Fridge E-Book

Emma Zadow

• Herausgeber: Renard Press
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 74

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Beschreibung

Alice hasn't been home for a while – for seven years, in fact. But when her little sister Lo tries to take her own life, she has to return to the life she left behind. The change of scenery from London to Norfolk proves quite the culture shock, however, and Alice has to confront what she left behind all those years ago. The sisters' relationship hasn't evolved in Alice's absence, and when she steps through the door she's plunged back into the same world she escaped from. Set against Norfolk's bleak landscapes, but masquerading as childhood nostalgia, Fridge is an all-too-familiar exploration of the broken promises of youth, and a bitter exposition of a generation left behind.

Leseprobe

fridge

renard press—playscript i

fridge: Original reading at Etcetera Theatre in 2016, with Therica Wilson-Read, Siân Bennett and Leo Garrick, directed by Tonje Wik Olaussen. Original production at King’s Head Theatre in 2017, directed by Tonje Wik Olaussen with Blackout Creative Arts and music by Phoebe Robinson.Lo played by Mary O’Loan, Alice played by Emma Zadow and Charlie played by Leo Garrick.

Special thanks to Rachel Hosker, Arthur Velarde, Edward Watchman, Gabrielle De Saumarez, Izzy Daws and Anoushka bonwick.

FRIDGE

EMMA ZADOW

renard press

Renard Press Ltd

124 City RoadLondon EC1V 2NXUnited [email protected] 8050 2928

www.renardpress.com

Fridge first published by Renard Press Ltd in 2021

Text © Emma Zadow, 2021Cover design by Will Dady

Emma Zadow asserts her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Renard Press is proud to be a climate positive publisher, removing more carbon from the air than we emit and planting a small forest. For more information see renardpress.com/eco.

All rights reserved. This publication may not be reproduced, used to train artificial intelligence systems or models, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise – without the prior permission of the publisher.

EU Authorised Representative: Easy Access System Europe – Mustamäe tee 50, 10621 Tallinn, Estonia, [email protected].

Permission for producing this play may be applied for via the publisher, using the contact details above, or by emailing [email protected].

Contents

Fridge

Scene One

Scene Two

Scene Three

Scene Four

Scene Five

Scene Six

Scene Seven

Scene Eight

Scene Nine

Scene Ten

Scene Eleven

Scene Twelve

Scene Thirteen

Acknowledgements

fridge

for my sister

Characters

alice

Late-twenties. Originally East Anglian, but now lives in London.

charlie

Late-twenties/early thirties.alice and lo’s childhood friend.

lois(lo)

alice’s younger sister.

A fridge, whether figurative or literal, should remain onstage throughout. The fridge acts as bus shelter, lamp post, TV and seating backing.

setting

East Anglia, present.

accents

Actors should not speak in an exaggerated form of the East Anglian accent; the dialect should only be used to inform the casting.

Scene One

My Walls

A fridge stands in darkness. The sound of the countryside can be heard – birds, etc. Slight pause. The fridge suddenly jerks and shakes. Someone is inside.

lo(from inside the fridge):Alice! Alice! Let me out! It’s not funny any more!

(The sound of laughs and giggles.)

It’s not funny!

(A knocking is heard. More shaking, until there is one last jerk. Suddenly, the door swings open and out is thrown lo. She falls on to her face. She sits up. She is not used to the light, and her eyes ache. Time has passed. She sees bottles of milkshake in neat lines left for her. She takes a bottle. She opens it with her mouth, tearing the plastic with her teeth and unscrewing the top with ease. She’s done this before. She stares at a note in her hand.She crumples it into a ball suddenly. She sits cross-legged. She takes the milkshake bottle and gulps it down in one go. This should be uncomfortable to watch. It dribbles down her neck. She finishes it. She exhales and swigs.)

I want to be just like my…

(Shadows stream on the floor. The birdsong slows down to an unnatural slow speed.)

Alice? (The wind howls.) When it’s this quiet all the time, you can’t help but hear voices, right? (The wind howls louder. She peers under the fridge and squeezes her hand underneath.) One time, Alice put me in the fridge because she told me the sea tale of the Old Mermaid of Shipden.

This is the true story of a girl

Who was banished underwater.

So her people stopped calling her ‘daughter’.

She lived there alone

And above her lost ships would groan;

The sea winds would howl

And the seals would growl

At her shedding tail

Cos she failed.

