BRAINPEOPLE

Jos Rivera

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BRAINPEOPLE
Copyright 2008 by Jos Rivera
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First printing: December 2008

Second printing: June 2009
I S B N: 978-0-88145-393-5
Book design: Marie Donovan
Word processing: Microsoft Word
Typographic controls: Ventura Publisher
Typeface: Palatino
Printed and bound in the U S A

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jos Rivera is a recipient of two OBIE Awards for
Playwriting (for MARISOL and REFERENCES TO
SALVADOR DALI MAKE ME HOT, both at The
Joseph Papp Public Theater), a Fulbright Arts
Fellowship, a Whiting Foundation Award, a McKnight
Fellowship, and a 2005 Impact Award. He studied
with Gabriel Garca Mrquez at Sundance and was
writer-in-residence at the Royal Court Theater, London.
U S theater productions include THE HOUSE OF
RAMON IGLESIA (Ensemble Studio Theater, American
Playhouse), MARISOL (Humana Festival, La Jolla
Playhouse, Hartford Stage Co), CLOUD TECTONICS
(Humana Festival, Playwrights Horizons, Goodman
Theater), REFERENCES TO SALVADOR DALI MAKE
ME HOT (South Coast Rep), EACH DAY DIES WITH
SLEEP (Circle Rep, Berkeley Rep), SONNETS FOR
AN OLD CENTURY (Greenway Arts Alliance),
SUEO (Hartford Stage, Manhattan Class Company,
Milwaukee Rep), GIANTS HAVE US IN THEIR
BOOKS (Magic Theater, INTAR Theater), MARICELA
DE LA LUZ LIGHTS THE WORLD (La Jolla
Playhouse), THE PROMISE (Ensemble Studio Theater,
Los Angeles Theater Center), THE STREET OF THE
SUN (Mark Taper Forum), ADORATION OF THE
OLD WOMAN (La Jolla Playhouse), SCHOOL OF
THE AMERICAS (Joseph Papp Public Theater and
LAByrinth Theater), and MASSACRE (SING TO YOUR
CHILDREN) (Goodman Theater and Teatro Vista).

BRAINPEOPLE (A C T, San Francisco). BOLEROS FOR

THE DISENCHANTED (Yale Rep) and YELLOW
(Collaboraction). His work has been seen in Puerto
Rico, London, Paris, Edinburgh, Mexico City,
Singapore, Greece, Sweden, Norway, Canada, Peru,
Australia, Germany, Romania, and the Philippines.
The screenplay for his first produced film The
Motorcycle Diaries (Walter Salles, director) was
nominated for a 2005 Academy Award for Best
Adapted Screenplay, a BAFTA Award, and a Writers
Guild Award, and received Spains Goya Award for
Best Adapted Screenplay as well as Argentinas top
screenwriting award. For television he co-created and
produced the series Eerie, Indiana (N B C). In 2006 he
wrote and directed the short film The Tape Recorder
(with Sona Tatoyan). His film Trade (Lionsgate Pictures,
with Kevin Kline) premiered at the 2007 Sundance
Film Festival and was the first film to premiere at the
Unites Nations. He has written screen adaptations of
Kerouacs On The Road (Francis Ford Coppola,
producer, Walter Salles, director), and the novel
Three Apples Fell From Heaven (Door/Key Productions).
Celestina, a film based on CLOUD TECTONICS, will
mark his debut as a feature film director.
Rivera serves on the board of PEN West, is a member
of The LAByrinth Theater Company, and is a founding
member of The Fire Department.

BRAINPEOPLE was commissioned by South Coast

Repertory Theater, Martin Benson and David Emmes,
Artistic Directors.
BRAINPEOPLE received its world premiere at the
American Conservatory Theater, San Francisco
(Carey Perloff, artistic director, Heather Kitchen,
executive director), on 2 February 2008.The cast and
creative contributors were as follows:
MAYANNAH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lucia Brawley
ANI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Sona Tatoyan
ROSEMARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rene Augesen
Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Chay Yew
Scenic designer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Daniel Ostling
Costume designer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Lydia Tanji
Lighting designer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Paul Whitaker
Sound designer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cliff Caruthers
Casting directors . . .Greg Hubbard & Meryl Lind Shaw
Dramaturg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Michael Paller
Stage manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . June Palladino
Production assistant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Laura Osborn
Assistant to the Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bruce Coughran
BRAINPEOPLE was made possible by the generous
support of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
for New Works, an endowment fund of The Next
Generation Campaign.

