Orca E-Book

Matt Grinter

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

Seitenzahl: 74

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

An incisive, unflinching insight into what makes a community tolerate the unthinkable. 'One girl, against the happiness of the whole village. Can you not see it has to be done?' Midsummer. The village must choose a new Daughter to sail with the fishing boats and bless the waters, keeping them safe from the roaming orcas for another year. Fan hopes with all her heart to be the one they choose. But her older sister Maggie says she must never, never, go with the boats. Because something happened to Maggie out there. And no one will admit it. Matt Grinter's play Orca was the winner of the 2016 Papatango New Writing Prize in association with Southwark Playhouse, London, where it premiered in 2016.

Leseprobe

Matt Grinter

ORCA

NICK HERN BOOKSLondonwww.nickhernbooks.co.uk

Contents

Title Page

Original Production

Characters

Orca

About the Author

Copyright and Performing Rights Information

Orca was the winner of the 2016 Papatango New Writing Prize and was first performed at Southwark Playhouse, London, on 2 November 2016. The cast was as follows:

FAN

Carla Langley

MAGGIE

Rona Morison

JOSHUA

Simon Gregor

GRETCHEN

Ellie Turner

THE FATHER

Aden Gillett

Director

Alice Hamilton

Designer

Frankie Bradshaw

Lighting Designer

Johanna Town

Music and Sound

Richard Hammarton

Producer

Chris Foxon

Dramaturg

George Turvey

Casting Director

Emily Jones

Fight Coach

Tim Klotz

Accent Coach

Hugh O’Shea

Production Manager

Ian Taylor

Costume Supervisor

Flora Moyes

Stage Manager

Roisin Symes

Design Assistant

Jasmine Swan

Characters

FAN, fourteenMAGGIE,eighteenJOSHUA, fifty-twoGRETCHEN, sixteenTHE FATHER, sixty-two

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

Scene One

Overlooking the harbour.

FANsits on empty lobster pots, looking out eagerly. At her feet are jam jars and candles. She places the candles in the jam jars and ties a length of rope around the top of them, placing them along the quayside.MAGGIEis sat away; she is distant. She reads a book and is deep in thought.

FAN.My skin is hard and white and cold… (Waits.) My voice is a rumble deep and old… Maggie?… Maggie! My voice is a –

MAGGIE.You’re Dad’s boat.

FAN.Oh.

MAGGIE.You did that one last week.

FAN.It’s your turn then.

MAGGIE.Maybe later, Fan.

FAN.Come on.

MAGGIE.I’m busy.

FAN.You’re not busy, I’m busy, we’re both supposed to be making the lanterns. And I have to dance for the fishermen tonight, and I have a thousand things to do before I’m ready. The dress needs altering and I have to pick up my flower garland. (Beat.) Do you think if our da was The Father, The Father of the whole village, I’d still have to dance or would I just be crowned The Daughter without all the fuss.

MAGGIE.Our da could never be The Father. Only fishermen can become The Father.

FAN.I don’t mind, I want to dance.

MAGGIE.Can we talk about something else?

FAN.Not unless you have a riddle!

FANgrins mischievously atMAGGIEwho rolls her eyes.

MAGGIE.My skin is rough and worn, my eyelids flutter, my thoughts are black on white –

FAN.It’s your book, it’s always your book. You’re not even trying.

MAGGIElooks up from her book.

MAGGIE.Alright… My belly swells, my skin she bellows, in time my bright-blue eyes turn to yellow…

FAN(screws up her nose, thinking hard). Is it a bruise, you did that one when I knocked my shins tripping over the workbench.

MAGGIE.It wasn’t a book though was it, now let me read.

FAN.But it’s not a new one, a hard one. If you aren’t going to help with the lanterns you could at least think of a new riddle.

MAGGIE.Alright, I’ll think, just give me some quiet please.

FANthinks silently and her attention is drawn out to sea.

FAN. Can you see the boats coming back yet?

MAGGIE. You won’t see them from here.

FAN. I might.

FANlooks on, staring harder into the distance, she places a newly finished lantern on the ground.

We could run to the wall, I bet we’d see them there.

MAGGIE. Not today, Fan.

FAN. Then when? We could see them from the wall I’m sure.

MAGGIE. You have to finish the lamps and I have to watch over you. Watching for the boats won’t make the day go any faster, it’ll just mean we won’t get the lamps done and then we’ll both get it.

FANreluctantly returns to her lamps.

