Here I Belong (NHB Modern Plays) E-Book

Matt Hartley

• Herausgeber: Nick Hern Books
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

Matt Hartley's moving, funny and charming play, Here I Belong, takes you through decades of history seen through the eyes of one village resident. It's Elsie's ninetieth birthday. Come and join us in the village hall to celebrate. There will be cake. Elsie has lived in the village for sixty years. She has seen elections, weddings, wars, people coming, people going. The village is where her daughter grew up, it's where her husband died and it's where she's going to stay. Travel through time from 1953 to the present day in this play about village life and the right to grow old in your own home. First produced on a UK tour by Pentabus Theatre Company and performed by two women, Here I Belong provides ideal material for amateur companies for up to eight female performers – especially those performing in their own village halls.

Leseprobe

Matt Hartley

HERE I BELONG

NICK HERN BOOKSLondonwww.nickhernbooks.co.uk

Contents

Title Page

Original Production

Acknowledgements

Dedication

Setting

Characters

Here I Belong

Last Letters Home

Original Production

Characters

About the Author

Copyright and Performing Rights Information

Here I Belong was produced by Pentabus and first performed at Bromfield Village Hall, Shropshire, on Wednesday 12 October 2016, before going on a UK Tour. The cast was as follows:

Nathalie Barclay

Beatrice Curnew

Director

Elizabeth Freestone

Designer

Ellan Parry

Lighting Designer

Johanna Town

Composer & Sound Designer

Helen Skiera

Movement Director

Kitty Winter

Voice & Accent Coach

Emma Stevens-Johnson

Production Manager

Tammy Rose

Technical Stage Manager

Sam Eccles

Acknowledgements

Having had the privilege of growing up in a village, I would like to thank all those who made that possible and informed that experience. Many of whom have lent their names and experiences to this play.

Deepest thanks to the Pentabus team: Crayg, Jenny, Kitty, Sam and Tim who as well as being wonderful human beings continue to challenge the notion of what rural theatre is. To the cast and crew of the show – thank you for being so generous and bringing this story to life.

And of course Elizabeth Freestone who is the most brilliant champion a writer could ever have. Rural communities will sorely miss you, I am honoured that this is your Pentabus swansong.

M.H.

For Elsie, Marion, Helen and Eden

Setting

Here I Belongtakes place in the fictional village of Woodside’s Village Hall. Woodside has a strong agricultural history. It is this that led to Elsie’s arrival as a nineteen-year-old conscript in the WLA in 1943. Historically, the village would have had a population of around about two hundred and fifty people, with a church (C of E), a pub (The Plough), a primary school and a small shop. As of 1953, when the play starts, there were several working farms, and local businesses such as a tailor and a blacksmith. During this time Woodside would have acted as a filter for local surrounding hamlets, such as Hedgeway. It is imagined that the closest major city is thirty-plus miles away. A newer town (Newton) is built, in the late sixties, on the site of Heatherview, which is approximately seven miles away and is the closest largest urban area to Woodside.

Characters

1953ELSIE, twenty-seven years oldDOROTHY, twenty-seven years old

1979ELSIE, fifty-three years oldMARION, twenty-six years old

1998ELSIE, seventy-two years oldSCARLETT, twenty-nine years old

2016ELSIE, ninetyKATIE REED, twenty-seven years old

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

1953

Early morning. June 2nd. 1953. Woodside Village Hall. The wireless plays an upbeat song.ELSIEis dragging a table into position, she has clearly been moving tables for a long time and this is the final piece of the jigsaw. Once finished,ELSIEstands in the middle of the hall, planning, taking it all in, enjoying the music as she does.ELSIEis five months pregnant and it is beginning to show.ELSIEfetches a ladder and places it below a beam, she then opens up a bag and takes out a roll of bunting.ELSIEgoes up to the ladder and, without hesitating, climbs it.AsELSIEgets to the top she attempts to tie the bunting, it is knotted.ELSIEsmiles, it was to be expected,ELSIEthen rests on the ladder’s seat and begins to unravel it. Eventually…

DOROTHY (off).Elsie?

