A play in ten minutes.
MAX enters alone. He is wearing a protective mask, a knit cap, and blue latex gloves. He walks rapidly, looking down at his feet. RODRIGO enters opposite, wearing a homemade cloth mask, mittens and a scarf. They nod as they pass. MAX continues, RODRIGO stops.
RODRIGO
Max? (no response) Hallo!
MAX
Mi dispiace. Come potrei aiutarti? Lei. AiutarLe.
RODRIGO
Sono Rodrigo!
MAX
Rodrigo? Hey, yeah, I see it now.
RODRIGO
It’s good to see you!
MAX
It’s been… how long?
RODRIGO
At least a month, right?
MAX
At least a month. Hey! It’s good to see your face, too.
RODRIGO
And I.
MAX
Well, some of it. Some of your face.
RODRIGO
I am all the time missing your smile. Are you smiling?
MAX
I think so. Are you?
RODRIGO
Yes. It is wonderful to see someone I know. And to hear another voice.
MAX
A little muffled, but…
RODRIGO
Another voice. Not on my telefonino. Right here. Bouncing onto my ears.
MAX
Great. Where you headed?
RODRIGO
Headed?
MAX
Going. Where you… Dove stai andando?
RODRIGO
Dove vado? I hear there’s a giant party in Piazza della Repubblica. You going?
MAX
What?
RODRIGO
Coming away from the supermarket. Got my bag of foods for a week, maybe five days.
MAX
I’m on my way.
RODRIGO
Very exciting, going to supermarket. I dream about it all night before the day I go.
MAX
Hah, yeah. So, been keeping busy?
RODRIGO
Keeping?
MAX
Um… sei occupato?
RODRIGO
A waiter can’t work at home.
MAX
Right. So, no work, no income.
RODRIGO
A shopping bag full of vegetables and pasta. What do you doing?
MAX
I’m writing.
RODRIGO
Oh, yes, so you are… accustomed to this… isolazione. For me, this solitude is for making a person crazy.
MAX
Solitude? Why… what..? Where’s Francesca?
RODRIGO
She was visiting her family in Puglia when the edict was announced.
MAX
Oh, no!
RODRIGO
Oh, yes. Could not return. No children, no wedding, not essential. Probably just as well. For one thing, there is not so many virus in Puglia. For another thing, we love each other, but together in our… monolocale?
MAX
Studio apartment.
RODRIGO
Yes, we would yell and scream after a week or two weeks. But too bad, if she was here, I could, you know, carry the pasta from the stove to the table, ask her which wine she would like. Vorrebbe un dolce, signora? Caffe? You know.Sta in forma. How do you..?
MAX
Keep in shape.
RODRIGO
Keep in shape. I speak five words a week, I forget how to… how works the mouth.
MAX
I know. I know what you mean. Writing and talking are not the same.
RODRIGO
So, what are you writing? Last time I see you, you were working on this book.
MAX
I got two hundred pages in, and realized it was awful. No, now it’s songs – lyrics, some dialog. I’m putting together a cabaret act for this couple I know in New York. So, like, no distractions. None. Nooooo distractions. Really, really quiet. When the Internet goes down, I feel like shooting myself.
RODRIGO
I have not shaved in two weeks.
MAX
Two weeks? Oh, well, yeah – the mask.
RODRIGO
I discovered I have a terrible beard.
MAX
You’re Italian.
RODRIGO
With a terrible beard.
MAX
Aren’t you like required by law to have a beautiful, full, perfect beard?
RODRIGO
I’ll show you. Can anyone see?
MAX
Like who?
RODRIGO
Come over here in case someone is looking. (pulling down his mask) Ecco! Quasi nulla, si? Dopo due settimane!
MAX
You call that a beard?
RODRIGO
Grazie.
MAX
That’s pathetic!
RODRIGO
Grazie, ancora. What is your secret?
MAX
Well, I was already way overdue for a haircut, and had an appointment for the day after the start of lockdown. So… I usually keep it pretty short, but now… So long as it doesn’t look like it’ll trap insects it’s fine. I wear a hat and avoid reflective surfaces. Wanna see?
RODRIGO
I am scared a little bit.
MAX
Take a deep breath. (takes off his hat) I half expect it to cascade down to my shoulders.
RODRIGO
By the time this is finish, you will have a horse tail…
MAX
Ponytail.
RODRIGO
Ponytail. Yes? And I will have twelve very long hairs growing from my chin.
MAX
When this is finished.
RODRIGO
Finished. Do you believe?
MAX
Believe what?
RODRIGO
Non credo che questa cosa sarà mai finita.
MAX
Naw, well, yeah, but I mean, it will be over in another few weeks, a month…
RODRIGO
No.
MAX
It has to end, it can’t just go on and…
RODRIGO
There will be no end.
MAX
Sure there will. People can’t do this forever.
RODRIGO
It won’t be as with liberazione dopo la guerra mondiale – the Americans arrive with nylon stocking and chocolate bars and we throw flowers. One day, the bakeries will reopen, then the bars and pizzerie. Then it will be okay to shake hands, and shops will be open while we continue to wait in line outside, and most people’s masks will go into a drawer next to the shower. But it will never end.
MAX
Well, okay, maybe a year, two years…
RODRIGO
…we will think everything returns to normal, but we won’t remember what normal is. We will watch the videos on our phones from last year, two months ago, and try to build again the past, but it will seem too far away.
MAX
Which could be a positive thing.
RODRIGO
Spiegami.
MAX
For me, all this time alone has forced me to examine my habits; what I think I need, what I say to myself, my dreams, my fears. And I see how I am totally responsible for my own life – for how satisfied I am, for my moods, my cravings.
RODRIGO
So?
MAX
Maybe when things… move beyond social distancing and travel restrictions, we won’t just snap back into our frenetic lives. I don’t want to. I won’t. I’ll make more careful choices.
RODRIGO
To make choices you must have the possibility of options to choose from.
MAX
And?
RODRIGO
That is a very American luxury. And America no longer exists.
MAX
What?
RODRIGO
It, too, is only a memory. Like the Roman Republic, or the High Renaissance. A dream from which the world has… si svegliato?
MAX
That’s a very Italian way of looking at things.
RODRIGO
Except for my beard, I am a very Italian person. And it is very American to think you know what is the Italian way.
MAX
And very Italian to put a huge country like America in a pretty little box. America… America is… The thing about America – it’s an experiment in evolution.
RODRIGO
Italy was an experiment in creation, made up all at once from nothing, an elegant chaos. We keep thinking if only we can do this or that, we can be as organized as Germany, but that is not who we are. You say evolution, but to me America is always wondering what it is, and the rest of us sometimes laugh, sometimes cheer, and sometimes weep. Now is time for weeping. We don’t want to be a part of your cinema… movie… but it is too fascinating for us not to watch. Now I have to go; I have too much nothing to do and too much nowhere to go. I cannot have the time to stand in the street and insult my friends. We will not shake hands and not embrace so that we both do not become ill and live to see what is next.
MAX
The cabaret act I’m helping to create is about… Well, these two people meet on a street while waiting for a bus. The bus never comes, but in the space of an hour they search for meaning and conclude that meaning is in the search.
RODRIGO
I don’t understand.
MAX
And I don’t know how to translate. Another way of saying it might be, the past and future are imagined. The only thing real is what’s in between.
RODRIGO
When this is finished, as you say it must be, we will have a pizza, at a restaurant, wood-oven, and a good bottle of wine. Francesca will escape her family, your New York friends will come here for holiday, and as we imagine the past, we will also imagine the future. The only things we will not imagine is the pizza.
MAX
And the wine.
RODRIGO
And each other.
MAX
Can I use that for a lyric.
RODRIGO
You are the artist. I am only a waiter.
MAX
Who is an artist at what he does. Good to see you. Don’t touch your face!
RODRIGO
Don’t stay on the street.
MAX
Don’t talk without a mask.
RODRIGO
Un abbraccione, amico. Da lontano.
MAX
Altrettanto. Buona giornata.
RODRIGO
Buona giornata! Alla prossima.
MAX
Ciao.
RODRIGO
Ciao.
MAX
Ci vediamo.
RODRIGO
Speriamo a presto.
They continue on in opposite directions. MAX stops, calls after…
MAX
I see!
RODRIGO
You see, what?
MAX
Why you think this will never end. Ciao, buona serata, grazie, a dopo.
RODRIGO laughs. They do an air high five, an air elbow bump, an air double kiss, and are gone.