Eugenia

Lorae Parry, John Thomson

• Publisher: Victoria University Press
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9780864737786
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Drama
• Index: Literature

Set in 1916 and the present, EUGENIA tells the story of Eugenia Martelli, an Italian immigrant at the beginning of the century, who lives as a man and marries a woman without revealing her true gender. Eugenia is a charmer, a con artist, a womaniser and an outsider, who lives life on a dangerous edge. Eugenia is arrested - but is she a cold-blooded criminal or has she been put on trial as a gender offender?

Act One

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Prologue, 1916

Italian music is heard. The lights come up on EUGENIA, VIOLET, RUBY, MRS BASSANI, VINCENT and WALLACE. All are dressed in 1916 costume. With the exception of EUGENIA, they all sing vigorously—the first two verses of an Italian folk song, ‘Bella Ciao’. VINCENT and WALLACE stand to the side. One or both of the men accompany the song on guitar. While they sing, EUGENIA removes her women’s clothing and hat. Underneath, she is dressed in a man’s suit. She exits while the other women continue to sing. The singing stops and the women speak to each other and to the audience. The guitar music continues under the women’s dialogue.

MRS BASSANI: He was the most beautiful woman I ever know. He knew how a woman liked to be treated.

VIOLET: She was the most romantic man I ever knew.

MRS BASSANI: Che buon amore. (A good lover.)

RUBY: He was a right good lover all right.

VIOLET: He wouldn’t be telling a woman to do anything. He’d ask.

MRS BASSANI: He was bella. Così bella.

RUBY: He knew what it felt like to be a woman. An’ when it come to kissin’, I’d say he’d rate heavenly. Heavenly plus. He wasn’t afraid of gettin’ his lips wet.

The guitar music stops.

WALLACE: He was a very confused young woman. The body was a house divided. A misused mansion. The dwelling that had been designed for the sacred ceremonies of motherhood became a ribald clubhouse for the mock rites of masculinity.

The guitar starts again and they all sing the last two verses of ‘Bella Ciao’ as the woman dance the tarantella. MRS BASSANI sweeps up EUGENIA’s discarded garments as they all dance off.

Scene 1: School Hall, the present

GEORGINA enters. She is rehearsing a speech of intention for the position of principal.

GEORGINA: St Benedict’s is capable of becoming one of the most progressive independent schools in the country. If I were appointed principal, it would be my priority to restore the excitement of crea...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Title Page
• First Performance
• Playwright’s Note
• Acknowledgements
• Production Notes
• Characters
• Epigraph
• Table of Contents
• Act One
• Act Two
• By the Same Author
• Copyright