ARTEM: What do you think is a trade-off?
OLGA: I am not sure – inner peace – for instance. It's easier to understand suffering if you suffer yourself. Remember Nietzsche, – "Only those who are poor handing-out to beggars". (Pause) We get wiser – Artem, and sadder unfortunately. I think wisdom is a skill. It is a skill of respect to the feelings and thoughts of others… to their work.
(Phone rings)
OLGA: (Picks up the phone). I am listening. What happened? You breathe heavily. Why? (Pause). Did you call because of that? (Pause). It is his problem. (Pause). No, I have nothing to do with that. (Pause).Everyone should take care of the problems individually. (Pause). No, I am not sleeping yet. I have a guest (Pause). Let's get back to our conversation. Why do you breathe so heavily? Okay I'll be there in a minute to check your blood pressure. No you don't know but you did hear about him. (Pause)… Artem is my guest. Yes… yes… mom. Thank you, I am old enough to know. (Pause). Mom, a little sensitivity, pleases. I am coming.
ARTEM: Do you talk to your mom every night?
OLGA: Yes.
ARTEM: Do you have a hard time talking to her?
OLGA: No, but sometimes she lacks of smarts and the sensitivity.
ARTEM: Don't you think, you are a little too demanding?
OLGA: No, I love my mom and I listen to her advises. However, I do not appreciate her intruding without my permission even though I am her child and she feels like she has a right to do so. Do you mind waiting for me? I'll be back in about ten minutes.
ARTEM: Can I smoke here?
OLGA: Yes, you can. (Olga leaves).
ACT 2
(The same room)
OLGA: (Came back) It did not take me too long, did it? ,
ARTEM: (Smokes a cigarette. It seems that he think out loud rather than talking to Olga). No it did not. Long time ago I heard a slightly rephrased common saying from one elderly lady – "It's good that the youth does not know that the oldsters are unable to can." That time I did not get it… (Pause) and what now… I feel fairly young yet life slowly squeezes me out of the "market".
OLGA: Artem, you are like a woman on the fiftieth birthday – bewildered and full of disappointments. Stop it. Look at yourself. You are good-looking, in the great shape and very attractive. Your interest would be flattering for any woman whether she is one of your age or
much younger. Trust me, I am not trying to complement you. It's true.
ARTEM: It's flattering.
OLGA: It isn't just a compliment. It's the objective observation. You were a very attractive young man who became a very attractive mature man.
ARTEM: To hear something like this from you…
OLGA: Please understand that I was referring to you physical appearance.
ARTEM: A woman's beauty multiplied by her brains is a constant. I mean either… or. I remember that besides your beauty I was impressed with how keenly you wanted to be a poet.
OLGA: I am still working on it… for myself… I need it. Poetry is my shelter. I don't think others are interested in me exposing my soul. Poetry cannot come from one's mind. Inspiration comes from the heart.
ARTEM: Do you remember?
How difficult it is to write a verse
How challenging to put it all on paper
OLGA: (picks up where he left)
It's like my old sins
Would like to embrace me
ARTEM:
They attract and pull me
They ask for solitude
OLGA:
They leaves are loud in my soul
Conceiving and delivering new doubts
They are about life and love
They are about separation years gone,
They are about us again
Exploding rhymed vocalization
ARTEM:
How difficult it is to write a verse
Bringing so much of a confusion
OLGA:
It's like my old sins suddenly alienate me.
(Long silence)
OLGA: When I was writing that I was a sinner but not in a way that brought me to my today's life.
ARTEM: Oh my god, what are you talking about. What kind of sins could you possibly have then?
OLGA: You
ARTEM: Me?!
OLGA: Yes
ARTEM: I felt that you see are relationship as a sin. I felt you reproaching yourself with it. (He comes very close to Olya. He is very sensitive and compassionate in the moment). Youth is youth. We understand but trying not to put a burden on our souls and minds.
OLGA: Do you think thirty three is still youth? I see it as a classic age of a responsibility that a man has to finally face. By the way, have you learned how to accept the burden since?
ARTEM: I understand now how important it is to take on responsibility of being the first man and the first love in a woman's life.
OLGA: Understanding is a responsibility. People don't like responsibilities and are trying to repel them any way they can. What kind of responsibility could possibly be regarding a twenty five year old "bluestocking"? (Pause) I feel like the conversation is steering away. That is not what we should be talking about. This whole talk is in vain. This whole conversation is just a bunch of not quite thought through mix of blame and excuses. (Pause) It was not like this at all! What it was – just the youth and the heart that was impatiently waiting for love timidly trying it on. It was a warm and romantic evening and a cafe and a couple of young and carefree people eating an ice-cream. It was magical, even though it was as unique of the experience as it is for all other young couples in the world. It brought them happiness for the next very, very long two weeks. It was the time of the most sincere promises and the believe that it is going to be only the way they desire. There was not even a Shadow of the doubt that it might be otherwise and that they will eventually walk two separate ways, which will never cross again (very long pause).
ARTEM: Do you have anyone in your life?
OLGA: No I don't. (She talks with the mixture of sadness and flirt in her voice). Can you imaging, such an interesting and good-looking woman but no…
ARTEM: It can't be true. You still have your threshold set to high, perhaps or may be even higher now. I'll tell you one sad, banal and harsh truth. It is not enough to be smart, interesting and good-looking to find a man. You have to be a bitch… At least a little. Unfortunately, the mother nature deprived you this gift.
OLGA: Unfortunately! (Pause) You know, I don't understand a lot of things about others and what's more important about myself. I was a good pupil: accountable, reliable and accurate. That was much later, I realized that my Marx-Lenin-Communism upbringing had a huge controversy in it. I was taught to be free. I learned that only in our free country I can have a "full breath of freedom"… To be fair, no one ever mentioned the freedom of the thoughts and the choice. Even Dostoevsky was thrown out of high school education programs. His theory of generational slavery of minds did not fit into the "bright" soviet reality. We sought our children are going to be free and independent but we failed to see the line between the creative freedom and the vulgar lack of restrain. That's why there is no difference between a plumber and a president in this country. The president is most likely even more enslaved. He thinks he is the one who broke off the ties. He does not understand that he is only a chief slave that enjoys other slaves cringing before him with the deceptive admiration. There is no hope for the rebirth. We are needed – slaves are needed.