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Mrs. Zero Scene One

I’m getting sick of action films. I don’t care about them at all. I’m sick of them. I don’t see why they don’t have more films like “For Love’s Sweet Sake”. I like those little sweet love stories. They’re nice and wholesome. Mrs. Twelve was saying to me only yesterday, “Mrs. Zero”, she said, “what I like are those wholesome stories, with just a sweet, simple, little love story”. “You’re right, Mrs.twelve”, I said, “That’s what I like too”. They’re showing too many action films at the Rosebud cinema. I’m getting sick of them. I think we’ll start going to the Peter Stuyvesant. They have a good line-up Wednesday night.

 They have that big Grace Darling feature, “A Mother’s Tears”. She’s sweet. But I don’t like her clothes. There’s no style to them. Mrs. Nine was telling me that she read in Pictureland that she isn’t living with her husband. He’s her second too. I don’t know whether they’re divorced or just separated. You wouldn’t think it to see her on the screen. She looks so sweet and innocent. Maybe it isn’t true. You can’t believe all you read. They say some millionaire is crazy about her and that’s why she isn’t living with her husband. Mrs. Seven was telling me her brother-in-law has a friend that used to go to school with Grace Darling. He said her name isn’t really Grace Darling at all. Her name is Elizabeth Duggan, and all those stories about her getting $5000.00 a week is crap. She’s very sweet though.

 Mrs. Eight was telling me that “A Mother’s Tears” is the best film she ever made. “Don’t miss it Mrs. Zero!” she said, “It is so sweet: just sweet and wholesome.” “Cry!” she said, “I nearly cried my eyes out!” “Don’t miss it Mrs. Zero!”

 It’s at the Peter Stuyvesant Wednesday night, so don’t go telling me you want to go to the Rosebud. The Eights, you know they saw it downtown at the Strand. They go downtown all the time. Just like us – NOT!

 I guess by the time it gets to the Peter Stuyvesant all the racy parts will be cut out. Just like they cut out that cabaret scene in “The Price of Virtue”. They really are showing some violent stuff in films these days. “It is no place for a young girl”, I was telling Mrs. Eleven, only the other day. And by the time they get uptown half of it is cut out. But you wouldn’t want to go downtown, not if wild horses dragged you.

 Don’t go pulling that stuff about being tired! “I’ve been working hard all day.” Tired! Where do you get that tired stuff anyhow? What about me? Where do I come in? Working just the same as you, and then scrubbing your floors and cooking your meals and washing your dirty clothes. And you just sit on a chair all day, just adding figures together and waiting for five thirty. There’s no five thirty for me! The whistle doesn’t end my work. I don’t get any vacations either. I’d like to know where you’d be without me. And what have I got to show for it? Slaving my life away to give you a home. What is in it for me, I’d like to know? But it’s my own fault, I guess. I was a fool for marrying you. If I’d had any sense, I’d have known what you were from the start. I wish I got to do it over again.

 You know you weren’t supposed to be a bookkeeper long? Oh no—not you! Wait till you got started—you were going to show them! There wasn’t any job in the store too big for you. Well I’ve been waiting—waiting for you to get started—see? It’s been a good, long wait, too. Twenty five years! And I haven’t seen anything happen! Twenty five years in the same job. Twenty five years tomorrow! You’re proud of it, aren’t you? Twenty five years in the same job and never missed a day! That’s something to be proud of, isn’t it? Sitting for twenty five years in the same chair, adding up figures! What about being store manager? I guess you forgot about that, didn’t you? And me, here at home, looking at the same four walls, and working my fingers to the bone to make ends meet.

 Seven years since you got a raise! And if you don’t get one tomorrow, I’ll bet your life you won’t have the guts to go and ask for one! I didn’t pick much when I picked you, I’ll tell the world. You aren’t much to be proud of.

 She isn’t walking around tonight, you can bet your sweet life on that. And she won’t be walking around anymore nights, either. Not in this place anyway. The dirty bitch! The idea of her coming to live in this place with respectable people. They should have given her six years, not six months. If I was the judge, I would have given her life. A bitch like that.

 I guess you’re sorry she’s going. I guess you’d like to sit home every night and watch her. You’re something to be proud of you are!

 You’d better not starting anything with any woman. If you know what’s good for you. I’ve put up with a lot, but I won’t put up with that. I’ve been slaving away for twenty five years, making a home for you, and nothing to show for it. If you were any kind of man you’d have a decent job by now, and I’d be getting some comfort out of life—instead of being your slave, washing pots and standing over the hot stove. I’ve stood for it for twenty five years and I guess I’ll stand for it for twenty five more. But don’t start anything with women—

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Settings & Costumes of the Modern Stage; Theodore Komisarjevsky and Lee Simonson, The Studio Limited, 1933.

Lovely old yellow book on European theatre, celebrating ‘new’ approaches to the stage - expressionism, naturalism, symbolism. Funny to think that at the time of publication all these things were contemporary; entirely of the moment. Lots of them, especially the maquettes and miniatures, are really charming and full of life. Photos of performances and sets are also just nice to look at.

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Potential infantilisation of Shrdlu, the little girl character.

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Loose Transition Structure

Prologue: The men at work. The women: “25 years”

 – The whistle blows again –

 The men walk home—

 Scene 1: Mrs. Zero tells her husband off, he finally gets some shut eye when

 – The whistle blows again –

 The men walk to work—

 Scene 2: The office overlaid with the ladies visiting each other in their houses. Zero & Daisy talk and connect.

 – The whistle blows again –

 Scene 3: The men walk home. The wives greet them, and get them ready for their outing. They all have dinner at the Zero residence.

 “I killed the boss this afternoon” – The whistle blows again –

 Scene 4: The townsfolk, shocked at the news, walk around reading Zero’s “statement” – their partition. They stop and connect with the TV – the camera on Zero.

 – The whistle blows again – “GUILTY”

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Zero loses his mind!

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“He’s losing his mind…And I’m reaping all the benefits”

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Poster Ideas #2 The business suit kept the same, but make up and extreme emotion. (Sydney Theatre Company promotion)

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Poster Ideas #1. Office face, with a hint of violence.  (Concussion, Sydney Theatre Company)

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Medea, National Theatre. Something as simple as this to transform and mutate the faces Zero has known once he is in the Elysian Fields?

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Scene 2 beginning rough sketches

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Potential use of partitions for Scene 3: The Dinner Party

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The townspeople become jurors, desperate to catch the act of Zero through the screen. - move to 4:28 in, the chorus of Antigone, National Theatre.

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The Boss brings an entirely different momentum to the world – not unlike The Boss in Brazil, except The Boss of this world causes a ripple of suspense and slow motion.

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The workplace seethes in a sustained way. The office workers are direct, so they know where they are going, but they also move in a pulsated, undulating rhythm. This rhythm is unattainable for you. There is a routine around entering that you are slow to get – this makes starting on the same foot all the more harder for you.

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The conversation in the opening of this clip: not talking about wanting to talk.