Dog and Wolf
Rent from DeepDyve- Dog and Wolf
Entre chien et loup [between dog and wolf] is a multi-layered expression. It is used to describe a specific time of day, just before night, when the light is so dim you can’t distinguish a dog from a wolf. However, it’s not all about levels of light. It also expresses that limit between the familiar, the comfortable versus the unknown and the dangerous (or between the domestic and the wild). It is an uncertain threshold between hope and fear.
Céline Graciet
Production Notes
Play is performed in one act, without an intermission. We move fluidly between locales with lights and sounds. Lana, her killer, and dream characters are heard as voice-overs.
Cast of Characters
(pronounced Yas-MEE-nah), forties, a human rights worker and refugee from Bosnia; rebellious, traumatized, has a sense of style, with an Eastern European accent. (Her other name, Fatima, is pronounced Fah-TEE-mah.)
, fifties, a U.S. immigration attorney; in control, tough, good sense of humor, transformative, wheelchair-bound.
, a U.S. circuit court judge; a mother and a waitress who are both Eastern European.
, Jasmina’s deceased sister.
, Lana’s killer.
Scene One
Joseph, seated in his wheelchair, is going through an application form in his office. Jasmina begins to light a cigarette.
There’s no smoking in here!
I will need the cigarette.
Sorry. It says here your name is “Fatima”? [He mispronounces it.] [End Page 57]
No.
What is your legal name?
[Correcting his pronunciation.] Fatima. [She appeals to his vulnerability.] This question would require for me to have a cigarette . . .
Well, didn’t you read the warning from the Surgeon General? It causes cancer.
[Looking at cigarette.] You Americans like to kill people with greenhouse gases, correct? No Kyoto Protocol.
We protect our fifth-amendment rights fiercely, our freedom to pollute. So your name is Fatima but you go by a different name? An alias?
I do not know this word . . .
Pseudonym.
Do you mean what may be referred to as the “pen name”? I am not that kind of writer.
No, it means you use a different name when you’re in hiding. Look, I’m overbooked. I told the PHRD that I’d see you, but if you’re not going to answer my questions . . .
Yes, I am “in hiding.” They shoot through my door trying to get to me.
What were you doing at the door?
Bell, it rang. So stupid.
What does that mean?
I go to door. This is stupid. I am this kind of person. Door rings. Go to door. Plant garden. Expect flowers.
You can’t say that.
What . . . ?
Don’t ever say you’re stupid, for our purposes.
We share a purpose?
Your name is Fatima. For the sake of this interview.
Ah, interview?
When did you get here?
Three month ago. My organization . . . [End Page 58]
The PHRD?
Yes, Protect Human Rights Defenders rush me to get this position, “scholar in danger,” while we apply for asylum. [Referring to cigarette.] If we do close the door, could I . . . ?
Sorry, it’s against the law. And this is a law firm.
One young student who is working near me at university says, “I thought you’d be different?” Perhaps she think that all Muslims wear the headscarf and do not smoke?
[Points to the wheelchair.] In my country it is land mines that put people in wheelchairs.
Yeah, that’s what got me on Park Avenue—a land mine. What other names have you used?
[Still referring to land mines.] Skull-and-crossbones signs in hills . . .
What other names have you used?
I do use the “disguises”—is this the term . . . ?
Meaning?
To hide what is my identity.
What kind of disguises?
Eyeglasses, different hair, hats, the scarf? The headscarf.
Why?
Because I am wanted.
By whom?
Wanted by many. I try to make joke.
Is that a Bosnian joke? We’ve got about six...
