TANYA
by Margarita Gokun Silver
ACT I SCENE 1
(Two chairs. ACTOR 5, who plays a girl, 11, sits on one of them. Her hair is braided and she's dressed in 1940s fashion: knee-length skirt, sweater, weathered coat, cotton tights wrinkled at the ankles, scuffed oxfords. In her hands she holds a notebook. Behind her chair, projected on the screen, is a scene from the 1941 siege of Leningrad: a snowed-in boulevard, a broken-down tram, a single figure pulling a sled with a body. Imposed over that image is a more transparent image of a diary with Russian longhand text. The text is by Tanya Savicheva, a Russian girl whose diary written during the siege is now part of the memorial dedicated to the children who died there.)
(ACTOR 4 who plays a girl, 14, sits on another chair. Her hair is dyed and she's dressed in jeans, a sweatshirt, a parka, sneakers. In her hands she holds a smartphone. Behind her chair, projected on the screen, is a scene from 2022/2023 Ukraine: bodies on the ground, remnants of charred cars, a bombed out hospital. Imposed over that image is a more transparent image of a Facebook post with Ukrainian text.)
ACTOR 5
December 28th, 1941. Zhenya died at twelve o'clock in the morning.
ACTOR 4
Why did Putin have to come and "save us"? We didn't need saving, we didn't need his Russia. We had a good life - we even bought a car recently. Uncle Kolya promised he'd teach me to drive.
ACTOR 5
Babushka died on January 25th, 1942 at three o'clock.
ACTOR 4
On the fifth or maybe the sixth day of attacks we caught a pigeon and fried it. But after eating it we all got sick. (A beat.) We vomited in the same basement where we ate, slept, and went to the bathroom.
ACTOR 5
Leka died on March 17th, 1942 at five o'clock in the morning.
ACTOR 4
Corpses stink, you know? After Shura, our neighbor, died they couldn't take her out and she began to smell. I tried to cover my little brother's eyes and nose with mama's scarf. I didn't want him to see it.
ACTOR 5
Uncle Vanya died on April 13th, 1942 at two o'clock in the morning.
ACTOR 4
When they stopped shelling Uncle Kolya carried Shura's body out. On the way back he hit a tripwire. (A beat.) He was the closest we had to a dad.
ACTOR 5
Uncle Lesha—on May 10th, 1942 at four o'clock in the afternoon.
ACTOR 4
Those bastards went around basements searching for people. They killed everyone they found. Survivors told us Russian soldiers were raping children, old babushkas, anyone. They didn't care.
ACTOR 5
Mama—on May 13th, 1942 at seven-thirty in the morning.
(A pause.)
ACTOR 4
That pain? The one you thought you felt when a boy you liked didn't like you back? Doesn't compare. Pain's when you see your own mother dying in front of you and you can't do a damn thing about it.