Special thanks to Erica Gould, Rebecca Wisocky,

Mozhan Marno, Jessica Boucher, Jennifer Blevins,
Robert Clyde, Avery Clyde, the Mark Taper Forum
Mentor Playwrights, Lisa Peterson, Marissa Chibas,
Svetlana Efremova, Jessica Hecht, Jacqueline Kim,
Ana Ortiz, Michi Barrall, Juliette Carrillo, Sandra Oh,
Morgan Jenness, Len Berkman, Jerry Patch, The Black
Dahlia Theatre, Scott Horstein, Nick Mangano, The
Garson Theatre, Madeline Brown, Lindsey Marlin, Desi
Moreno-Penson, Zenda Tatoyan, Hartford Stage
Company, Playwrights Horizons, Tim Sanford, Jeremy
Cohen, Lisa Timmel, The Joseph Papp Public Theatre,
Johanna Pfaelzer, Karina Arroyave, Zabrina Guevara,
Camilia Sanes, Alyssa Bresnahan, Primary Stages,
David Lee Strasberg, Carlos San Miguel, Juan Carlos
Malpeli, Benoit Beauchamp, Sidney Miller, Vahe
Berberian, Lyon Forrest Hill, Jennifer Mae Stevens,
Karin Tatoyan, Javi Mulero, Lina Patel, Ariane N Picari,
Leah Roy, and Cindy Gendrich.

CHARACTERS & SETTING

MAYANNAH
ROSEMARY
ANI
MAYANNAHs apartment, Los Angeles
Time: the present.
There is no intermission.

When you sleep in the exiles bed linen or drink from

his cup do you know his body or his name? Is there no
shame in owning our things?
Three Apples Fell from Heaven, Micheline Aharonian
Marcom

I felt a Cleaving in my Mind

As if my Brain has split
I tried to match it Seam by Seam
But could not make them fit.
The thought behind I strove to join
Unto the thought before
But sequence raveled out of Sound
Like Ballsupon a Floor.
Emily Dickinson

A tiger comes to mind. The twilight here

Exalts the vast and busy Library
And seems to set the bookshelves back in gloom;
Innocent, ruthless, bloodstained, sleek
It wanders through its forest and its day
Printing a track along the muddy banks
Of sluggish streams whose names it does not know
(In its world there are no names or past
Or time to come, only the vivid now)
And makes its way across wild distances
Sniffing the braided labyrinths of smells
And in the wind picking the smell of dawn
And tantalizing scent of grazing deer;
Among the bamboos slanting stripes I glimpse
The tigers stripes and sense the bony frame
Under the splendid, quivering cover of skin.
Curving the oceans and the planets wastes keep us
Apart in vain; from here in a house fall off
In South America I dream of you,
Track you, O tiger of the Ganges banks.
Jorge Luis Borges

for Sona

(Light reveals a long, empty table covered in a colorful

tablecloth decorated with images of the Taino Indians of
Puerto Rico.)
(Upstage of the table is a wet bar and an antique built-in
hutch.)
(Lights reveal ROSEMARY.)
(She is early thirties, slight, working-class, pretty but hungry
and worn down by life. Her clothes, shoes and costume
jewelry were bought at the Salvation Army. Her over-done
make-up is a little trashy.)
(ROSEMARY has multiple personalities. Right now shes
ROSETTA, a Midwestern gal with a flat American accent.)
ROSEMARY/ROSETTA: (To off stage person) Goodness me,
I havent had meat in so long. I forgot how much I
loved the smell.
(Expanding light reveals were in a once-luxurious penthouse
apartment in downtown Los Angeles.)
(Seen through big windows, a red sun sets, forcing the sky
into strange, startling colors.)
(As time passes, sparkling city lights appearuntil the view
outside feels like an urban dreamscape as removed from
crime, fear, distress as possible.)
(Theres exposed brick; morbid/erotic artwork and folkloric,
graphic crucifixes on the walls; old books, faded furniture,
a once-fancy fireplace with missing tiles; very distressed
wooden floor.)