FAN. They’re just fiddly is all, and I don’t see the point of the lamps anyway? Ma said it was to guide them home but the fishermen do that journey every day, in fog or rain or… They know their way back to the harbour…

MAGGIE. It used to be, they used to guide them home, now it’s for fun, for decoration. So fiddly or not you better get a move on with them or there won’t be any lights for the party later.

Beat.

FAN. It’d go quicker if you helped.

MAGGIE. I’m not helping.

FAN. Please, Maggie.

MAGGIE. I told you I’m not –

FAN. You don’t have to come tonight, it would just be the lamps.

MAGGIE. Listen, it’s not that I don’t want to help you –

FAN. Please?

MAGGIE. I tell you what. If you can finish them quickly we might have time for lunch on the harbour, then we can lay out the lamps along the wall and look out for the boats.

FANsmiles.

FAN. And when they come back from fishing we can start, we can start getting ready for the dance, we can pick up my garland and you’ll braid my hair?

MAGGIE. Don’t push it.

FAN. No one braids my hair as pretty as you, Da’s got fat fingers!

MAGGIE. We won’t have time to –

FAN. Please!

MAGGIE. Fan – (Beat.) don’t put all your hopes on being picked, the village… The Father… we’re not… they wouldn’t pick us, not now, not our family, I don’t want you getting upset.

She noticesFAN’s crestfallen face.

Alright, little Fan, I’ll braid your hair, if you promise you’ll not mention the dance every time you draw a breath?

FANis overjoyed.

FAN.Of course.

MAGGIE.Of course.

FANgrins and starts preparing the remaining lamps.

FAN.I want to look beautiful when we dance, I want to look like a mermaid.

MAGGIE.Fan –

FAN.Tonight I’ll look beautiful and I shall ask The Father to dance with me.

MAGGIE.You can’t just march up to him and ask him to dance.

FAN.Why not? Da said The Father works for us, he keeps us safe and leads the fishing boats and –

MAGGIE.It doesn’t work like that. He’s busy, speaking with the council, the other fishermen, he’ll have too much to do on a day like this to worry about dancing with the likes of you. You should stay away from him.

FANthinks.

FAN.The bells, Maggie, why do they ring the warning bell, at the festival. When the ships go out with The Daughter?

MAGGIE.To remember her sacrifice, to remember the sacrifice of all we’ve lost to the sea.

FAN.And is it the actual real Daughter’s boat from the story?

MAGGIE.So they say.

FAN.So it’s hundreds of years old? Did it feel… safe, when you were The Daughter?

The question hangs for a moment in the air.Joshuastrides on the stage. He is a carpenter. He is a small man, pale and wan, as if the joy and the strength have been washed from him. He is grey and thin, not in any way physically threatening. He is the girls’ father. He strides purposefully pastFAN, ruffling her hair as he passes, and heads toMAGGIE.

Da!

We see now his rage. He grabsMAGGIEby the dress and pulls her to her feet. It is a hollow gesture despite his rage, a man struggling to assert himself.

JOSHUA.You’ll not make a mockery of me, girl, not here. Christ can you not keep your lips together!

FANruns toMAGGIEand tries to pull her from her father.

Do you hear me? Maggie, lies! Again your lies!

FAN.Da, stop!

JOSHUA.Maggie! Do you understand, girl? Do you hear me?

FAN.She hears you, Da, let go of her, you’re ripping her dress.

JOSHUA.I want her to say it.

MAGGIE.I hear you.

JOSHUAlets her go and walks away, his rage subsiding slightly.FANlooks toMAGGIE.MAGGIEis calm.JOSHUAlooks back to his girls.

JOSHUA.I won’t have this any more, Maggie, I won’t… ah, for Christ’s sake, Maggie, don’t stand there saying nothing.

MAGGIErolls her eyes and remains silent, calmly picking up her book.

You can’t carry on like that around the village, you can’t… flapping your tongue, spilling that bile! You know how hard it’s been, for all of us, and you have a mind to make it all worse… Maggie!

MAGGIE.Of course, Da.

JOSHUAsits, the fight seems to be leaving him somewhat. He glances atMAGGIEandFAN, who is still holding her sister.

JOSHUA(toFAN). Oh girl, come here… come here.

MAGGIE.Go and see your da.

FANstarts to separate herself fromMAGGIE.

FAN.You shouldn’t pull at her, you shouldn’t.

JOSHUA.Don’t you start with your sister’s lip, my list of shouldn’ts is half the length of hers and I’m twice her age… Why do you do it, Maggie?

MAGGIE.What was it this time?

JOSHUA.Don’t you give me that, girl, you were heard.

MAGGIE.Heard? By who?

JOSHUA.By Clem, in the village, talking shite!

FAN.What shite?

JOSHUA.