Cinema Red

Buy a ticket from the Kid, take a seat and enjoy the best of adult cinema. Alondra’s risking her life moonlighting to save up the money she needs for the trip of a lifetime; Sasha’s saving herself for the right man after 50 years on the game, and across the street Hector tries in vain to impress the woman he loves.  This is Cinema Red.

I was ill so I didn’t want to go; I was feeling sick.  I asked Paloma to go instead; we’d done it before…  I didn’t know, I swear…  ‘You’ll have a ball’, I said; it was such a posh part of town…  Juan had never sent anyone there before.

I had no clue who he was…  I never did find out…  He didn’t know who I was, so I told Paloma to tell him she was me…  I don’t suppose he’d have known the difference between a dove and a lark, would he?

When I found her I felt…  like…  like she’d died in my place…  I…  You know what Juan said when I asked him what we were going to do with her?

He said, ‘What do you mean, “what we gonna do with her”?  She’s dead now.’ 

That was when I realised…  I didn’t want to die like that…

This translation of Cinema Red was first performed at the Royal Court Theatre in March 2011, directed by Indhu Rubasingham and performed by Kika Markham, Jenny Jules, Leo Bill, Sandra Voe, Rick Warden and Kerron Darby.

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