Caryl Churchill Plays: Three E-Book

Caryl Churchill

• Herausgeber: Nick Hern Books
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

Spanning almost ten years and embracing a remarkable range of style and subject matter, this third volume of Churchill's Collected Plays, introduced by the author, contains: Icecream - an unsettling look at British attitudes to America, and vice versa Mad Forest - Churchill's response to the Romanian Revolution The Skriker - a 'spellbinding' piece combining English folk tales with modern urban life Thyestes - a 'bleakly eloquent new translation of Seneca's Roman tragedy' (Sunday Times). Plus two collaborative pieces combining word and dance: Lives of the Great Poisoners - a libretto to music by Orlando Gough and choreography by Ian Spink A Mouthful of Birds - written with David Lan Caryl Churchill has been hailed as 'a dramatist who must surely be amongst the best half-dozen now writing'The Times

Leseprobe

Caryl Churchill

PLAYS: THREE

introduced by the author

A Mouthful of Birds

co-author: David Lan

Icecream

Mad Forest

Lives of the Great Poisoners

co-authors: Orlando Gough and Ian Spink

The Skriker

Thyestes

translated from Seneca

NICK HERN BOOKS

London

www.nickhernbooks.co.uk

Contents

Title Page

Introduction

A Mouthful of Birds

Icecream

Mad Forest

Lives of the Great Poisoners

The Skriker

Thyestes

About the Author

Copyright and Performing Rights Information

Introduction

Each of these pieces came about in an entirely different way. Icecream is simply a play I wrote. A Mouthful of Birds, Mad Forest and Lives of the Great Poisoners all came from some kind of work with others. The Skriker, like Icecream, was a solitary piece of work till rehearsal but it took the form it did because of earlier collaborations. Thyestes is a translation.

A Mouthful of Birds was a show for Joint Stock, and took Euripides’ Bacchae as a starting point. Usually with Joint Stock shows there was a gap between workshop and rehearsal when the writer wrote the play, but as we were working with dance as well as words we worked continuously for 12 weeks. For the writers the time still fell into something of the usual structure – roughly the first four weeks were spent by us all looking into possession, violence and other states where people felt beside themselves; then David Lan and I stayed home and wrote, coming in with scenes as they were written; the last few weeks were something like a normal rehearsal. Ian Spink (choreographer) worked with the company continuously, making some material before any text was written, and some to fit specifically into scenes that were written to have dance in them. Though A Mouthful of Birds is included in this volume the writing is as much David Lan’s as mine, and, as with other Joint Stock shows. it owes a great deal to the company. One can only get a rough idea of the piece by reading it because a large part of it was dance.

After Icecream another Joint Stock type play, Mad Forest. Mark Wing-Davey, who had worked with Joint Stock, was at the time director of the Central School of Speech and Drama. It was early 1990 and Ceauşescu had been overthrown in December. Mark wanted to take some students to Bucharest to work with students there, and asked if I’d join them and then write something for the Central students’ end of year show. Emotions in Bucharest were still raw and the Romanian students and other people we met helped us to understand what Romania had been like under Ceauşescu as well as what happened in December and what was happening while we were there. We learned far more in a short time than anyone could have done alone, and the company’s intense involvement made it possible to write the play.

Meanwhile talks had been going on for some time about a piece – eventually called Lives of the Great Poisoners – for Ian Spink’s company Second Stride, with Orlando Gough (composer) and Antony McDonald (designer), who had both done several Second Stride shows. We decided that some of the characters would dance, some sing, some speak. but they could all have a dialogue in the same scene. so this is another instance where it’s hard to visualise the show from the text alone. Long pieces of dance are described in a few lines of Ian’s stage directions. and sometimes a few words are the libretto for a long passage of song. The whole idea of the piece and its structure were worked out with Ian and Orlando before I wrote any words so it was equally made by us all. The writer has an unfair advantage because words can easily be reproduced in a book. Ian’s directions should be followed closely, though the detail will of course be different with each production. The music of Poisoners is integral to the piece.

There’s dance and singing in The Skriker too, but because of the way it was written it seems all right that the movement will be developed differently in each production (though again it is important to follow the stage directions closely), and even that different music could be used – though I strongly recommend Judith Weir’s. The Skriker is a play I was working on from before A Mouthful of Birds till after Poisoners. Sometimes it seemed like a social play with lots of characters, other times to be about just a few people. The solution I found was to have just three speaking parts, and the rest of the characters played by dancers, so that a number of stories are told but only one in words. I wrote the others as stage directions. I decided that the underworld, when the Skriker takes Josie there, would be a more completely different world if that scene were an opera, so I wrote it as a libretto. Judith Weir then wrote the music and during rehearsal Ian Spink developed the movement from the stage directions. I’d never have written The Skriker that way if I hadn’t already worked on other shows with dancers and singers. It brought together what had been for me two separate strands of work, plays I worked on alone and dance/music theatre pieces.

