Foam (NHB Modern Plays) E-Book

Harry McDonald

• Herausgeber: Nick Hern Books
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Seitenzahl: 64

Beschreibung

1974, a public lavatory. Nicky shaves his head, watched by an older man. Publicly, Nicky is a skinhead. And a neo-Nazi. But right now, in this place, that doesn't matter. This is not the first man Nicky has met in a public toilet, and he won't be the last… Spanning twenty years and inspired by a true story, Foam examines the nature of identity and the consequences of right-wing extremist ideology against the backdrop of London's skinhead and gay scenes of the 1970s and 1980s. Colliding the terrifyingly personal and the violently political, Harry McDonald's play Foam was first performed at the Finborough Theatre, London, in 2024, directed by Matthew Iliffe.

Leseprobe

Harry McDonald

FOAM

NICK HERN BOOKS

London

www.nickhernbooks.co.uk

Contents

Original Production Details

Characters

Notes

Foam

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Copyright and Performing Rights Information

Foam was first performed at Finborough Theatre on 19 March 2024. The cast was as follows:

MOSLEY

Matthew Baldwin

NICKY CRANE

Jake Richards

GABRIEL

Kishore Walker

BIRD

Keanu Adolphus Johnson

CHRISTOPHER

Kishore Walker

CRAIG

Matthew Baldwin

NURSE

Keanu Adolphus Johnson

Director

Matthew Iliffe

Set Designer

Nitin Parmar

Costume Designer

Pam Tait

Lighting Designer

Jonathan Chan

Sound Designer

David Segun Olowu

Fight & Intimacy Director

Jess Tucker Boyd

Assistant Director

Tania Khan

Stage Manager

Thomas Fielding

Production Manager

Carrie Croft

Co-Producers

Croft & Dye Productions

Salt Lick Productions

Yes, all men are homosexual, some turn straight. It must be very odd to be a straight man because your sexuality is hopelessly defensive. It’s like an ideal of racial purity.

Derek Jarman, At Your Own Risk

As I look ahead, I am filled with foreboding. Like the Roman, I seem to see ‘the River Tiber foaming with much blood’.

Enoch Powell, Birmingham, 20th April 1968

Characters

NICKY

MOSLEY

GABRIEL

BIRD

CHRISTOPHER

CRAIG

A NURSE

Notes

The play takes place in a series of public bathrooms.

BIRD and the NURSE are characters with Black African or Caribbean heritage.

A slash ( / ) indicates where the next line interrupts.

A comma ( , ) on its own line indicates a beat or a pause, dependent on context.

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

ONE

April 1974.

NICKY, a boy of fifteen, is shaving his head with a razor over the sink.

MOSLEY, an elegantly dressed aristocrat in his late thirties, has just walked into the bathroom carrying a cherry-red gift bag. He sets it down on the floor. He takes off his gloves.

,

MOSLEY. Yes. They said that you had shaved your head. I did not realise they meant right this very second. Over the sink.

,

Excuse me a moment.

MOSLEY crosses to a urinal. Unzips.

,

Finishes, shakes, zips up again. Turns back to NICKY.

May I borrow the sink for a moment?

,

I need to wash my hands.

NICKY steps away. Shaving foam drips down his face.

Thank you.

MOSLEY washes his hands. Carefully dries them.

And your name is…?

NICKY. why are you talking

,

MOSLEY. I was asking you a question

NICKY. people don’t talk in here

MOSLEY. of course

NICKY. they don’t

MOSLEY. And yet I am.

NICKY. do you not know the rules or something

MOSLEY. of course I know the rules. I know the idiosyncrasies of a place like this.

NICKY. the what

MOSLEY. Idiosyncrasies. That which renders something abnormal. Like your new hair, or lack thereof.

NICKY. I’m not fucking strange

MOSLEY. You appear to have set about shaving your head over the sink in a public lavatory. If you are not strange then what, exactly, are you?

,

NICKY. what do you want

MOSLEY. answer my question and I shall see how I feel about answering yours.

NICKY. I don’t do names

MOSLEY. Perhaps you could learn to.

,

NICKY. My name’s Nicky. What do you want?

MOSLEY. My name is Mosley. Nice to meet you.

He holds out his hand.

You can shake it.

,

Shake my hand.

,

NICKY does.

Good. Not a terrible handshake either. Young men like you often have a limp handshake.

