Losing Venice E-Book

Jo Clifford

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

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

'Our duty is plain. To bring an end to peace.' An empire gone wrong; an empire completely gone, in fact. A nation with delusional ideas of its place in the world, making poor choices, involved in clumsy foreign adventures, constantly on the edge of war. At home, class divides are stark yet all attention is on a Duke's ceremonial marriage. And surging through the chaos, the absurdities of masculinity threaten to destroy everything. An epic fable set in the faraway Spanish Golden Age, Jo Clifford's play Losing Venice is a joyously original, witty take-down of dangerously daft machismo and the deranged behaviour of countries that have lost an empire and still not yet found a role… First seen at the 1985 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Losing Venice was revived at the Orange Tree, Richmond, in 2018.

Leseprobe

Jo Clifford

LOSINGVENICE

NICK HERN BOOKS

London

www.nickhernbooks.co.uk

Contents

Original Production

Characters

Losing Venice

About the Author

Copyright and Performing Rights Information

Losing Venice was first performed at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, on 2 August 1985, with the following cast:

MUSICIAN/SECRETARY/PIRATE/CONSPIRATOR ONE

Duncan Bell

MARIA/MRS DOGE/CONSPIRATOR THREE

Carol Ann Crawford

QUEVEDO

Bernard Doherty

PABLO

Simon Donald

DUKE

Simon Dormandy

DUCHESS/ PRIEST

Kate Duchene

SISTER/CONSPIRATOR FOUR/        WOMAN WITH BABY

Irene Macdougall

KING/MR DOGE/CONSPIRATOR TWO

Ralph Riach

Director

Jenny Killick

DesignerDermot HayesLighting and SoundGeorge Tarbuck

Losing Venice was revived at the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, on 7 September 2018, with the following cast:

PABLORemus BrooksDUKETim DelapSISTERJosh-Susan EnrightMARIA/MRS DOGEEleanor FanyinkaQUEVEDOChristopher LoganDUCHESS/PRIESTFlorence RobertsKING/MR DOGEDavid VerreySECRETARY/MUSICIANDan Wheeler

Pirates, conspirators and other roles played by members of the company

DirectorPaul MillerDesignerJess CurtisLighting DesignerJai MorjariaComposerTerry DaviesCasting DirectorAnnie Rowe CDG

Characters

MUSICIAN

QUEVEDO

PABLO

MARIA

DUKE

DUCHESS

SECRETARY

KING

PIRATE

PRIEST

SISTER

MR DOGE

MRS DOGE

CONSPIRATOR ONE

CONSPIRATOR TWO

CONSPIRATOR THREE

CONSPIRATOR FOUR

WOMAN WITH BABY

ACT ONE

Two benches on the stage. The audience enter to find QUEVEDO writing and a MUSICIAN playing a guitar. PABLO and MARIA run on with a basket of food, which they put down in front of QUEVEDO.

QUEVEDO. What’s this?

PABLO. Food.

MARIA. A picnic.

PABLO. For you.

QUEVEDO. I’m not hungry.

PABLO. Liar.

MARIA. You haven’t eaten for days.

PABLO. Weeks.

MARIA. Months.

QUEVEDO. It is true I hunger but not for food.

MARIA. There. (Exits with PABLO.)

QUEVEDO. Bread and wine. The sacraments. The holy sacraments.

We suffer hunger in a filthy world,

Slaves to physical necessity. And yet…

I break the bread. I drink the wine.

Communion. Hunger is sanctified.

I rise above the needs of the body,

And I enter the kingdom of the soul.

MARIA rushes across the stage chased by PABLO. PABLO is caught. MARIA exits.

Pablo!

PABLO. What?

QUEVEDO. Stop it.

PABLO. What?

QUEVEDO. That.

PABLO. Why?

QUEVEDO. Because I have forbidden it.

PABLO. How?

QUEVEDO. I said I forbid it.

PABLO. You can’t.

QUEVEDO. I most certainly can.

PABLO. It’s my day off.

QUEVEDO. I don’t care.

PABLO. Look. When I’m working I’m yours. Your beck and your call. But not now. No disrespect. (Exits.)

QUEVEDO. Well…

This urge to procreation I could never

understand. Two lumps of flesh.

Rubbing together. Frotting. Frot,

frot. And what, I ask, what is the

outcome? We are. What a way to start.

What a grotesque beginning. Imagine.

The slimy contact.

Enter MARIA.

MARIA. Do you mind?

QUEVEDO. Yes I do. Very much. And to do it here in public.

MARIA. Well, we can’t do it in private.

QUEVEDO. You could try.