ELSIEcontinues to unknot the bunting.

(Off.)Elsie?

ELSIE. I’m through here.

DOROTHY (off).Elsie, it’s Dot.

ELSIE. I can hear you.

DOROTHY (off).Elsie?

ELSIE. I’m through here!

DOROTHY (off).Oh Elsie, you’ve not started without me, have you?

ELSIE. There’s a lot to be done.

DOROTHY (off).We agreed on half past eight and it’s not even twenty past.

Crashing and bashing. A curse fromDOROTHY.

ELSIE. Dot, careful, don’t break the door down.

DOROTHY (off).It’s Marion’s pram, the wheel’s stuck!

ELSIE. Well, use the door handle, it’s a pram not a tank.

DOROTHY (off).Oh, for heaven’s sake.

ELSIE. My hands are full, wait one second and I’ll get the door.

DOROTHY (off). No, no, don’t worry about me, I’ll manage. Come on… wheel…

Another crash and a bang…

(Off.) There we go, I’m in!

DOROTHY, flustered, enters pushing in a pram. The pram contains a sleeping baby, Marion.

Elsie, what are you doing up there?

ELSIE. I’m trying to put up the bunting, but whoever packed it away left it in a proper tangle.

DOROTHY. You must never go up a ladder without somebody to hold it.

ELSIE. If I survived the Blitz, I can survive sitting on a ladder.

DOROTHYtakes hold of the ladder with one hand, whilst gripping the pram with her other.

DOROTHY. Should you even be up there in your condition?

ELSIE. It’s barely three foot high. I am fine.

DOROTHY. I lost all sense of balance when I was pregnant. I walked into walls. I had to be rooted to the ground. I became as adventurous as a carrot.

DOROTHYcan’t stop herself, she grips the ladder with both hands.

ELSIE. Timber!

DOROTHY. Elsie!!

ELSIE. I’m joking, I was joking, Dot!

DOROTHY. That was not funny!!!

ELSIE. You can let go, Dot, I’m plenty capable of getting down myself. You’d be better off keeping an eye on Marion – she’s probably concussed from being used to batter the door down.

DOROTHY. Oh, I’m not talking to her, right now.

ELSIE. Has she been being trouble?

DOROTHY. She may look like butter wouldn’t melt right now but don’t let that fool you, she’s been a little monster. Up all night.

ELSIE. I’ll turn the music off.

DOROTHY. No! It’s the silence that keeps her awake! Music. Singing. Shouting. Crashing through doors, anything loud – not a flinch. But silence, oh she screams the place down when that sets in.

ELSIE. Good luck finding anything but silence round here.

DOROTHY. It’s not a laughing matter, I’ve been playing Al Martino on loop all night.

ELSIE. Play her enough of his songs and she’ll grow to love the peace.

DOROTHYremoves a handkerchief from her pocket and begins to energetically mop her brow.

DOROTHY. I used to think that man’s voice was sent from heaven, all along it was hell to tame this devil. Well, my love, you’ve got all this to look forward to.

ELSIE. That I have.

DOROTHY. What? I’m hot!

ELSIE. Maybe you should go home, you’re going to be no use to me if you’re this giddy.

DOROTHY. Oh I will, it’s only the excitement of today catching up with me, Elsie – or maybe it’s the lack of sleep, it’s definitely the lack of sleep. Four nights – I’ve had nothing, four nights! I – all the emotions are merging into one. Oh Elsie, Elsie, Elsie.

ELSIE. I’m well aware of my name.

DOROTHY. The tables and chairs, did you get them out?

ELSIE. I’ve yet to meet furniture that does it itself.

DOROTHY. You’ve been here a long time, haven’t you.

ELSIE. Only a minute or two.

