Ladies Unleashed E-Book

Amanda Whittington

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

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

Pearl, Jan and Linda are enjoying a long-awaited break on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne, when a surprise visitor turns up. They haven't seen Shelley for years, and their retreat becomes a reunion – and pretty soon, a riot. But a lot has changed since they were last together and, cut off from the mainland, tensions rise with the tide. As the sky darkens, the island grows restless with echoes of the past. Will the four still be friends when dawn breaks? Following the smash hits Ladies' Day and Ladies Down Under, Amanda Whittington's Ladies Unleashed is the third play in her Ladies Trilogy. A moving comedy about friendship, growing older and living for today, it was first performed at Hull Truck Theatre in September 2022, directed by Mark Babych. The Ladies are back, and amateur theatre companies – as well as their audiences – are sure to delight in their riotous exploits.

Leseprobe

Amanda Whittington

LADIES UNLEASHED

NICK HERN BOOKS

London

www.nickhernbooks.co.uk

Contents

Original Production Details

Characters

Ladies Unleashed

About the Author

Copyright and Performing Rights Information

Ladies Unleashed was first performed at Hull Truck Theatre on 29 September 2022. The cast was as follows:

PEARL

Fenella Norman

JAN

Allison Saxton

SHELLEY

Gemma Oaten

LINDA

Sara Beharrell

MABEL

Martha Godber

DAISY

Nell Baker

Director

Mark Babych

Set and Costume Designer

Caitlin Mawhinney

Lighting Designer

Jessie Addinall

Composer and Sound Designer

Sonum Batra

Projection Designer

Ed Grimoldby

Movement Director

Freddie Garland

Casting Director

Liv Barr

Casting Assistant

Francesca Tennant

Producer

Adam Pownall

Production Manager

Sarah Barton

Trainee Producer

Zoe Walker

Company Stage Manager

Jasmin Davies

Deputy Stage Manager

Georgia Darcey

Assistant Stage Manager

Rebecca Maguire

Wardrobe Supervisor

Laura O’Connor

Wardrobe Assistant

Kathryn Walker

Master Carpenter

Chris Bewers

Carpenter

Daniel Lewis

Scenic Art

Sarah Feasey, Ian Hinley

Characters

PEARL

former workmates, now friends

JAN

SHELLEY

LINDA

MABEL, a Herring Girl

DAISY, a Herring Girl

ALI, a student FRANKIE, a working mother

The play is set in Hull, York and the Holy Island of Lindisfarne, September 2022 and 1895.

Time and space is fluid. The two worlds coexist, the past and present merging into one emotional truth.

ACT ONE

1.

July 2022. Paragon Station, Hull. Platform Three. Friday, 9.23 a.m. PEARL is on her phone as an automated announcement (ANN 1) plays.

ANN 1. The next train to arrive on Platform Three is the delayed oh-eight-fifty a.m. Northern Trains service to York.

PEARL. Mick, it’s me. Pick up if you’re there.

ANN 1. Calling at Brough, Gilberdyke, Howden, Wressle, Selby, Sherburn-in-Elmet and Church Fenton.

PEARL. Are you there?

ANN 1. And due to arrive in York at ten-oh-two.

PEARL. It’s just to say there’s a chilli in freezer to do you two days.

ANN 1. If you see something that doesn’t look right, speak to staff or text the British Transport Police on six-one-oh-one-six.

PEARL. I meant to tell you this morning but anyway… I hope you’re alright. Or as good as you can be, given our…

ANN 1. See it – say it – sort it.

PEARL (snaps at the announcer). What, just like that?

ALI looks up from her book as PEARL ends the call.

Sort the roadworks you’re sat in for twenty-five minutes? The parking machine they’ve replaced wi’ a phone line that’s dead. The app you try to download, don’t ask.

ALI. I got stuck on the Number Twelve bus.

PEARL. If it weren’t for the young lad in queue and the kindness o’ strangers…

ALI. Tennessee Williams.

PEARL. I didn’t gerr ’is name but Hull Trains should give him a medal.

ALI. Oh, well…

ALI momentarily returns to her book: Christina Rossetti: The Complete Poems.

PEARL. I told him we’re off to a wedding. Or meant to be. If the one gerrin married turns up.

ALI. Oh dear.

PEARL. It’s norra traditional wedding. They’re doing it their way, you can now, can’t yer? Wear what you want to, write your own vows.

ALI. So I’m told.

PEARL. You married?

ALI. No.

PEARL. Y’do right, luv. Wait till you’re good an’ ready. Cos trains don’t go backwards, y’know what I’m saying? Be certain you’re on the right track.

