How to Eat an Orange

How to Eat an Orange, a play by Catherine Filloux, is based on the writing of Claudia Bernardi; created for and developed with Mercedes Herrero. The play (under the title "Under the Skin") was commissioned by INTAR, Lou Moreno, Artistic Director, and Paul Slee Rodriguez, Executive Director, and presented in a virtual workshop by INTAR and the Radio Drama Network. Directed by Elena Araoz; Video Designer Milton Cordero; Livestreamed by CultureHub, LiveLab, Founding Artistic Director, Billy Clark.

One actress plays the role of Claudia, with brief moments where she plays: Father, Mother, Reporter, Violeta, Man, Clyde Snow, Patri and Grandmother.

Objects, projection images, video and audio for the scenes include: an orange, a plate, fork and knife, a begonia flower in a vase, an envelope, a hammer, a purse, a piece of decayed red fabric with pockets holding two coins and a red button, an image of a skeleton from Casanova cemetery, a fresco painting "Under the Skin," a briefcase, a perfume bottle, a spoon, a cigarette, a skull, a wooden urn, scissors, a mural and soundscape from Ardoyne Road, Belfast. f.s.

[claudia sets down a plate; she picks up a steak knife and an orange.]

claudia

So, I cut off the ends of the orange.

[She balances the orange on the plate and cuts it in half with a fork and knife.]

I cut it in half.

[She suddenly picks up a vase with a begonia flower laughing, putting down the fork and knife.]

Oh! when Spring arrives in our garden,my little sister Patri and I

[Biting in.]

go abouteating flowers.

We eat the blossoms,the petals andeven the tender leaveswith the total conviction that,as time goes by, this early devotionwill make us beautiful.

I do not recallhow we got startedwith this gastronomic practice,nor how we arriveat this cosmetic certainty.

But we understand itas a commitmentto vanity which extends for many years,bringing my motherto the point of desperation.

[She smells the flower.]

All the voices, the places, the smells are compacted togetheras if kept tight within a membrane that can burstat any time if I am not careful.

[She takes a beat to confide in the audience.]

This story is about circumstances.

[She picks up an envelope.]

(we see a close-up video of a sign with rodolfo walsh's face. time stamp: 57–58 seconds with no sound. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ed4_a6uyi2k)

Rodolfo Walsh placed his"Open Letter from a Writer to the Military Junta"in the mailbox in Buenos Aires,on March 24, 1977.He understood the circumstanceswhich took me many years to understand.The next day he was kidnappedand has been missing since.I did not know of Rodolfo Walsh until many years later.

A subterranean hero…

[She posts the letter.]

That same month of Marchwhen he posts his letter, I am 22,also, in Buenos Aires,taking my final exams.Up on the wall, there are about 200 students on the exam list—only 40 students show up.Where are the ones who are not there?If you miss this exam you have to wait a whole other year—?

[A scrolling list of names. She picks up a hammer.]

Soon after,a young man bumps into me.My purse opens, my stuff is on the ground.He laughs—asks me if I am carrying this in self-defense.I laugh back."I use the hammer in sculpture class."He helps me put all my things back in the purse."Ciao!" He smiles."Thanks," I wave, and run to the corner to catch the bus.

I look for my library card.I have trouble finding it.All was in that little brown purse.He bumped into me, to get my things on the sidewalkand "chose" what he wanted.God!How can I be so stupid?I even thanked him.

The library card is not a problem, it's the other documents.Especially the one for "Good Behavior."Last week, they were taking people away who didn't have...