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Scripts Aloud brings drama right into your ears. By using text-to-speech software, theater scripts go from the page into drama, every week. Typically 10-minute scripts are presented in each episode. It's like having a Theater Festival - right on your phone!
NARRATOR: The Lamentations of June, by Rick Regan, 2021
NARRATOR: EXT. PARIS BUS STOP - MID-MORNING
NARRATOR: Overcast, warm and damp, it is June 30, 1974 in Paris, France. A woman, June, sits at the end of a bench under the art-nouveau bus shelter. She is 27, with a pixie haircut, blue overalls and cute boots.
NARRATOR: A handsome man, early forties, in a dark suit and stylish hair, approaches and sits at the other end of the bench.
MAN: Bon jour, Madame.
JUNE: Hello.
MAN: Do you mind if I sit here, with you?
JUNE: If it keeps you out of the rain.
MAN: Is it raining? I hadn't noticed. All I see is a pretty girl, all alone. Are you married?
JUNE: Excuse me?
MAN: I apologize. I am too forward. Would you like a cigarette?
NARRATOR: He pulls out a cigarette case and opens it. She looks at it for a moment, all the cigarettes line up in the silver box.
JUNE: Non. I had to quit.
NARRATOR: He snaps the small box closed and puts it back in his pocket. He does not take one for himself.
MAN: I see. Oui.
JUNE: Oui.
MAN: Are you waiting for the bus? Maybe we could go across the street and get a cup of coffee? Do you like espresso?
JUNE: Oh, yes! At my work, we have a break at ten in the morning, when we all have free coffee.
MAN: Free?! Well, that must be some place. Is it a publishing house or perfume giant?
JUNE: Renault. The union negotiated a break in the morning and one in the afternoon. We used to get a glass of wine in the afternoon but they have decided that we should stick with the coffee.
MAN: Because it is dangerous?
JUNE: Because, I think, that wine is more expensive than coffee.
MAN: It must be cheap coffee.
JUNE: It tastes like grease, but then, everything tastes like grease at the factory after a few days.
MAN: Do you taste like grease?
JUNE: Excuse me?
MAN: May I kiss you?
JUNE: You may, but I assure you, nothing will come of it.
MAN: Oh, how do you know that?
JUNE: I have the sixth-sense.
MAN: Clairvoyance? Really?
JUNE: Yes.
MAN: How superb! What is your forecast for today?
JUNE: It's doesn't work like that. I can't just turn it on.
MAN: Then I will kiss you and see how it goes from there.
JUNE: Oui. Yes, that is what you will do.
MAN: Alors!
NARRATOR: He gets up, walks over to her. She does not get up so he sits next to her and puts his arm around her and pulls her to him. They kiss and he is surprised that it is a long, deep and passionate kiss. He pulls back.
JUNE: And so, there you are.
MAN: That was wonderful. Let's do it again.
JUNE: No. That is all. Go away.
MAN: What?
JUNE: Oui. Go away now.
NARRATOR: The man gets up, flustered. A bus pulls up and he gets on. She remains on the bench. The bus drives away.
JUNE: He smelled like coffee.
NARRATOR: June sits at the bench, looking around at the street scene passing in front of her.
NARRATOR: A younger woman approaches and sits down where the man had been at the end of the bench.
NARRATOR: They nod at each other.
JUNE: Excuse moi, mademoiselle. You will have a very wonderful day today.
YOUNG WOMAN: Do you really think so? I am on my way to an audition.
JUNE: Oh yes! You will get the part and become tremendously famous. I can assure you that your life will be quite fabulous. Paris, Monaco, New York.
YOUNG WOMAN: C'est magnifique! Will I get to go to Australia? I have always wanted to go to Australia. It is so far away and seems so exotic.
JUNE: Australia? Oh, oui, oui! You will consider buying a house there but decide that you would rather be in Tahiti.
YOUNG WOMAN: Like Gaugin?!
JUNE: Yes but not painting. You will become a famous actress, a film star, and the photographers will follow you wherever you go. Tahiti will be your refuge.
YOUNG WOMAN: Ha ha ha! Oh, wouldn't that be something. You make me think it might be happen that way. What is your name?
JUNE: I am June.
YOUNG WOMAN: Like the month, Juin?
JUNE: Oui.
YOUNG WOMAN: So how do you know all of these things that will happen to me?
