for John B. Davis, born 1964, died 1992 of AIDSfirst performed by Ney Fonseca for Juntos Dance, 10/2/92
OFF-STAGE VOICE John looked down at himself lying there: the sunken cheeks, the shaved skull, the thin light body curled on its side in bed, almost hovering. He was so detached he wanted to sketch himself from above: the curves and hollows of his boned-on muscles, the blooming fluid in his skin. He would put the drawing in a frame that was a box and that will have been him, finished. John looked down at the hospital room and the window and the people crouched there, the pink stucco building and the boulevard of eucalyptus trees. He looked as the park as it …
NEY FONSECA I hate this story!
VOICE It’s a true story.
NEY I’m sick of it.
VOICE He was a friend of yours.
NEY It’s the same story.
VOICE Well, each one is different.
NEY The same one!
The same goddam same one fucking same one shit same one.
VOICE Should I tell you a different one?
NEY Yes.
VOICE Another story?
NEY Yes.
VOICE OK. Ney Fonseca looked down at himself lying there. He floated above the tiny body that seemed to float on the bed, brittle and frail …
NEY That’s not fair!
VOICE … he said.
NEY THAT’S NOT FAIR!
VOICE It’s not a story about fairness.
NEY I won’t listen.
VOICE … he said …
NEY Stop that!
I’m not listening.
VOICE I already have your ears.
NEY I won’t watch.
VOICE I’ve already taken your eyes.
Pause
NEY Tell me again, then.
VOICE This is a story about becoming a story. It has to be told. It has to be put in the past.
NEY … he said …
VOICE It’s a story about becoming the past …
NEY It has to be told.
VOICE It has to pass through. Telling turns it around. It doesn’t disappear …
NEY It turns around …
VOICE It begins again and it turns around …
NEY It turns into the past . . ,
VOICE … he said …
NEY … looking down at himself lying there …
VOICE … the heat and the sex and even the dance washed from him …
NEY … the heat … and the sex … and even the dance washed from me
watching myself
lying there.
OFFSTAGE VOICE Hey, John, I just heard some new Chopin; it’s a little piece called “Berceuse.”
[“Berceuse” begins.]
[Lines spoken at 20 second intervals over music as the dancer moves …]
John Doll, I found a video of this woman playing the Debussy Etudes, and then talking about them.
*
Johnny-Pie, are you going to the lake party tomorrow?
*
Hey Doll, did you talk to Jeffrey? We’re going to see Cocteau’s Orpheus on Wednesday.
*
Johnny Mae, I heard you were talking to a young blond at the café. Hmmm?
*
JohnEEE, can I borrow that tape of Aprile Millo on the radio? And you have to come see the video of Ballo in Maschera.
*
Hey Doll, I taped the Nijinsky “Right of Spring.”
*
John, which Cocteau Twins albums do you have?
*
Johnny-Pie, I got a huge Rembrandt book you have to see. All the paintings and the etchings.
*
Hey John, want to go to Opera in the Park with me and Weissman and Adrian?
*
John, do you still have those tickets to see Ney dance at the Herbst? I do wanna go.
*
Hey Doll …
… How are you feeling … ?
Wordless movement, ending with spins.
(1992)