Again E-Book

Stephanie Jacob

• Herausgeber: Nick Hern Books
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Serie: NHB Modern Plays
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 55

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

A once close-knit family of four reunite after a long period of estrangement. This time, this time, it must go right. Family history builds like sedimentary rock, layer upon layer. Words never said. Words said that never should be. Contradicting memories. In this touching and comic drama, Stephanie Jacob delves into the turmoil, love and compromises of kinship. Again literally resets the clock on one family's history as Tom and Louise – now divorced – and their adult children, Adam and Izzy, negotiate what they think they know and tussle for what they think they want. Moving, funny and instantly recognisable, Again was first performed at Trafalgar Studios, London, on 6 February 2018, in a production by Mongrel Thumb, and directed by Hannah Price. Stephanie Jacob's other plays include The Strongbox (first performed at VAULT Festival 2018), The Quick and Harry's Window.

Leseprobe

Stephanie Jacob

AGAIN

NICK HERN BOOKS

London

www.nickhernbooks.co.uk

Contents

Original Production

Characters

Again

About the Author

Copyright and Performing Rights Information

Again was first performed at Trafalgar Studios 2, London, on 6 February 2018, with the following cast:

TOMChris LarkinLOUISENatasha LittleADAMCharles RestonIZZYRosie DayDirectorHannah PriceDesignerAnthony LambleLighting DesignerSally FergusonSound DesignerSeb FrostMovementGillian RestonProducersMongrel Thumb

Characters

TOM, a builder, fifty-four

LOUISE, his ex-wife, a book editor, fifty-two

ADAM, their son, a PhD student, twenty-five

IZZY, their daughter, between jobs, twenty-three

Note on Play

The action is set now in a house in south-east London.

Each character has a chair.

If they want to restart the action, they reset their chair.

If they’re outside, they sit and remain visible to other characters.

Speech in brackets indicates a private thought.

This ebook was created before the end of rehearsals and so may differ slightly from the play as performed.

ARRIVAL

TOM comes.

LOUISE. Don’t stand there, give me your –

TOM. I’ll keep it on just now.

LOUISE. Okay.

They look at each other.

Adam’s on his way.

TOM. What, now?

LOUISE. He’s walking up from the station.

TOM. I thought I was early.

LOUISE. You are.

TOM. Look. Before he gets here. But you’re not going to like it.

LOUISE. Keep an open mind.

TOM. Eh?

LOUISE. I’m just saying. Am I so predictable?

TOM. Yep.

LOUISE. Thanks.

TOM. You always –

LOUISE. Well, there’s always something, Tom, something always crops up that makes everything impossible –

TOM. That’s not fair!

LOUISE. No.

TOM. What?

LOUISE. It isn’t. Fuck. Sorry.

LOUISE resets her chair.

LOUISE. Adam’s on his way.

TOM. What, now?

LOUISE. He’s walking up from the station.

TOM. Shit.

LOUISE. You said the money was sorted.

TOM. No, it is.

LOUISE. Okay, good.

TOM. It is and it isn’t.

LOUISE. Oh Tom, please –

TOM. Listen, no, just something else has come up –

LOUISE. Don’t do this!

TOM. I’m not doing anything –

LOUISE. Yes because you won’t put them first, our children you won’t put first in your long, long list of –

TOM. I work, that’s all I do, work and work and work, I’m going to work till I drop dead, Louise, and as I fall to the ground I’m going to think that was it?

LOUISE. Whose fault is that?

TOM. Mine! All of it, everything’s –

LOUISE. Fuck.

TOM. What?

LOUISE. Sorry. Sorry sorry sorry. I didn’t mean to do that.

TOM. Okay.

LOUISE. I meant not to do that, I meant to be all cool and letting things go and – but when we start I just –

TOM. I know.

LOUISE. Yeah.

TOM. Yeah.

LOUISE. I try for Yoda, it comes out Margaret Thatcher.

TOM laughs.

Go on. Before Adam gets here.

TOM. How is he?

LOUISE. Good, I think. You know what he’s like.

TOM. Cards close to his chest.

LOUISE. He’d make a great spy.

TOM. Maybe he is one.

LOUISE laughs.

Maybe he’s bugged the house.