JUNE: It is the sixth sense. And when you walked up I had the images of your life come into my head.
YOUNG WOMAN: What else can you see? Will I marry a handsome movie director?
JUNE: A writer, I think, but it is not clear.
YOUNG WOMAN: How does it work then, your sixth sense? I saw a program on the television last week about mediums and seances. It was not very scientific at all but super spooky!
JUNE: It is like when you are walking down the street, maybe near une boulangerie, baking baguettes.
YOUNG WOMAN: Yes.
JUNE: And you smell them.
YOUNG WOMAN: Yes.
JUNE: You were not expecting the sensation, or able to call it up, but suddenly, there it is, and you think, ah, mmmm! Baguettes.
YOUNG WOMAN: Oui.
JUNE: But you cannot see the bread, or the ovens, or the baker. But you can smell it before you even turn the corner.
YOUNG WOMAN: Like smelling a campfire in the woods.
JUNE: Yes, like that. Well, sometimes when someone comes near, I can get a wave of things, about that person.
YOUNG WOMAN: Like a smell?
JUNE: Right, but about their life. It is a sensation. For example, before you walked up there was a terrible man who was sitting there. And there will be a lovely woman who is coming after you go to your audition.
YOUNG WOMAN: How can you tell that?
JUNE: How do we smell the baguettes? We just can.
YOUNG WOMAN: Can anybody do that? Can you teach me?
JUNE: I don't know why other people can't sense it, just like I don't know how it would to be colorblind. Do you?
YOUNG WOMAN: No, I suppose not. But, is there anything else you can tell me about myself?
JUNE: Umm, well, yes.
YOUNG WOMAN: What is it?
JUNE: You are often selfish, rude and very difficult to get along with. But that will serve you well in show business. And your success will be founded on your haircut.
YOUNG WOMAN: My haircut?
JUNE: Not that one. The next one. It will be copied around the world as all the girls will go to their stylists and demand The Giselle. C'est formidable!
YOUNG WOMAN: But that's not my name. My name is Francis.
JUNE: For now. But that will all work out.
YOUNG WOMAN: Oh, this is my bus. Thank you so much.
JUNE: Just remember to be kinder to people.
YOUNG WOMAN: Oui, oui! Merci!
NARRATOR: A bus pulls up and the young woman gets on.
JUNE: Au revoir, Giselle!
YOUNG WOMAN: Goodbye!
NARRATOR: The bus pulls away.
JUNE: I should have gotten her autograph. Silly me.
NARRATOR: An older woman comes to the bench. She has a plastic hair covering for the rain, a tan raincoat, a dark purple wool skirt and sturdy shoes with blue stockings. She puts a substantial handbag on her lap.
JUNE: Bon jour, Madame. Are you well?
OLDER WOMAN: Today? Ah well, today, yes, we are here. Do you know which bus that was that just left?
JUNE: The number twenty-three, I think, to Notre Dame station.
OLDER WOMAN: Ah well, I'll wait then, for the next one.
JUNE: Where are you heading?
OLDER WOMAN: Me? I am going to work, at the Tour Eiffel.
JUNE: You work at the Eiffel Tower?
OLDER WOMAN: Yes. I take tickets. It is a way for an old woman like me to contribute to society, to give back, you see.
JUNE: Why do you have to give back?
OLDER WOMAN: I have been a Communist since the Germans came to my town. They stole everything and murdered people, without any consequences. They preyed on the weak and the poor. But true Communism encourages the rights of the people to organize and look out for each other. Everyone should help. Everyone should contribute, for the betterment of everyone in society. Do you understand?
JUNE: Not really. I work at an automobile factory.
OLDER WOMAN: So you are Union?
JUNE: Yes, I mean, I pay my dues but I don't have any voice in the union politics. I just sew the seat covers.
OLDER WOMAN: But that is vitally important! Imagine if all of the work of building the engine, designing the body, all the engineering, steel, rubber, glass, all of it. If the seat covers are not sewn properly then no one will buy the car. All of the effort and expense, wasted! If the seat covers are not sewn. It is an important contribution, your work.
JUNE: I suppose. We are on strike now, so there is no work for me.
OLDER WOMAN: Then you should spend your idle time reading, learning about the struggle of the people, the workers.
JUNE: I was heading to my sister's.