ALI. I’m more concerned with my studies than… I’m on my way to an interview. Postgrad at York: Victorian Literature.

PEARL. Pride and Prejudice?

ALI. Well, that’s Regency but… Life Writing, Personal Narrative, that’s my… Christina Rossetti? (Gestures to book.) Poet. I’m gonna talk about her.

PEARL. Go on, then. Talk. Gerra bit of practice in while we wait.

ALI (reluctantly). Goblin Market. A weird allegorical fairytale about, like, female sexuality.

PEARL. It’s ‘like’ or it is?

ALI. It is. Rossetti worked in a house for ‘fallen women’ as they were called then.

PEARL. Ladies of the Night.

ALI. Two sisters: temptation, transgression, redemption.

Societal expectations of women’s behaviour. Et cetera.

PEARL. Will you read it out loud?

ALI. Probably not but –

PEARL. Now, I mean.

I love a bit of poetry.

ALI. It’s fourteen pages.

PEARL. Go on.

ALI. The stars rise, the moon bends her arc, Each glowworm winks her spark

As ALI reads, a young Victorian woman (MABEL) walks purposefully through and away. She carries a suitcase and knows exactly where she’s heading.

Let us get home before the night grows dark; For clouds may gather Though this is summer weather, Put out the lights and drench us through; Then if we lost our way, what should we do?

Enter JAN, pushing past ALI with takeaway bags and cups.

JAN. Coming through!

PEARL. Careful!

ALI. Sorry.

PEARL (to ALI). Not you.

JAN. Trip hazards all over. Hot beverages!

PEARL (nod to the bags). And the rest, blimey!

JAN. It’s breakfast.

PEARL. I’ve had it.

JAN. Brunch, then.

PEARL. For the whole carriage?

JAN. If I don’t eat at regular intervals, my –

PEARL. Blood sugar falls, we know.

JAN. It doesn’t fall, Pearl. It plummets.

PEARL. That little lot on prescription, then?

JAN. Don’t be facetious.

PEARL. Now there’s a poetic word.

JAN. All I’ve had today is All Bran and a banana. How’s that going to gerrus to Lindisfarne Island.

PEARL. Holy Island.

JAN. That’s what I said.

PEARL It’s Lindisfarne or Holy Island. Not both.

JAN. I’m aware of that. Like Hull.

PEARL. It’s nothing like –

JAN. Kingston-upon-Hull. Though why we ended up ’Ull and not Kingston…

PEARL (to ALI). You’re clever, why?

ALI. I’m really not. But it’s from King’s Town, I think.

PEARL. See?

JAN. ‘Yes, I’m from Kingston. Originally King’s Town.’ Wouldn’t you rather say that?

PEARL. Hyacinth Bucket.

JAN. Breakfast Tea.

JAN hands PEARL a cup.

PEARL. Chai Latte, I told yer.

JAN. Five pounds nineteen. (Nods to tea.) Two pounds forty-five.

ALI. Is it an actual place, then?

JAN. Starbucks?

ALI. Holy Island?

JAN. Turn right at Hogwarts for Middle Earth.

PEARL. Twenty minutes off the A1 at Berwick-upon-Tweed. Train? Hull to York – York to Berwick – taxi.

ALI. Do you have to be a Christian to go?

PEARL. Let’s hope not for Jan’s sake.

JAN. What’s that supposed to mean?

PEARL. It were a place of ancient pilgrimage. And still quicker to get there on foot.

JAN. Speaking of dragging your heels, where’s Linda?

The bride. If she is the bride.

PEARL. Jan, I’ve told you ’bout comments like that.

JAN. What?

PEARL. She’ll have got chatting to someone, that’s all. Or gone to the ladies’.

JAN. So to speak.

PEARL. That!

JAN. I’m just saying –

PEARL. Well, don’t.

JAN. Oh, so now I’m cancelled at nine in the morning?

PEARL. So long as the train in’t, ey?

Enter LINDA, weighed down by a giant rucksack.

LINDA. I’m here!

JAN. At last.

LINDA. Whar a stroke o’ luck it’s late.

PEARL. Not if you’ve got a connection.

ALI. Or an interview.

LINDA spies JAN’s hot beverages.

LINDA. Coffee?

JAN. Tea.

LINDA. Peppermint?

JAN. Builder’s.

JAN puts a takeaway cup in LINDA’s hand.

LINDA. So –

PEARL. Don’t tell us. You miss the bus.

JAN. The next one breaks down.

PEARL. The one after that takes a wrong turn and ends up on a ferry to Rotterdam.

LINDA. Imagine.

PEARL (to ALI). Meet Alice in Blunderland.