Encyclopaedia of Waiting
Melbourne. Neither the tram’s lateness nor the drizzle outside manage to impede her arrival at the movie theatre behind Spring Street on time. With extra time, in fact, to muse — or pretend, along with other lone viewers — amongst the film posters and news before ushered into the ‘plot room’ for the start of the movie.
~ page 5 ~

– stares [alongside stairs]
– pl … [clockwise: plot room]

—————

[anticlockwise]
Encyclopaedia of Waiting
She is eager to see this movie — allured by its acclaim as being “.. a seductive filmic annotation of our timeless plot — ‘the present’ — around which falls the un-beguiling social and political mechanisms of circumstance”.

After seating herself she casts a quick but curious glance around — feeling secure among what were obviously likeminded people surrounding here.

The lights go down.
~ page 4 ~

– ro …

—————

Encyclopaedia of Waiting
Her childlike eagerness intensifies as the opening credits appear, though only to plummet in despair as grows a paralysing recognition. This is the wrong movie. This is not the movie she has come to see. This is not a depiction of quantifiable facts on ‘the present’ as expected.

This movie is a love story: worse, still, a rendition of dramatised, tragic love — of discordant desires, unfulfillment and passionate estrangement: the everyday.
~ page 2 ~

– … om

—————

Encyclopaedia of Waiting
She expects to see a similar distress in those surrounding her, but as she peers she is disheartened, estranged from those she’d initially surmised likeminded. They are all engrossed as if in accordance with this tragedy: this present.

The is not ‘the present’ she wants — so she waits; waits for her movie to start — for perhaps this is a mistake soon to be rectified: perpetual hope. But the movie continues — as does she, waiting.
~ page 1 ~

– … ot