WRITTEN : December 1993 - January 1994. (Revised February 1997)

Unproduced.

My favourite plays are the ones with the smallest casts - here, it is the interplay of three people, the smallest you can get without being a two-hander (which, while interesting and challenging to write, is also limiting). Ultimately, the play was inspired by three things: a lunar eclipse I witnessed in 1993, the REM song I encountered at about the same time, a beautiful, evocative and mysterious song whose atmosphere I attempted to invoke in the play, and a tiny cafe in the Blue Mountains, north of Sydney. The location of this cafe remained a mystery to me for years until I happened upon it again only last year, in the tiny but beautiful town of Mount Victoria. Mercedes was a character who, like SONNY BOY's Violet, I had created earlier, this time as the heroine of a series of short stories called `Mercedes' Bends'.

I left it alone for a long time after writing it, because it seemed to be a relic of a completed learning process and an earlier and inferior way of writing. However, I still liked the idea and, at a loose end in 1997 I rewrote it. I've always disliked Henry James for doing exactly this to his early works, and I probably should have heeded his example. It's always tempting to work over something than start something new, and I was eager to explore the ambiguities I had enjoyed in HONEY BUNNY and could never get the concept out of my head. Nothing ever came of the rewrite, which worked the idea up to a full length play, so this is one for the archives. One day I will put the original up here as a comparison.

This play is very typical of my early plays - high concept (the idea often overtaking the execution), sometimes semi-allegorical, short-storylike. The GARDENING AT NIGHT here is very different from its original version, but traces of this style are still very much in evidence. The original, written late '93 and early '94 (ironically, during the 1994 Bushfires which devastated the area around my home, taking over 100 houses - it was only sheer luck that mine was not one) was my first major attempt at a play, and it was not very long after writing it that it seemed hopelessly contrived and more like a short story than a play. It was very much indicative of my lack of experience - It seems hard to believe that I had progressed enough in the space of less than a year to write AM I YOUR DREAM?. However, it remains an important stage in my development.

The Characters-

MERCEDES GREEN - A resourceful but slightly naive fifteen year old girl who is dissatisfied with her disjointed life, and covers her insecurity with a facade of brashness, surliness and lies upon other lies. However, with her guard down she demonstates and odd depth and tenderness.

CANDY SULLIVAN - A tough, blunt and rather eccentric single mother. Although only in her early thirties, she is excessively scared of getting old, and of her own pyromanical and self destructive tendencies. She too is dissatisfied and looks back frequently to the irrevocable mistakes of her past.

RYAN SULLIVAN - Candy's son, and in contrast to her, a very balanced, stable boy who is perfectly attuned to life - perhaps skills that he has developed as a survival instinct. He has lived an isolated life so is a little unsure of how to deal with other people.

Also waitresses and customers which can double as guests at the party.

Setting - A small country town in NSW. Specifically, a tiny Chinese Restaurant, and the Apollo Guesthouse porch and its surrounds.

GARDENING AT NIGHT

- The February 1997 Revision.

SCENE 1 - A tiny country town Chinese Restaurant, decorated in Chinese kitsch. A few people are quietly sipping coffee, listening to a radio and several waitresses weave their way around the tables. It is clear that its clientelle barely changes from day to day. Mercedes enters nervously, heading initially for an empty table, but deciding instead to harness her audacity and meet someone new, choosing a table where a kindly looking middle aged man sits.

MERCEDES - Mind if I sit here?

CUSTOMER - Not at all. (silence) You not from around here?

MERCEDES - Nah ... no. Holidays ... the city you know. The Big Smoke ! Just gets too big and smoky after a while, and you know ... had long service privileges coming up and all so ... why not ? Head for the country !

CUSTOMER - (feigning interest) Hmm...

(Mercedes is clearly uneasy but trying to fight it with a kind of contrived bravado. The waitress approaches, Mercedes responds before she can even open her mouth.)

MERCEDES - Black coffee please ! A pot actually ... no, a glass.

CUSTOMER - I can't drink it black. Too strong for me !

MERCEDES - Ah, well. Hardly know anyone in my profession whose nerves aren't coated with a solid layer of caffeine ! .... Advertising. I'm in advertising.

CUSTOMER - Ahhh. (He attempts to return to his paper, but Mercedes notices the article he is reading)

MERCEDES - Oh ! The lunar eclipse ! I heard about this ! Fascinating, isn't it ?

CUSTOMER - Yes . Best one 'till the year 2000, apparently .... You like astronomy?

MERCEDES - I love astronomy ... there's something about the stars that just entrances me, you know what I mean ? Stars. Planets. Other worlds. So far apart, so far away! I suppose there'll be some optimum vantage points around here? No city lights or anything ?

CUSTOMER - I suppose there will be ...

(The customer finishes his coffee and gets ready to leave.)

MERCEDES - (rapidly) Oh ! Wait ... would you care to join me in a Danish ... sorry, a Dim Sim, I keep forgetting I'm not in Double Bay anymore ! Or ...

CUSTOMER - Thankyou, that's very kind, but no ...

MERCEDES - Well, thanks for your company, you country people are so close knit it's beautiful (he's leaving, she realises her attempts to stall him have failed) Happy lunar eclipse !!!

(She pulls out a battered copy of Jack Kerouac's `On the Road', reads restlessly for a while, then fidgets, impatiently trying to catch a waitresses' attention. One finally comes over.)

WAITRESS - Yes ?

MERCEDES - Can I have a prawn toast with that coffee ? And a dim sim. Do you use MSG ?

WAITRESS - I wouldn't hava a clue.

