Image: mascontext.com

A series of mini-dramas based on public conversations, as overheard and rewritten by local playwright/director Aurora Stewart de Peña.

Overheard in Los Angeles, two blocks from the Nokia Theatre

Tom, 48, walks beside Lara and Kent, both 33, both from Toronto, both drunk. All wear humble jeans made by a workingman’s label.

Tom: So, would you say there’s a tradition of Canadian Classic rock?

Or you just listen to American music?

Lara: NO, we do not just listen to AMERICAN music in Canada.

Is that what you all think?

We have our own music.

Tom: I–

Lara: The Band!

The Guess Who!

Neil Young!

Tom: I didn’t know he was Canadian.

Lara: Well he is. He’s from Winnipeg.

And Gordon Lightfoot, and Trooper, The Stampeders.

The Band!

Tom: Yeah, The Band.

Lara: We do not just listen to American music. That’s a horrible thing to say.

April Wine, Chilliwack, Five Man Electrical Band!

Tom: Who?

Kent: Signs, signs, everywhere there’s signs. 

Tom: What?

Lara: Rush, Lighthouse, Bachman Turner Overdrive–

Tom: You know what Canadian Band I actually love?

From the 70s?

Kent: Who?

Tom: Zebrahead.

Lara: Yeah, see, they’re great! And they’re Canadian! We have better, humbler, more complex music than you do here. And you guys think everything–everything is American. It’s exhausting to be here, it really is.

Kent: Zebrahead?

Lara: Yeah.

Pause. Kent taps on his smart phone.

Kent: They’re from Louisiana.

Tom laughs in his mouth.

Lara: Shut up.

Tom: I was testing you.

Lara: Just shut up.

____

Aurora Stewart de Peña is half of the theatre company Birdtown & Swanville (the other half is Nika Mistruzzi). You can follow her on Twitter at @Aurorahhh.

For more, follow us on Twitter at @torontostandard, and subscribe to our newsletter.