Looking for Mrs. Peel blog with audio visual links,
Scene Eight: Nixon Living Room Following day
SOUND: clink of glass on glass, running water, background noise of children on street
Dorothy: (singin) R.E.S.P.E.CT: find out what it means to me.
Dorothy vo: The morning after I empty and wash a dozen ashtrays. The black square obsidian astray; the spotty green Bavarian blown glass one ;the tacky affair shaped like a sea shell from Old Orchard Beach, Maine; the clunky see-through job stamped with the Molson Export Ale logo. Among other classic 60’s designs.
Granny: Martha. Did you see the little yellow Bakelite ashtray? I’m sure I put it by my chair.
Martha: Dorothy must have moved it. It’s her job to clean up after parties. Here’s a nice one with the Rocky Mountains on it.
Granny: No, I prefer the Bakelite one. It fits nicely into my hand.
Martha: Dorothy! Where’s the little yellow ashtray?
Dorothy: (afar) In the hall, on the telephone table, where you like it.
Martha: Well, get it and give it to your grandmother. Right now!
Granny: And Martha, would you shut that window. The racket those Canadian children make. They shout and shriek all day.I’m used to the gentle Malay children at play.
Martha: Certainment (Sx SLAM OF WINDOW SHUTTING)
Scene Nine: Nixon Duplex Another day.
SOUND: French Radio. ID: Ici Radio Canada. Thunder rumblings
Woman on radio: De Gaulle n’a pas le droit de se melanger dans nos affaires…
Dorothy vo: My mother begins to invent excellent reasons during the day to escape.
Martha : (on phone) Vive le Quebec libre. Quelle gros espece de serpent. Je descend dans deux minutes.(sx clack of receiver being replaced)
Dorothy vo: Leaving me trapped alone with my grandmother
Martha: I’m going to Mme. Dufour’s for a visit. Take care of your grandmother.
Dorothy: Where’s Mark?
Martha: He’s gone to Rickie’s to play that Pepper album on his new stereo. (sx slam of door)
(Sx Radio background: That was The Mammas and the Pappas. San Francisco or be sure to wear flowers in your hair. Next,a new crossover song by Bobby Gentry (new promo) The Buddy G Thing: every night from 4-9. On CKGM. It’s what happening. So Glob on.)
Dorothy VO: Bakelite ashtray in her left hand, Rothman’s unfiltered in her right, the cranky old crone paces up and down our cramped apartment , absurdly overdressed for late July in black stretch pants and a thick brown turtleneck sweater. Her boobs sag almost to her knees like two spent balloons and her bum is wide and flat like a giant burnt pancake.She shuffles past the dining room where I sit cross-legged on my cot stroking my library books: Ring of Bright Water, Born Free, King of the Wind and Silent Spring, all about animals,all borrowed from the NDG Library for boys and girls, all books I’ve taken out many times before, and listening to music on my brother’s battered Realtone transistor radio.
(Sx Wonderbra jingle: Back ground music:To be free and alive, everywhere that you go.Is to wear what you dare anywhere and to travel with flair and style that will show wherever you go…)
She veers right into the adjacent living room taking eight more slouching steps to the window, and pauses for a spell,above Mummy’s mildewed African Violet on the sill. She scowls at the wind tossed branches of the Maple outdoors. She taps her cigarette ash into the little yellow dish in her opposite hand, then she whips around to look me in the eyes,through the crack in the French doors separating the rooms, the very moment a bolt of lightning rips open the murky slice of Montreal sky behind her. (Sx Thunder) She opens her miserable marionnette-lined mouth as if she is going to speak
Granny: What are yoooou reaaaad…?
Dorothy (vo)but I’m saved by the bell, or more precisely by the buzzer
(Sx DOOR BUZZER. Sound of quick quick steps closing in
Ingrid: Here’s the Tiger Beat you wanted back, the one with Illya and Herman’s Hermits.
Dorothy: Can you stay and play a bit?
Ingrid: No, my Auntie Pryanka is here from India. We’re teaching her to walk in high heels. What a riot! Is that your grandmother?
Dorothy: Yep.
Ingrid: She’s a real sun-baked bag of wrinkles. What’s with the frown?
Dorothy: What are you doing?
Ingrid: Playing Monkey See Monkey Do. Have I got the scowl right? The hunchback?
Dorothy: Don’t imitate her like that. She’ll see!
Dorothy: What does she have eyes at the back of her head too?
Scene Ten: Nixon Kitchen. Some days later
SOUND: Whir of Mixmaster
Dorothy vo: And then the old lady oversteps even a visiting mother in law’s prerogative.
Martha: Dorothy, come and lick the beaters. Oh, I meant the other Dorothy of course.
Granny: What are you making?
Martha: Shoofly Pie. Dorothy’s favorite. Sugar and spice and everything nice. And French Chocolate Cake. My specialty. 6 eggs and ¾ of a pound of butter.
Granny: No wonder your kids have spots. 6 eggs! What an appalling waste.
Martha: Do you know what I find wasteful. 40 ounces of gin a week!
Scene Eleven: Outside Nixon Master Bedroom
SOUND: muffled arguing. Heaving breathing
Dorothy vo: Generally my mother prefers to air her complaints out in the open, French Canadian style. This closed door business is new to me.
Martha: (muffled) I’m sick of playing happy hostess to your mother. Take her out sometimes, at night.
Peter: grumble
Martha: I know this is your busiest time. But sometimes I think you are just making excuses. Why not go to dinner at Bill Wong’s or Ruby Foo’s. She likes the Chinese so much. Or get tickets to one of those fancy Centennial galas. You work for the Expo. Mon Dieu. Pull some strings!
Peter: grumble
Martha: What a thing to say. Everyone loves their mother. It’s only natural.And you haven’t seen her in 30 years, when she took that fameux bateau de banane steerage to visit you in school in England. It’s not her fault you ignored her letters after the war.