The last play in this volume is a collaboration with a dead writer, a translation of Seneca’s Thyestes. It was directed by James MacDonald, who also directed Lives of the Great Poisoners. There are other overlaps among these pieces – Les Waters and Annie Smart were the director and designer of both Mouthful of Birds and Skriker. Antony McDonald designed Mad Forest and Poisoners.

Caryl Churchill, 1997

A MOUTHFUL OF BIRDS

by Caryl Churchill and David Lan

A Mouthful of Birds was first performed in association with the Joint Stock Theatre Group at Birmingham Repertory Theatre on 2 September 1986 and opened at the Royal Court Theatre, London, on 27 November 1986. The cast was as follows:

LENA, a motherTricia KellyMARCIA, a switchboard operatorDona CrollDEREK, unemployedChristian BurgessYVONNE, an acupuncturistVivienne RochesterPAUL, a businessmanPhilippe GiraudeauDAN, a vicarStephen GoffDOREEN, a secretaryAmelda BrownDIONYSOSPhilippe GiraudeauPENTHEUS, King of ThebesChristian BurgessAGAVE, his motherAmelda BrownWOMENDona Croll, Tricia Kelly, Vivienne RochesterDIONYSOS 2Stephen Goff

On 11 October, Amelda Brown took over the roles initially played by Marjorie Yates. Marjorie Yates was a member of the original workshop company and cast.

Directed by  Ian Spink and Les WatersDesigned by  Annie SmartLighting designed by  Rick Fisher

ACT ONE

Part One

1. DIONYSOS dances.

He is played by a man. He wears a white petticoat.

Skinning a Rabbit

LENA and ROY.

ROY is holding a dead white rabbit.

LENA

(to audience). Look at the hole in its stomach. (To ROY.) I couldn’t possibly.

ROY.

I’ll skin it for you.

LENA.

Look at its face.

ROY.

My grandmother used to cook them with prunes.

LENA.

Do you know how to skin it?

ROY.

I’ve shot rabbits.

LENA.

Look at the hole in its stomach.

ROY.

It’s like chicken.

LENA.

It’s so white. All right. If you do it all.

ROY.

You soak the prunes.

2. Telephone

MARCIA is operating a switchboard.

MARCIA

(to audience). In fact I am desperate.

(On telephone.) Continental Lingerie, hold the line.

Yes, sir? Sir. I am busy.

Continental Lingerie, hold the line.

Yes? Who? Putting you through.

(West Indian accent.) You there? … so my boss asked me, had l ever been to the Ritz … Hang on a minute.

Yes? Look, if this goes on –. It’s your firm that suffers. Well, I care. I do.

(West Indian accent.) You there? … so I told him straight. I said, quick as a flash …

COLIN comes in.

Pause.

Ooh, new trousers? Fit you ever so snug.

COLIN.

My office. Now.

MARCIA.

Get me a cup of tea, be a sweetie.

Continental Lingerie. I’m afraid you can’t. He’s having a meeting with a lady friend.

COLIN gestures ‘Who?’

MARCIA gestures ‘You’.

COLIN gestures ‘Me?’

MARCIA.

Yes, sir. But he won’t want to speak to you. He told me himself he doesn’t care what happens to the firm. He’s only interested in –

COLIN goes out.

MARCIA.

Putting you through. (West Indian accent.) You there? … I’d have to be desperate to look at him. In fact I am desperate. Even so … Oh, hang on.

Continental Lingerie. Putting you through.

3. Weightlifting

DEREK and two other men are doing weights.

DEREK

(to audience). He thought he wasn’t a man without a job.

MAN 1.

How long since you worked?

DEREK.

A while.

MAN 1.

I’ve never worked.

Silence.

MAN 2.

I’m going for an interview tomorrow.

MAN 1.

What for?

MAN 2.

They make biscuits.

MAN 1.

Do you know about biscuits?

MAN 2.

Seven years’ experience of marketing. First-class degree in economics. I’ve eaten biscuits.

MAN 1.

So we might not be seeing so much of you.

Pause.

MAN 2.

I’ve had twenty-three interviews.

Silence.

DEREK.

Seventeen months.

Silence.

MAN 2.