MERCEDES - No MSG, please. Anything with MSG, I don't want it. Allergy. And a newspaper thanks. Got to keep up with current affairs. Advertising. I'm in advertising, see. (She gets up and starts pacing around) Actually, is there a newsagents near here, I'd like to check up on my stocks in Financial Review.

WAITRESS - Look out there ...

MERCEDES - Oh, you don't have to worry, I've been surfing the stocks for years, I was even considered somewhat of a prodigy...

(She walks backwards straight into Candy, who drops a tray of dishes containing Mercedes' prawn toast and dim sim.)

CANDY - Ohh, good one. Great one. All those years in advertising didn't teach you squat about direction!

MERCEDES - (cooly) Here. Would you like some help with that.

CANDY - If your loud yapping voice could lift dishes, we wouldn't have a problem here.

(Mercedes loses her ostentatious facade. This isn't what Candy was expecting.)

MERCEDES - I ... I'm sorry. I didn't see you properly ... (She scurries around trying to tidy up) This is terrible, I'm so sorry.

CANDY - S'alright.

MERCEDES - No, it isn't. Here. Let me help you.

(Together they clean up the mess. Candy looks at her curiously, as if had known her many years ago.)

CANDY - Would think you're used to a maid doing this for you ?

MERCEDES - Uh, no. (forthright) No. No maids. Corporate downsizing in the late 80's ended all that.

(Candy has noticeably blackened hair at the end of her blonde hair, which she shoves self consciously away as Mercedes notices it.) You're obviously not from around here, are you ?

MERCEDES - (reassuming the facade) No, you're right I'm not. Is it that obvious? Oh dear. I wanted to blend in, too! Everything's so much nicer and kinder in the country here! So quaint!

(The other waitress enters with a new prawn toast and dim sim. She glares at Candy)

CANDY - Cow. (She suddenly sits down at Mercedes' table). My name's Candy.

MERCEDES - Uh ... hi.

CANDY - Do people just roll up and introduce themeselves to you in the city? Or do they not do that ? Is it a quaint country custom?

MERCEDES - Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to begrudge you ...

CANDY - Belittle me, don't you mean ?

MERCEDES - Yes. That was the word I was looking for.

CANDY - Obviously don't write your own copy.

MERCEDES - Uh ... no. (changing the subject) No, I can't say people do come up and introduce themselves. A shame, really. Oh, they do come UP to you. Crazies, of course. Yell at you about Jesus, beg from you, maybe. All part of living in the Big Smoke ... ha ha.

CANDY - What's your name, then? Not in the Big Smoke now, are you ?

MERCEDES - My name? It's Danielle Martinique-Robertson.A Representative of Clinton Advertising. (She shakes her hand in a businesslike manner)

CANDY - Candy Sullivan. A Representative of the Wang Tung Chinese Eatery. (matter-of-factly) So tell me dear, what's your real name?

(Mercedes gapes, flustered. She decides to play it cool)

MERCEDES - Well, strictly, strictly speaking I no longer keep the `Robinson' ... divorce ... (she tails off. Candy is shaking her head, smiling sardonically.) Oh. Oh. well, my, my civilian name ... (her facade once again dissolves). Green. Mercedes Green. Please, no car noises, OK.

CANDY - Don't fool me with your Advertising baloney either.

MERCEDES - Now, THAT my friend is true. Clinton Advertising, I can even show you a campaign I ...

CANDY - Nope. You're a typical Pisces. Cover yourself up but you're still completely transparent.

MERCEDES - H ... How ....

CANDY - I've been around.

MERCEDES - Okay then.

CANDY - Truth ?

MERCEDES - Truth. I'm travelling. A student of life, okay? I'm trying to research a book I'm writing about ... travelling, and country towns and stuff. And the moon. The moon's a major theme in it. Have you ever read `On the Road' by Jack Kerouac? Like that. Happy ?

CANDY - Far, far from it.

(Mercedes picks up the newspaper the customer left and superciliously looks through it, hoping Candy will leave. She doesn't.)

CANDY - Something you're not telling me?

MERCEDES - (suddenly bursting out) So what if there is ? Is it any of your business ? No. Why don't you just butt out ? You country ... damn ... nosey ... (She trails to a halt as Candy begins to laugh) What's your problem, lady? Where I come from they women like you carry dead pigeons in plastic bags and sing to themselves ... (Candy laughs herself out, wiping her eyes. She suddenly opens up and becomes a bit less gruff.)

CANDY - I'm sorry. I was just seeing myself at your age. Look, I'm sorry, I'm a stickybeak, I'm a nosey parker, call me what you like. It's the least of my problems.

MERCEDES - (sarcastically) You got that right. Put your shrink on danger money, honey.

CANDY - Ha! No, I'm sorry. Dear ... Mercedes. Please. Please. Drop this ridiculous business. You're just too see-through. No, I'm sorry, I'm horrible and tactless. My son is always telling me that. I'll level with you. You're probably looking for a good place to see the eclipse, right?

MERCEDES - (cautiously) Perhaps. Nothing that a credit card to the owner of a good hotel won't fix.

CANDY - Well, I'm the owner of the highest up house in town. The Apollo Guest House. Perfect views. How about I give you a room for free. Just cause you remind me of me. How's that sound?

MERCEDES - (pause) We'll see about that. Don't know what the boss'll say, though.

CANDY - I thought we'd finished with that lie?

MERCEDES - Quick, aren't we?

CANDY - Do you still want that newspaper?

MERCEDES - (uneasily) YES! (Candy turns to leave.) Can I just ask you one more thing?

CANDY - Uh huh ?

MERCEDES - What did you do to your hair?

CANDY - (closing up again) You really don't want to know.

(She leaves. Mercedes takes the paper from where she had thrown it, frowning as she reads it.)