How We Begin E-Book

Elisabeth Lewerenz

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

Seitenzahl: 57

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

Helen and Diana are perfect for each other: they've both got good degrees, busy jobs and nice flats. There's just one small problem – Diana's got a boyfriend. Elisabeth Lewerenz's play How We Begin is a tender exploration of love, queerness and identity. It was staged at VAULT Festival, London, in 2023, and won the VAULT Festival Award at the OffFest Theatre Festival Awards in 2024. An earlier version was staged at the King's Head Theatre, Islington, in 2019.

Leseprobe

Elisabeth Lewerenz

HOW WE BEGIN

NICK HERN BOOKS

London

Contents

Welcome to VAULT

Dedication

Original Production

Characters

How We Begin

About the Author

Performing Rights

Welcome to VAULT Festival

Hoo boy! What does one even begin to write here? I don’t know. Better writers than I have articulated the myriad emotions and effects of the last three years. Words seem inadequate. But this is a volume celebrating words and writing and writers so I’m going to give it a red hot go.

It’s been rough, hey team? It’s been rough for the arts. Even more so for theatre and live performance. Even even more so for fringe and independent theatre. And even even even more so for emerging artists. If anything has been made clear these last few years, it is that there is a dearth of quality and financially sustainable opportunities for early career artists to make work and spaces to make that work in. When those few opportunities are taken away, everyone loses. Artists lose the opportunity to experiment and take risks. Audiences lose the opportunity to engage with exciting and radical work from a multiplicity of voices. And our industry loses the opportunity to grow, progress, be challenged and changed by these voices. It’s a long road to recovery with lots of listening and learning required. I really hope we’re up for it.

VAULT Festival has not been immune to the decimation of these last years. From the early cancellation in 2020, to deciding not to mount a 2021 Festival, and then the devastating decision to cancel a completely programmed Festival for 2022, this has been a truly difficult time for our artists and our team. Throughout this time it has been made clear to me over and over what a vital part of the live performance ecology VAULT Festival is. How important it is that we are here, providing quality opportunities in the most sustainable way possible for artists and audiences. That we are listening and growing and provoking. Providing space for artists to challenge and disrupt, to ask of an industry on its knees… ‘What if?’

The writers included in this, our sixth Plays from VAULT anthology, have all used their work to ask ‘What if?’ These are plays of importance, of playfulness, of risk, of freneticism and pathos and joy and anger and hope. Plays from artists across backgrounds, and styles and forms. I am so very proud of all of them.

These plays represent a mere fraction of the scope of work at VAULT Festival 2023. From stand-up comedy to late-night cabaret, from improvisation to live art and experimental installation, from linear narrative drama to absurdist immersive work, and genres I couldn’t even have imagined, VAULT Festival will tear back into the world with a scream. A scream of rage and catharsis. Of fear and hope. A scream of defiance. Our artists, both in this volume and beyond, are here. They are ready. They are fearless. They are disrupting. Because what we did yesterday is not sufficient for tomorrow. And we are up for the challenge.

WE’RE BACK, BABY!!!!

Bec Martin (she/her)Head of Programming VAULT Festival 2023

This is taken from Plays from VAULT 6, the collection in which this play first appeared.

For Clara, who showed me how wonderful it is to be loved out in the open

How We Begin was first performed at VAULT Festival on 14 February 2023, with the following cast:

HELEN

Talia Pick

DIANA

Emma Lucia

Director

Elizabeth Benbow

Producer

Antonia Georgieva

Characters

HELEN

DIANA

Note on Text

A forward slash (/) indicates the point of interruption.

HELEN and DIANA stand next to each other.

HELEN. It begins during freshers’ week.

We are paired together for this trust-fall thing. I reach out –

She reaches for DIANA with her left arm.

DIANA. I reach out

She reaches for HELEN with her right arm. They lean away from each other slightly, fingers almost meeting.

HELEN. And my fingers thread into yours.

DIANA. No, my fingers thread into yours.

HELEN. Fingers were threaded, let’s leave it at that.

DIANA. The important thing is

HELEN. The important thing is

My hands have never found another pair of hands so easily before.

DIANA. And you’re with someone.

HELEN. And you’re with someone.

And I don’t even know I’m into women yet.

DIANA. Can you imagine?

You, a heterosexual?

HELEN. Me, straight.

It begins three years later.

And I’m in Italy.

DIANA. Year abroad.

HELEN. It’s three years later.

DIANA. We’ve been friends for three years.

HELEN. And we don’t see each other all that often.

DIANA. Hard with you in Italy.

HELEN. Hard with you back home.

It’s three years later and I’m in Italy and we Skype.

DIANA. Because I haven’t heard from you.

HELEN. Because I haven’t heard from you.

And it feels like I’m on a first date with my laptop.

DIANA. That’s ridiculous.

HELEN. You’re ridiculous.

There’s this flutter in my stomach.

And I think

I hope she thinks I’m cool.

DIANA. I hope she thinks I’m cool?

It’s been three years. If I didn’t think you were cool, I wouldn’t Skype with you.

Also

HELEN. Yeah?

DIANA. No one is cool on Skype.

HELEN. And we talk.

DIANA. And we talk.

HELEN. And we talk.

DIANA. And we talk.

HELEN. You get the gist.

We talk.

DIANA. We talk.

HELEN. A lot.

DIANA. But not enough.

HELEN. Never enough.

DIANA. And you’re cool, even on Skype.

HELEN. Maybe I should’ve known then.

DIANA. How are you cool on Skype?

HELEN. It’s a gift.

DIANA. It begins another year later.

HELEN. And I’m back home.

DIANA. And I’ve never left.

And I’m with someone.

HELEN. And I’m not. Not any more.

Instead, I’m kissing tons of people.

DIANA. Tons.

HELEN. Legions.

DIANA. Most of your friends.

HELEN. So many people.

DIANA. But not me.

HELEN. You’re with someone.

DIANA. I’m with someone.

HELEN. But not with me.

At least I figured out I’m not straight.

DIANA. And we start to spend more time together.

HELEN. We see each other everywhere.

DIANA. I’m disappointed if I don’t see you when I’m at a party.

HELEN. I’m disappointed if I leave before you get there.

DIANA. We never get there at the same time.

HELEN. We never leave at the same time.

DIANA. I’m disappointed when I miss you.

HELEN. And I miss you a lot.

DIANA. There’s that one time when we say goodbye.

HELEN. I’m sat on a chair and you want to hug me from behind.

So I turn around like this.

She turns around.

DIANA. And I bend down like this.

She bends down. They’re bent at weird angles, next to each other.

And I swear I just want to kiss you on the cheek.