Inglese 3°anno I lingua prof. Patrick Boylan

LCI (OCI) A.A. 2005/2006

Donatella Vincenti

Advanced: Cultural adaptations of personal scenarios

[ Producer: This scene portrays three Italian students lying in the sun in a park opposite their university, and waiting for the beginning of the Arabic lessons]

[length of the scene: about 7’’]

Francesca: ...at least you’ve got some plans!! You know, planning your life out shouldn't busy yourself, even because the world is getting more and more unpredictable. However, I heard you complaining with Antonella about a travel and so on...tell me something more about it!

Tatiana: Yes, that’s true. I’m going to travel to Jordan next week, I’ve already bought the tickets and I’ve already got my mind used to the idea of living in a completely different dimension... and for three years!

Francesca: This is an interesting piece of news! In a different dimension? What you mean?

Antonella: I suppose that she wants to say that your everyday-life habits are going to change radically when you’re abroad, and not only them...

Francesca (to Antonella): Cut it,please!

Well, if you think better about it you’ll discover that everyone has multiple selves. You could adapt to any situation if your wills overcome your doubts. It mightn’t be a huge problem.

Tatiana: No, it isn’t, actually. But “problem” isn’t the right word to express what I feel now. I’ve been really upset these days. I’ve been realising that what I’m going to miss the most during this period of absence from Italy is... MY BED.

Francesca: Your bed!?! A bed is a piece of furniture and nothing else. Is a bed your main worry? I can’t believe it!

Tatiana: Bed is Home.

Antonella: Yes, I see.. “A house is not a home”. “Bed” is a label one gives to an object but there are a lot of memories and affections hidden into it.

Tatiana: Let’s imagine the DNA of human beings. My bed is like my DNA, that is, it’s unique and unmistakable; if a person searches for your identity, he looks at your DNA, and the same happens when I think of my bed.

Francesca: It sounds a bit hard to understand but I trust you.

Tatiana: Listen, I’m going to call an international agency specialised in transporting furniture, so that I can move and then put my bed in the accommodation in Jordan.

Francesca: I’m sorry but.. you're totally crazy! It’s impossible and above all useless. Do you like wasting money and time? Go ahead. I won’t help you, that’s sure.

Antonella: Don’t be so harsh. She’s your friend, isn’t she? So you should be more comprehensive towards her..

Francesca (to Antonella): Stop interrupting her, I can’t listen to her. What were you saying Tatiana? Well, go on, go on.

Tatiana: I think is rather clear: Or I take my bed with me, or I won’t leave. How could I betray my protective, safe and comfortable bed?

Francesca: Yees, I see it.. I'll tell you a brief story: once my mother told me that when she was a student at university she had to work hard to save money and to pay the university’s rates. She bought a bed for her small room with her money, her money, and she was really pride of that. It seemed the best investment in her life!!

Antonella: But this isn’t the kind of bed Tatiana is referring to, you’re really stubborn! Her bed is like a cradle in which you’re fed by your parents..

Francesca: But she doesn’t need to be fed even in Jordan! I’m sure that she can walk by herself, not by the table’s legs!!

Antonella(to Francesca): You know, it could be of a great use to you. When there are too many holes on your path and there’s someone that is able to raise you again you’ll grow stronger in the long run.

Francesca: Do you really believe in her Tatiana? Come round if you want to overcome that impasse: it obstacles the separation from your bed!

Tatiana: Maybe you’re right too, but it’s a part of myself that can’t be set aside. I don’t want to leave it for any reason. You could regard me as a plucky person but is the presence of my dear bed that gives me the pluck to tackle new situations.

Francesca: Tatiana, yours is a sort of paralysis, do you remember James Joyce’s words?

Antonella: No, you’re off the track! You should be aware that only after the separation from your “normal” life you realise that if you didn’t need to make sacrifices for your future, then was someone else that had made them instead of you.

Tatiana: OK. The debate is getting too long and serious.. I'm unswerving in my intention. I’ll put my bed into my luggage, that’s all.

Francesca: It would be better to go away, it’s getting late..

Antonella: No, wait a moment!

Tatiana (to Antonella): We don’t manage opening her eyes to the reality. To tell the truth, she would behave like me if she would fall down into a ravine, and the only way to escape and emerge from it was.. getting on a bed!

