THE EMPEROR OF SYDNEY by Louis Nowra DIANE To pretend to be someone else and get away with it is the greatest

escape in the world. It means that you are no longer living in a fibro house in the middle of the sticks. Sticks is the wrong word. The soil was too poor to grow sticks. Stuck in the middle of endless paddocks, surrounded by fibro houses and losers and violence and welfare mums and ... well, you name it. In my head I could be a queen, a scientist a model, a dying beauty dying for love. And then Im rudely awoken by my dad whacking my mother across the face so hard her cheeks shatter. Who wouldnt want to pretend to be somewhere else, someone else? Now, before you applaud my sob story, allow me to let you into a little secret I learnt. Sometimes someone from my background wants it too much. I was good. Bloody good, but I lacked something not stupidity I lacked the proper background. One of the most important things I learned was that the actresses who make it are invariably from comfortable backgrounds. You see, theyve had those acting lessons since they were five. Theyve been told theyre beautiful from the moment they open their eyes. If they truly suffered in life they wouldnt be able to hide it. You need to ha ve no suffering, no hurt, just the belief that everything will come to you. And it does. I carried too many thoughts, too many dreams in my head, and they swirled around and everyone thought it was intelligence. It was in fact hunger, a desperate hunger to be brilliant, to be adored. WILD HONEY by Anton Chekhov ANNA How can you say that? How can you lie to me, on such a night as this, beneath such a sky? Tell your lies in autumn, if you must, in the gloom and the mud, but not now, not here. Youre being watched! Look up, you absurd man! A thousand eyes, all shining with indignation! You must be good and true, just as all this is good and true. Dont break this silence with your little words! Theres no man in the world I could ever love as I love you. Theres no woman in the world you could ever love as you love me. Lets take that love; and all the rest, that so torments you well leave that to others to worry about. Are you really such a terrible Don Juan? You look so handsome in the moonlight! Such a solemn face! Its a woman whos come to call, not a wild animal! All right if you really hate it all so much Ill go away again. Is that what you want? Ill go away, and everything will be just as it was before. Yes? (she laughs) Idiot! Take it! Snatch it! Seize it! What more do you want? Smoke it to the end, like a cigarette pinch it out tread it under your heel. Be human! You funny creature! A woman loves you a woman you love fine summer weather. What could be simpler than that? You dont realise how hard life is for me. And yet life is what I long for. Everything is alive, nothing is ever still. Were surrounded by life. We must live, too, Misha! Leave all the problems for tomorrow. Tonight, on this night of nights, well simply live!

SUMMER AND SMOKE by Tennessee Williams ALMA Yes, I see! Now that you no longer want it to be otherwise you're willing to believe that a spiritual bond can exist between us two! But I don't want to be talked to like some incurable sick patient you have to comfort. (A harsh and strong note comes into her voice) Oh, I suppose I am sick, one of those weak and divided people who slip like shadows among you solid strong ones. But sometimes, out of necessity, we shadowy people take on a strength of our own. I have that now. You needn't try to deceive me. You needn't try to comfort me. I haven't come here on any but equal terms. You said, let's talk truthfully. Well, let's do! Unsparingly, truthfully, even shamelessly, then! It's no longer a secret that I love you. It never was. I loved you as long ago as the time I asked you to read the stone angel's name with your fingers. Yes, I remember the long afternoons of our childhood, when I had to stay indoors to practice my music - and heard your playmates calling you 'Johnny, Johnny!' How it went through me, just to hear your name called! And how I rushed to the window to watch you jump the portch railing! I stood at a distance, halfway down the block, only to keep in sight of your torn red sweater, racing about the vacant lot you played in. Yes, it had begun that early, this affliction of love, and has never let go of me since, but kept on growing. I've lived next door to you all the days of my life, a weak and divided person who stood in adoring awe of your singleness, of your strength. And that is my story! Now I wish you would tell me - why didn't it happen between us? Why did I fail? Why did you come almost close enough - and no closer? Recipet carrie. 2819 3903