THE WHORE
Alena Ivaniushanka
Translated into English by Volha Tsiashkevich, edited by Apeksha Harsh
Copyright by Alena Ivaniushanka. All rights reserved.
SYNOPSIS
The heroines of this play are making a movie about school. While coming up with the script, they remember their teenage years. Fiction is intertwined with reality, and at some point it is difficult to understand whether this is the directors’ life experience or their fantasy. The story is a far cry from the plot of romantic films. The girls explore traumatic experiences and the silent violence that occurs far away from parental control. The author notes that patriarchal society offers a growing girl two paths: “good girl” or “prostitute.” Hence follows the traumatic experience of female socialization.
CHARACTERS
Maya
Anya
Yana (a character in the stories told by Maya and Anya)
1.
YANA. School. Classroom. Everyone yelling. The teacher’s still not there. All running around, kicking someone’s bag stuffed with a PE uniform. Brushing their hair and the hair from their brushes sticking all over you. So disgusting to find someone else’s hair in your copybook. Eyes black. Lips. Three layers of sticky glossy lipstick. That smell. Of sweat and the sickly sweet mix of makeup and deodorant. And through the rumble I overhear them, the boys at the desk in the back…
BOYS. No, guys, I tell ya, medium size is the thing. I mean, the shape. It should fit in your palm. And no hanging down. If you like them hanging down, gotta go to grans, got ‘em hanging down to their knees. Dude, you a necrophile, or what? Show me your hand. Dude, blisters? You cryin’ at nights, jerking off?
BOYS. Get lost. Look, Lisa’s got ‘em good ones. Check out the pic.
YANA. Lisa’s rubbish. In my mind. I feel my pulse in my temples and I blush. Shame. I don’t hear the others anymore, chatting about homework, the test, bullshit. Someone’s pulling my copybook. One louder than the next. Words and guffaws.
BOYS. Duuuude, let’s see. Vera, hmmm. She’s okay. And Masha, ha, Masha’s flat like a board, her whole ass would fit in your palm. Would you bother?
YANA. Aren’t they actually aware that we can hear them? Masha’s sitting next to me. She’s all red, hiding her face in her hair pretending to be on her phone. And Vera is in front of me. She turns around, rolls her eyes like, omg what jerks. She’s not a friend, we just laugh sometimes. She’s the one with the lips. I imagine how that lipstick can get smeared all over, like in the movies.
BOYS. Best boobs! Name-vote! Name-vote! Woooooo!
YANA. I grab her by the hair, rough, like a dramatic movie gesture. And I kiss her. Everyone’s shocked. Vera plays along, works her tongue, right into my gums. Yuck. The lipstick turned out to be sticky. Took me another day to get rid of her glitter. No idea why I did that. Just for fun. Just to show them.