Antonella: I agree with you. Let’s go and catch her again, she has just hit the car! Francesca, come back here!

Francesca: Don’t worry, I’m coming soon! Do you know where I’m going? Well, I think I’ll go shopping, I want to buy new sheets and a multi-coloured duvet for your bed!!

Antonella: She’s joking, doesn’t she?

Tatiana: Thank you Francesca. However, the new sheets won’t delete the white old sheet that is under the new ones, just on the mattress! Is this last sheet that gives shape to the actual bed, the authentic one.

Antonella: Oh, hurry up or the Arabic lessons will start without us! Francescaaaa!!!Tatiana and I are going on foot, ..understand?

Francesca: Please, don’t keep your feet out from your bed while coming!!!

Antonella e Tatiana (together): Don’t be so silly!!!

[Producer: Next week arrived.. three years passed.. now we are at the airport:Tatiana is coming back from Jordan].

Tatiana: Oh, my dear friends!!!I’m back!

Antonella: And we’re really surprised to feel all this enthusiasm!! What’s up to you?

Tatiana: My bed, do you remember it? Well, there was an explosion in Jordan one year ago which hit my block of flats!!It was terrible, awful!! I’d never breathed before then such an atmosphere of desperation and death.

Francesca: You didn’t tell us anything about that accident, why?

Tatiana: I didn’t want you to be worried about me..

However, as soon as I saw that horrible view I ran away; Eventually, I’ll found my bed next to an abandoned car: my parents were there in Jordan.

They had booked the first flight available and since they arrived in Jordan they didn’t stop helping me and all the injured victims of that explosion. They also collected a fund of money in aid of them, gathering as money as possible from some volunteer families living in Italy.

They moved there in Amman; they have been staying there since happened that tragedy and now they are proud of the complete reconstruction of that destroyed neighbourhood.

Antonella: Certainly you wouldn’t have been able to solve the situation if your parents hadn’t been there.

Tatiana: Yes, I must admit it.

Francesca: That doesn’t alter the fact that the material bed is shuttered but the living bed is alive: that’s the best ending of this story, isn’t it?

Tatiana: Yes, of course!! And I’m going to found a school in Amman: I want to teach Italian and Arabic to the Jordinian children. Actually this idea comes from my parents, they are the brain!

Antonella: I think there’s a mutual help among you and your parents.. that's quite rare!

Tatiana: I know, I know... How about leaving with me in Jordan next month?

Francesca: Yes, but this time I’ll take my bed with me,too!!!

Director: Three Roma Tre students are sitting in the patio outside the classrooms waiting for their Arabic lesson to begin. Their names are [indicates Tatiana] Tatiana, the protagonist of this sketch, and her friends [indicates Antonella] Antonella and [indicates Francesca] Francesca.

Francesca: ...at least you’ve got some plans!! Not bad in this unpredictable world!

Tatiana: Yes, I’m going to Jordan next week. I’ve already bought the tickets and I’m already used to the idea of living in a completely different dimension ... and for three years!

Francesca: In a different dimension?

Antonella: She means her daily habits are going to change radically ...

Francesca (to Antonella): Just her daily habits? Maybe Tatiana wants to “go native” -- be just like the Jordanians -- if she manages to overcome her fears and doubts. We all have multiple selves, right?

Tatiana: Hey, I don't fear or doubt anything! [LONG PAUSE, GETS NERVOUS] But if I look worried, it's because I've got another problem. I’ve been really upset these past few days, just thinking about... the separation.

Antonella: From your family? From your friends?
Tatiana (hesitating): ... from my bed!

Francesca: Your bed!?! A piece of furniture? I can’t believe it!

Tatiana: My bed is my home, it's my... my...

Antonella: It's your world of dreams, of memories, of feelings... isn't that what you mean?

Tatiana: My bed is my DNA. It's ME!

Francesca: It sounds a bit hard to understand but... [REASSURINGLY] I trust you.

Tatiana: I phoned some international agencies specialised in transporting furniture, it wouldn't cost too much to ship my bed to Jordan, so it's there when I arrive.

Francesca: You’re totally crazy! Wasting money like that?