LOUISE. I worry about it, you know, if he’s a bit closed off?

TOM. With you?

LOUISE. Secretive. And Izzy, running from one mess to another mess –

TOM. She’s twenty-three.

LOUISE. Is it us, though?

TOM. What?

LOUISE. Have we done it to them?

TOM. Cos of breaking up, you mean? I don’t see that. Ad was always, he’d slip off your lap, you’d find him reading somewhere, a loner, I suppose –

LOUISE. This is different.

TOM. Izzy was always off on her little scooter, no, I think they’re there from the beginning, look at Chloe, she’s five, I can already see exactly who she’s going to be.

LOUISE. Who?

TOM. A nurse or a teacher or some poor harassed social worker, she’s desperate for a pet now, we can’t have pets in the flat.

LOUISE. What about a secret hamster?

TOM. She’s scared of hamsters.

LOUISE. Izzy was!

TOM. Too bitey.

LOUISE. D’you think they’re happy?

TOM. Chloe is.

LOUISE. Ours, I mean.

TOM. Happy. But who is?

LOUISE. I think we should help them be happy.

TOM. Course.

LOUISE. Try, anyway.

TOM. Course we should.

LOUISE. Yeah? Okay, then.

TOM. What have I just agreed to?

They look at each other.

TOM resets his chair.

LOUISE. Adam’s on his way.

TOM. What, now?

LOUISE. He’s walking up from the station.

TOM. Right.

LOUISE. What?

TOM. Well, let’s have a beer.

LOUISE. I don’t drink beer, remember?

TOM. Glass of wine, then. Quick catch-up, come on.

LOUISE. Is it the money?

TOM. For God’s sake, Louise, can’t we just –

LOUISE. Is it, though?

TOM. Why would you think –

LOUISE. Because you’re always flaky about money.

TOM. Unbelievable.

ADAM. Mum?

ADAM comes.

I brought a pineapple!

ADAM hugs LOUISE.

Everyone likes pineapple, don’t they?

TOM. Can we have it on sticks?

ADAM. Oh.

TOM. You didn’t know I was coming.

ADAM. No.

LOUISE. Izzy says she’s on her way.

ADAM. You said it was just us.

LOUISE. It is.

ADAM. We’re allowed to make choices, you know.

LOUISE. If I’d said Dad was coming –

ADAM. Yes. You should’ve.

LOUISE. Adam. Please?

ADAM. Sorry.

ADAM leaves.

LOUISE. Fuck.

TOM. Why didn’t you tell him?

LOUISE. He wouldn’t have come.

TOM. That makes me feel so good about myself.

LOUISE. No, no, it’s not you, it’s the whole thing.

TOM. Yeah?

TOM resets his chair.

ADAM. I brought a pineapple!

ADAM hugs LOUISE.

Everyone likes pineapple, don’t they?

TOM. Can we have it on sticks?

ADAM. Oh.

TOM. You didn’t know I was coming.

ADAM. No.

LOUISE. Izzy says she’s on her way.

ADAM. I once waited two-and-a-half hours for that girl.

TOM. Gallant of you.

ADAM. I was in a pub with John Keats, so I was alright.

TOM. With who?

ADAM. John Keats?

TOM. Did I meet him? Was he at school with you?

ADAM. The poet? ‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty’?

TOM. Right.

ADAM. ‘Season of mists and mellow – ’

TOM. Ah! Gotcha.

ADAM. Planning a quick getaway, Dad?

TOM. Eh?

ADAM. Coat.

TOM laughs.

TOM. You get that job?

ADAM. Yeah.

TOM. Yeah?

ADAM. But the teaching’s only two days a week, so Mum’s going to let me live here pretty much for free –

TOM. So I hear, good plan. And you’re carrying on with the – poetry thing?

ADAM. Extraordinary, isn’t it?

TOM. It is a bit, if I’m honest.

They laugh.

And Helen?

ADAM. She’s off to Bristol soon to do her postdoc.

TOM. Great girl.

ADAM. She is as it goes, but how you could possibly know what kind of girl – I mean you’ve met her once, Dad, and you stood there like a mute. That came out weirdly.

TOM. S’okay.

ADAM. Look, I’ll just –