Who will pick up the pieces?
Who will stitch you back together?
kylie: Itchia, I will cut you out of me.
itchia: Wake up!
This is not about your vagina.
This is about you and me and love, love, love.
Do you see what I’m saying?
Why don’t you look?
kylie: (to audience) She hands me Ayla’s mirror: I see Kylie Grandview.
I realize I’m looking at her for the first time.
kylie stares into her reflection. She’s the monster who cuts her face. She smashes her face with the mirror. Her hand covers the wound.
I don’t want to move my hand.
I don’t want to see.
Oh my god.
My face.
My face.
Click me in front of the bathroom mirror.
It’s one of those days: when your hair won’t do what you want it to and your face is gushing blood.
kylie slowly removes her hand to see the terrible wound: a deep cut from the bottom of her top lip to the bridge of her nose.
Torn.
Oh my god.
The flesh is torn.
My face is torn.
The glass cut right through . . . torn.
kylie becomes fascinated with the wound on her face.
(to audience) Big, thick drops of blood fall off my fingers and splatter onto the floor.
Click.
Click.
Click.
(to herself) I have to go to the hospital.
She giggles.
I’m bleeding like a motherfucker.
(to audience) In the closet there’s a baseball hat and a pair of sunglasses.
I can drive myself to the clinic.
No one will see my face.
Tomorrow, I’ll be Kylie Grandview again and no one will see my face . . . but then I see myself in the broken shards on the floor, thick blood dripping from my lips: fuck me, you are gorgeous.
Instead of my disguise, I pick up my sewing kit.
There are ten compartments but for some reason I only have black thread.
kylie sits on the floor. Her hands shake while she threads the needle.
(to herself) Fuck.
Fuck.
She ties the thread on her second attempt. Her knees shake.
You can do this.
(to audience) I bump a line off the sink.
Blood from my face drips onto the powder and crystallizes.
Little red snowflakes.
She does another line and picks up the needle and thread. She faces herself in the bathroom mirror. She plunges the needle into her flesh, just under the nose. She takes a quick breath and then plunges the needle into her face again for the next hole. Her whole body shakes as if she were hypothermic. She plunges the needle back into her face for the last stitch.
Then, as if to a lover for the first time:
Hi.
The lights fade out.
kylie picks up the phone and dials 9-1-1. The operator picks up. It’s itchia:
itchia: 9-1-1 Emergency.
Please state the nature of your big me, me, me tragedy.
Hello?
Who is this?
The lights fade back in. kylie is covering her face with her hand.
kylie: (to audience) Epilogue!
Time to dish out all the gross details.
The doctors said that the shards of mirror broke on the bridge of my nose and sliced through my face causing lacerations to the levator labii right down through the orbicularis oris.
My stitches infected in gangrenous green and black streaks overnight.
But that was perfect, because I want my face to be one you can’t forget, even though you want to.
She removes her hand, starts again.
Do you recognize me?
Or are you looking at me for the first time?
Does it ever feel like you’re waiting for something big to happen and it just never does?
Well this is another one of those days.
But not for me.
For me, today is going to be different.
Today I’m taking another look at the face of this thing.
Today is my very last performance.
So if this gets you going.
Go ahead.
Click me.
The lights fade out.
End of play.
About the Author
Cliff Cardinal is a multiple-award-winning Indigenous playwright and actor. Before graduating from the playwriting program at the National Theatre School of Canada, Cliff wrote three solo plays, including Huff and Stitch, both of which garnered him awards. In addition to his work in theatre, he also has a music project called Cliff Cardinal and The Skylarks, who recently released their debut album This Is Not A Mistake. Cliff lives in Toronto.
Huff & Stitch © Copyright 2017 by Cliff Cardinal
First edition: March 2017
Playwrights Canada Press
202-269 Richmond St. W., Toronto, ON M5V 1X1
416.703.0013 | [email protected] | www.playwrightscanada.com
Cover photo of Cliff Cardinal by akipari provided courtesy of Native Earth Performing Arts
No part of this book may be reproduced, downloaded, or used in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, except for excerpts in a review or by a licence from Access Copyright, www.accesscopyright.ca.
For professional or amateur production rights, please contact:
The Gary Goddard Agency
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416.928.0299, www.garygoddardagency.com/apply-for-performance-rights/
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Cardinal, Cliff, 1985-, author
Huff & stitch / by Cliff Cardinal.
A play.
Issued in print and electronic formats.
ISBN 978-1-77091-746-0 (softcover).--ISBN 978-1-77091-747-7 (PDF).--
ISBN 978-1-77091-748-4 (EPUB).--ISBN 978-1-77091-749-1 (Kindle)
I. Title. II. Title: Huff and stitch.
PS8605.L5574H84 2017 C812’.6 C2016-907872-8
C2016-907873-6
We acknowledge the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council (OAC), the Ontario Media Development Corporation, and the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund for our publishing activities.
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