Antonella: Hey, is that a way to treat a friend?

Francesca (to Antonella): Stop interrupting! (To Tatiana) Well, go on, go on.

Tatiana (suddenly resolute): I've decided: either I take my bed with me, or I don't go!

Francesca (trying to calm her): OK, OK, OK... I guess I understand. Once my mother told me that when she was a university student, she had to work a lot to pay the tuition fees. And with the little amount of money that was left over, she bought herself a bed for the room she was renting. With her money, her money, and she was really proud of it!!

Antonella: But that's not what Tatiana means! She wants her bed like... like... like a baby wants a cradle.

Francesca (to Antonella): Then she had better watch out. No one is going to nurse her in Jordan! Besides, going abroad is supposed to teach you how to walk on your own two legs, right?

Tatiana: Maybe you’re right too, Francesca. But, you see, even if I seem courageous planning this trip to the Middle East with a war going on, it's my dear bed that gives me the courage.

Francesca: Tatiana, your mind is paralysed, that's all. Remember what James Joyce wrote?

Tatiana (to Francesca): Look, you would feel what I feel if you fell into a torrent and a bed, floating on the

raging waters, passed by you. You would cling to it as though it was your life!

Francesca (doesn't know what to say, falters, then gets up and starts to leave): You guys go to our Arabic lesson, I'm cutting class. I need to do something. I'm going shopping, I could use a new pair of shoes. And I'll get something for you Tatiana... a multi-coloured blanket for your bed!! So you start seeing things more optimistically.

Antonella: Come on!!! [Nel senso di “Ma va a quel paese”]

Tatiana: Thanks, Francesca. But your blanket won't change anything. It will end up on top of the sheets and will look nice but it's my sheets that give my bed it's shape and fell, it's the sheets that make me feel “me”.

Antonella: Come on [nel senso di spicciatevi], our Arabic lessons is about to start! Francescaaaa!!!Tatiana and I are going on foot to class!

Francesca: Well, don't let your feet stick out of the bed, you'll stink up the whole classroom.

Antonella e Tatiana (make a gesture of exasperation).

[Director: Three years have passed, Tatiana is returning from Jordan, her friends Antonella and Francesca meet her at the airport].

Tatiana (waving her arms to attract attention): Here I am! (the thee girls embrace, then look each other over)

Antonella: You HAVE changed! What enthusiasm!! What’s happened?

Tatiana: My bed, remember? Well, last year bombs went off in my neighbourhood, one hit my apartment building!! It was terrible, awful!! Acid smoke, and desperation and death in the air, everywhere.

Francesca: Why didn’t you tell us?

Tatiana: I didn’t want you to be worried about me...

Anyway, I wasn't in my apartment, I was in the building across the street with my parents who had just arrived for a visit. I was taking care of them, I had found an apartment for them in the building and I was helping them get settled when the bombs went off. Their apartment suddenly filled with that acid smoke, too, it was everywhere. And as we rushed downstairs I felt like the people in the Twin Towers. And when we got into the street, what did I see? My bed! Next to an abandoned car! And up above, a big hole where the wall of my apartment used to be, the bedroom wall. Anyway, we didn't waste time just standing there and looking. The apartment I had rented for my parents was big, 6 rooms, so mum, dad and me took two homeless families in to live with us. And day after day we helped look for the injured in the collapsed buildings. We also collected relief money, through my uncles and aunts back in Rome, and our parish church. To make a long story short, my parents became a part of my Jordanian neighbourhood; people smiled at them in the street and invited them over to dinner. A mute dinner for my parents, because they are hopeless with languages. But the feeling of respect and understanding was immense.

Antonella: Thank god your parents were there.

Tatiana: Yes, I agree.

Francesca: So your wooden bed got shattered but your living bed remains full of life: that’s almost a happy ending, right?

Tatiana: If you say so. And I’ve decided to open a school in Amman: I want to teach Italian to the Jordanian children. And Arabic, too, since they only speak a dialect. You know, this last idea came from my parents, can you believe that?! And my uncles and aunts will help organize another relief fund to pay for it.

Antonella: Well, that's what families are for!

Tatiana: I know, I know... How about leaving with me in Jordan next month?