by Amanda L. Andrei
As we continue to feature Women Who Submit writers from our Gathering anthology, we welcome our first publications in drama. This monologue from Amanda L. Andrei sheds violet light on our loves, losses, and how we carry those burdens.
JUSTICE
by Amanda L. Andrei
A liminal space shifting from Hecuba’s LA Filipinotown bakery to her memory and dreams. Violet light.
HECUBA
All of my lovers, I named Priam. I don’t remember any of their given names, they are all Priam to me. Men have so many faults, it’s best to collapse all those lovers into one man, one ideal, and hope that their faults will cancel each other out and only the good memories will remain.
Of course, you could go the other way, remembering only their faults and none of their good qualities.
I remember one Priam, who kissed me on the hand as he left my house, only a few minutes late after martial law curfew. I never saw him again.
I remember one Priam, who climbed the top of a coconut tree when I was thirteen, just to bring me a green coconut with the freshest juice.
I remember one Priam, so dark he was almost blue, with an accent I had never heard before, who then left on a ship a week later.
I remember one Priam, who worked with me in the newspaper office, who laughed every time I edited his articles, but made the corrections anyway.
I remember one Priam, so kind when I first arrived to this country, who didn’t even touch me during our sham marriage, and quietly divorced me with my new citizenship intact.
I remember one Priam, pale and freckled, who thought I was crazy and still loved me for it. I wish he had rejected me instead.
I would tell my unborn daughters, your fathers are all one father – one Priam, a king among men, and you are princesses, each of you – not because your father is a king, but because I am a Queen, and I am so much of a Queen that even when battered and pulled apart by the spirits of war and fury, I can give up my crown and still be royal.
A knock on the door.
HECUBA (CONT’D)
There is no justice in this world.
For more powerful words from Women Who Submit, preorder Gathering: A Women Who Submit Anthology here!
Amanda L. Andrei is an award-winning Filipina Romanian American playwright residing in Los Angeles by way of Virginia/Washington DC. She writes epic, irreverent plays that center the concealed, wounded places of history and societies from the perspectives of diasporic Filipina women. Her work has been developed with Echo Theatre, The Vagrancy, Pasadena Playhouse, Playwrights Arena, Artists at Play, La MaMa, Relative Theatrics, Parity Productions, Bucharest Inside the Beltway, Southeastern European Film Festival, and more. She is currently working on a new commission for the Golden Tongues project and a new play for Echo Writers Lab. University of Southern California (MFA). www.AmandaLAndrei.com