DOROTHY. Oh stop, I know when you’re fibbing.

ELSIE. Oh do you?

DOROTHY. You’re doing it now. I know because you’re not smiling – it’s such an effort to make yourself look unhappy. It’s why you’re so terrible at cards. Such a tell.

ELSIE. There’s a compliment in there somewhere.

DOROTHY. Yes, there is. You won’t get it all done by yourself, will you.

ELSIE. Well, I’ve been doing all right. I’ve got the wireless playing, the bunting’s out, the tables and chairs are all set up and ready –

DOROTHY. Is that where they’re going?

ELSIE. Yes.

DOROTHY. Oh.

ELSIE. Dot?

DOROTHY. Nothing.

ELSIE. And I’m the terrible fibber.

DOROTHY. It looks different that’s all. They normally go /

ELSIE. I know how they normally go.

DOROTHY. / along the wall or – I know you’re in charge but it might be that some find that a bit of a statement.

ELSIE. It’s a table.

DOROTHY. Sticklers some of them.

ELSIE. I’m not making decisions lightly, Dot. I’m incredibly aware a lot of faith has been placed in me. Betty, rest in peace, her shoes are big ones to fill.

DOROTHY. Amen.

ELSIE. And I’m extremely flattered to be the person voted in to organise such an event.

DOROTHY. Perhaps there’s room for a homage, to Betty. This here, is where she’d always make a lovely centrepiece. The table with the cake, or flowers.

ELSIE. That’s where the television’s going, Dot.

DOROTHY. The television?

ELSIE. Yes. There’s never been a television to think about before, has there? Slightly different to a cake show. Cakes don’t require a power point or an aerial, do they?

DOROTHY. The television, of course, how stupid of me!

ELSIE. Being able to watch it, that’s what today is about.

DOROTHY. They did choose well with you, didn’t they.

ELSIE. I want to get this right.

DOROTHY. Oh, you’re past that stage already. Is it Margaret Emery’s television we’re using?

ELSIE. Who else has a television?

DOROTHY. The big house –

ELSIE. Them aside.

DOROTHY. Margaret Emery must always be the first. First car, first television, everything first in the village. Margaret wanted the party in her house as well.

ELSIE. Fleetingly, Dot.

DOROTHY. I don’t know where Margaret thought everyone was going to fit. It’s a large house, yes, but not that large. Did she think the whole village could crowd into her living room? Well, it wouldn’t be possible, some would have to make do with watching. It becomes as much about her as it does about the Queen.

ELSIE. She’s never been nothing but kind to me.

DOROTHY. When’s Margaret bringing the television down?

ELSIE. Not for a while.

DOROTHY. Scared all the kids will turn up and stare at it, get in the way.

ELSIE. Well, they would, and not just the children.

DOROTHY. I would not.

ELSIE. You would sit there and gawp at it.

DOROTHY. The ‘Queen’ is going to be in the room with us!

ELSIE. That’s not how a television works.

DOROTHY. I know, but I never thought I would live to see such a moment! In our little hall! I don’t know why I am getting so emotional.

DOROTHYmops her brow even more fervently.

ELSIE. You’re tired. Sit down.

DOROTHY. No, no, if I do I will never get back up. And I’m here to help. Getting emotional, what help is that when there is such pressure upon you?! The weight on your shoulders, Elsie, that overwhelming pressure to get this right.

ELSIE. You’ve said pressure once and that was enough.

DOROTHY. Oh god, I’ve gone and put my foot in it! Blabbering on about pressure!

ELSIE. Well, you’re right, there is a lot of pressure, this is a huge moment for me.

DOROTHY. That does not do it justice, you’re the first person not born in the village /

ELSIE. Don’t have to tell me, I am very aware.

DOROTHY. / who has been made Chair of the Committee.

ELSIE. If I get it wrong that’s all I will be hearing.

DOROTHY. Don’t be ridiculous.