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Short Story Month: The Auction from Long Story Short
The plays in Long Story Short: An Anthology of (Mostly) 10-Minute Plays (Playwrights Canada Press) may only be ten-minutes each, but they pack plot and character development into an ephemeral, mighty piece of theatre. The anthology features 25 short plays, but to sample the collection we cross fade on one of them: Trina Davies’s The Auction. Read on for an excerpt of the play, and a short interview with Trina.
This Short Story Month, we’re interviewing short story writers every Wednesday, here on the All Lit Up blog.
The plays in Long Story Short: An Anthology of (Mostly) 10-Minute Plays (Playwrights Canada Press) may only be ten-minutes each, but they pack plot and character development into an ephemeral, mighty piece of theatre. The anthology features 25 short plays, but to sample the collection we cross fade on one of them: Trina Davies’s The Auction. Read on for an excerpt of the play, and a short interview with Trina.“The Auction”
Kate sits at the table wearily.Kate Ernie, do you know how many chamber pots we own?Ernie I haven’t counted /Kate Forty-three. What are you going to do with forty-three chamber pots?Ernie Sweetie, they were only a penny each. Kate And washboards? How many of those?Ernie I don’t know. Alright, I don’t know.Kate Eighteen. And do you know how old I was when I married you, Ernie Grey?Ernie Why of course I do, sweetheart. (pause) You were…You were…Kate Eighteen. Eighteen years old and I came out West to have
an adventure. My mother came to see me off, and she grabbed my arm
and said, “Don’t go. Don’t go, Katie, I’ll never see you again.”
She was afraid it was terribly uncivilized, and that I’d end up married to
a dirt farmer.
Ernie Well, now that’s not fair, I’ve done the best I could / Kate I was a real career girl. And I was pretty too. All the men in town
came sniffing around the new girl. Asked me out for dinner, brought
flowers to the door of the rooming house. They’d be careful to wear
shiny shoes and slicked-back hair—even the farm boys. Did you
know that, Ernie? Even the farm boys did that for me.
Ernie Katie, let me in and we can talk about this. Kate gets up and goes to the screen door, Ernie backs away. Kate And you know what else? They had wonderful manners Ernie.
They’d say, “You look lovely tonight, Miss Schmidt,” and they’d open
all of the doors for me, and pull the chair out at dinner, and help me
on with my overcoat before we went back to the rooming house.
Ernie Katie, give me the crate and I’ll get rid of the dishes. I promise.Kate And then we’d stand on the porch and say goodnight. Miss Howard
at the rooming house would always watch through the lace
curtains, even though she said she never did. (She goes to sweep up the
broken dishes.) And the boy would be nervous, and sometimes his voice
would shake a little when he asked me if he could have a kiss goodnight.
I said yes to the dapper ones. When he leaned close to me I could smell
this clean-soap smell, like he’d just scoured every part of his body before
he came to meet me. And then he’d lean a little closer. Sometimes he’d
take my hand, and his palm would be sweaty. He’d lean in and kiss me
on the cheek, or if he were daring, he’d lean right in and kiss me on the
lips. (She holds up the dustpan with broken china pieces.) Can you
imagine, Ernie? Can you imagine how many boys kissed me on the lips?
Ernie That’s not nice talk, Kate. I know I’m late. I know I’m a bad
husband. Alright, I know it.
Pause. Ernie Can I please come in, Katie. I love you. (pause) And I’m hungry.
