King Troll (The Fawn) E-Book

Sonali Bhattacharyya

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

Seitenzahl: 82

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

'I'll do anything for you. I can do anything for you.' Nikita and Riya are two South Asian sisters: insecure, stateless and desperate for somewhere to call 'home'. Nikita's work with young migrants requires her to keep her saviour complex in check as she negotiates the challenges and hypocrisy of the third sector. Meanwhile, Riya is offered the chance to create an advocate in the form of a homunculus (or fawn), and sees a chance to elevate herself above the cruelty meted out to others. Sonali Bhattacharyya's play King Troll (The Fawn) is a dark and dystopian exploration of migrant experiences in all their complexity – and the troll that lives within all of us, whispering 'me, not us', and definitely 'me first'. It was a finalist for the 2023 Women's Prize for Playwriting, and was first performed as a co-production between Kali Theatre and New Diorama Theatre, London, in 2024, directed by Milli Bhatia.

Leseprobe

Sonali Bhattacharyya

KING TROLL (THE FAWN)

NICK HERN BOOKS

London

www.nickhernbooks.co.uk

Contents

Original Production Details

Acknowledgements

Characters

Notes on the Text

King Troll (The Fawn)

About the Author

Copyright and Performing Rights Information

King Troll (The Fawn) was first performed at the New Diorama Theatre, London in conjunction with Kali Theatre, on 4 October 2024. The cast was as follows:

TAHIR

Diyar Bozkurt

MRS B/SHASHI

Ayesha Dharker

NIKITA

Zainab Hasan

THE FAWN

Dominic Holmes

RIYA

Safiyya Ingar

Director

Milli Bhatia

Movement Director

Iskandar Sharazuddin

Designer

Rajha Shakiry

Lighting Designer

Elliot Griggs

Composer and Sound Designer

XANA

Fight Director

Bret Yount

Casting Director

Arthur Carrington

Voice Coach

Gurkiran Kaur

Design Associate

Yimei Zhao

Creative Producer

Helena Bell

Production Manager

Chris Burr

Stage Manager

Alexandra Kataigida

Assistant Director

Neetu Singh

Wardrobe Supervisor

Katie Whyte

Artist Wellbeing Practitioner

Eshmit Kaur

Prosthetics Advisor

Daisy Beer

Set Builders

SAS Works

Assistant Stage Manager

Masha Kononovs

Acknowledgements

For Manju and Dilip. For all those who move and fight for the right to move, out of choice or necessity. For a future without borders…

With thanks to Caitlin McLeod and Martha Rose Wilson, who first commissioned King Troll for The Coterie, to Helena Bell and Kali Theatre for supporting its continued development to become King Troll (The Fawn), and to Milli Bhatia, collaborator and partner in mischief.

S.B.

Characters

RIYA,mid-twenties, unemployed with no papers, riddled withinsecurity and seeking something, anything, to overcome herongoing and profound sense of fear.

NIKITA,Riya’s older sister, late twenties, idealist, do-gooder,precarious in situation but steadfast in opinion. Overworks,overthinks, and is a bit too capable for her age.

THE FAWN,the homunculus Riya creates to do her bidding. Beautiful, shape-shifting, watching you always.

TAHIR,a twenty-three-year-old asylum seeker, Man United fanand pragmatic realist. Able to smile through the horror.

SHASHI,hard to age, but dripping with ancient, terrifyingwisdom. Migrant. Does not give a fuck.

MRS B, Riya and Nikita’s landlady, an elegant woman in herfifties who has made it. She has a smoothed out accent thatpoints to the Global South, somewhere.

Notes on the Text

A forward slash (/) denotes interrupted and overlapping dialogue.

Dialogue in [square brackets] denotes an unspoken or unfinished thought.

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

Prologue

Darkness. Something creeps across the stage, the soundof which is inhuman, not of this earth. Our eyes becomeaccustomed to the darkness over the course of the prologue, andwe start to make out its form, but this doesn’t help us identify itin any way.

FAWN (Offstage.) Somewhere in this room there is someone who isn’t who they’re pretending to be. Who isn’t what they’re pretending to be. They can smile, and frown, they can even squeeze out a tear if the situation demands it. But they cannot feel anything and they’ll never be able to. They will laugh at a dead body. They will scream at a child’s birthday party. It makes no difference to them because they’re indifferent to you. Instead of bodily organs and hot, pulsing blood, they have freezing, brittle emptiness. Ready to be filled with whatever you want to fill it with. At least, that’s what you all thought… If you think you are sitting next to it, please alert a member of staff, as it’s extremely dangerous.

Lights up, blinding.

Scene One

Three years ago. RIYA practises for her forthcoming HomeOffice interview with her sister, NIKITA, in the living room oftheir flat.

NIKITA So, if I can see your documents, please?

RIYA (Handing them over.) Yes of course.

NIKITA And these are the originals?

RIYA Yes.

NIKITA And you’re happy for me to take copies to put on your case file?

RIYA Of course.

NIKITA Is this all you have? A tenancy agreement and… your learning record from… Heathcote Secondary School?

RIYA Covering 2003 to 2011.

NIKITA You accept you have quite a common surname?

RIYA Um… Yeah… I suppose so…

NIKITA Choudhury. Choudhury is a fairly common surname.

RIYA So what’s your point?