,

NICKY. who said I’d shaved my head

MOSLEY. I presumed they were your friends. That particular gaggle of boys.

NICKY. what boys

MOSLEY. I overhead them / talking

NICKY. you a perv?

,

MOSLEY. Excuse me? No I am not / a

NICKY. you look like a perv

MOSLEY. I am not a perv.

NICKY. if you’re not a perv then what do you want

MOSLEY. I thought it was quite evident I am here to use the facilities. As are you. Though I suspect there is something else.

NICKY. It’s quiet

MOSLEY. right.

NICKY. it was quiet

MOSLEY. and you do like the quiet.

NICKY. why are you still talking

MOSLEY. Because you seem like a nice boy and I would like to talk to you, and I think perhaps we should be sweeping aside conventions if they stand in the way of my doing so.

,

And you do like the quiet?

,

You can trust me.

NICKY scoffs.

You can. And you hardly seem in a hurry to leave so we might as well have a conversation. Or failing a conversation, perhaps you can listen to me. Here –

MOSLEY offers NICKY a cigarette.

I am sure you would like one of these.

,

NICKY takes it. MOSLEY offers him a lighter, a fancy, heavy silver one.

NICKY doesn’t know how to use it.

MOSLEY lights NICKY’s cigarette, and then one for himself. NICKY tries to contain his cough. MOSLEY pretends not to notice.

,

Yes. You are right. It is quiet. Quiet but not… Quiet as if something might happen.

NICKY. I like the quiet.

MOSLEY. Why do you like the quiet, Nicky.

,

NICKY. don’t get much of it

MOSLEY. and why is that

NICKY. so many questions

MOSLEY. We can blame my insatiably curious mind.

NICKY stares at his cigarette.

NICKY. there’s lots of noise at home.

MOSLEY. I see. Are there rather a lot of you?

,

NICKY. Ten of us. Including me.

MOSLEY. Yes. That must be difficult. Rather a lot of noise.

NICKY. yeah

MOSLEY. Not the right conditions for a young man. Trying to make sense of this bright shiny new world. And his place in it.

,

I have not been to this particular establishment before but I am familiar with the kind. And you are right of course. People keep their mouths wired shut. Until, of course, someone wants it open.

NICKY. it’s a toilet

MOSLEY. yes.

,

NICKY. it’s a toilet

MOSLEY. yes, but, I wonder –

MOSLEY disappears inside a cubicle. Closes the door over.

Yes!

A finger appears through a hole in the door. MOSLEY re-emerges, proud of his discovery.

Slightly more discreet than some. Not large enough for the obvious but perfectly effective.

NICKY. what

MOSLEY. A perfectly effective peephole.

,

Fewer and fewer of this kind around. They are good for the quiet. And other things – patience, for one. That necessary agony. The act of learning to wait for something to happen and then not being too disappointed when nothing happens at all. You do know what I mean. The kind of man that comes into a public lavatory for the quiet. And then its release.

,

NICKY. what do you want

MOSLEY. How old are you?

,

NICKY. Nineteen.

MOSLEY. yes I imagine that works with most people.

,

NICKY. Sixteen.

,

Fifteen.

MOSLEY. Yes that sounds about right. Looks older but still silly enough to, well… shave his head in a public lavatory.

NICKY. sixteen next month

MOSLEY. How very vibrant.

NICKY. vibrant

MOSLEY. Yes. Vital. Crucial. Shiny.

NICKY. how old are you?

MOSLEY. well. What year is this?

NICKY. seventy-four.

MOSLEY. Nineteen seventy-four? I suppose that puts me at seventy-seven years old.

,

What made you want to shave your head?

NICKY. I like how it looks

MOSLEY. I like how it looks too but that is not necessarily enough to make me go and shave my hair off, is it.

NICKY. I like how it looks on other people

MOSLEY. and you want to be like them?

NICKY. they look good. They look. Like they know what they’re doing and they look good together. And I want to be like them.

,

MOSLEY. It is not just as simple as shaving your head though. If it were that simple everyone would do it.

NICKY. not everyone wants to do it

MOSLEY. No. Do you wonder why that is?

NICKY. they’re not like me

MOSLEY. Precisely. It is because they are not like you. They are not like me either. Those boys, the ones you want to look like. Well, I happen to know them and their ilk quite well.

NICKY. really