Image via flickr / drum118

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

Overheard at Base of the Elevator to the CN Tower’s 360 Restaurant

Patty, 65, shifts her weight from foot to foot as she waits for the elevator. Her shoes have plastic jewels at the round toes, her make-up is impeccable.

Her son Blair is 28. He stands a deliberate 6 feet behind her.

Patty: Elevator’s almost here, honey. 

Blair throws his head to the side, tossing hair from his eyes.

Patty: Are you excited?

Blair smiles, lips closed, then looks at his feet. 

Patty turns to the couple behind her in line. They are her son’s age, they’re dressed in the very finest mall clothes available. 

Patty: I took him here for his birthday when he was eight.

The couple smiles.

Patty: That was a long time ago, wasn’t it Blair? 

Blair looks at his mother, then the couple, then his watch, then his feet. 

Patty: And now here we are again, twenty years later! 

I’m still a pretty hot date, aren’t I?

Patty pretends to do The Twist, Blair tries to look somewhere else.

Patty: Come stand up here, honey!

Blair: I’m cool where I am. 

Patty: Okay, okay, I just thought you’d want to be sure we got a spot on the glass floor.

Blair looks at the young couple standing behind his mother. He looks at the woman. She’s wearing a short blue dress and high heels. Her hair is blonde. She’s frowning at him. Blair blushes. He walks the long six feet to stand next to his mother.

Patty smiles at Blair. She hooks her arm through his.

Patty: (Whispering) Look Honey, I know you wish you could be here with Shannon instead of your old mum, but we’re going to have a lot of fun tonight!

I made sure I got us a table by the window.

Blair smiles at his mother. 

Patty: Who knows, maybe you’ll meet a cute girl on the observation deck after dinner. You never know, right? 

The elevator doors open.

____

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.

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