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METAMORPHOSES A FRAGMENT
KATE CARPENTER
D ra m at i s P e r s on a e K , a photographer C , her mother P , her aunt
C e r b e r u s, L ao c o ön & T h e F at e s, living and dead trees in a nearby forest
PROLOGUE K:
The woods are a stage where I play out the story of my changing world. A world in which I am now fatherless, and in which my mother’s dementia is stealing her ability to recognise people, places, things and, occasionally for now, me. In which the familiar becomes strange, and the gently, comically chaotic becomes oppressively surreal. In which, for my mother, places of domestic safety morph into fearsome, twisted hellscapes. And in which, though I try, I can no longer always bring enough light to the deepening shadows in her life. It breaks my heart.
ACT I
C:
Don’t you have any parents any more?
K:
Well…you.
K:
The woods are lovely, dark and deep...
C:
You look just like Kate when you say that.
K:
But I have promises to keep...
ACT II
P:
I just feel like I’m drifting along the river and you think everything is alright and then something happens and you think oh bugger hell and you don’t know what you’re doing
C:
I don’t recognize the kitchen. And for the last three nights I’ve not been able to find my way to bed.
C:
Who were you born to?
K:
…you.
C:
You look just like Kate when you say that.
ACT III
C:
Oh, God.
P:
He’s not coming...
He’s not been doing his job.
K:
...
C:
What kind of prison is this?
K:
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
C:
But I have promises to keep.
K , C : And miles to go before I sleep. A L L : And miles to go before I sleep.