Slowgirl

Characters

Becky - seventeen, niece

Sterling - forty-nine, uncle

Place

Sterling's house outside the tiny town of Los Angeles, Costa Rica.

Time

A week in late April.

Scene One: Monday afternoon, Sterling's house.

Scene Two: Tuesday afternoon, the "walking labyrinth" up the hill.

Scene Three: Thursday, the middle of the night, Sterling's house.

Scene Four: Saturday night, Sterling's house.

Slowgirl was the inaugural play of Lincoln Center's Claire Tow Theater. It premiered in June 2012 and was directed by Anne Kauffman. The role of Becky was played by Sarah Steele. The role of Sterling was played by Željko Ivanek.

In Scene One, Becky arrives at her uncle Sterling's cobbled-together house in the Costa Rican jungle. They haven't seen each other in nine years. Becky explains that she is in a lot of trouble because of something terrible that happened to a mentally challenged classmate named Marybeth (who has been nicknamed "Slowgirl") at a party. Sterling wants his home to be a refuge for Becky this week. He tells her that he and Hector built a walking labyrinth based on the floor of the cathedral at Chartres. Hector and his wife, Sonia, do odd jobs for Sterling. As the first scene closes, Sterling tells Becky he'll take her up to the labyrinth tomorrow.

* indicates the point at which the following line interrupts.

Scene Two. Tuesday afternoon. The labyrinth.

(The labyrinth consists of ankle-high stones arranged in eleven concentric circles. BECKY sits on a tree stump in the center, chewing gum and watching STERLING walk. There are wooden crosses just beyond the labyrinth's outermost circle. STERLING's hands are clasped together in front of him like a monk's. Every once in a while, his lips move. BECKY finds this disturbing.)

Becky:

Are you like, praying?

Sterling:

I usually walk in silence.

Becky:

Sorry. (beat) So I'm not allowed to talk at all?

(No response.)

Becky:

(cont'd) I'm just trying to figure out how to do it—so you like, walk and pray at the same time?

Sterling:

I'm not praying.

Becky:

What were you just saying then?

Sterling:

Nothing.

Becky:

Come on, I saw your lips moving.

(sterling smiles.)

Becky:

(cont'd) How about I get to talk 'cause I'm not doing it but you have to be quiet 'cause you are?

(He keeps walking.)

Becky:

(cont'd) Yeah, I like that . . . Okay, what're we gonna talk about?—I mean, what am I gonna talk about? Hmm . . . that coffee you made me is like (singing it) crack-cocaine. Oh!—I saw an anteater this morning when I went for a walk. I'm almost positive. (She gets off the stump and adjusts an out-of-place stone. STERLING is obviously agitated by this.) I'm gonna call him Blondie. He was so cute—I would totally go out with him, like, to-night. Can you imagine, like . . . (delicately frenching an anteater). He'd probly be a way better kisser than Tyler—Tyler was like HAVE YOU MET MY TONGUE? I'm like (grossed-out) yeah, we met. Blondie didn't even care that I was like stalking him, he was just like, do-di-do (physicalizing puttering along). I was like (slight Latina accent) "Stop on by, dawg, you know where I live—I'm in the house." (meaning the only house in sight)

Sterling:

Do you mind! (not fucking with my stone)

Becky:

(taken aback) What? I was* fixing it.

Sterling:

I try to . . . thank you but I try to walk the labyrinth as it is, then afterward, if a stone's out of place, I fix it.

Becky:

(stung) Sorry. I didn't get the manual.

Sterling:

No . . . (it's not your fault) (He wishes he hadn't said anything. Pause.)

Becky:

God, I didn't know you were such a hardcore Christian.

Sterling:

I'm not.

Becky:

Then what's with the crosses?

Sterling:

People from the village brought them up.

Becky:

Ew, creepy—they just like . . . (gesture: satanically sticking them into the ground)

Sterling:

Every Easter they do the fourteen stations...