good dog E-Book

Arinzé Kene

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

Seitenzahl: 95

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

'Everyone gets what they deserve, they have to…' It's in the window of Sam's, behind the rusty display. Two wheels, shiny body, handlebars ready to be gripped. Mum's promised him that bike, so even when school or homelife bites, he knows to keep his chin up, his head down and his shirt clean. No harsh word, no sudden push to the ground, will distract him from growing up to be a good man. Set during the early noughties, Arinzé Kene's good dog is a theatrical monologue that chronicles growing up in a multicultural community, and the everyday injustices that drive people to take back control. Because even the most patient among us can't wait forever. Delicately observed and fearlessly told, good dog was first produced by tiata fahodzi in association with Watford Palace Theatre in spring 2017. 'One of Britain's most exciting young playwrights'Guardian

Leseprobe

Arinzé Kene

good dog

NICK HERN BOOKSLondonwww.nickhernbooks.co.uk

Contents

Title Page

Original Production

Characters

good dog

About the Author

Copyright and Performing Rights Information

good dog was first produced by tiata fahodzi in association with Watford Palace Theatre, receiving its world premiere at Watford Palace Theatre, London, on 17 February 2017. The cast was as follows:

BOY

Anton Cross

Director

Natalie Ibu

Designer

Amelia Jane Hankin

Lighting Designer

Zoe Spurr

Sound Designer

Helen Skiera

Vocal Coach

Mary Holland

Movement Coach

Annie-Lunnette Deakin Foster

Casting Director

Nadine Rennie

Film/Publicity Photography

TEAfilms

Production Photography

Wasi Daniju

RTYDS Assistant Director

Ajjaz Awad-Ibrahim

Character

BOY

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

one

I’m on the balcony pegging my school shirt on the line hoping for some late-afternoon sun so it dries before mum gets home I look down where it’s all happening

I see trevor senior park up juss sit there these times trevor senior would sit there till the engine turns cold I’ll see his chin drop to his chest and his eyes clamp up in there it’s like he’s sleep-talking cos his lips move but he turns off the engine unclips his homebase name badge puts it in the glovebox beside the other name badge for his weekend job pulls out that photo of his son posing with the red cricket bat holds it in his tough palm cos he’s lived that tough-palm life and his lips start moving but I clock what he’s doing cos now he does the sign of the cross he’s praying in therepraying dem heavy blessings on his son trevor senior was nuff worried bout his son them times cos of the incident that happened

whenever trevor senior finishes work late and gets in for the hour that his son’s in bed asleep before he has his dinner trevor senior likes to peek in his son’s bedroom just to see his chest go up and down one time he was checking in on his boy like normal he open the boy’s bedroom door he nearly hasa stroke for what he sees sitting on his son’s bed he sees one duppy juss there his son’s under the duvet asleep not knowing the duppy is sat there on his bed iss back is to trevor senior it ain’t juss a quick flash of the ting where ya blink and iss gone nah the ting’s there jamming on the bed for some time trevor senior tries shouting at it to go away nuffin comes out come like the duppy got some kinda invisible grip around trevor senior’s throat his mouth juss hangs open he can’t breathe his cheeks are wobbling his eyes are watering iss only when trevor senior starts seeing dem floating bubbles that you see juss before you faint that the duppy finally had gone allowing trevor senior to be free to collapse in the doorway to breathe again and to venchually wake his son up by crying on the floor like that his son did join him in crying too cos his son thought nah dad’s going mad that scared him obviously cos trying to make sense of what his dad was blubbering about was like

trying to find the bit to peel back on a roll of sellotape but there being no bit to peel back more frustrating the more it go on

trevor senior was trying to think how maybe he’d imagined it cos truesay he was run ragged from lifting stockroom boxes triple shifts back to back to back and truesay juss some moments before the duppy incident occured as he shut his kitchen window there was a gush of wind and some second-hand weed smoke from outside did find iss way up his nose but trevor senior thought nah nah nah the duppy he saw was real enough to go over and shake hands with he swore to my mum with his index finger skyward that the duppy left a crease in the boy’s duvet of all the places in the yard the duppy coulda sat the ting chose his son’s bed so that worried trevor senior making him do weird fings like stand outside his front door without putting the key in yet he’s doing it again I see him stood there ages screwing up his face at this fing just staring at this fing man puts his bible on the wall man puts his tie on his shoulder man squats down where there’s nuff of these fings on the ground there, picking up the fings trevor junior comes out now thass the son same age I am trevor junior doesn’t ask no questions he juss leans his red cricket bat against the wall and bends down helping his dad picking up the little fings there shaking their heads like it ain’t the first time they’ve done this they both look at them little tings in their palm cos it’s pure badness what dem lot do

there’s someone shouting so I look to the end of the block where the stray cat runs out of gandhi’s cornershop again man’s name ain’t actually gandhi no one knows what his actual name is but someone started calling him gandhi one time and now he answers to it gandhi runs after the cat gota broomstick barking suttin in his language fuming coshe can’t seem to make the cat stop coming in his shop

