Beat.
MARSHALL: You’re smarter than you let on, you know that, Larry?
LARRY: I’m just drunk, man.
Beat.
MARSHALL: I’ve been a dick to you.
LARRY: Nah, man.
MARSHALL: This isn’t an apology. It’s just an acknowledgement, okay? It’s what makes me good at what I do, but it doesn’t change the fact that I … I’m a dick.
LARRY: Hey. (raising his glass) Water under the bridge.
MARSHALL: / Water under the bridge.
THE TRANSLATOR: 事过境迁 (Shìguòjìngqiān).
Beat.
LARRY: And seeing as it’s, like, water under the bridge and all, uh, would this be the appropriate moment to tell you that, uh, when I, uh, photocopied the contract for the board meeting, I may or may not have, it was so long ago, who really knows, but I may have, uh, left the, uh, original in the photocopier? (beat) Would this be a good moment to tell you that?
Beat.
EVA: How’s the new practice?
JULIE: It’s shit. Soulless corporate shit. (beat) Honestly, it’s a relief. (beat) How’s tricks? (beat) Sorry, I shouldn’t—
EVA: It’s what I do, so. Tricks are … fine.
Beat.
JULIE: You know you / could always—
EVA: Jules, why’d you call? What is this?
Beat.
JULIE: So, if you were still thinking about law school—
EVA: I’m not.
JULIE:… okay, anyway, one of the first legal concepts you get taught is intractability. Intractable disputes. Like, that sometimes a dispute’s just so convoluted, or the implications are so far-reaching, it’s just totally beyond arbitration. And the best thing you can do is just … quit. But I’ve always been like, fuck intractability, you know? Because nothing should be too big, too messy, too ugly, for the law. That’s what the law’s for. And I guess what I’m trying to say here is, I think … I think family is the same. Like even when it feels broken, there has to be a way. You know? Because that’s just … that’s what family is. Family can’t be intractable.
EVA: Oh.
JULIE: So couldn’t we—I don’t know—could we find a way? To be family? (beat) Because we went through it together. Like we have this ocean of shit, decades of shit, and no-one will ever understand, and even if we tried to explain it, it wouldn’t mean what it does, to us, you know? Because it’s you and me, Evie. It’s our history.
Beat.
EVA: Yeah, I’m just … I’m just not sure that having, like, shared trauma with someone is a particularly good reason to keep having a relationship. (beat) You don’t even like me.
JULIE: Of course I do.
EVA: Okay, well, honestly, Jules, I don’t like you.
Beat.
JULIE: We don’t have to like each other. Families don’t like each other. They, you know.
Beat.
THE TRANSLATOR: (out) Love is an interesting construct, linguistically. Lots of languages have multiple words for love: Romantic. Familial. Carnal. Interestingly enough, in both Mandarin and English, there’s only really one word. And it’s pretty much all-encompassing. 爱 (ai) is both past and future. Love is a circle and a line.
Mei enters, with a bag.
She dusts a table.
Dao enters.
Mei looks up.
THE TRANSLATOR: That’s, uh, something like, ‘well’.
Mei scratches her ear.
THE TRANSLATOR: That’s ‘I couldn’t stand living with my brother’s wife.’
Yi Jin.
Dao gives the slightest nod, and turns away.
THE TRANSLATOR: That’s ‘I’ve been destroyed.’
Mei puts her bag down.
THE TRANSLATOR: That’s ‘I’ll stay.’
Mei places a hand on his shoulder.
THE TRANSLATOR: Uh … I think that’s a, uh, a blanket expression of care.
Dao places his hand on Mei’s hand.
THE TRANSLATOR: This one I don’t think I can … it’s somewhere between ‘I need you’ and ‘there is no recovering from this’.
Mei kneels.
THE TRANSLATOR: That one …
Mei kisses Dao on the forehead.
THE TRANSLATOR: Not sure. Maybe ‘I’m afraid.’
Mei kisses Dao on his eyelids.
THE TRANSLATOR: No, that’s not …
Dao kisses Mei’s hands.
THE TRANSLATOR: Hm.
Dao kisses Mei’s eyelids.
THE TRANSLATOR: I’m not really sure.
EVA: Is this what you actually want, Jules? Like, do you actually want a relationship with me? Or is this just about doing the right thing? (beat) Because you don’t always have to do the right thing, you know.
JULIE: Yeah, I do.
EVA: Why?
Beat.
JULIE: So, what? We just quit? At being family?
EVA: I don’t know. Maybe.
Beat.
JULIE: But I feel like … we’re … tangled up.
EVA: Yeah.
JULIE: So that might be … harder.
EVA: Yeah.
JULIE: And maybe if we just … developed a system, or boundaries, for communicating, then … that would … help.
Beat.
EVA: I don’t think so.
Beat.
JULIE: Oh.
Eva picks up her coat.
EVA: I guess …
THE TRANSLATOR: Talk to her.
JULIE: Yeah.
THE TRANSLATOR: Talk to her.
Eva leaves.
END OF PLAY.
Sarah Goodes (director) with Sophie Ross in the background.
Alice Qin (assistant director) with Sarah Goodes in the background.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Many thanks to the numerous theaters and institutions that have aided me in the development of this play: 3LD Arts & Technology Center, Ensemble Studio Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the Next Wave Program at Melbourne Theatre Company.I have a lot of people to thank for the Mandarin text. Enormous credit is due to Lucia Xiaoran Zhu, Jing Dong, Ruoxin Xu, Xingying Peng, Doug Honoref and Alice Qin, who have all provided Mandarin translations for this play. Much of the Mandarin text is also the result of collaborating with Mandarin-speaking actors in the room, so thanks to Fang Du, Michael C Liu, Lya Yanne, Esther Chen, Xiao Quan, Rebecca Wei Hsieh and the extraordinary actors in our MTC production.
I’m similarly indebted to the dramaturgs and directors who have lent their brains to Golden Shield: my collaborators Nana Dakin and Lucy Powis; Chris Mead at MTC; and Graeme Gillis and Linsay Firman at Ensemble Studio Theater. Director Sarah Goodes has staged a beautiful world premiere of Golden Shield, and I’m so grateful to her for lending her creative vision, and for staying sane through my constant rewrites. And thanks to my agent Jean Mostyn for working tirelessly to make sure my plays are blessed with wonderful productions.
Thanks to my family and friends: the brilliant (and slightly mad) scientists, software engineers, academics, artists and lawyers in my life. Most of all, thanks to my sister and m’coll. AN King, for sifting through innumerable drafts of this play and telling me when I got the legal stuff wrong. Mercifully, our relationship is much better than that of the sisters in this play.
MELBOURNE THEATRE COMPANY
MTC CIRCLES OF GIVING
MTC gratefully acknowledges our visionary donors
THANK YOU
MTC would like to thank the following organisations for their generous support
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