LatinosUSA

«Le Marias» is an excerpt from Stephen House’s monologue play, ‘Appalling Behaviour’, which has been widely performed and published by Australian Plays Transform.

Excerpt

Le Marais

her voice caresses my moment and i snap too – 

shaken back from the fog to this moment in Le Marais, where i have stopped my never-ending pacing, my foot peeling mind numbing crawl, all day and into the dawn. and she continues in words i can’t grip but should. i’ve been here awhile now in Paris. i must’ve been, the moroccan from the hotel eyes me and asks for rent, the baguette girl says bonjour. of course, i should speak french, but i can’t, i won’t, so i don’t.  

she is looking at me with gentle calm, speaking in a kind of whisper. 

‘no french from me mademoiselle. yes, i’m ok i think. merci. see, i do speak a little french and thank you. you with your smile are just what i need after that, just then. yes, i know you saw. i saw you watching. plenty of people were, weren’t they mademoiselle? i don’t know why. i hardly even remember what happened. i’m ok. it’s passed. i was just a bit lost. i’ve calmed down now.’  

and i give a feeble smile that she returns, and for a moment we stare into each other’s eyes. 

© Stephen House

Praise for «Appalling Behavior»

Written on the streets of Paris, this new Australian monologue takes the audience on a journey into the darkest corners of the seedy urban Paris underworld. From the banks of the Seine River to the tucked-away all-night sleazy clubs, this acclaimed and now widely toured poetic piece is about a man living on the very edge…

«A powerful play… a stunning performance… Shakespearean in magnitude.»
—The Sunday Times, Perth

«A work of intense beauty and insight…House succeeds brilliantly.»
—db Magazine, Adelaide

«…the script is unpretentiously poetic, a surprisingly beautiful evocation of dark spaces and the fragments of fragile tenderness that survive in them…»
—Australian Stage

«Weird and wonderful, Appalling Behaviour knocks your socks off.”
—The Advertiser, South Australia

“An unflinching portrayal of the kind of character rarely seen onstage.”
—The Age

Order Information is HERE.

Author Biography

Stephen House has won many awards and nominations as a poet, playwright, and actor. He’s received several Australia Council international literature residencies and an India Asialink. He has been commissioned several times. His plays and poems have been published ofte,n and he has performed his acclaimed monologues widely.