ABOUT `AM I
YOUR DREAM?' the radio playWritten by Camille Scaysbrook
Cast :
BOY - Luke Elliot
GIRL - Mandy McElhinney
Produced by Justine Lees, ABC Radio Drama Melbourne.
First Broadcast Saturday 7th June 1997, ABC Radio National.
ABOUT `AM I
YOUR DREAM?' the radio play
This as you can see is similar, but not the same as the stage AM I YOUR DREAM?. For one thing, the movie the young couple are watching is not `Reality Bites' but `Romeo and Juliet' - changed to make it more contemporary, and despite being my all time favourite movie, also very appropriate as the characters contemplate literature's most famous tragic romance as they experience their own version of it. Fox Studios was kind enough to give us a promo video for the film's background sounds, but we weren't so lucky with Radiohead's `Exit Song (For A Film)' which we wanted to use for the end music (as it's the end of the movie) - but having heard Radiohead's magnificent album `OK Computer' I think it was worth the wait !
AM I YOUR DREAM - The Radio Play
CHARACTERS (1 male, 1 female)
`BOY' : The kind of guy you see in every mall. Not adverse to a good night out or a prank but with an extra touch of sensitivity that sets him apart from the others. On the outside he demonstrates the machismo and self-assurance required from him by society, but is quite emotional and tentative underneath.
`GIRL' : Perhaps a little more worldly and mature than the Boy, but romantic - minded. More of a `dreamer' than a `doer'. She is more philosophical rather than merely inquisitive as the Boy is and thus more likely to delve deeper into what she sees around her, and be more reflective about her experiences.
Both characters are around 16 years old, average Sydney South suburbanites, with an identical inability to `break the ice'. They have no knowledge of each others' presence and speak only to the listener.
AM I YOUR DREAM - THE RADIO PLAY
SCENE 1.
1. SFX - MUSIC -` POP SONG '89 ' by R.E.M.
OR : A fairly upbeat rock / pop song, maybe `Sixteen' by the Australian band Noise Addict.
2. BOY - The first tongue kiss I ever received was a mistake. In a game of spin the bottle - how completely corny is this - with a girl I didn't even particularlly like.
3. SFX The opening song becomes instead the song that's on the radio in the background of a party, where people are chatting, giggling etc. Intermittently a jingling sound can be heard.
4. BOY - She had dark brown hair cut like a coconut. Also she had these earrings, of little gold birds inside little cages. I can still hear them tinkling, I swear. And her giggle that seemed somehow to match the tinkling.
5. SFX The giggling / jingling gets louder. The sound of a glass bottle being spun . A cheer as the two victims get chosen .
6. BOY - Anyway, we got picked first and I can still see everyone's dopey little smirks half-lit by one of those pool - table lights above us. Everyone except me was eating these cherry lolly pops, and as they watched us they hung limply out of some peoples' mouth, or made round bulges in the cheeks of others, lips curved into stupid smiles tinted cherry - red.
1. SFX A loud adolescent cheer
2. BOY - I got up, put the big jerky macho face on, tried to walk up to her like I was trying to carry sacks of superphosphate between my knees, failed miserably. She was taller than me, and you have no idea how intimidating that is. I sort of put my hand on her shoulder, like we were about to do the fox trot or some stupid thing.
3. SFX A mounting chant - `go, go, GO GO GO !!!' The omnipresent tinkling sound still continues, now getting louder.
4. BOY - We edged in, I was thinking `OK, this is going well, doing good !' I saw two things in the very last bit. Those tinkling earrings swinging around on her ears, and one of those lollypops stuck on the carpet.
1. SFX The chant turns into a raucous cheer.
2. BOY - Her lips tasted like cherry. I wondered kind of weirdly if she could taste the lemon Lifesaver I'd been eating. Then I suddenly thought -
3. SFX A sudden complete silence
4. BOY - `Hey ! Why am I exchanging flavours with a girl I don't even like?' Even more suddenly it became a lot more than that.
5. SFX The party sounds return, but there are `WOOH's instead of cheers .
6. BOY - She kind of opened her mouth a little. This was a crisis point - did this mean I was supposed to stick my tongue in, and everyone goes `Awww' like in the movies ? It was the most frustrating, confusing, and second most embarrassing moment I'd ever had - give me a break, I was only thirteen. The most em-barrassing moment came next when I actually did.
1. SFX A dense silence rather than the cheers or whoops.
2. BOY - It felt slimy, like a partially melted icecream, sticky like when you spill Coke over yourself and can't clean it up. It lasted exactly one split second. She pulled away, and I realised she wasn't taller than me, she was just wearing high heeled shoes.
3. SFX Sudden adolescent laughter from the party goers.
4. BOY - I could feel myself going red, red, red, staring at that lollypop melting into the carpet and noone doing anything about it, making up all this junk about how she did it not me, trying to shrug it off but failing miserably again.
5. SFX The tinkling replacing all other sounds, ev en tu al ly tu rn in g in to th e sl ow er , deeper sound of a windchime being blown around in the wind .
1. BOY - The worst thing was I snuck a look at her for a second,and she seemed just as hurt and frustrated - and red - as I did. Here I am thinking she was the one who was in control.
