sarah & charles

Voice-over for all the voices by Roch Baumert and performed by the curators of the exhibition space (Louise Bernatowiez, Richard Neyroud and Nicolas De Ribou - [or nothing] 2012).

SCENE ONE:

A room, the apartment of Richard & Nicolas; a sofa, a table and some books lying around. Nobody is home.
We hear keys fumbling in the lock; Nicolas enters.

Nicolas: “... Richard?” 

Nicolas takes of his coat, turns around in the apartment a few times, shrugs his shoulders, takes a look at his watch and sits down with a book in his lap. The doorbell rings. Nicolas gets up to pick up the speakerphone.

Nicolas: “Hello...?”

Nicolas hits the buzzer, walks back to his seat and picks up the book he’s been reading. Louise enters a few seconds later while taking of her coat. 

Louise: Hi! And Richard?

Nicolas shrugs his shoulders while hardly looking up from his book. 

Louise: “Ah ok… Ca va?
Nicolas:“Ca va…I’m hungry”

Nicolas lifts his upper lip while turning to Louise.
Louise nods with a smile, turns around in the room a few times, checks her watch and hits the sofa. Time passes; Nicolas continues reading while Louise comfortably lying on the sofa seems to have fallen asleep. Suddenly we hear keys fumbling in the lock again and Richard enters.

Richard: “He ho!”

Nicolas jumps up from the sofa. Louise awaking sits up.

Nicolas:“Let’s go eat!”
Louise:“Hi!”
Richard:“No we can’t, we have a meeting.”
Nicolas: “About what?”
Richard:“The next show...”
Nicolas:“Oh…”

Nicolas sighs and shrugs his shoulders after which he slides back into his sofa and continues reading his book. Richard takes of his coat and kisses Louise hello.

SCENE TWO:

Louise and Richard sit next to each other in the sofa and slowly turn their heads in different directions, indicating they’re having an elaborate conversation about the next show. Nicolas slowly turns the pages of his book, indicating the time passing. We maybe hear the sound of a ticking clock. 

Nicolas: “Ah.”

Nicolas closes his book and sits up. Richard and Louise look up in his direction.

Nicolas: “I think they’ve send in the work.”

Nicolas slowly walks towards the table and picks up a brown cardboard box which is sealed at the top with some wrapping tape. He slowly walks towards the sofa and places the box in front of Louise and Richard. He then takes a seat next to them and while removing the wrapping tape, the three of them bow forward over the box, almost entirely obstructing the view on the box. The box opens, revealing a strong yellowish light. Simultaneously the light in the room grows dark. A strange sizzling sound fills the space. After a minute, they close the box and put it down in front of them. The lights in the room lights back up. The three of them sit back and look a bit devastated.

Richard:“Wow.”
Louise:“Not bad!”
Nicolas:“Boaf”

Nicolas gets up and looks at Louise and Richard, He puts on his jacket.

Nicolas: “We go eat?”

Louise and Richard get up and put their jacket on while turning towards each other and silently, seemingly, commenting on what they’ve just witnessed. The three of them walk out the door.

THE END.