Balconville. David Fennario
Balconville was first performed at the Centaur Theatre in Montreal on January 2, 1979, with the following cast:
CLAUDE PAQUETTE Marc Gélinas
CÉCILE PAQUETTE Cécile St-Denis
DIANE PAQUETTE Manon Bourgeois
MURIEL WILLIAMS Terry Tweed
TOM WILLIAMS Robert Parson
JOHNNY REGAN Peter MacNeill
IRENE REGAN Lynn Deragon
THIBAULT Jean Archambault
GAËTAN BOLDUC Gilles Tordjman
Directed by Guy Sprung
Set and Costume Design by Barbra Matis
Lighting Design by Steven Hawkins
Sound Design by Peter Smith
Stage Managed by Erika Klusch
CHARACTERS
CLAUDE PAQUETTE
CÉCILE PAQUETTE, his wife
DIANE PAQUETTE, their daughter
MURIEL WILLIAMS
TOM WILLIAMS, her son
JOHNNY REGAN
IRENE REGAN, his wife
THIBAULT
GAËTAN BOLDUC, a politician
SET
The back of a tenement in the Pointe-Saint-Charles district of Montreal. We see a flight of stairs leading up to two balconies set side by side, one belonging to the Regans and the other, to the Paquettes. The balcony belonging to the Paquettes is directly below the ground-floor balcony of the Williams.
ACT ONE
SCENE 1
It is night. TOM is sitting on his back balcony trying to play “Mona” on his guitar. The sound of a car screeching around a corner is heard. The car beeps its horn. DIANE enters.
VOICE
Diane, Diane …
DIANE
J’savais que t’avais une autre blonde.
VOICE
Mais non, Diane, c’était ma soeur.
DIANE
Oui, ta soeur. Mange d’la merde. Fuck you!
CÉCILE comes out of her house and stands on her balcony.
CÉCILE
C’est-tu, Jean-Guy? Diane?
DIANE
Oh, achale-moi pas.
The car screeches away.
MURIEL
(from the screen door behind TOM) Goddamn teenagers, they don’t stop until they kill someone. Tommy, what are you doing there?
The sound of the car screeching is heard on the other side of the stage.
VOICE
Hey, Diane. Diane …
DIANE
Maudit crisse, va-t’en, hostie.
CÉCILE
Diane, c’est Jean-Guy.
VOICE
Hey, Diane. Viens-t’en faire un tour avec moi. Diane?
The car beeps its horn.
DIANE
Jamais, jamais. J’t’haïs, j’t’haïs.
VOICE
Hey, Diane.
The car beeps its horn again.
PAQUETTE
(from inside his house) Qu’est-ce qu’y a? Qu’est-ce tu veux, hostie?
VOICE
Diane, viens ici.
PAQUETTE
(yelling from the upstairs window) Si tu t’en vas pas, j’appelle la police.
MURIEL comes out of her house, goes down the lane, and yells after the car.
MURIEL
Get the hell out of here, you goddamn little creep!
The car screeches away. MURIEL returns to her house.
MURIEL
Tom, you gotta get up tomorrow.
TOM
Yeah, yeah.
MURIEL goes into her house.
PAQUETTE
Maudit crisse, j’te dis que t’en as des amis toi. C’est la dernière fois que je te préviens. Cécile, viens-tu t’coucher?
CÉCILE
Oui, oui, Claude, j’arrive. Diane, Jean-Guy devrait pas venir si tard.
DIANE
Ah, parle-moi pu d’lui.
CÉCILE
Son char fait bien trop de train, y devrait faire réparer son muffler.
CÉCILE goes into her house with DIANE. JOHNNY enters. He is drunk and singing “Heartbreak Hotel.” He finds that the door to his house is locked.
JOHNNY
Hey, Irene … Irene, open the fuckin’ door.
IRENE opens the door.
PAQUETTE
(from inside his house) Hey! Ferme ta gueule, toi-là.
JOHNNY
Fuck you!
He goes into his house and slams the door shut.
Blackout.
Scene 2
The next day. It is morning. THIBAULT enters wheeling his Chez Momo’s delivery bike down the lane. TOM comes out of the house with toast, coffee, cigarettes, and his guitar. When he is finished his toast and coffee, he begins to practise his guitar.
MURIEL
(from inside her house) Tom, you left the goddamn toaster on again.
TOM
Yeah?
MURIEL
Yeah well, I’m the one who pays the electric bills.
THIBAULT
(looking at the tire on his delivery bike) Câlice, how did that happen? The tire, c’est fini.
TOM
A flat.
THIBAULT
Eh?
TOM
A flat tire.
THIBAULT
Ben oui, un flat tire. The other one, she’s okay … That’s funny, eh? Very funny, that.
TOM
Don’t worry, Thibault, it’s only flat on the bottom.
THIBAULT
You think so? Well, I got to phone the boss.
He goes up the stairs and steps over the broken step.
TOM
Hey, watch the step!
THIBAULT
(knocking on PAQUETTE’s door)