Exceprts from Ghosts of My House

by Susanna Fournier

Here is some information from the playwright that will be useful s you investigate M and L.

CHARACTERS
The characters must be played by women.

Mum – a woman who has 4 children. She is old enough to have adult children in their 30’s.

(FYI from Liza:: She stays locked away in her room for much of the play, grappling with her
emotional world. Having conversations with herself and with B.)

B – “Big” sister. She is dead. She is not a memory, not a zombie, and not a traumatic ideation
stemming from her mother – but a person with full agency who happens to no longer be
alive. Died ( illness) in her early 30’s.

M – “Middle” Sister. 30.

L – “ Little” Sister. Late 20’s.

Brother – The baby of the family. Never appears onstage. ( Liza FYI:he is on medication.
When not, he can become violent.)

Things to know:

It’s a comedy except when it isn’t. Which is often. Because life is so painful it’s important to
try and make the pain funny whenever possible.

It’s useful to approach the text as one would a song shared between multiple singers.
Prioritize rhythm over content. In the scenic narrative sections, if there isn’t a beat/silence
marked, don’t play one. Drive thoughts until you hit a period. Commas and dashes propel
the speaker forwards. The momentum/meaning is in the rhythm. Find it.

When the performers (and characters) are talking to the audience they are actually doing
this. Cultivate an atmosphere where the audience feels they could talk back when asked a
question and the performer can improvise with them. Sometimes the performers are more
‘characters’ than performers, but can abandon ‘character’ at any time because they are
always performers who are in a theatre performing an imagined story about a family in an
imagined house. The audience is also in this “house” – which is convenient because that’s
what we call them in theatre lingo. But there’s also trampolines. And a dead person. And
emergency exits and aisles and other people’s hopes and dreams and expectations. It’s a
story. We should always know that.

The mini trampoline section should be fun to do and should absolutely involve mini
trampolines. Seek wildness. Seek rebellion. Seek freedom. Avoid ankle injuries.

This is a piece about presence. Dare to be simple.

Here are a couple of monologues from the play JUST as an FYI about backstory and
character. This is really the primary/only information that the actor has when
working on these roles.

FYI: This play is the second part of a double bill

First paragraph exists for the piece in the context of a double bill, when audience has just
experienced an intermission.

FYI Only:

M:
Welcome back. Hope you had a good intermission. Got some air, got some fluids, got rid of
fluids, checked your email. Checked it again few minutes later. That’s what I did.
I’m glad you’re here. It’s kind of hard to be anywhere lately. Without also being elsewhere.
Or, without doing. Or without this feeling of without. So.

I was painting the dining room a few weeks ago at 3am trying to unwind after a day of non-
stop damage control at work - in which my boss actually asked me if I needed a time out -
after losing my shit on the new guy who might have fucked us out of 3 mil because he
doesn’t know how to blind CC an email.

I’m not usually a stress painter, it’s kinda an involved process with the taping and all, and
I’m not sure the fumes help, but I’ve always like being alone with a task and no one around
to fuck it up besides me. I do my best thinking then.

I was listening to a podcast this chic sent me, with this holistic dude who invites experts
from various fields into conversation about the plight of the world and this episode was a
climate scientist, a social worker, and a mythologist- which I first hear as mixologist- and I
think that’s pretty exciting hosting, like how does bartending fit into all this, but no, she’s a
MYTHologist. So the scientist was talking about the nervous breakdown she suffered a few
decades ago when she was screaming her and her colleague’s findings into the socio-
political void, and the social worker was like “yes, yes, mass denial in the face of
overwhelming abuse of power” and then starts talking about revitalization and austerity –
and not just financial austerity– but what she calls spiritual austerity, which she says has
governed the status quo for some time.
To which the mythologist, and she sounds about as haunted by modernity as you can get
says......... “yes” ....- but nothing else - and that triggered a nod so deep in the host I think he
fell off his chair.

And I was like, whoa whoa back it up. So I downloaded the episode and restart it.

Spiritual austerity. The social worker describes this as the way consumerism actively holds
back and eradicates “The Spirit, that which gives us life” her words, not mine – and the
scientist connects this idea of spiritual austerity to the growing crisis of desertification –the
process in which fertile land becomes arid and degraded to the point it loses its vegetation,
wildlife, and ability to thrive in any capacity. That desertification is nature’s response to
society’s, specifically capital’s, constant resource extraction.

And the mythologist, who hasn’t said anything since that stoic “yes” about 5 minutes ago
just casually joins in now remarking, “that the West has spent the last few centuries making
deserts of the world to match the deserts we have made of the Soul.” Her words, not mine.
And suddenly an economist - who I didn’t even know was on the show – says this is a very
urgent way of understanding why austerity measures never works for economic
revitalization, because to you can’t fight absence with more absence, you have to fill it with
presence.

“Well yes,” the mythologist says taking 2 millennia into her mouth, “we have to show up to
our lives, but we can’t do that if as individuals, as communities - as a species - we don’t
know what story we’re caught in.” ....