problem is gandhi got one of dem annoyingly slow-closing shop doors you know the door that when you try be polite and shut it after yourself you tug it but it’s nuff stubborn and wants you to know that it’s independent and is gonna shut itself in its own slow time thank you very much and you’re like lissen door I was only trying help you close cos you looked like you were struggling so no need getting all independent on me and you juss flick your hand away from its ungrateful handle and leave it to take its time showing off isself which unfortunately for gandhi is juss enough time for that stray cat to slip in his corner shop 

so I watch gandhi chase the stray ting out into the street swinging the broomstick only in doing that he abandoned his post leaving the corner shop vacant and behind him a group of dem rude what what girls quickly slip into the empty corner shop like awhaaat what what what what the what what girls think they’ve got in without gandhi knowing but to gandhi’s credit he fitted a jingle-jingle above that slow door at the weekend so he hears the jingle-jingle and spins around so quick like in the cartoons making a doughnut on the pavement with his cheap rubber bhs shoes he dashes back to his shop and kicks the what what girls out they leave the shop like what what what you mean I didn’t buy nuffin I didn’t wanna buy nuffin I changed my mind what

them what what girls may not have bought nuffin but as I see them struttin down the pavement one panda pop come out of one pocket and one don’t push me push a push pop come out of one pocket and one cheestring and one sunnyd juss appear from nowhere and they’re all drinking and chewing and bussing and screwing as they walk past old man boateng

old man boateng is stood leaning against the wall as usual in his dusty old-man suit wearing that ghanaian hat it looks like a bottle cap obviously not the same size as a bottle cap same shape I mean it’s held up by old boateng’s ears it’s got colourful little boxes like yellow and blue lego going round it old boateng takes off this hat nodding for the what what girls as they go by he compliments dem on the big hubba bubba bubble gums they’re blowing yes well done well done he’s always complimenting people 

I see him walk now well he’s kinda stumbling so he puts his hand on the lamp post for balance he looks to the end of the road there’s a phone box there he points at the phone box he nods at the phone box it’s kinda far away for a stumbling old man but regardless he takes one shaky step towards it but of course he’s distracted because ofjingle-jingle gandhi throws some flattened cardboard boxes out he holds his corner-shop door open for old man boateng to come in old man boateng looks to the phone box at the end of the road where he intends to go

two-two minutes later old man boateng is back there on his bit of wall by the pavement leaning gainst it he did not make it to the phone box so with a shaky hand he sips that beer but he don’t take his eye off the phone box until mrs blackwood walks past him that’s a nice smile you have there mrs blackwood well done

mrs blackwood is on her way home from work smiling always smilingshe walks to her houseit’s juss her and mr blackwood living there but as mrs blackwood heads in she’s surprised to find marsha juss leaving they cross each other in the doorah marsha hello I dint know you were here oh hello mrs blackwood my washing machine is having a breakoh right so you came to do your laundry at mine again yes and mr blackwood been kind enough to let me do thatthank youit’s no bodder marsha it’s what neighbours is for

marsha walks home home for marsha is directly across the road from the blackwoodsrecently marsha been going over to the blackwood house every couple days carrying a basket of dutty clothes cos her machine ain’t good but my mum say that everyone cept for mrs blackwood know that marsha’s washing machine works perfectly fine mum say it ain’t to wash clothes why marsha goes to mrs blackwood’s it’s to trouble mr blackwood why she really going there

next door trevor senior with a palm full of dem little tings he’s picked up has gone over to the four boys on the corner of his house smoking smoking on the corner of his wall like they always do like it’s their wall to smoke at trevor senior’s talking to dem calmly like he always does showing dem the tings in his palm and then pointing at what they’re smoking he’s asking if maybe they could not chuck their butts into his front garden one of the boys shrug one of the boys laugh one of the boys turn his back then one other boy he got his hoodie on backward so the hood hang down on his chest he looks like a joker he’s the only one who speaks to trevor senior if am being honest big man it coulda been anyone lemme see it firstly someone’s obviously backrolled these I’ll say about backrolling backrolling minimises how much paper you use letting it burn slower the benefit being a tastier smoke but backrolling’s rare cos the backroll technique is a devil to perfect most heads struggle with tucking the glue side round the little one-inch crutch I’ve tried it’s stressful truss you gotta be mad surgical so it won’t unravel by the time you go to uh to lick it shut but girls though girls are backrolling experts girls got dem pencil fingers making it easier to roll plus girls obviously are more patient so uh yeah I reckon some girls have been dashing these into your yard

trevor senior walks off and he’s angry but he holds it in he goes to trevor junior tells him don’t worry and rubs his head he puts the red cricket bat in his son’s hand goes behind his son makes him stand with his back bent with his legs a bit open they grip the cricket bat and together really slowlythey practise one swing

while dem four boys on the corner of his wall smoking laugh at demI hear barking