OLDER WOMAN: Where is that?
JUNE: Lyon.
OLDER WOMAN: Oh, wonderful restaurants and chefs in Lyon!
JUNE: But her husband will be there and he wants to have an affair with me.
OLDER WOMAN: With his wife's sister?
JUNE: The last time I was there, at New Year, he whispered in my ear that he wanted to "taste another plum from the same fruit tree."
OLDER WOMAN: Ewww!
JUNE: So I'm not going.
OLDER WOMAN: Did you tell your sister?
JUNE: She already knows. She says that he is repulsive and she hates him.
OLDER WOMAN: Then why stay married?
JUNE: His family is low-royalty, on the Italian side, and they own a bank. She doesn't want to give up the title and the money.
OLDER WOMAN: How sad. She could live as a free, productive woman, equal to men and standing on her own, proud of her own contributions.
JUNE: She could but she won't. I left my husband though.
OLDER WOMAN: Was there another woman?
JUNE: Many. So I told him I that he can go live with them. I kicked him out.
OLDER WOMAN: Ah, you bourgeois, so wrapped up in sex. It is unimportant. Like a man going out for sport or exercise. It is for all of us to have an active life.
JUNE: Are Communists so liberated?
OLDER WOMAN: The men, certainly, because, why not? If they can convince women that sex is good exercise then we can all contribute.
JUNE: Sounds messy.
OLDER WOMAN: People's feelings do get hurt. Mostly foolish girls who think of romance as dreamy stories and being swept away by the handsome prince. But this is just a youthful fantasy about not having to take up the burdens and chores of life.
JUNE: I see.
OLDER WOMAN: So why not have the affair with your wife's husband? Go ahead, you might enjoy it.
JUNE: Not likely. I smell like the factory, like grease, all the time. And he smells like his sweaty wool suit all the time. Plus, I couldn't betray my sister like that. Could you?
OLDER WOMAN: Once, I was captured, in a barn, by the Germans. There were twelve of us, women who worked in the town but we had to flee because there was an attack coming to the town, Epernay, east of here.
JUNE: How did you get away?
OLDER WOMAN: The soldiers said they would burn down the barn unless we identified anyone who was a Jew.
JUNE: Oh no!
OLDER WOMAN: Well we all knew who was the woman-Jew, so we grabbed her and were going to throw her out to be killed. You see the soldiers are like machines, there is no reasoning or logic, no sense or kindness. Just orders and killing. We knew that they would, actually, burn us all to death unless they had a victim to sacrifice.
JUNE: That's horrible!
OLDER WOMAN: Oui. But I raised my hand and said, wait, this woman, first of all is French. And those men want us to help them kill a fellow Frenchwoman. I say non! No. I will go. So I walked out and told the men that I was who they wanted. So they put me in the truck and took me back to the headquarters.
JUNE: Oh no, did they rape you?
OLDER WOMAN: Of course, but that's not important. You see, when the corporal presented me to the officer, he said, here is the Jew. And I said, I am not a Jew. And we argued about it.
JUNE: What?
OLDER WOMAN: And finally the officer had enough and told me to get out.
JUNE: Did he beat you?
OLDER WOMAN: Yes, of course, but that's not important.
JUNE: Why not?
OLDER WOMAN: Because do you know what happened to the other eleven women? They got away.
JUNE: Oh my! You saved them.
OLDER WOMAN: I saw one of them a few years later. She told me that they escaped but split up, scattered across the countryside and they all survived. I said that I was sure they had all made their contributions to the freedom of France.
JUNE: Yes, right.
OLDER WOMAN: But that was a long time ago. It is a different world now. Soon we will be in the Common Market, with the Germans. Unbelievable.
JUNE: But you survived.
OLDER WOMAN: I make my contribution. Ah, here is my bus.
JUNE: Good day to you.
OLDER WOMAN: Peace, Comrade.
NARRATOR: The older woman gets on the bus and goes away.
NARRATOR: A police woman is walking by, and stops to talk to June.
POLICE: Bon Jour, Juin.
JUNE: Good morning, gendarme. You are looking well on this damp day.
POLICE: Have you eaten today, Juin? Where did you sleep?
JUNE: I found a croissant and I slept in the park.
POLICE: You know you don't have to sleep outside. There is a place in the fifteenth arrondisement, just up the street, where you can be out of the rain.
