Playwright - Nerves
Nerves is a semi-autobiographical play written by Brianna Love and premiered in 2019 as part of the Toronto Fringe Festival, directed by Rona Waddington and starring Brianna Love, René Escobar Jr., and Trish O’Reilly Brennan.
Excerpt:
We are different people. I keep telling myself that. Not everyone has the same symptoms. But I’m sitting in the ambulance and thinking about my fingertips. From my face, the numbness travels down my arm, all the way to my fingertips. My mom’s arm went numb. I mean, no one ever wants to become their mother, but this is different.
What happens when we both have to fill our mugs halfway because we are scared to spill it, both shuffling our feet and are scared to drive because what if we can’t feel the break.
Excerpt:
When I finished my shopping I needed to leave. I tried to ask for help, but people kept walking around me. The chair wasn’t so big I couldn’t get through, just it was tight. And I’d never taken the chair out before. I tried asking for help. So, then I just went at the door. The glass smashed. It was everywhere. The whole store was staring at me. All those eyes. So, I stood up and shuffled away and fast as my little, numb legs could carry me. I called my Dad to come get me. While I sat on the bench outside the store, I heard them. “Who does something like that?”, “Who smashes a door and then just leaves?”, “Walked right out of the chair. Didn’t even need it”.
Dad was furious at me. Wrote a cheque at the store, apologized to the manager. Put my chair in the back of the truck. I never used the chair again. When we were halfway home I realized there was a piece of glass stuck in my foot. Five stitches.