"Seven Guitars"

Roslyn Ruff as Vera and Lance Reddick as Floyd Barton in Seven Guitars.

FLOYD: I see where I was wrong. I told you that. It seemed like she believed in me more.

VERA: You supposed to believe in yourself.

FLOYD: A man that believe in himself still need a woman that believe in him. You can't make life happen without a woman.

VERA: I wanted that for you. Floyd. I want to know where you was bruised at. So I could be a woman for you. So I could touch you there. So I could spread myself all over you and know that I was a woman. That I could give a man only those things a woman has to give. And he could be satisfied. How much woman do you think it make you feel to know you can't satisfy a man?

FLOYD: It ain't about being satisfied.

VERA: So he could say, "Yes, Vera a woman." That's what you say, but you never believed it. You never showed me all those places where you were a man. You went to Pearl Brown and you showed her. I don't know what she did or didn't do, but I looked up and you was back here after I had given you up. After I had walked through an empty house for a year and a half looking for you. After I would lay myself out on that bed and search my body for your fingerprints. "He touched me here. Floyd touched me here and he touched me here and he touched me here and he kissed me here and he gave me here and he took me here and he ain't here he ain't here he ain't here quit looking for him cause he ain't here he's there! there! there! there!

FLOYD: Come on. Vera...don't do this.

VERA: He's there. In Chicago with another woman, and all I have is a little bit of nothing, a little bit of touching, a little bit of myself left. It ain't even here no more, what you looking for. What you remember. It ain't even here no more."

~

I went to see Seven Guitars tonight at the Peter Norton Space of Signature Theatre Company. It was absolutely amazing. It just reminded me what theatre is supposed to be and how theatre is supposed to grab you.

~

EDIT: There's a really wonderful analysis and review of the play by Michael Feingold up at The Village Voice here. He really hit the nail on the head as to Roslyn Ruff's portrayal of Vera:

"Reddick's Floyd starts stiffly, seeming ill at ease with the language and the place, but quickly improves; his last scenes are powerful. He must be much aided by the warmth emanating from Ruff's Vera, a gem of a performance by an actress who has to rank as a major discovery. The sight of her beautiful round face, laden with sadness for what might have been, is the main memory I'll take away from this production."