PRE-SHOW MUSIC
The Jam: âGoing Undergroundâ.
SCENE ONE: CORE BUSINESS
Lights up on ANDREW and JILL.
ANDREW is in an airlock. Noise-cancelling headphones. Stainless steel water bottle. Listening to The Shanghai Susans. Plastic bags of folders at his feet. A grey-walled corridor only big enough for three humans and a table. Fluoro light above.
JILL is in her studio. She is setting up a couple of microphones. One for a vocal and one for acoustic guitar. Fluoro light.
SIMON is also onstage, either illuminated or in darkness.
ANDREW looks at the dead light. He claps his hands. Nothing. He tries again. Nothing. Silence. LEANNE arrives. Watches him. He moves his arms wildly in the air. Nothing. He jumps up and down and waves and claps.
JILL puts on headphones and tests the microphones with claps and clicks and âŠ
JILL: One. Chew. One. Chew. One. Chooo. One ⊠Chew. Hello, hello. Hello, hello. / One two three four.
LEANNE: Are you okay?
SIMON: It is a fucking deathtrap.
JILL: Here we go. / Here we go. New man. Noi-man, N. E. U. Man. I got a D.I. for guitar and a second-hand Neu-mann T.L.M. one oh chew. One oh chew. Thank you, Georgie. Ho. Ho!
SIMON: And I happen to think that young people deserve a little bit better than derelict, dangerous, ex-government buildings, donât you? Oh no, thatâs right. You want to exterminate all the emerging artists in the world, donât you? Look at these wallsâ!
JILL: Hah! Ready for youâ
LEANNE: Andrew?
ANDREW takes off his headphones.
ANDREW: Where have you been?
Beat.
LEANNE: Monday morning. Parking is a homicide.
ANDREW: Itâs polite to call if youâre running late.
The airlock scene continues as LEANNE sets up her workstation.
LEANNE: Ando. I donât want to get off on the wrong foot but I am not late. / I am actually the best in the office when it comes time management and schedulingâI did my time in chambers with Gibson and Duncan and anybody who has survived articles with those two-time management Nazis knows how to read a clock on the wall. Gibson is the worst.
ANDREW: It is not âAndyâ or âAndoâ or âThe Drew-sterâ. Itâs simple âAndrewâ. Iâm renting and Iâve got a house inspection this morning, so I had to surgically clean my bathroom before I came here because my landlord is a neo-Nazi and she has pictures of every crack. Any tiny defectâ
LEANNE: So far beyond anal, he is intestinal.
ANDREW: I left twenty minutes earlier than I needed just to make sure I would get here on time.
LEANNE: So did I, and look at me. / Here I am. On time. Ready to help you win.
ANDREW: Here I am. On time. They told me nine-thirty.
ANDREWâs phone rings.
LEANNE: For a ten a.m. start andâ
ANDREW: [answering] Hello �
LEANNE: Heâs answering his telephone. Good ti...