Assignment 2, Dialogue 1

Two old ladies start chatting while feeding the ducks by a pond. They've met once before, but it was ages ago in a different part of the world and they don't recognise each other at first.

- Isn’t it hilarious how two old women like you and me can sit on a bench like props and watch everyday life winding forward without even being noticed?

- I would not call that hilarious, my dear. I would say it is sad.

- I refuse to be sad, I have lived my life as a protagonist and now I’m ready to be one of the onlookers. I’m not regretting anything. Do you believe that these ducks regret anything in their lifetime?

-  They are only birds, they cannot feel regret. And that certainly sounds like something a youngster would say.

- Only because I look like a raisin it doesn’t mean I’m dull on the inside.

- (laughing) I believe you are right, but I feel that I have missed something. I did not manage to marry the man I loved and when I did get married he could not have children. Now he has passed away and I am too old. Do you understand what I mean?

- I suppose you’re trying to say that life has been unfair to you.

- (looking down) I do say that.

- So why didn’t you fight back?

- Oh dear, I was only a woman. Women cannot fight back.

- Nonsense, I always did. You can’t be much older than I am.

- I was born 87 years ago, in Germany. I was taught that women should not protest.  

- That’s interesting, you’re only twelve years older than I am and you’re talking like… Wait a minute, when you’re mentioning Germany I remember I was living there with my dear parents for a year when I was eight years old. My father was a general and my mother worked with the other wives in a factory. I was at home with a nanny all day; an indulgent young girl who endured my lunatic temper... Poor creature! There are certainly some similarities between you and her, I must say.

- (watching the younger woman closely) Oh my god, Becca, is that you? You look so… different.

- (laughing) It certainly would be strange if I looked the same, wouldn’t it? Then you are Katrina, I almost can’t believe what I hear.

- Lovely Becca, I’ve been thinking a lot about you. You are arguing in the same way now as you did then, my dear child.

- (giggling) Well, isn’t that hilarious?

- (embracing Becca, sobbing in her ear) Oh, that is without doubt hilarious. Without doubt, my dear.