I’ve listened to this podcast every morning for 3 weeks.

The lawsuit lasted 7 years.

Mom’s been diagnosed with chronic stress and complicated grief.
I moved back home to help and took out a second mortgage to manage the legal fees for a
suit I never wanted to pursue in the first place, a suit she recently lost, which has driven her
into such astronomical debt I can barely form words to talk about it.

My brother’s been in treatment for depression since he was 8 – but was arrested for a
violent episode at 15, has been kicked out of 4 schools, and just did a night in jail.

I work about 68 to 7000 hours a week as a junior trader. My older sister was a broker, but
that’s kinda like calling Christine Lagarde a bank teller. My sister became one of the elite–in
everything she did. She actually worked for the same firm my father started after he walked
out on my mother leaving her with 4 children, her highschool education, and support
cheques that arrived punctually for 10 years. I’m not sure I’ll ever get out of my sister’s
shadow. Or his.

I would like to show up to my life.

I would like to show up to my life.
I would like to show up to my life once I have finished showing up to my life enough to have
time to show up to my life.
Thank you for showing up to my life.

FYI only: L: Back Story / and Info for L: direct address monologue

EMOTIONAL BATTERY

L: I read this study which found that families that have female children in them tend to be
more emotionally connected than families that don’t.
I’m always a little dubious about studies like this with averages in a data pool of only 1000
families - but in this average, sisters – daughters - provide a sort of ‘emotional battery pack’
to members of the family and this support has a greater impact on their sibling’s wellbeing
than even that of their parents. The article sums it all up with this cherry on top that this
“sister/daughter” phenomenon isn’t innate, it’s cultural, learned.

And I’m wondering if I smiled more because my brother smiled less.

If I laughed more because my mother laughed less.
I couldn’t get better grades or jobs than either of my sisters, but I gave better hugs, make
better pancakes, and never forgot a birthday. I remember being quite funny, like, fucking
hilarious.

Someone in a family ends up feeling everything the others won’t. I was good at feeling.

(she asks someone in audience)

Like what are you feeling right now?

(etc. improvise based on audience response or non-response)

Good? Bad? Tired?

(finds someone else – finds as many as she needs throughout)

And maybe you’re feeling anger about something in your life? I can do that for you
Sadness? I can do that anywhere.
Confusion? Which kind?
Joy? I was like drowning in it

Do you ever feel abandoned - abandoned –like left – like left --or just like Empty?

Comfort, maybe you want comfort – Understanding Yes, understanding, yes, I can
understand, I do understand, I am understanding - let me show you how much I
understand because of how much I see you.
I see you. I’m seeing you. Your whole self. I can make so much room for your feelings.
and you

and you

and you

gimme enough time and I could feel for all of you

Grief?

Grief?

Grief?

Grief ....

I lied one day and said I was moving out “to go to school” – which I eventually did, but not
for 2 years – for 2 years I just lied and did other things. Just things for myself in a secret life
that could maybe be mine... which always feels so far away when I’m here.

Playing the Little Sister to everyone. Except baby brother I guess.

.
Little Sister. Fucking Duracell Bunny.

Trying To....show up to my life

But
I did Something

very UN-Little Sister

And

I’m not sure How they’ll React.

I invited dad to the dinner.

HERE are the Two Scenes that can be looked at separately or played
together!

ANOTHER YEAR

L: She painted?

M: I painted.

L: The whole re-arrange – did you watch a show at 3am or something?

M: I mean yes..... but it’s cause I want to list it. At least have an agent take a look, and see
what needs to happen before listing.

L: Wow. When?

M: Have to get mom on board first.

L: Is she?

M: Went in 2 days ago.

L: And he?

M: Downstairs since I bailed him, sleeping mostly. He’ll come up to eat around 4 am. L: So
what happened?

M: Yeah, I wasn’t trying to be vague in the text, it’s just been rather difficult uh, lately, so
basically he got into another fight with this kid at school -this isn’t the first time they’ve
gone at each other –but he gave the kid a concussion and fractured his own hand, but
apparently was mouthing off about a gun in his bag—he didn’t have one—but the whole
school went into lock down.

L: (jesus) ....Are they pressing charges?

M: I don’t know, he’s 18 so this is a whole new ballgame - he, uh tried to fight the cops, was
in some kind of delusion, thinks they’re agents - thinks I’m an agent sometimes - they tased
him - he’s ok, ‘cept for the hand, I uh searched his room while they were holding him, he’s
been off meds -I dunno for how long - found some weird drawings and pretty violent
writing about whatever reality he believes he’s in --This all started when mom found him
trying to bust open the lock box, which is pretty serious, he shoved her into the wall, and
she kicked him out --now this, and the earliest reassessment I can get is in 11 weeks.

L: .........

M: Sorry to hit you with it all at once.

L: I should’ve been here.