She wanted to return to the land.

The North Sea raged

As she grew ever more caged.

With hull upon hull

Her collection did grow,

And they sunk to her below.

So, the Shipden mermaid wore

Legs made of wood

From long-gone shipwrecks

To come at last ashore –

To find her family’s door

At last. But the folk of old Shipden

Said she hunted for the most beautiful hair

From little human girls.

Then she’d scalp and steal

The hair and wear them in her lair.

But she wore her wooden legs

Of the wrecks

And came to the town,

To the door of the family

That sent her down

To that watery cell.

She knocked and knocked,

But they wouldn’t open it.

Pleading, screaming,

Her shriek with a creak

Sent the entire town

To the murky depths.

And she returned to her shell;

There she wept,

Waiting for another door

To knock on

On shore.

So, she went outside when I couldn’t. But I think it was just to have a smoke with Chrissy by the guinea-pig hutch.

(A knock comes from the gloom.)

She said she fought it with fire. (She rolls her sleeve up.The wind howls again.)The winds are stronger here – there’s nothing in the way for miles and miles. We put houses in the way of the howls.

(alice, a distortion of a memory. Her voice fades in and out of focus, as per lo’s conscience. To lo, aliceis present. She appears in a blue light, perhaps. Ghoulish.)

Alice? (Slight pause.)Alice? Alice? Are you there?

(Pause.)

alice:I’m here. Always have been.

(Pause.)

lo:Why didn’t you let me out?

alice:Don’t fall asleep on me.

lo:I’m the Mermaid of Shipden.

alice:That wasn’t real.

lo:Like you? She stole my hair. I think she did.

alice:Now I steal you back! There’s a good girl. Look at this.

lo:The world stopped when I—

alice:That’s enough. I’m going for a smoke.

lo:Can I come with you?

alice:No.

lo:Stay with me.

alice:Promise. (Pause.)No one should see this. This is ours, understand?

lo(nods): Are you coming back?

alice(laughs):Where else would I want to be? (The blue light disappears with alice.)

(The wind howls. A knock is heard again.)

voicefromoutside:Oi’m hayre!

(lopanics. She scurries to the fridge and hides something underneath it again, opens it and slams it shut. The milkshake bottles are left alone. A figure enters: tall, wearing a hood against the wind and weather. He carries a large bag over his shoulder. He brings fallen leaves in with him under his workmen’s boots.)

man:’Ello ’un? (He sees the milkshake bottles and crouches down, inspecting them.)Looks t’ me loike the tracks of a…(He swings the fridge door open, finding her. loscreams.)What you doin’ down in hayre?

lo:In here?

man:In hayre.

lo:What you doin’ out thayre, Charlie?

charlie:What you doin’, oi?

(She jumps into his arms, wrapping her legs around him like a monkey. We see him properly. charlie is a young man, rugged, wearing boots and a fleece – a working man of the countryside. He is young, but a rural working life has left his face aged by the elements.)

Waho! Chrissy called me, so ’ere oi am.

lo:I wonder if she uses the same room every time…

charlie:Now, now. She is yer mum. (Slight pause.)Now, you know what t’ do.Just like Alice taught you. (He swings the bag off his shoulder and on to the floor. He unzips it and waits for lo.)

lo:Dippers?

charlie:Check.

lo:Fries-2-Go?

charlie:Double check. (lolooks down. charliepoints at the empty bottles of milkshake.)Already?

lo:Sorry.

charlie:Wot yer doin’, guzzlin’, just loike the Nawfuk pigs in t’ field – you be on creep feed!

lo:Oink! Oink!

(They laugh. He rummages in the bag.)

Don’t forget to do the dippers properly!

charlie:In a circle, roight?

lo:Spiral! Like a snail. That way they get good and crispy at the little tail.

charlie:No they don’t—

lo:That’s how Alice did them.

charlie:And that’s ’ow we’ll do them, too.

lo:Mum got me strawberry and not…

both:…banana…

charlie:I know. You’ll make yourself sick by doin’ that. Roight. Spar’s still open. (He turns to leave.)

lo:Charlie?

charlie:Uhuh?

lo:Out there, in the fields, when you’re with your drift—

charlie:Made good work of them.

lo:Yeah, but when you are, and if, say one of ’em gets sick, like really sick, really really gross sick, what do you do?

charlie: