The Late Henry Moss - Almeida Theatre

1943The Office of War Mobilizationis invented.Eisenhower is made SupremeCommander of all Allied forces.Mussolini resigns.My dad is dropping bombs on Italy.I’m bornWithout a clue.My father is having a nightmare onone of the twin beds in the bungalowof the motor court in MountainHome, Idaho. I’m sleeping in thebottom drawer of the dresser that’sbeen pulled out on a throw rug.My mother is quietly taking a shower.My blanket is drying by the window.I can hear it dripping. My father isseeing bombs raining on Italy. Hesees these bombs diminishingbeneath him. Falling away from hissweaty feet toward the ‘boot’ of Italy.He sees the hand-painted cartoonfaces on these bombs: detailedcartoon devils; demons; diminishing.Falling way. He sees his own whitehand stretching out the cockpitwindow, desperately clutching; tryingto catch these painted monstercartoon creatures before they smashthe blank face of Italy.“World War II was a trauma that wasmysterious. The women didn’tunderstand it, the men didn’t understandit and the medicine was booze.”“The men seemed like they weredevastated, the women were continuallytrying to heal them, but were alsosuffering horribly behind it.”“I honour those that came before me;if you don’t honour your ancestors,you commit a kind of suicide.”“I’ve always had a strange feeling ofbeing an exile, in some sort of limbo…Aloneness is very interesting to me,exile, a kind of banishment, andyet having to take part.”“My father seemed to live apart - rightin the midst of things.”Sam Shepard in interviewFrom Days of Blackouts Sam Shepard,1996,from Cruising Paradise, pub. Martin Secker &Warburg Ltd.