Mouthpiece

Norah Sadava, Amy Nostbakken

• Publisher: Coach House Books
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781770565579
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Canadian Drama
• Index: Literature

Winner of the 2017 Toronto Theatre Critics Award for Best New Canadian Play
Winner of three Dora Mavor Moore Awards
Stage Award for Best Performance, 2017 Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Mouthpiece follows one woman, for one day, as she tries to find her voice. Two performers express the inner conflict that exists within a modern woman's head: the push and pull, the past and the present, the progress and the regression. Interweaving a cappella harmony, dissonance, text, and physicality, Mouthpiece is a harrowing, humorous, and heart-wrenching journey into the female psyche.

Scene 1: The Morning

House lights dim, we are in total darkness and complete silence. The women begin to hum a soft melody (score pp. 72–73). After almost three minutes of singing in darkness, lights slowly dawn on the women. WOMAN LEFT is sitting on the inside edge of the tub. WOMAN RIGHT is lying with her legs resting on Woman Left’s lap. The humming ends. Woman Left is facing the audience, Woman Right is looking up. This scene is the game we play with ourselves: wanting to move and wanting to stay put at the same time. All hand gestures are in perfect unison.

WOMAN RIGHT AND WOMAN LEFT: (in unison) My mother always told me that you can cure almost anything with a hot bath.

My mother died last night. Mom died yesterday. I was out at a bar, and she died. So, yesterday I was a daughter, and today I am a motherless child/orphan.

Hi, hi, hi, Aunt Mary? Yeah, it’s Mom, she’s gone. Sorry, yeah it’s just, I’m just, well, I just found out this morning that my mom’s passed on, so … My. Mom. Is. Dead. She died. She’s not here anymore. If I try to call her, no one will answer the phone.

Both straighten backs. Woman Left uncrosses legs.

WOMAN RIGHT: (overlapping with Woman Left) Dead. Gone. Done. Bit the dust. Sayonara.

WOMAN LEFT: (overlapping with Woman Right) My mother, my mom, is gone. If I knock on her door, no one is gonna come out and offer me a tea.

RIGHT AND LEFT: (in unison) My mom made really nice tea.

RIGHT AND LEFT: (in unison to audience) It’s 6:30, it’s Wednesday, it’s minus fourteen outside. I am a woman. I am not a mother. I’m a writer. I live alone in my own apartment on Palmerston Avenue. I drink coffee – black. Last night I was at a bar, I drank pale ale and whisky. This morning I woke up, masturbated, checked my messages, and found out that Mom’s dead. Tomorrow is the funeral. I have to give the eulogy and this morning … (voices overlap creating a synth vocal effect) I woke up with no voice/I woke up with no voice/I woke up with no voice/I woke up with no voice/I woke up with no voice.

RIGHT AND LEFT: (in unison) Okay, I gotta get outta the tub now.

Woman Right goes to exit tub, Woman Left hums, and Right joins the humming as they slide down into the tub and position themselves so that only Woman Left’s head is visible at one end of the tub and only Woman Right’s feet are visible at the other. It looks like there is only one woman lounging in the tub.

LEFT: Okay. One …

RIGHT: I’m gonna pull the plug.

LEFT: Two …

RIGHT: Leap out of the tub.

LEFT: Three …

RIGHT: Dry myself off.

LEFT: Four …

RIGHT: My black shoes.

LEFT: Under the stairs.

RIGHT: I’ll wear that grey sweater.

LEFT: Back of the kitchen chair.

RIGHT: My black jacket.

LEFT: Laundry hamper.

Woman Left starts to get out of tub. Right hums and Left joins, sinking back into tub. Woman Right climbs to kneeling on edge. As she speaks, she climbs until she is hovering right over Woman Left.

RIGHT AND LEFT: (in unison) Okay, I’m gonna get out of the tub in five.

RIGHT: I have to get dressed.

LEFT: I have to leave the house.

LEFT AND RIGHT: (in unison) Four.

RIGHT: I have to buy the flowers.

LEFT: I gotta write the eulogy.

LEFT AND RIGHT: (in unison) Three.

RIGHT: I have to pick a casket to bury Mom in.

LEFT AND RIGHT: (in unison) Jumping straight to logistics. Typical.

