CLASS E-Book

Iseult Golden

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

Seitenzahl: 87

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

Brian and Donna's son is nine years old and he's struggling. That's what his teacher says. Says he should see a psychologist. But Brian and Donna – recently separated – never liked school, never liked teachers. An explosive triple confrontation that is funny, heartbreaking and beautifully observed, Iseult Golden and David Horan's CLASS is an award-winning play about learning difficulties: in school, in life, wherever. After a sold-out run in the Dublin Theatre Festival 2017, the play transferred to the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, in January 2018 before playing in the Traverse Theatre as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2018. CLASS won an Edinburgh Fringe First Award and was named Best Theatre Script at the 2018 ZeBBie Awards awarded by the Writers Guild of Ireland.

Leseprobe

Iseult Golden and David Horan

CLASS

NICK HERN BOOKS

London

www.nickhernbooks.co.uk

Contents

Original Production

Dedication

Characters

Note on Text

CLASS

About the Authors

Copyright and Performing Rights Information

CLASS was first performed at the Civic Theatre, Tallaght, on 27 September 2017 as part of the Dublin Theatre Festival. The play transferred to the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, before playing at the Traverse Theatre as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2018. The cast was as follows:

BRIAN & JAYDEN

Stephen Jones

DONNA & KAYLIE

Sarah Morris

RAY McCAFFERTY

Will O’Connell

Directors

Iseult GoldenDavid Horan

Set & Costume Design

Maree Kearns

Lighting Design

Kevin Smith

Sound Design

Ivan Birthistle

Sound Design

Vincent Doherty

Production Manager

Adrian Mullan

Stage Manager

Sarah Robb

Photography

Ros Kavanagh

For Sarah Ling and Colm Maher

Characters

RAY McCAFFERTY

BRIAN COSTELLO

DONNA COSTELLO

JAYDEN COSTELLO, played by the actor playing Brian

KAYLIE, played by the actor playing Donna

Note on Text

Text in square brackets is intention, not to be spoken.

A forward slash (/) in the text marks the point at which the next speaker interrupts.

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

A classroom. The teacher, RAY McCAFFERTY, sits at his desk, correcting a pile of copybooks and eating a sandwich open beside him.

There is a blackboard at the top of the room. Three small chairs have been arranged around a kid’s desk.

BRIAN COSTELLO enters, sees him working, hesitates, then leaves.

McCAFFERTY looks up.

McCAFFERTY. Hello?

McCAFFERTY returns to work. Beat.

BRIAN knocks and enters confidently.

BRIAN. Hello.

McCAFFERTY. Hello…?

BRIAN. Brian Costello. Jayden’s da?

McCAFFERTY is caught on the hop with his sandwich and hurriedly folds it away.

McCAFFERTY. Oh. Great. Come in, come in. You’re very prompt.

BRIAN. Do you want me to wait outside or?

McCAFFERTY. No, no, not at all. Please. Donna’s not here yet?

McCAFFERTY takes some papers from the side of his desk, and readies them.

BRIAN. Yeah, No. Em. She’s making her own way. She’s not here yet.

I was standing out there like an eejit, so I thought I’ll just come on in.

(Handshake.) Brian.

McCAFFERTY. Nice to meet you, I’m Ray McCafferty.

BRIAN. Yeah. I wasn’t here last time. There was a bit of a situation.

McCAFFERTY. I see.

BRIAN. No. I mean. I just, I wanted to make sure to be here today. See how Jay is getting on. Jayden.

McCAFFERTY. Good. Well, it’s good to have you here. Two parents are better than one! Not that one is a problem.

BRIAN. Yeah.

McCAFFERTY (towards kid’s desk). Take a seat.

BRIAN. Here?

McCAFFERTY. Sorry. I know. It’s not ideal. You’d be surprised how difficult it is to get an adult-sized seat this end of the building.

BRIAN looks at the chair, but doesn’t sit.

BRIAN. She said she’d be here. Four o’clock yeah? That’s what she told me.

McCAFFERTY. It’s not quite four yet.

BRIAN. I did meet Jayden’s other teachers, Mrs Hunt and em, the older one?

McCAFFERTY. Mrs McCague?

BRIAN. Yeah. I had the meetings with them. But this year, well.

McCAFFERTY. And were they all right, those parent-teacher meetings?