BRAINPEOPLE

(Everything was once brightly colored, vibrant, now muted

and decayed.)
(Its as if the room were stuck in time.)
(MAYANNAH enters from the kitchen holding a fancy butter
dish.)
(She is early thirties, with long dark hair, dark, intense eyes;
her clothes are elegant and black; she wears diamond
necklaces, earrings, and bracelets.)
(Her sad, lovely, aristocratic Puerto Rican face is
heart-shaped.)
MAYANNAH: This butter was made from the milk of
cows in my parents hometown in Puerto Rico.
ROSEMARY/ROSETTA: Red meat, blood, and butter!
Wow!
MAYANNAH: Every year I get it flown from the island
on a private jet just for this meal.
ROSEMARY/ROSETTA: Thats fancy for you. You sure
go all out.
MAYANNAH: My dear Rosemary: you guys are going
to have the meal of your lives tonight.
ROSEMARY/ROSETTA: No, please, dont call me that.
My name isnt Rosemary. Its Rosetta.
MAYANNAH: Oh, I thought, when we met, you said it
was Rosemary.
ROSEMARY/ROSETTA: Oh no, Rosemary was not invited
tonight. Im sorry. Lets move on to another topic.
MAYANNAH: She wasnt invi?
ROSEMARY/ROSETTA: OhI love that necklace youre
wearing. So glittery.
MAYANNAH: Yes, my, my mother left it to me...

Jos Rivera

ROSEMARY/ROSETTA: And its so great, this place,

Mayannah. Theres nothing like it back where Im
fromCincinnati. Its like a big, old, crazy church.
All the pretty Jesuses!
MAYANNAH: I collect them.
ROSEMARY/ROSETTA: Why are they all naked?
(The doorbell rings.)
MAYANNAH: Ay! The other one. I thought shed never
show. Excuse me, Ro
ROSEMARY/ROSETTA: setta!
(MAYANNAH hurries offstage. We hear the sound of a door
opening.)
(Now that shes alone, ROSEMARY/ROSETTA cant help but
stare at the butter on the table.)
ANI: (Off) Mayannah? Hi, oh my God, I cant believe
I got here in one piece.
MAYANNAH: (Off) But dont you look hot tonight.
ANI: (Off) Yeah, last time you saw me, I looked like
death.
(ROSEMARY/ROSETTA puts her finger in the butter and
she tastes it. Its delicious.)
ROSEMARY/ROSETTA: Oh God, kill me now...!
(The ecstasy of the taste makes ROSEMARY/ROSETTA
change personalities, becoming ROSEMARY/ROSIE, who
is high-strung, pushy, nervous, and speaks with an ersatz
Liverpool accent.)
(When ROSEMARY changes personalities, everything about
her can alter: her race, accent, I Q, body language, gender,
and emotional make-up.)
ROSEMARY/ROSIE: Come on, now, let someone else
have a piece of that!

BRAINPEOPLE

(ROSEMARY/ROSIE hungrily drinks the butter, then licks

the dish.)
ANI: (Off, entering, agitated) They put up these new
checkpoints on the 10 and the soldiers are really gross.
MAYANNAH: (Off, entering) Well, youre here with
friends now and everythings going to be magic.
(MAYANNAH leads ANI, late twenties, into the room.)
(ANI is a brilliant, beautiful, obsessive, lovelorn Armenian
woman with nearly unnaturally white skin, piercing eyes
beneath glasses. Hair in a ponytail.)
(Though articulate and well-dressed theres something
awkward about her: she has a hard time navigating real
and emotional space.)
ANI: They get the dumbest, most neo-lithic men in
America for those jobs. I almost told your driver to
turn around and take me home.
MAYANNAH: Im glad you didnt...I wouldve cried
for a month.
ANI: Why?
MAYANNAH: Anicome meet RosemaryRosetta.
Rosemary wasnt invited, I just found out.
(MAYANNAH leads ANI to ROSEMARY/ROSIE.)
ROSEMARY/ROSIE: No, no, God, no, its not Rosetta
its Rosie.
MAYANNAH: (Confused by the new accent) Oh, I
meantRosie...
(The two guests regard each other a little warily.)
ANI: Hi, Im Ani. Great to meet you, Rosie.
ROSEMARY/ROSIE: Yeah, okay.
(ANI and ROSEMARY/ROSIE lamely shake hands.)