Both move to sit on back edge of tub.

LEFT: I have to find a dress for my mom’s dead corpse.

LEFT AND RIGHT: (in unison, with a synchronized gesture of putting hair behind one ear) Using blunt language to shield yourself. Typical.

RIGHT: What do you want me to do, cry about it? You want me to curl up in the fetal position?

LEFT: You want me to stop eating?

RIGHT: I don’t feel like it. I don’t feel anything. I don’t have time to cry.

LEFT: I gotta write a eulogy for my mother that I can’t even read.

RIGHT AND LEFT: (facing audience, in unison) ’Cause I got no voice to read it with. Typical. Okay. (turning to face each other) Two, One!

Scene 2: How To Speak

Lighting shift, as the women sing the lullaby ‘Hush My Baby’ (pp. 74–75) and exit tub.

RIGHT AND LEFT: (singing in unison)

Hush my baby, baby, baby, hush my baby blue,

I never thought I’d meet a girl as clever as …

Woman Left comes downstage left and interrupts the song to speak like an excited science lecturer. Woman Right sits on front edge of tub, dries herself, and creates a rhythmic breathing to underscore the text.

LEFT: First, we take in some air. If this is gonna work, it’s gotta be more air than normal. The diaphragm lowers and the rib cage expands, drawing the air into the throat, down through the windpipe and into the lungs. Then, of course, the process reverses: the diaphragm contracts and the air leaves our lungs. It’s under a lot of pressure now. Pressure, you see, is the fuel of the voice. With all this pressure behind it, the airstream jets back up, past the windpipe, through the throat, and into the mouth. Here, all the resonators are working together: you got the jaw, nose, throat, tongue and teeth, soft palate, hard palate, cheeks, and lips all contorting themselves into different shapes and sizes. You got the back, the abdomen, the legs, the whole body – the entire body is called upon to give birth to just one unique human sound.

Woman Right begins to sing.

Scene 3: Morning Ritual

Woman Left joins Woman Right’s singing as Woman Right comes downstage left. They sing the song ‘Father, Father’ (pp. 76–77) in the style of a Southern hymn as they perform a choreography of mime and dance that represents a morning bathroom routine: brushing teeth, washing face, shower, creams, and shaving. They move as one, like a welloiled machine.

LEFT AND RIGHT: (singing in unison)

Father, Father, help me now,

I am fallen, I am drowned, on and on and on.

Bless the Lord, for I was led astray,

Take me to the water, wash it away.

Cleanse my soul, I’ve stained my name, on and on and on.

I will promise, Father, on my hand and knees I pray

To be silent, Father, help me to wash my sins away,

Help me wash my sins away.

I give you my breath and give you my lungs,

Give you my lips and …

Scene 4: Auntie’s Message

The women end downstage centre looking forward. Woman Right stands slightly in front of Woman Left.

RIGHT: (imitating the sound of a cellphone ringing) Vvvvv vvvvvv.

LEFT: Where are you?

RIGHT: Vvvvv vvvvvv.

LEFT: I can’t answer you.

RIGHT: Vvvvv vvvvvv.

LEFT: I have no voice!

RIGHT AND LEFT: (in unison, running hands through their hair) Hey! You’ve reached Cass Hayward – you know what to do. Beep.

Woman Right places right hand on Woman Left’s arm. Speaking in unison, with no facial expression, their faces are mask-like.

Hi sweetheart, it’s your auntie. You’re probably out there getting everything sorted for your mum. You’re just like her, you know, taking charge, keeping on top of everything … (sigh) Well, Dolly, she’s not really gone now is she? She’s still here watching over us. She’ll be there on your wedding day, she’ll be there when you have your first baby, and you become a mum yourself. Your old mom will be watching over ya … (loudly) And she knew you’d find somebody special soon. I’m sure you’re gonna say all this better than I can when you speak tomorrow. Anyway, I’ve nattered on long enough, dear heart. I’ll be seeing you. We love ya, bye now.

The ‘now’ is extended into a long throbbing note that travels into the deeper regions of the voice. Woman Left pushes Woman Right with her hand until Right is standing directly behind Woman Left.

Scene 5: Getting Dressed

Woman Right is standing behind Woman Left. Th...