The House on the Lake

Aidan Fennessy

• Publisher: Currency Press
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781925210934
• Topic: Literatura
• Subtopic: Arte dramático

'I can't go back to yesterday because I was a different person then.'%##CHAR13##%%##CHAR13##%A criminal lawyer with a cool head and a passion for logic, David wakes up to find himself confined to a small, sparsely furnished room, unable to remember what happened the day before. With the help of his doctor, David begins to coax memories out of the darkness, before the details of a terrible secret emerge.%##CHAR13##%%##CHAR13##%Razor sharp and tourniquet tight, The House on the Lake is a psychological thriller so crafty it's criminal. Mired deep in layers of deception, it's a puzzle of a play certain to engage the intellect and assault the nervous system.

SCENE ONE

DAVID is sitting on the bed, wearing crisp hospital pyjamas. ALICE stands with some distance between herself and DAVID. In front of her on the table sits a file, a laptop, and various other documents. She is neatly and conservatively dressed with a white doctor’s coat and a name tag. From outside we can hear the distant sound of rain. A cold early evening light streams in through the high windows. Occasionally throughout the play we hear the distant muffled sound of the hospital P.A. system. It’s October twenty-second. DAVID looks at his pyjamas, looks around the room. He seems both alert and disorientated. He looks to the high windows and listens to the rain.

ALICE: David…?

Pause.

DAVID: Yes?

Pause.

ALICE: Do you mind if I sit?

DAVID gestures for her to take a seat.

Thank you. My name is Alice. I’m here to help.

She sits and opens her laptop then taps a few keys on the computer.

DAVID: … You’re a doctor?

ALICE: Yes.

Pause.

DAVID: Where am I?

ALICE: You’re in a hospital…

DAVID: Why?

ALICE: … We’re not sure.

DAVID nods.

You’re okay, David. You’re safe here.

DAVID: … Safe?

ALICE: Yes.

Pause.

DAVID: Where are my clothes?

ALICE: Everything’s being looked after, David.

Pause.

DAVID: So… what’s happened?

ALICE: We don’t know yet… We’re hoping you can help us find out…

DAVID: … We?

ALICE: What’s the last thing you remember?

DAVID thinks.

DAVID: I woke up… here. In this room…

ALICE: Before that?

DAVID: … I was working in my office.

ALICE: What were you doing in your office?

DAVID: … Working…

Pause. DAVID looks around the room. He shrugs and shakes his head.

ALICE: That’s okay… You’re okay… We need to conduct a series of tests… David? You understand? To see where you’re at. I thought we might just start with names and see how we go from there. So… my name is…?

DAVID stares at her.

Alice… and you are?

DAVID: David… David Rail.

ALICE: Good, David. So let’s have a think about how we might go about remembering our names, yes? One way that we might use to remember a name is to use what is called—

DAVID: Remembering our names…

ALICE: Yes.

DAVID: I don’t understand… why?

ALICE: This is just a simple—

DAVID: Have I met you before? [Pause.] Because you seem familiar. You seem familiar to me…

ALICE: Do you feel as if we have met before?

DAVID: … Have we?

ALICE: … Perhaps I have one of those faces.

DAVID: —

ALICE: Let’s just concentrate on names. If you were to try and remember my name what kind of things do you think might help us out, David?

DAVID: What do I think might help us out…?

ALICE: Yes, David.

DAVID: One thing, Alice, do you mind?

ALICE: Not at all.

DAVID: Do you mind before we proceed? One thing…

ALICE: Yes, David.

DAVID: One thing before we go on… I appreciate you are simply trying to do your job and that in the course of executing that task you may have to interact with a whole range… a whole spectrum of… types… but can I ask you, Alice, and it’s a little irksome so I’ll try to phrase this as delicately as I can… but could you, Alice, could you possibly stop talking at me as if I were a vegetable?

Pause.

ALICE: Of course.

DAVID: I respect that you’re her...