BRIAN. Yeah. Why wouldn’t they be?

McCAFFERTY. Absolutely. No reason.

BRIAN. I mean, it’s not exactly a barrel of laughs. Memories of getting called in to the principal’s office, you know.

McCAFFERTY. Sure.

BRIAN. Brings you back. Donna always shits a brick –

(Correcting himself.) I mean, she gets all nervous, coming in here, it’s like she reverts. I’m always telling her relax, you’re a grown-up. You’ve escaped, you know.

Beat.

No offence.

McCAFFERTY. No. I know what you mean. Actually I think we can all be prone to that sort of behaviour.

BRIAN (bluffing). Yeah, yeah.

McCAFFERTY. We learn in early life how to interact with different authority figures. Anything from shopkeepers, to doctors, to priests even. We learn at a young age how we interact with these people and it can be very hard to unlearn.

Beat.

My mechanic makes me feel inadequate. It’s not his fault. I always think he’s judging me ’cause I don’t understand a word he says. I just nod. My last NCT, nightmare.

Beat.

BRIAN. I used to be a mechanic.

McCAFFERTY. Oh.

BRIAN. I drive a taxi now.

McCAFFERTY. So you probably know a lot about cars.

BRIAN. A fair bit, yeah.

McCAFFERTY. Excellent.

Beat.

BRIAN. That’s a lot of pictures of trees. I’m guessing they’re learning about trees today.

McCAFFERTY. It’s a science project. This one here is Jayden’s. He brought in a branch from a birch tree.

BRIAN. We got that the other weekend.

McCAFFERTY. Exactly. And this is the seed. And the leaf. So it goes through –

BRIAN. … The life cycle of the tree.

McCAFFERTY. That’s it. Good. Exactly!

BRIAN laughs a little at the condescension.

BRIAN. Gold star for me. It’s written there.

McCAFFERTY. Yes, sorry. Occupational hazard.

Beat.

Actually, I don’t use that system any more. Gold stars. I try to make the process of learning enjoyable for its own sake. Knowledge should be its own reward.

BRIAN. Good luck with that.

McCAFFERTY. Indeed. Indeed.

BRIAN. You here long? In the school?

McCAFFERTY. A year and a half now.

BRIAN. Right.

McCAFFERTY. I started with Jayden in September.

BRIAN. Course, yeah. And how’s that going?

McCAFFERTY. What do you mean?

BRIAN. How do you find this place?

McCAFFERTY. Great. Well, it’s different. I taught in High Park before coming here.

BRIAN. You left High Park to come over here?

McCAFFERTY. Yes. I did.

BRIAN. Fair play. I went here. Couldn’t wait to leave. No offence.

McCAFFERTY. It’s… it’s a challenging environment. But the kids are great.

BRIAN. I’ll just sit on this.

BRIAN sits on a kid’s desk.

McCAFFERTY. Perfect. Apologies.

McCAFFERTY sits at his own desk.

BRIAN. I’m sure she’ll be here in a minute.

McCAFFERTY nods. He quickly counts the number of copybooks left to correct.

Was Jayden, em, talking about how things are at home?

McCAFFERTY. How do you mean?

BRIAN. No, I mean, it’s fine. It’s just I’m not living in the house at the moment. Just at the moment.

McCAFFERTY. Yes.

BRIAN. He was saying that?

McCAFFERTY. He mentioned it. And Donna told me there was… that you were, that you weren’t there any more.

BRIAN. It’s just how things are right now. But we’re sorting things out.

McCAFFERTY. Right.

BRIAN. Yeah, it’s good. It’s going good.

Beat.

McCAFFERTY. Good.

BRIAN. He’s okay with it, though?

McCAFFERTY. Jayden?

BRIAN. Yeah.

McCAFFERTY. Well –

BRIAN. I have them at the weekends. Most weekends.

McCAFFERTY. Right.

BRIAN. He said that?

McCAFFERTY. He did.

BRIAN. So you know everything, I suppose?

McCAFFERTY. No, I know he visits you at the weekends. He seems to enjoy them.

BRIAN. It’s just the way things are right now. I mean, it’s… We’re working it out, you know what I mean.

Beat. BRIAN is frustrated.

McCAFFERTY. Actually. My wife and I, we’re taking some time as well.

BRIAN. Oh yeah?

McCAFFERTY. She’s gone to her mother’s. We had a tough time there. So, I know what you’re talking about.