Jos Rivera

ANI: (Flustered) Those checkpoints, right? They ask so

many questions...and its like you never have enough
I D or bribe money to make them happy.
(MAYANNAH looks admiringly at her two guests.)
MAYANNAH: Oh, you two: lovely eyes, lovely hands...
and were all really herein my housethe three of us.
ROSEMARY/ROSIE: Three! Oh, brother!
MAYANNAH: So this is the part where I officially thank
you guys for braving the crazy streets and coming all
the way here to be with me tonight.
ANI: Well, thanks for having us.
ROSEMARY/ROSIE: That goes double for me!
MAYANNAH: The rule is, whatever happens on the
street tonight, it doesnt touch us. Up here we will
have as much fun and be as happy as we can.
ANI: Ohno pressure, though.
MAYANNAH: I have a feeling...you two are going to be
the best guests I ever had.
ANI: So all we have to do is...eat, right?
(MAYANNAH goes to the hutch and takes out three
antique-looking plates and puts them on the table.)
MAYANNAH: Yeah and at the end of dinner...therell be
a little monetary reward, like we talked about...then
everyone goes home...easy, right?
ANI: Cash, check, or wire transfer?
MAYANNAH: Any way you want it, Ani.
ROSEMARY/ROSIE: (Excited) Would it be kosher to get
my twenty Gs in crisp, new five-dollar bills?
MAYANNAH: If you guys make it to the end of dessert,
you might get the keys to the whole, friggin house!

BRAINPEOPLE

ROSEMARY/ROSIE: Awesome!
MAYANNAH: Okay, now, perdonmetheres a lot to do.
And I do it all myself. Thats my rule.
ANI: Why wouldnt we make it to the end of dessert?
(Without answering, MAYANNAH goes briskly off to the
kitchen.)
(ANI and ROSEMARY/ROSIE regard each other awkwardly.)
(ANI takes in ROSEMARY/ROSIEs shabby clothesher gaze
is intense and makes ROSEMARY/ROSIE uncomfortable.)
Are those shoes really back in style?
ROSEMARY/ROSIE: Im a rock musician, dear. I am style.
ANI: If you say so. (She looks around, checking out the
books, the paintings, the distressed furniture, as if shes
looking for something.) This place is basically creepy
and shes like a little weird.
ROSEMARY/ROSIE: You looking for something?
ANI: Bugs.
(MAYANNAH appears with several platters full of tostones,
which she puts on the table.)
ANI: So! I, I changed clothes like eighteen times before
I could figure out what to wear. Its been forever since
I got asked out. Didnt know people still did that. Have
dinner parties.
MAYANNAH: Because people are too afraid.
(ROSEMARY/ROSIE is drawn to the food like the starving
person she is.)
ROSEMARY/ROSIE: Well, sure, all the curfews and tanks
andthat looks yummy.
MAYANNAH: People were afraid before the curfews.
Lets face it, people terrify. La Doa always tells me:

Jos Rivera

nothing on earth can scare you like another human

being.
(MAYANNAH goes off to the kitchen.)
ANI: (Calling off to MAYANNAH) Thought I was the only
one who thinks depressing shit like that.
ROSEMARY/ROSIE: You must think youre pretty
special, then.
ANI: No, its justpeople mess me up. You cant trust
what they do or say. Like everyone around here is
speaking their own language.
(MAYANNAH appears with a large steaming platter of rice
and beans. She puts it on the table.)
(During the following, she puts out serving spoons, long
knives, cleavers, long forks, skewers, and corkscrews from
the hutch.)
MAYANNAH: Thats not going to happen tonight.
Not here.
ANI: But isnt that how we are? Always hiding from
each otherso we never know whats really going on?
(ROSEMARY/ROSIE cant take her eyes off the food.)
ROSEMARY/ROSIE: When do we stop yakking and start
eating?
MAYANNAH: (To ROSEMARY/ROSIE) Soon, mi amor, soon.
ANI: Its like were these geniuses at keeping the really
good stuff we havethe way-too-easy-to-break stuff
buried so deep, no one can touch it. It makes me feel like
a friggin archeologist half the time, always digging
under the skin of people, hoping, you know, for
answers, some clarity, an actual, real look at a persons,
you knowsoul.
MAYANNAH: An archeologist of personalities.

