Mumsy E-Book

Lydia Marchant

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

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

Sophie is about to become a single mum – a third-generation one – and she's terrified. How will she afford to feed her baby? Or a Deluxe Snuggle Pod? Can she hold on to her job? What if she's crap at parenthood? Surely she can count on her own mum and nan to help... Except her mum's got used to having a life of her own, and doesn't fancy giving up pole-dancing class and Tinder to go back to changing nappies and no sleep. Meanwhile, fresh out of hospital with a broken leg, her nan's having a three-quarter-life crisis of her own. From slammed doors to living-room karaoke, Lydia Marchant's play Mumsy is a sparky, soulful comedy drama about the highs and lows of motherhood. It premiered at Hull Truck Theatre in March 2023.

Leseprobe

Lydia Marchant

MUMSY

NICK HERN BOOKS

London

www.nickhernbooks.co.uk

Contents

Original Production Details

Acknowledgements

Dedication

Characters

Mumsy

About the Author

Copyright and Performing Rights Information

Mumsy was first performed at Hull Truck Theatre on 2 March 2023, with the following cast:

SOPHIE

Jessica Jolleys

RACHEL

Nicola Stephenson

LINDA

Sue Kelvin

Director

Zoë Waterman

Set and Costume Designer

Bronia Housman

Lighting Designer

Jessica Brigham

Sound Designer

Hattie North

Casting Director

Liv Barr

Casting Assistant

Francesca Tennant

Voice Coach

Elspeth Morrison

Producer

Adam Pownall

Production Manager

Paul Veysey

Assistant Producer

Zoe Walker

Company Stage Manager

Shona Wright

Deputy Stage Manager

Edward Salt

Assistant Stage Manager

Danielle Harris

Wardrobe Supervisor

Sian Thomas

Master Carpenter

Chris Bewers

Carpenter

Daniel Lewis

Scenic Art

Sarah Feasey

Acknowledgements

I’d like to say a massive thanks to Mark Babych and Tom Saunders at Hull Truck Theatre for seeing something in the very rough first draft and giving me everything I possibly needed to shape the play into something I’m really proud of. I’m also really grateful to former Hull Truck staff including Tom Bellerby, Jill Adamson, Morgan Sproxton and Nick Lane, for all the support and advice they’ve given me on my journey, and for helping me believe I could be a writer.

I’d like to thank director Zoë Waterman, actors Jessica Jolleys, Nicola Stephenson and Sue Kelvin and the whole creative team for bringing this thing from my head to life in the most fantastic way.

Also huge thanks to Josie Morley and Kate Hampson for all their help developing the characters of Sophie and Rachel. And thank you to all the brilliant mums I spoke to – and to the Act 3 group at Hull Truck for helping me shape the character of Linda (and hopefully get the 1970s pop culture references right!).

I’d like to thank Leeds Playhouse, in particular Jacqui Honess-Martin and Charley Miles, and staff from MA Writing for Stage and Broadcast Media at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama for all their help shaping the early drafts.

Finally, massive thanks to my mum (without whose support this play just wouldn’t exist) and my boyfriend Tom for reading the drafts that were too crap to show anyone else and to my family for all their support and not telling me to get a proper job.

L.M.

For my mum, granny and grandma

Characters

SOPHIE, twenty-two

RACHEL, forty

LINDA, sixty-one

Notes

The setting is the living / dining / kitchen area of a one-bedroom flat in West Hull, England.

The staging of the play is totally open to interpretation – the stage directions invoke the literal world of the characters, but don’t demand literal staging.

At the time of writing businesses are closing all the time (RIP Topshop), so brand names can be changed if no longer relevant. As can rates of pay.

Words in [square brackets] are unspoken.

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

ACT ONE

Scene One

Five Weeks Pregnant

Time: 9 p.m.

Rachel’s one-bedroom flat.

Girlie night.

SOPHIE. Okay, so… em… okay. Basically, a few weeks ago I meet this lad on Tinder –

RACHEL. You? On Tinder? Way to go, Soph!

SOPHIE. Thanks, yeah. So –

RACHEL. Didn’t think you had it in you.

SOPHIE. So I meet his lad. And he’s… yeah. So we decide to go on a date.

RACHEL. Where’d he take you?

SOPHIE. Um… Wetherspoon’s.

RACHEL. Spoons?!

SOPHIE. He said it’s two-for-one chicken on a Wednesday.

RACHEL. God, I’d of thought I brought you up with more self-worth than Spoons, Soph.

Nando’s at the very least.

Know what? I don’t think you’re beyond aiming for Pizza Express.

SOPHIE. Thanks, Mum.

RACHEL. So, go on, what’s he like?

SOPHIE. Like? Well, I ask for a pint of Amstel, and he comes back with a Bombay Sapphire.

‘More ladylike’ he says.

RACHEL. ‘Ladylike’? Shoulda got that Bombay Sapphire, ’n’ chucked it in his pig-ugly face. I would.

SOPHIE. Know you would.

RACHEL. So, a prick then?

SOPHIE. Well… yeah. Like through the whole thing he’s banging on about his ‘’21 Plate Mazda Sport’. His job driving the forklifts for the garlic bread factory over the river. His dreams of managing the people what drive the forklifts for the garlic bread factory over the river. Dunt even ask my surname…

Little top-up?

RACHEL. Cheers yeah. Just a tad.

Er, more than that.

Not a goer then?

SOPHIE. Well, um, first ten minutes of the date I’m like, definitely not. But then…

RACHEL. Oh, Sophie.

SOPHIE. He just seems so sure, you know? That it’s gonna happen. And part of me dunt wanna offend him. And maybe it’s the gin but the whole time we’re sat there, and then when we’re on the bus back to his. It’s like I’m stood outside myself going, ‘Come on, Sophie, do you really wanna do this?’

But it’s happening, you know?

RACHEL. So?