BRIAN nods.

BRIAN. Kids?

McCAFFERTY hesitates briefly.

McCAFFERTY. Eh. No.

BRIAN. Lucky. It gets very bleedin’ complicated.

McCAFFERTY. I’m sure.

BRIAN. Well Jayden thinks you’re the dog’s… the bee’s knees anyway. It’s all Mr McCafferty this, Mr McCafferty that.

McCAFFERTY. That’s nice to hear.

BRIAN. He was telling me about that trip you took into the woods.

McCAFFERTY. Oh yes, the nature walk. Moved heaven and earth, but we got there.

BRIAN. More than we ever got, I can tell you, nature walk. You were roasting sausages on a fire?

McCAFFERTY. We were. It’s mostly about habitat, but I finish up around a fire – bit of adventure you know.

BRIAN. He loved it, yeah. He’s been wanting to roast sausages ever since.

(Joking.) Thanks for that.

McCAFFERTY (playing along). Sorry.

BRIAN. No, no. It’s great. We’ve been roasting everything. On the Superser.

McCAFFERTY. Really?

BRIAN. Toast, marshmallows and we tried a carrot – but that didn’t go very well.

McCAFFERTY. I can imagine.

BRIAN. Burned to a crisp.

McCAFFERTY. It’s good experimentation, I suppose.

BRIAN. Yeah. So long as we don’t blow the place up, we’ll be grand.

Beat.

So, everything’s all right, or?

McCAFFERTY. Yes, em. Well, I suppose we should wait till Donna arrives, before I get into anything.

BRIAN. Right. Yeah.

Beat.

McCAFFERTY. Actually, do you mind me asking, do you ever look over Jayden’s schoolwork?

BRIAN. Why?

McCAFFERTY. No, the only reason I ask is, I’m just trying to find out who does the homework with Jayden? If anyone? Do you ever do the homework with Jayden?

BRIAN. Yeah, sometimes.

McCAFFERTY. Oh great. And how do you find that?

BRIAN. Yeah, good, great. Tell you what, we will just wait till Donna gets here.

McCAFFERTY. Sure.

BRIAN. So you’re not repeating yourself.

McCAFFERTY. Absolutely.

BRIAN. I’ll just see if she’s coming.

BRIAN opens the door.

DONNA. I’m sorry. I was – [in town.]

BRIAN. What are you doing?

DONNA. Nothing, I was coming in.

BRIAN. I’ve been here ages, you’re late.

DONNA. I thought I’d be called. I didn’t want to go barging in.

BRIAN. So you stand outside like an eejit?

They turn to McCAFFERTY.

(Jokey.) She was waiting outside the door.

DONNA. I wasn’t, I wasn’t waiting –

BRIAN. She was.

DONNA. I’m just after – Hello, how are you, sir – Mr McCafferty.

McCAFFERTY. Ray, please.

DONNA. Yeah.

Handshake.

McCAFFERTY. Donna, how are you?

DONNA. Yeah, grand.

McCAFFERTY (gestures to chair). Please.

DONNA. I’m sorry I’m late.

McCAFFERTY. No, no that’s fine, Donna.

She sits.

So / Brian was just telling me that you –

DONNA. It’s just I was coming from town and the buses were delayed, I couldn’t get a bus.

McCAFFERTY. It’s fine, really. So, Brian was saying that you are now the primary carer for Jayden?

DONNA. Yeah, I am yeah.

BRIAN. Wait a minute, I didn’t say that.

McCAFFERTY. Of course. All I mean by that is Donna has the kids most nights in the week. Would that be accurate?

BRIAN. Yeah, I suppose. Yeah.

McCAFFERTY. But I’m delighted that you both made the time to come see me today. It’s great that Jayden has that kind of support.

BRIAN. Yeah.

(Looking at DONNA.) He does.

McCAFFERTY. And am I right to assume that you would do his homework with him, Donna?

Beat.

DONNA. Yeah. I do, yeah.

McCAFFERTY. And how have you been finding that?

DONNA (on the spot). Good, yeah.

McCAFFERTY (surprised). Oh. Okay, so –

DONNA (to BRIAN). Sorry, I wasn’t standing outside. I’m only just after getting here.

BRIAN. You only live five minutes away.

McCAFFERTY. It’s really not a problem.