JUNE: But who's hands will be on me at night? Hmm? Will it be the pickpockets at me, or the groping administrators?
POLICE: We can get you a place for yourself. There are new apartments coming available. You can have your own door.
JUNE: I have an apartment, in the fourth. But it is noisy at night, right on the river. The tourists and the boats shining lights up at me.
POLICE: They are not shining them at you, dear. They are for the tour boats.
JUNE: Yes, well, I would rather sleep under the stars in the City of Lights.
POLICE: And the pickpockets, they leave you in peace?
JUNE: There is nothing to steal, only my dignity, and that's not worth much to them.
POLICE: Are you working, or still on strike?
JUNE: On strike. Like the post office, the railway and the telephone operators.
POLICE: Come on then, come with me. I will get you a ham-and-butter.
JUNE: Thank you, officer but there is someone I am waiting for.
POLICE: Alright, I'll check on you later then.
NARRATOR: The police woman continues her patrol.
NARRATOR: June sits for a while when an older man, Samuel Weinstein arrives. He is balding, with glasses and quite dapper.
WEINSTEIN: Good morning, June. May I sit?
JUNE: Good morning, doctor. Please, sit.
WEINSTEIN: Are you comfortable today? Have you eaten?
JUNE: I found a croissant this morning in the park.
WEINSTEIN: Here is a twenty-franc note. Get some lunch.
NARRATOR: She takes the bill.
JUNE: Thank you. I will.
WEINSTEIN: Tell me about what you have seen today, please.
JUNE: Ordinary stuff, mostly. A man wanted to kiss me. A woman was on her way to a dance audition and a lady told me about her time in the war.
WEINSTEIN: Were they real, or did you imagine them?
JUNE: I'm really not sure, now that you mention it.
WEINSTEIN: I see. That can happen. Do you have any sense of me today?
JUNE: I could tell that you were coming and that you would give me twenty-francs.
WEINSTEIN: Anything else?
JUNE: Do you have a new book coming out? There is a celebration that you will attend tonight.
WEINSTEIN: Why yes, thank you for noticing. I do have a new book out. The party is tonight.
JUNE: What is it about, your book?
WEINSTEIN: It is a review of some of my most interesting psychological case studies.
JUNE: Am I in it?
WEINSTEIN: Yes, you figure prominently, under the section of Phenomenology, exploring the study of consciousness and objects of direct experience.
JUNE: What does that mean?
WEINSTEIN: It means that I explore what the experience of your world is, your awareness and what you think is real.
JUNE: But my world is real, just as real as yours.
WEINSTEIN: Yes, but I don't have your gift of the sixth-sense, so my experience is limited. Yours is unlimited.
JUNE: I just live my life.
WEINSTEIN: Yes, and very interesting it is.
JUNE: OK.
WEINSTEIN: Is there anything else you would like to tell me this morning?
JUNE: I suppose I should tell you that I'm leaving Paris, leaving France, in fact.
WEINSTEIN: I see. Where will you go? And why?
JUNE: I had a sensation that I should leave France, and travel across Africa. But I don't want to go to Africa, so I am going to America. Probably Canada. They speak French in Quebec. Perhaps I will go there.
WEINSTEIN: But why? Are you in danger? Is something going to happen in France that you have to get away from?
JUNE: No, but I have the sensation that I should go away.
WEINSTEIN: Perhaps that is best because my book is going to be a huge phenomenon, a best seller the publisher says, and people will want to come and meet you, find you. If you sleep in the park, people will find you and want to ask you lots of questions. Perhaps it is best if you went away. I'm sorry to put you in this position.
JUNE: Thank you, Doctor Weinstein. I appreciate you telling me that. I knew there was something but I couldn't make it out. Now it makes sense.
WEINSTEIN: Please, call me Samuel. I feel like we should be familiar, after all this time.
JUNE: I'm not comfortable with that, Doctor Weinstein.
NARRATOR: She gets up.
WEINSTEIN: June?
JUNE: Thank you for the twenty-francs.
WEINSTEIN: Are you leaving? I just got here.
JUNE: I'm going now. Goodbye, doctor.
NARRATOR: She walks away.
WEINSTEIN: (shouting at her)Goodbye, June. Good luck in Canada!
NARRATOR: Dr. Weinstein looks around and then walks away.
THE END