?
ANNA So what? No, I don’t!

Summary

The story takes place in a travelling fun fair which is owned by two families. The first family consists of two parents and two kids – Valter, aged 14 and Anna, aged 12. The second family consists of a mother and her son Oskar, aged 14. The kids go to one particular school during the winter period and travel around with the fun fair for the rest of the year. When they’re travelling, they have to change schools almost once a week and they also have to work after school, selling tickets and helping out around the fun fair.

Valter has reached the stage where he feels like rebelling against his parents. He is not happy with the idea of becoming the owner of the fun fair when he grows up, and there is a lot of tension between himself, his sister and his parents. Valter and Oskar are best friends, but their relationship is ruled by Valter’s dominance. Oskar wants to be like Valter, because there are social differences between the two families. While Valter’s family can afford the most expensive carousels, Oskar’s mom owns only a few small ones.

Valter is jealous of his sister Anna, who is just becoming a teenager and they are both fighting for the attention of their parents. Anna is a good student and a “perfect daughter” Valter, on the other hand is not doing very well at school and is also causing some trouble, so the parents openly prefer Anna to Valter. Oskar is secretly in love with Anna but is not showing it because of Valter. Instead, he joins in with Valter to tease and bully her.

The funfair needs some seasonal help and so a 21 year old guy is hired (called either Tristan or Bear) for the summer. He has a great influence on all three kids: for Anna, he is her first big crush, for Oskar, he is the father figure he never had, and for Valter, he represents the free soul outside the “prison of the funfair”. When Anna becomes the favourite of Tristan/Bear and a little sparkle begins between Oskar and Anna, Valter feels more restricted than ever. His actions have always been a bit over the edge but this time they lead to much more serious consequences…


Rightholder:

© Michaela Zakutánská m.zakutanska@gmail.com
Kristiina Jalastro mialee77@hotmail.com


Performances:

1st Opening Theatre Institute, Bratislava (SL), April 29, 2011


Cast:
M: 3
F: 1