Plays Database
NOW 55 31 13 me - The boundary path of realities. One day in the life of adolescents
The script contains the entire text of the production. The actors for the most part play themselves, sometimes becoming fictitious characters.
NOW 55 31 13 me is not a theatre play in the true sense of the word, but is literally a theatre script. This is because it was created during the rehearsal process and is based on the testimonies of particular people. It is composed of both fictitious and documentary parts. The authors of the texts used in the script are writers Bára Gregorová and Blanka Josephová-Lu?áková, with use also being made of conversations and discussions between the actors in the production. Last but not least, it is important to mention that the play draws on the contributions of teenagers studying at a Pilsen grammar school. The fictitious part of NOW 55 31 13 me takes place over the course of a single day. The students get up in the morning and drag themselves into the classroom, going on to spend the afternoon on the internet. Their day is composed of images of mundanity and stereotype, but one thing about it is out of the ordinary. One of their fellow students has committed suicide by jumping off a roof. What form and likeness is taken by this magical NOW, in which children become adults?
Most of Petra Tejnorová’s auteur-style productions are created with no text to begin with, by means of improvisation, and it is thus relatively difficult to provide precise information ”about the author”. The authors of the script are the actual actors in NOW 55 31 13 Me, plus second-year students at the František K?ižík grammar school in Pilsen, playwright Blanka Josephová-Lu?áková and writer Bára Gregorová. The script contains the entire text of the production. The actors for the most part play themselves, sometimes becoming fictitious characters. This script is fulfilled only on stage, when acted in front of an audience, since it is closely interconnected with the action on stage.
Paperclip Belt
A 16-year-old girl Kati is dead but her spirit is now reminiscing about the times preceding her death.
She used to wake up every morning loathing her alarm clock and going to school where she was not the most popular girl in class. Kati smoked and drank alcohol quite often. She had a couple of best friends. She found one boy, Juhan, strangely attractive. All that Kati had wanted was to be attractive and different. She had never dreamed of fitting into the normal everyday world.
Kati’s younger sister is having a birthday party, Kati invites Juhan to her place to help her keep an eye on the youngsters, not wanting to do this on her own. That night Kati and Juhan make love for the first time.
Soon summer begins. Kati and Juhan have a huge fight and do not speak to each other for a month. Kati decides to go to a party in another city. She eats a strange pill given to her by a boy she does not really know. A little while later, Kati gets raped by the same boy. She stumbles out of the house in total confusion only to see Juhan together with another girl. She runs into the nearby forest and tries to slash her wrists.
Juhan arrives in time to save Kati and drives with her to his summer holiday house. They have a long talk and suddenly find themself enjoying some of the nicest days of the summer.
As autumn approaches, Kati and Juhan start getting ready for school. Markus, the boy who raped Kati, contacts her out of the blue. He announces that he’s HIV positive and suggests that Kati should get tested. A while later, Kati receives the horrible news as well.
Kati starts to push Juhan away, since she is too afraid to talk about her condition. On a rainy autumn day, Kati finally confesses.
A while later, she climbs to the top of a tall parking house, thinking about her bygone freedom. She slips and not having enough strength to hang on to the railing, falls down.
Her sister is standing right there and sees Kati’s body smashing onto the cold ground.
Thinking Time
Nina’s and Hilde’s flat: Nina (15) has a date, she is standing in her room considering what to wear. A phone rings, her mother Hilde answers. She is told that Ruth, Nina´s great-grandmother is about to die. Nina is eager to keep her appointment, but Hilde insists; they should both go to Ruth´s deathbed.
In the car: Nina considers running away when the car stops at a red traffic light. She doesn´t, however.
Ruth´s flat: Ruth dozes and dreams; during the evening she experiences her first meetings with the man she later married. The meetings take place within a few days of each other in Norway 1941: Norwegian Ruth meets the German soldier Werner. They are infatuated – they fall in love – during their third meeting, Werner proposes, Ruth accepts. With her answer, her life changes totally and for ever. She moves to Germany.
Hilde doesn´t get in contact with dying Ruth. Nina doesn´t reach the boy she´s supposed to contact by mobile phone.
Hilde is worried about the seriousness of Nina´s appointment; who is she seeing?
Nina recalls the three meetings she had with the itinerant Romanian boy Moreno. The meetings have taken place outside the building where Nina is having piano lessons.
She lies to Hilde, she says: his name is Martin, he is German and that he plays the violin.
Ruth dies. Hilde calls a doctor.
Although the time for the appointment has passed, Nina wants to go to the meeting point to see if Moreno is still there. Hilde lets Nina go.
The bus: Nina travels through town. At the building with the piano lessons, Nina´s piano-teacher enters the bus. She tells her that she experienced a robbery attempt recently. Just as Nina is about to leave the bus, her teacher recognizes Moreno at the bus-stop and tells her; he is the robber. She warns Nina not to leave the bus. Nina has to choose – should she belive in her teacher or in Moreno?