BRAINPEOPLE

ANI: Right? Its like a defense thing I have. So I dont

get tricked or smashed or fucked, the way I look at
people.
MAYANNAH: I noticed that about you. You keep staring
at me and, uh, Rosie
ROSEMARY/ROSIE: (To ANI) Im sorry, but it gives me
the heebies, all your staring, all your eyeballs googling
at me.
ANI: Its not staring. Its analyzing, like an X-ray.
ROSEMARY/ROSIE: (Pronouncing it Annie) Ani, is it?
ANI: (Correcting her) Ani...
ROSEMARY/ROSIE: Let me just say, Auuhhni, that
maybe you shouldnt dig too deep. Could hurt
somebody. Or scare yourself to death.
ANI: Good! Its called self-examination?
ROSEMARY/ROSIE: Well, I dont want anyone exploring
me. Cracking my head open to look inside.
MAYANNAH: (To ROSEMARY/ROSIE) You wont look her
in the eye. I noticed that about you.
ROSEMARY/ROSIE: (Aggressive) Or listen to the words in
my head. Some nights its like the bloody B B C in there!
Okay?!
ANI: Hey, back off a little!
MAYANNAH: Theres some tension between you two
and thats not cool tonight. Thats not what Im paying
for.
ANI: All Im saying, okay, someone tells you to choose
between being Socrates unsatisfied, or a pig satisfied.
Obvious answer: Socrates.
ROSEMARY/ROSIE (Very hungry) Because pigs end up
on a plate, right Mayannah?

Jos Rivera

MAYANNAH: Were not having pig tonight. Actually,

what were eating is as far from pig as you can get.
(She goes off to the kitchen.)
ANI: Excuse me? Whats she serving us?
ROSEMARY/ROSIE: (Calling off to MAYANNAH) So,
Mayannah...I have to ask: how rich are you, anyway?
ANI: (Sotto to ROSEMARY/ROSIE) Look, if shes serving
us people...not staying.
MAYANNAH: (Off, bored) A lot fucking rich.
ROSEMARY/ROSIE: (Calling off to MAYANNAH) I never
met a rich Puerto Rican before. I thought you were from
Argentina.
MAYANNAH: (Off) I dont like to think about the money.
ROSEMARY/ROSIE: (Calling off to MAYANNAH) If it was
mine? I wouldnt think of anything else. It would be the
air in my lungs and the man in my bed.
MAYANNAH: (Off) Sometimes I think I should be living
on the street...wallowing in filth...but my poor parents
would not have wanted that for me...
ROSEMARY/ROSIE: (Calling off to MAYANNAH) Are they
dead?
(MAYANNAH enters, with a huge steaming platter of meat
covered in bright-red juices: organs, glands, legs, claws,
muscles: bloody. She sets it on the table.)
MAYANNAH: Dead as the meat on our table.
(ANI and ROSEMARY/ROSIE look at the platter of unusual
viscera on the table. It doesnt look like any kind of meat
theyve ever had.)
ANI: Tell me its not a person, okay?
MAYANNAH: (Laughs) Youre too cute, Ani! A person!

10

BRAINPEOPLE

ROSEMARY/ROSIE: Ive never smelled anything like it.

It has a hypnotic kinda scent.
(MAYANNAH takes in the table full of sumptuous food.)
MAYANNAH: Well, this is it, girls, tonights meal.
(Pleased, relieved this night has finally come.) My parents
bought these plates the first week they were married.
The tostones and the arroz con gandules are the way we
made them for generations. And the meat...very special.
Special for tonight. For my two special guests. (She goes
to the bar and pours out three shots of rum.) And get ready
to taste the best Puerto Rican rum, ever. Its my familys
label and its a ticket to heaven. Come, a toast is good
luck. (She hands out the shots and raises her glass, excited.)
Salud, dinero, y amor!
(ANI and ROSEMARY/ROSIE raise their glasses.)
ANI & ROSEMARY/ROSIE: (With less enthusiasm)
Genatzet./Cheers.
(They drink the very strong rum.)
(It takes ANIs and ROSEMARY/ROSIEs breaths away,
but seems to have little effect on MAYANNAH, who drinks
continuously throughout the scene.)
(MAYANNAH lights the long black candles, puts the napkins,
glasses of water, loaves of bread, and other finishing touches
on the table, and carefully watches ANI and
ROSEMARY/ROSIE interact.)
MAYANNAH: (To ANI) So, Ani mi amordidnt you just
bring Socrates into the conversation? Thats great.
(ANI is a little self-conscious, still fixated on the odd meat.)
ANI: Well, I dont know if what I said makes any
sensethe self-examination thing?
ROSEMARY/ROSIE: (A little competitive) Hell, you try to
live up to these socially-imposed, impossible-to-live-upto standards of beauty...