2016

Act I

Scene I

LAURA, 23, sits in a hipster coffee shop in Vilnius with a magazine in her hands. There is a cup of coffee in front of her. SIMONE, 27, rushes into the coffee shop. Laura notices her and smiles. Girls hug.

SIMONE

Hi, sorry I’m late. Where’s Yurga? I’ll just get a cup of coffee.

Simone goes to buy coffee. Laura stays at the table and looks around.

Simone comes back with coffee and sits next to Laura. All girls are drinking coffee during their meeting.

LAURA

I haven’t been here. When did it open?

SIMONE

A few months ago. Everything is going to be here soon. This district reminds me of something.

LAURA

London?

SIMONE

No, not that…

LAURA

New York? Berlin?

SIMONE

No... Well, maybe Berlin. But why does it have to be like something? Maybe it is a brand new thing there has never been before?

LAURA

Do you really believe that?

SIMONE

Not really. But it is nice to see that the most scary district has become the most visited one. Without glitter, just some cosmetic changes. All you need.

LAURA

Hey, Sima, it’s just like Lithuania now. But just dive in deeper…

Simone laughs. Laura feels embarrassed and hides it with a sip of coffee. YURGA (32) comes into the coffee shop, looks around, notices girls and comes to them. Girls are happy to see her. All hug. Yurga sits down next to them with a smile. She obviously has some news.

YURGA

What you’re talking about?

SIMONE

Laura says that Lithuania is neat and beautiful only on the outside and if you go deeper inside, it gets scary.

YURGA

Ah... Again you with these… Lately we meet so rarely. Only once in six months, almost. And now we will meet even more rarely because our little genius is leaving.

LAURA

We’ll see each other on skype.

YURGA

Yes, yes. New technologies. Oh, by the way, I just found out that my option to make a documentary about Sheakspeare bookshop in Paris was confirmed aaaaand… Next week I go to Paris for two months.

SIMONE

Oh! That’s the one you really wanted, right? That bookshop from “Before Sunrise”?

LAURA

What?

YURGA

"Before Sunset”. But yeah, the same. Where all the personel speaks English and it is not that easy to work there but every client will be suggested a book by employees of the shop.

LAURA

Oh, I would love to go there! But I think there will be some great bookshops in New York, too. Only a bit more than a week and I’m leaving! ONLY a week and I’m leaving!

Girls laugh.

YURGA

Oh you, our genius! Which university did you get into, again?

SIMONE

New York?

LAURA

No, Columbia. One of my professors knows people there. Professional of international law. So he recommended me and if it wasn’t for him, I don’t know where would I have gotten into.

YURGA

Well, just look at that. Amazing.

SIMONE

Great. Hey, maybe this professor really liked you…

Simone and Yurga laughs at the thought. Laura politely smiles.

SIMONE

Hey, I’m just kidding. We know how much you’ve been studying and if you need help it is only because no one knows what Lithuania is. It’s just this old stereotype that if someone helps you, you must be giving something back. And. Well. But. Talking about oldies. In front of this coffee shop I’ve overheard such a chat that I had no words after.

LAURA

Wow, YOU had no words…

YURGA

Well, well?

SIMONE

There were two old women walking by, around seventy or something like it. So, they should know life better than us, right? So, they pass a poster and discuss it. You know the one with a dog, prevention for violence against women? That one. So, one lady is telling her friend “How my boy is supposed to live now? He’s an animal in society’s eyes… I called and asked to take these down but nothing has been done. I can’t even look at it, to call people animals…” Another lady was terrified: ”And they did nothing? The end of the world… How could they?” So these two ladies go there and talk about posters people are making public these days. I couldn’t take it anymore and I asked them what they thought about men who beat women.

YURGA

And?

LAURA

What did they say?

Pause.

SIMONE

“They must have deserved what they have gotten.”

LAURA

Oh. There still are people like that?

YURGA

Wow. Twenties period park?

SIMONE

This was said by women who were more or less seventy. So, my dear Laura, on some levels of our society there are no change even on the outside. There is only a changing generation. We are different and the younger generation will be even further from these things.

LAURA

Horrible. If he hits you, leave him at once. Pack your things and leave the same day he did that to you.

SIMONE

It just looks like that for us. We live in our safe bubble, everyone around us thinks like that and no senior with views like that is an authority. But when you have family, especially when you depend on your man, there’s not many choices you have. And what will people say?

LAURA

That you did well?

YURGA

That the man is lucky and now you’ll be an old maid who had this coming?

SIMONE

Only in province people think like that. And like these two friends. And that is the biggest problem of our society. I think.

YURGA

And?

SIMONE

You know I’ve been looking for a job for a long time now. You know, some projects to work on. And that’s why I couldn’t meet you guys a few last times. I stayed with my parents and grandparents for some time. I was helping them how I could and saw and heard such things that I decided to write a book on how women from Soviet times are affecting the development of Lithuanian province.

YURGA

Nice! Good for you. It’s been a long time since you had an idea for a project.

LAURA

Yeah, that’s really cool. I can’t wait to read it. Do you have a lot of material?

SIMONE

Yeah. Quite enough. I recorded it all and now I have I don’t know how many hours of it.

YURGA

You’re going to transcribe it?

LAURA

Ooh… That’s a pain.

SIMONE

No. I don’t know yet. But it still is going to take a lot of time. And since Ben has been offered to extend the contract for one more year in Berlin… He asked me to come to live with him since he is not coming back soon, as he planned, so I decided to go to Berlin, write my book there and learn German.

YURGA

To Berlin? To learn German?

LAURA

They speak German there. But what else are you going to do? You’ll be a barista again? You’re not twenty anymore…

SIMONE

I won’t have to work. Ben is earning enough for us both. And I will be writing my book. Or I will work at a coffee shop. What’s wrong about that? A job like any other. Like, your job as a lawyer in a short skirt is better than person’s who is making tasty coffee for hundreds of people a day?

LAURA

There’s nothing to compare… It’s totally different. And skirts are not only short ones. You watch too much TV.

Yurga sits between Simone and Laura.

YURGA

Hey, listen, I’ll tell you what happened to me. Sima, maybe you can use it to your book. Not only women are like this. I was in my cousin’s birthday. I didn’t know almost anyone except her, everyone was way younger than me. There were a lot of people, a lot of action. And it so happenened that I sat down next to a 23 year old boy. We’ve been politely small talking with him about who is doing what and etc. And he told me he was single because he wasn’t owning an apartment yet. And women nowadays are just horrible. “You know,” he’s telling me, ”I know a woman, she’s almost thirty, she has two BAs, she loves her job even though she isn’t paid a lot. She says she’s happy but she doesn’t have neither husband nor apartment nor children. So how could she be happy?” I sit there, listen to him and don’t know if I should cry or laugh. To laugh that he doesn’t know that I’m 32, I recently graduated my second BA and there are no husband or apartment or children in my horizon. Or to cry that a 23 year old is honestly believing that a woman like this couldn’t possibly be happy.

Pause

LAURA

Is he from a deep country?

SIMONE

Yeah. There everyone thinks that you are nothing without a husband. But really…

YURGA

It’s different for you, Simone. You have a boyfriend, you’re gonna live together with him in Berlin and you will write a book on women’s place in society. And I will be in Paris where women of every age are respected and desired.

Simone is uncomfortable.

SIMONE

It’s not so perfect there.

LAURA

Woman shouldn’t just be an object of desire.

SIMONE

Yes, but not only that. Everyone is painting Paris in very romantic colors. “Oh it’s so nice there!..” But do you know what was happening there after November 2015? Ben was there, he told me. Everything what was hidden and kept for themselves was finally expressed.

LAURA

The true face of tolerance?

SIMONE

Uh-huh. And you will make a documentary about a bookshop where everyone speaks English. Like, “Oh, everyone is so great there, please go there more…” Just a typical ad.

YURGA

So what are you suggesting?

SIMONE

I am not suggesting anything.

LAURA

Make something bold, controversial. So that they wouldn’t let you go back to France ever again. And I could try my skills in international law of human rights.

Laura laughs.

YURGA

And to make a joke on these who are financing us?

SIMONE

So? It would be fun.

YURGA

A documentary about a bookshop in which there is no bookshop.

LAURA

A documentary about what is going on around the bookshop. Every kind of people should be walking by that place.

SIMONE

A touristic object but is hiding underneath the cover? That would be much more interesting. There would be a lot of people who would love to see it.

YURGA

But not the people who are paying me.

LAURA

But there would be a lot more others. Festivals would fight for it.

SIMONE

You’ve said you want to make such a film which would make you a documentary star. That’s your chance.

Yurga thinks about possibilities.

YURGA

The other side of Paris… What tourists don’t see…

SIMONE

Are these pitches for the title?

Girls laugh.

YURGA

Maybe. I don’t know. I need to think about it. It is going to be hard if I do this.

LAURA

But we are going to be so proud of you…

YURGA

I’ll really think about it. But… That’s an interesting thought. It would really be hard after. It’s different for you, Sima. You’ll write a book, there will be a lot of people who will hate you but there’ll be Ben by your side, too.

SIMONE

And? Is it a bad thing that I have a boyfriend?

YURGA

No. I mean, I am totally at ease that I am single. I wouldn’t even want to have a man in my life right now. He’ll come, when the time is right. I haven’t lost anything to be trying to find it. But I’m just surprised there still are young people who think like that. How? What have I missed? How there still are things like these?

SIMONE

But you would like to have someone by your side, too.

YURGA

You know how it is...

SIMONE

Yeah...

Awkward pause.

LAURA

But how does it happen? How people develop such a view on life which isn’t allowing to move forward? Yes, I know it mostly depends on women who are next to you. But my mom was a housewife until I was 15. There are other examples. In books, films. Especially now.

YURGA

Yes, but it only comes now. For future generations.

Simone is embarrassed. Laura gets a text message, reads it. She seems scared.

SIMONE

Well, but that is what I am going to write about. I’ve spent so much time in small villages and towns. I’ve heard a lot but I still can’t explain why this belief that woman needs a man so she can become someone…

YURGA

Simone, is everything all right?

SIMONE

Yeah, just… You know. Most girls are worrying that they don’t have boyfriends and I worry that I do.

LAURA

Is everything okay? Between you two.

SIMONE

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Everything’s great. We get along well, we talk constantly. We only get to meet rarely. I mean, he is the most amazing and most inspiring person I have ever met. If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be even doing this.

LAURA

But?

SIMONE

But... Well, my work is pretty femministic and I’ve told about this idea for a few people and… Well, I told this to my parents. So they decided that I was a feminist myself. But I don’t feel like I am a feminist. I don’t even know what it is nowadays. And others imagine that “Oh, what a thought, so now you hate men and don’t shave your armpits? Do you at least use a deodorant?” And this ironic laughter. “Ha ha ha!” Like, oh I’m so funny. And others are like my aunt, for example, “That’s a great idea. Good girl. Show everyone that women’s thinking isn’t free yet. Just don’t get married and have children. I’m waiting for your book.” It feels like I am despised because I have a boyfriend and I’m not an independent woman.

YURGA

But you are a free and independant woman who is sharing her life’s joys and pains with a loving man who supports you and doesn’t tell you what to do. And those who are telling you that, probably don’t know what feminism is.

LAURA

Yes. I admire your relationship with Ben. So long lasting, even despite the distance.

SIMONE

Thanks, we try. And you will find someone like him. Beautiful and intelligent woman. Who could say no?

LAURA

Well… There are some I wish they would…

SIMONE

What do you mean?

LAURA

Well, that professor… Who knows people in Columbia and UN. He offered me to go there but… It was strange. He used to watch me during the lectures and asked me to stay after one. He said he noticed my interest in human rights and asked if I was thinking about studies abroad. I said it would be very nice to go somewhere. And that sometimes I secretly dream about an internship in UN. He told me that once you’re in New York, it is easier to get there. And he knows people in one university. One of the best ones. Columbia. And he said he could help me to get there only I would need extra lectures, exams and many letters written to them. I agreed at once, you’re not going to miss a chance like this, right? And since then we kept meeting besides university. He helped to prepare, pointed what they needed, what university would be paying the most attention to. He helped me to write my motivation letter, to pass their tests… I wouldn’t be going if it wasn’t for him.

SIMONE

Well… That’s... Great?

YURGA

Is there something else?

LAURA

After I got confirmations from Columbia that I got in and from my university that I got the scholarship, I thought we wouldn’t meet anymore. Well, it was awkward enough to meet my professor at night and go for a coffee or wine with him. And somehow sometimes, probably not on purpose, he would put his hand on my thigh. Well, almost not on purpose. Then I would move a bit or just go to the bathroom. And when I would get back, I would sit further from him. But... When he found out I got in and I got the money to go, he invited me to celebrate it with champagne. So we met again. Champagne was running freely, he poured a lot for me but he drank even more. When he started snoozing, I got a cab and brought him to his home. And… And he tried to kiss me. But I said no to him, told him to leave me alone and that he just has to go to sleep. Alone. Everything was quite okay but after a week or so he texted me that university hasn’t gotten some papers, that we have to meet again or I’m not going anywhere. I asked at the university and they told me that I could get that paper only from that professor. And they are waiting for it in New York. So now… I don’t know what to do. He is texting me at night that I’m not going anywhere anymore. I have tickets, everything is settled. So he just texted me that I need to thank accordingly for opportunities like this.

YURGA

Wow. That’s huge.

Laura nods.

LAURA

But I really never ever have…

SIMONE

Come on. This can’t be… He just helped you. He wants too much. Contact the university.

LAURA

But what if I can’t go? It’s his personal contacts…

SIMONE

Well, yeah. Once in a lifetime opportunity.

YURGA

And how do you feel about it?

LAURA

I don’t know. I’m not going to sleep with him. But I have to leave in a week…

SIMONE

Was it him texting you just now?

LAURA

Uh-huh.

YURGA

Only a week left. And then it is forgotten.

LAURA

And what if not? What if I am not leaving at all? I wanted to stay there for internship. He knows people there, too. What if I am not getting anywhere after this?

SIMONE

You have tickets, you’ll get there. And maybe you can go there without that paper…

YURGA

Well. Because… What if you will hate yourself for the rest of your life if you sleep with him for this?

SIMONE

It’s just a chance. Laura can make it all by herself. She will get things done as usual, in every possible situation. She will study there and will show what she’s made of. She will make it on her own and will show that professor that he can’t harrass people like this.

YURGA

You really should tell. Don’t be silent. You’ll be silent, others will, too. And he will do that to another student. Or maybe he has already done that to others. No one will ever say anything and he will feel invincible. And then anything may happen.

LAURA

But I’m leaving. He won’t touch me anymore. There’ll be distance. He won’t come for me.

SIMONE

Yeah, but Laura…

YURGA

At least when you get back. You’re obviously not okay. You can’t let others do that to you.

LAURA

But I don’t know if I am coming back. If I’m lucky, I won’t.

Simone and Yurga are surprised.

YURGA

If you stay for internship, yes.

LAURA

I really want to stay there. UN. Almost there already.

YURGA

Yeah. I understand.

SIMONE

It shouldn’t even be a surprise. I don’t know why I thought you would come back. You’re too bright.

LAURA

Like, bright minds have nothing to do here in Lithuania?

YURGA

They have. To fight windmills for a small salary. We all are leaving for a reason. And not just only us. Why?

SIMONE

To come back. At least I think so. I really will want to come back. After travelling the world. To write books about the fight views, written in stone. But I’ll want to come back. To do something, to make a change even when I’m not here. To don’t give up. Yurga, you do the same.

YURGA

Yeah. A film about a bookshop.

SIMONE

It’s still something. You’ll spread the word about Lithuania.

YURGA

No. I should do something bigger. Like you said. To show the other side.

SIMONE

Really? That’s great!

LAURA

That’s brave. But very needed. Amazing.

YURGA

You should be brave, too, Laura. You’re an intelligent woman. You will do it on your own.

LAURA

Yes. Maybe… What if he offered me that only because how I look?

SIMONE

Stop it. Don’t joke about it.

LAURA

But what if really just because of that? He has commented on my looks.

SIMONE

So dress less sexy and maybe he’ll stop.

LAURA

So, now I dress very sexy?

SIMONE

It’s not what I wanted to say…

LAURA

What did you want to say?

YURGA

Girls. Sima, she shouldn’t be ashamed for the way she dresses or change it. Laura, you are a beautiful, atractive woman and you shouldn’t be ashamed to stress it. That’s it.

LAURA

Eh...

YURGA

What ‘eh’? That’s one more problem with our society. Not the attacker but the attacked one is shamed, why?

LAURA

Because of what people will say.

SIMONE

It’s not what I wanted to say…

LAURA

It doesn’t matter. I need to go. There are many things I need to do.

SIMONE

Will we meet again before you leave?

LAURA

I don’t know. I don’t know if I’ll have time.

Simone gets insulted.

YURGA

I see. Good luck. Let me know. Maybe we’ll meet on the other side of the world.

Girls hug before separating. Laura and Simone’s hug is very short. Laura leaves.

YURGA

Did you have to?

SIMONE

I didn’t mean anything bad. You misunderstood me.

YURGA

That book of yours is going to be very interesting, I must say.

Yurga and Simone finish their coffees in silence.

YURGA

I’m going to a gallery opening today for work. Would you like to come with me?

SIMONE

No, I also have many things to do. I need to make some money for rent since I’m still here.

YURGA

Well, you’re going to be in Berlin soon. Let’s go?

SIMONE

No, I’ll stay here for a bit.

YURGA

As you wish. Great place. How did you find it?

SIMONE

I was walking by once.

YURGA

As usual. Okay, bye.

Yurga and Simone hug. Yurga leaves. Simone waits for a bit. She takes a look at the clock. Simone stands up, takes an apron from her purse and puts it on. She takes the cups and bring them behind the bar.

THE END