NIKITA How do I know ‘R Choudhury’ of Heathcote Secondary is you?

RIYA …It’s… it’s an original document. Just like I said…

NIKITA How do I know this certificate doesn’t belong to… Rita Choudhury. Or… Rohan Choudhury?

RIYA Because it’s mine… Because it’s my certificate.

NIKITA You would say that though, wouldn’t you?

RIYA So… ring the headteacher if you don’t believe me.

NIKITA It’s the same headteacher? From a decade ago?

RIYA I don’t know.

NIKITA Unlikely, isn’t it?

RIYA So… you can find her online, probably… she’s called Mrs Sanderson.

NIKITA It’s not my responsibility to hunt her down.

RIYA I’m just saying… Even if she’s not head there any more, you’ll be able to contact her.

NIKITA That’s on you. It’s your responsibility to attend meetings with all of the documentation we’ve requested.

RIYA I have.

NIKITA Incontrovertible documentation.

RIYA That certificate… I got that certificate from my personal learning file. You know those burgundy files? With the plastic covers? My mum kept it with my birth certificate, and…everything she thought we might need. And how would I get someone else’s learning record anyway? That isn’t something you could get… easily.

NIKITA You’d be surprised the lengths people go to. To stay here.

RIYA What are you doing?

NIKITA My job.

RIYA Stop it, Nikita. I thought you were going to help me practise?

NIKITA I thought it would be useful to run through what you’d do in a really shitty interview. Prepare for the worst, hope for the best type of thing.

RIYA Thought you were trying to help, genuinely trying to help.

NIKITA I am. I’ve worked with people on, like fifteen, twenty of these things…

RIYA You’re using it as a chance to lord it over me. You’re just looking to make me squirm.

NIKITA I want you to be ready in case you get some hard-nosed bitch who hasn’t been laid for six months.

RIYA I just need to know what the baseline is. The bog-standard interview where nothing dramatic happens.

NIKITA What if they… need a third item?

RIYA What?

NIKITA What if they need a document that proves you’ve been studying?

RIYA They know all that. I have… admin skills…

NIKITA What if they say they need supporting evidence?

RIYA Why?

NIKITA Don’t say ‘why’. Never ask them ‘why’.

RIYA Why?

NIKITA Because they’re thin-skinned cunts who take offence at every little tiny thing, and will then use that as an excuse to fuck up your life.

RIYA I found a certificate for the cross-country run in Year 6. Does that count?

NIKITA Don’t say that.

RIYA I came second.

NIKITA Stop it.

RIYA Might help break the ice.

NIKITA Home Office officials aren’t known for their sense of humour.

RIYA They can’t all be bad.

NIKITA They’re not. Some of them are worse.

RIYA You can’t pigeonhole an entire government department.

NIKITA Don’t piss around with them, alright?

RIYA You always do this.

NIKITA What?

RIYA Make me feel stupid.

NIKITA I’m not trying to make you feel stupid.

RIYA Well, that’s what you’re doing.

NIKITA …Then, I’m sorry…

RIYA You should treat people like individuals, you know?

NIKITA An individual who works for the Home Office. Treat them like that.

RIYA I’ve provided all the requested documents. Can you confirm I’m eligible for Indefinite Leave to Remain?

Beat.

Is there any reason at all you’re unable to confirm I’m eligible for my Leave to Remain?

NIKITA Why are you talking like that?

RIYA I’m being hard-nosed too.

NIKITA You know what would happen to the kids I worked with if they acted like this in their assessment interviews?

RIYA Oh god, I don’t know. They’d have… thumb screws permanently attached to their hands? They’d be, they’d be, locked away in a… a mile-high tower off the coast of Zebrugge.

NIKITA They can’t get upset. They can’t show any emotion. They have to sit there and go through the worst, the most traumatic part of their lives again, and again. And answer mealy-mouthed questions from a stony-faced grown-up in a suit. Who means them harm. Actual harm. Who’s looking to trip them up. Who, we suspect, although we’ve no hard evidence, might get a bonus if they manage to. Because then, they can throw them out of the country. Put them on a one-way flight with a plastic bag with everything they own and send them away, anywhere, just not here.

RIYA They’re not going to treat me like that, are they?

NIKITA Take it seriously.

RIYA Alright, you’ve scared the shit out of me – happy now?

NIKITA Just… imagine Mum was still here, yeah? Do it for her.

RIYA Least she didn’t have to do this.

NIKITA She had to do a lot worse – you know that. Stop being such a fucking baby.

RIYA I’ll practise, okay? By myself. This is making me nervous.

NIKITA Alright. Fine.

RIYA Just think – this time tomorrow I’ll have indefinite leave too and we’ll never have to think about any of this shit again.

Scene Two

The next evening. RIYA rifles through files and papers in theliving room. Her dinner lies half-eaten on the floor. She thinksshe’s found something useful but is mistaken. She throws it tothe floor and continues her search. NIKITA enters.

NIKITA What the fuck, Riya?

RIYA quickly composes herself.

Mrs B is due a visit any day.

RIYA Sorry.

NIKITA Last time she lost her shit over the cooker hood being dusty.

RIYA Wasn’t going to leave it like this.

RIYA tidies away some of the papers into afolder and piles them up on the coffee table.

NIKITA helps.

NIKITA How’d it go?

RIYA doesn’t answer, pretending to be