Hot Dust
Incubator Arts Project, New York, Jan 25-Feb 3, 2013
With: Faryl Amadeus, Chet Mazure, Sharla Meese, Prairie Rose, Dave Shelley, and Brooke Volkert.
The ecstatic Sister takes two forms: In Act One, she is a Spiritualist medium who evades an angry client in Buffalo to find fame assuaging the sorrows of Cleveland in a mass seance. All the while, she waits fruitlessly for a message from her beloved estranged sibling. In Act Two, she is a Pentecostal evangelist on the Sawdust Trail, transported back in time from the shame of her revealed adultery to her beginnings as a radio pastor and finally to her first moment in grace, alone in a crowd in Ontario.
ELIZA:
We’ve prepared the room. We’ve sat in peace. In short, we’ve done everything we can. But let me say once again: only love and light are welcome here.
Silence. They all inhale deeply.
A single bell chime.
Sister inhales again. Eliza secretly signals Eustace; he floats the handkerchief past The Widow’s face and she shudders. They look at her, then past her as if watching the spirit leave the room.
SISTER:
A filament. A shade of glass, stained green. Thicker in the center. A gold pull chain.
ELIZA:
Does that mean anything to you, Mrs. Bennington?
THE WIDOW BENNINGTON:
A hole in my stocking. I can grab it with my toe.
Silence.
SISTER:
A gold rim -- a watch?
ELIZA:
Does that mean anything to you, Mrs. Bennington?
THE WIDOW BENNINGTON:
What is that smell?
SISTER:
Soft brown, with a crease. Leather. The fold runs diagonally from upper left to lower right.
ELIZA:
Does this mean anything to you, Mrs. Bennington?
Silence, then Sister gasps.