M: You were here the whole time I was finishing school, you were here for the worst of it, I
wasn’t.

L: The worst of it? This is a fucking / disaster.

M: What were you gonna do, referee? It doesn’t work. They just scream at each other now.
He needs professional help, she needs professional help. You needed to focus on you, I
wanted you to have that. How is the clinic – it’s open now, yeah?

L: Yeah

M: How’s Nabil?

L: We broke up.

M: K well fuck me I was trying to change the topic to something positive.

L: It’s ok.

M: Do you wanna talk about that – or nothing -- or– point me in the direction of anything
that isn’t currently horrifying?

L: (laughing) It’s ok. Just same shit. Wake up one morning and was like, yep - here it is, I
don’t feel anything towards this very lovely human.

M: I thought you made it past that day, wasn’t that due like 4 months ago? L: He wanted me
to meet his family.

M: The silent killer.

L: His family is also lovely.

M: So you met them? That’s great, you never meet the family.

L: They were so kind ...it was alarming. He’d told them a lot about me. They were excited, he
was excited, the cat was excited. I felt freakish.
M: You’re reading into it too much.

L: I just couldn’t stop thinking; oh my god this would be SO LOVELY if I was in love with
your son because you want to shower me with kindness because you believe I am in love
with your son, which I think I was for a bit, but now I’m not, I’m a fraud, you just can’t see it
yet, but you will.

M: Noooo, you should call him.

L: How’s work.

M: Same. Lots. Begged my way into three days off to deal with this, afraid to look at my
phone, really need to look at my phone.

L: Look at your phone. I can do the dinner prep. Are Maya and Naz coming?

M: (on her phone) Yeah, and Steph and Max said they’d come by after for a drink. Mom
reached out to Sarina and the girls, but now that they’ve moved it’s too much with the new
little one.

L: She has 3 kids now? That’s madness.

M: Mom wanted to keep it small this year anyway.

L: I think we should just do burritos.

M: Whatever you want, there’s a bunch of snacky things in the cupboard we can put out too,
it’s all he likes to eat lately.

(pause)

L: What were the writings?

M: (on her phone) mmm?

L: That you found in his room. M: It’s not really / worth--

L: I don’t know if I’m supposed to be worried about him killing himself or killing someone
else so please tell me what the fuck is going through his head so I have anything to go on
here.

(M hands her the cell phone. L scrolls through pictures reading. It’s bad. Pause.)

M I took his belts away and the kitchen knives are in my room. He’s been really calm since I
brought him home. He says the witch can’t see him when he sleeps.
L: Is any of this online?

M: I don’t know.

Pause.

the following is the next scene we see with these two we can string them together or just
focus on one at a time. It is also an opportunity to find the connective moment after/moment
before.

L: I invited dad to the dinner.

M: What?

L: I just – need him to be there and he said he’d come if Mum and everyone was ok with it.

M: I’m not ok with it.

L: I know you don’t talk

M: I didn’t know you did

L: He called me

M: He calls me too, I don’t pick up. L: One time I did.

M: So what, now you want to invite him over?

L: I’ve been talking to him for 2 years.

M: ...... wow..../ (she makes some noise to express her speechlessness)

L: You don’t have to talk to him. He doesn’t have to come-

M: Why would you think this is a good idea

L: I don’t know that it is

M: I don’t understand.

L: I needed to know him.

M: OK!
L: I only know her side

M: Or your side – my fucking side

L: Did you know she wanted full custody and he didn’t want her to have it? M: I’m not
talking about this.

L: What do you actually know about him?

(M drives her text non stop while L tries to lob hers overtop – loudest is gonna win here – go
for ugly and uncomfortable)

THAT HE FUCKING LEFT. SOME ONE HAD TO END IT

I DON’T CARE IT’SMORE COMPLICATED
I’M SO FUCKING SICK HE’S A REAL PERSON
OF THEIR MARRIAGE HE’S A REAL PERSON

TAKING UP ALL THE SPACE I NEED MY DAD

YOU CAN’T TRUST HIM SAYS MUM

THIS WILL KILL HER I CAN’T FEEL ANYTHING

I CAN BE YOUR DAD NO YOU CAN’T

I CAN BE YOUR DAD NO YOU CAN’T

IT DOESN’T MATTER HOW MANY WOMEN HUG

ME AND TELL ME IT’S GOING TO BE OK – I NEED
IT TO BE A MAN THIS TIME AND I THINK I NEED
IT TO BE MY DAD

L: I’m not saying he’s the answer, I’m not saying I know what I’m doing, I just know there
was a man who was my father and one day he was gone and every day after I was told he
was my enemy and my brain understands but my heart doesn’t and I can’t just go on never
knowing why nothing goes in.

M: ......Are you going to say this to mum?

L: Probably not. But I was hoping I could say it to you.

M: .......there’s a lot .....going on right now... I get you’re in a thing but I don’t think it’s the
right time. I don’t know if it will ever be..... I made up your room. It’s late