Sometimes I think I’ll go mad.

DEREK.

No. I don’t mind at all any more. I have activities. Swimming, karate, jogging, garden, weights. There’s not enough hours in the day if you put your mind to it. My father couldn’t. He thought he wasn’t a man without a job. He died within six weeks. But there’s no need.

Silence.

MAN 1.

I can’t imagine working.

4. Sleep

YVONNE, an acupuncturist, is attending to MR WOOD who is lying down. She wears a white coat.

YVONNE

(to audience). What is it makes you so angry? (To MR WOOD.) Relax your arm. No, relax it. All right. Let’s start at the top. Back. Relax your back. All the way down. There. Now shoulder. Let it go. Good. Elbow. Wrist. Fingers. All the joints. Let the tension flow away. That’s it.

She inserts a needle.

Good. So, Mr Wood, tell me – what is it makes you so angry?

She inserts a needle.

You need to think about it so much? You haven’t slept for a week, I give up my lunch break, you come in, your whole body’s tense. There must be something winding you up.

She inserts a needle.

Good. Now your neck. Relaaax.

She inserts a needle.

So what is it?

MR WOOD.

Gumminumminumminummi goo goo …

YVONNE.

Mr Wood? How can I help you if you fall asleep?

Mr Wood!

5. Profit

PAUL and MOTHER-IN-LAW are playing chess.

PAUL

(to audience). That way we make more profit.

MOTHER-IN-LAW. I know you don’t like me phoning the office. Mother-in-law.

PAUL.

That’s perfectly all right. If it’s important.

MOTHER-IN-LAW. June wasn’t home and I thought … I think I’ve got your queen.

PAUL.

No.

MOTHER-IN-LAW. Ah.

Pause.

So will you be coming to us for the weekend?

PAUL.

If I bring some work.

She moves.

MOTHER-IN-LAW. Check.

He moves.

PAUL.

Check.

MOTHER-IN-LAW. Could that be mate?

PAUL.

I think so.

He picks up the telephone, dials.

First Berlin, then Boulogne.

He puts the telephone down.

MOTHER-IN-LAW. What?

PAUL.

Fifty thousand tons of beef. We move them from Birmingham first to Berlin then to Boulogne. I was working it out.

MOTHER-IN-LAW. Unless my rook – no.

PAUL.

That way we make more profit.

MOTHER-IN-LAW. You’re very clever.

6. Angels

DAN, a vicar. Three WOMEN in hats. WOMAN 1 has a bag of jumble.

DAN

(to audience). I don’t believe God is necessarily male.

WOMAN 1.

Where shall I put the jumble?

DAN.

In the vestry.

WOMAN 2.

Do you believe in angels?

WOMAN 3.

But when it comes to the ordination of women, have we your support or not?

DAN.

I don’t believe God is necessarily male in the conventional … But I do think there’s a time and a place … I entirely agree with the bishop when he –

WOMAN 2.

Do you believe in angels?

DAN.

I’m sorry?

7. Home

DOREEN is standing some distance from ED.

DOREEN

(to audience). All I wanted was peace and quiet. (To ED.) I never said I wouldn’t come home.

ED.

You didn’t say nothing. You just ran, left me sitting on the bench like a fool.

DOREEN.

All I wanted was peace and quiet. I found it.

ED.

Sleeping by that canal, on that grass? And to scratch me and tear me. What for? I was searching five hours. Look, I’m still bleeding. Come here.

DOREEN.

I was happy.

ED.

I warned you what would happen if you ran off again.

DOREEN.

What? What will happen? What?

Pause.

ED.

Well, you had your day out all right.

DOREEN.

Oh I did.

8. Excuses

i.

PAUL

(on telephone). I’m sorry I can’t make the conference. I’ve sprained my ankle.

MARCIA

(on telephone). I can’t come in, I’ve lost my voice.

YVONNE

(on telephone). I’m afraid I have to cancel your appointment, I’ve hurt my hand.

DOREEN.

I won’t be in today, I’m seeing double.

DEREK.

I can’t go swimming this morning, I’ve got a hangover.

DAN.

I really can’t do the wedding, I’ve got earache.

LENA.

I can’t come to tea, I’ve cut my finger.

ii.

DEREK.

I can’t come to the pub tonight, my dog’s gone missing.

LENA.

I can’t distribute the leaflets, there’s a power cut.

MARCIA.

I can’t see you tonight, my car’s broken down.

YVONNE.

I can’t come to the funeral, the trains have been cancelled.

DAN.

I can’t visit the old people, my mother’s turned up.