Global Queer Plays

Seven LGBTQ+ Works From Around the World

Danish Sheikh, Jeton Neziraj, Raphaël Amahl Khouri, Jean-Luc Lagarce, Zhan Jie, Mariam Bazeed, Santiago Loza, Alexandra Channer, Lucie Tiberghien, Jeremy Tiang, Samuel Buggeln, Ariel Gurevitch

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781786825070
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: LGBT Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

A unique anthology bringing together stories of queer life from international playwrights, these seven plays showcase the dazzling multiplicity of queer narratives across the globe: the absurd, the challenging, and the joyful. From the legacy of colonialism in India to the farcical bureaucracy of marriage law in Kosovo; from a school counsellor in Taiwan coming out as HIV+, to coming of age in an Israel-Palestine coexistence camp, this is a genre-spanning collection of global writing. Contempt by Danish Sheikh (India)
55 Shades of Gay by Jeton Neziraj, translated by Alexandra Channer (Kosovo)
No Matter Where I Go by Amahl Khouri (Jordan)
Only the End of the World by Jean-Luc Lagarce, translated by Lucie Tiberghien (France)
Taste of Love by Zhan Jie, translated by Jeremy Tiang (Taiwan)
Peace Camp Org by Mariam Bazeed (Egypt)
Winter Animals by Santiago Loza, translated by Samuel Buggeln and Ariel Gurevitch (Argentina) Originally selected and performed as part of the Arcola Queer Collective's Global Queer Plays call-out event.

Jean-Luc Lagarce

ONLY THE END OF THE WORLD
(JUSTE LA FIN DU MONDE)

translated by Lucie Tiberghien

Only the End of the World was presented in a rehearsed reading as part of Global Queer Plays on Saturday 3rd March, 2018 at the Arcola Theatre, London. Cast and creatives were as follows:

Director	Alistair Wilkinson
CAST	Mia Georgis
	Elizabeth Leemann Noga Flaishon Afro Parise Tommy Papaioannou

CHARACTERS

LOUIS 34
SUZANNE his sister, 23
ANTOINE their brother, 32
CATHERINE Antoine’s wife, 32
THE MOTHER mother of Louis, Antoine
and Suzanne, 61

The action takes place in the house of THE MOTHER and SUZANNE, on a Sunday, of course, or perhaps during the course of a whole year.

Prologue

LOUIS: Later, the following year

– It would be my turn to die –

I am almost thirty-four now and it is at that age that I

will die,

the following year,

for many months already, I’d been waiting without doing

anything, cheating, knowing nothing anymore,

for many months I’d been waiting to be done

the following year,

like we sometimes dare to move,

barely,

when faced with an extreme danger, imperceptibly, trying

not to make noise, or a gesture that would be too violent,

wake the enemy, and immediately destroy us,

the following year,

yet despite everything,

the fear,

taking that risk and with no hope, ever, of survival,

despite everything,

the following year,

I decided to visit them, to return, retrace my steps and

take the journey,

in order to announce, slowly, carefully, carefully and

precisely

– I thought –

slowly, calmly, with poise

– have I not always been, for others, and for them to be

exact, have I not always been a poised man? –

to announce,

tell,

just tell,

my upcoming and irremediable death,

to announce it myself, to be its only messenger,

and to seem

– maybe what I’ve always wanted, wanted and decided, in

all circumstances and for as long as I dare to remember –

to seem able, there again, to decide,

to give myself and others, them to be exact, you, all of

you, her, those that I don’t yet know (too late, oh well),

to give myself and to give others, one last time, the illusion

of being a responsible person and of being, until the very

end, my own master.

Part One

SCENE ONE

SUZANNE: This is Catherine.

She is Catherine.

Catherine, this is Louis.

Here is Louis,

Catherine.

ANTOINE: Suzanne, please, will you let him come closer?

Let him come closer.

CATHERINE: She’s happy.

ANTOINE: She’s like a puppy.

THE MOTHER: Don’t say it, what I just heard, it’s true, I forgot, don’t say it, they don’t know each other.

Louis, you don’t know Catherine? Don’t say it, you don’t know each other, you’ve never met, never?

ANTOINE: How would they? You know that.

LOUIS: I’m very happy.

CATHERINE: Yes, me too, of course, me too. Catherine.

SUZANNE: You’re shaking her hand?

LOUIS: Louis.

Suzanne said so, she just said so.

SUZANNE: You’re shaking her hand, he’s shaking her hand.

You’re not really going to shake her hand? They’re not going to shake hands, they’re like strangers.

He hasn’t changed, that’s exactly how I remember him, you haven’t changed, he hasn’t changed, exactly how I imagined him, he hasn’t changed, Louis, and in her, Catherine, her, you’ll recognize yourself, you’ll find each other easily, she’s the same, you’ll find each other. Don’t shake her hand, hug her.

Catherine.

ANTOINE: Suzanne, they’re seeing each other for the first time.

LOUIS: Let me hug you, she’s right, I’m sorry, I’m very happy, may I?

SUZANNE: You see, you have to tell them.

THE MOTHER: On the other hand, why would I think, did I

think, such a thought? I knew it. But I’m like that, I just never

would have imagined that they didn’t know each other,

that you didn’t know each other,

that the wife of my other son would not know my son,

that, I never would’ve imagined,

thought it possible.

Your lives are funny.

CATHERINE: W...