Otherland E-Book

Chris Bush

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

Seitenzahl: 118

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

'Jo and Harry are changing. Harry is changing more than most, undeniably. And change is beautiful. Necessary. Terrifying.' Break-ups aren't just about who gets the CD collection. As Jo and Harry begin to untangle themselves from each other, new worlds start to open up – worlds filled with new partners, new identities, new possibilities… What kind of women do they want to be, and do they have the courage, or the permission, to get there? Chris Bush's play Otherland is a bold and beautiful exploration of what it means to be true to yourself in the face of unstoppable change. It premiered at the Almeida Theatre, London, in 2025, directed by Ann Yee. Otherland was a finalist for the 2025 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. 'A writer of great wit and empathy'The Times 'One of our most prolific and arresting writers'Evening Standard

Leseprobe

Chris Bush

OTHERLAND

NICK HERN BOOKS

London

www.nickhernbooks.co.uk

Contents

Original Production Details

Foreword

Characters

Otherland

About the Author

Copyright and Performing Rights Information

Otherland was first performed at the Almeida Theatre, London, on 12 February 2025, with the following cast:

JO

Jade Anouka

ELAINE/HERA

Jackie Clune

CHORUS

Danielle Fiamanya

CHORUS

Laura Hanna

CHORUS

Beth Hinton-Lever

CHORUS

Serena Manteghi

HARRY

Fizz Sinclair

GABBY

Amanda Wilkin

BAND

Musical Director/Keyboard

Jennifer Whyte

Harp

Catrin Meek

Cello

Gabriella Swallow

Director

Ann Yee

Set Designer

Fly Davis

Costume Designer

Milla Clarke

Lighting Designer

Anna Watson

Sound Designer

Pete Malkin

Composer and Arranger

Jennifer Whyte

Casting Director

Amy Ball CDG

Costume Supervisor

Heidi Bryan

Voice Coach

Danièle Lydon

Associate Director

Grace Duggan

Dramatherapist

Wabriya King

Company Stage Manager

Julia Reid

Deputy Stage Manager

Sophie Rubenstein

Assistant Stage Manager

Ava McCarthy

Foreword

Otherland is a play almost a decade in the making, although in some ways I’ve spent a lifetime building up to it. As Harry says: ‘I have been searching for you, friends, long before I had any conception of where to look.’ I’m at an extremely privileged point in my career right now where more often than not people approach me with projects – a potential adaptation, a specific brief, an exciting collaboration – but in this instance, it all started with me. That’s not to mistake anything here as autobiography – this is categorically a work of fiction – but it’s still the most personal thing I’ve ever written. During the rehearsal process we’ve talked a lot about theatrical honesty, and an honest play requires an honest introduction.

When I first came out as trans, there was a (mostly well-meaning) presumption that this would have an immediate impact on my work – having embarked on such a zeitgeisty and dramatically rich personal transformation, why would I even bother writing about anything else? I instinctively resisted this – I was still the same person, the same writer, interested in the same things, and more to the point, painfully aware that artists can so easily get pigeonholed on the basis of their identities. This wasn’t the only reason for my reluctance – more than anything else, I was scared. Time and time again I’d seen how any trans person – particularly any trans woman – with even the smallest amount of public recognition was immediately monstered, ridiculed or harassed the moment they opened their mouths. Living as a trans woman was frightening enough – bringing that into my work just felt like asking for trouble.

Being honest though, I had changed – to pretend I hadn’t would be absurd. My experience of the world and my own precarious position within it was shifting, I was actively unlearning decades of assumptions and privileges, and yes, perhaps for the first time my lived experience contained something worth writing about. Furthermore, not writing or openly talking about this aspect of my identity was becoming its own frustration, not entirely dissimilar to the frustration I’d felt for all those years before I came out. Despite all this, I was still very wary of writing my Big Trans Play™, even if there were a number of theatres interested in commissioning it. I set myself some loose ground rules: it had to be about more than just trans identity, it had to be theatrically expansive and full of ideas, it couldn’t be simple, it couldn’t be easily dismissed as navel-gazing life writing, it had to be as good as I had the capacity to make it. I challenged myself to be honest, to press on my bruises where I had to, to write with a vulnerability I probably never had before. Of course it had to have joy and gags and life in it too – it needed to be a roller-coaster, not a slog.

I like to describe theatre as a machine for empathy – there is, in my opinion, no better medium for making people care about things. We gather in the dark to watch people who are like us but also not like us play out a story, we see a window into a different world, we imagine a different point of view. For this reason, I also knew this couldn’t be an angry or a hectoring play, full of resentments and accusations. Instead, I hope it can be taken as a plea for understanding. It is a play about womanhood in all its myriad forms, and all the unspoken rules, unfair restrictions and unreasonable demands that come with it. Through Jo and Harry, we meet two women who are trying to rediscover themselves after a lifetime spent following other people’s instructions. Neither of them are perfect, but they’re doing their best. Their stories are worth telling.

Of course, a play a decade in the making doesn’t get anywhere without countless kind souls shepherding it on its way. I’m hugely grateful to Ann Yee for bringing it so gloriously to life, along with Jen, Fly, Milla, Anna, Pete, Amy, Heidi, Danièle and Grace, our unbeatable stage management, technical and production teams; our extraordinary cast: Fizz, Jade, Amanda, Jackie, Beth, Danielle, Serena and Laura (and superstar stand-in Eleanor Sutton); everyone at the Almeida, from Rupert and Steph down; every actor who took part in a workshop along the way; Guy Jones, who I first developed the idea with, and Clare Slater, who picked up that torch; the wonderful team at Nick Hern Books; and my ever-patient agents Matt and Alex at Berlin. I also need to thank Roni, my wonderful partner, and my always supportive family. It’s very important to get into print that my own mother is nothing like Elaine.

When I was last at the Almeida, it was the winter of 2020 and we were (very cautiously) just starting to pick ourselves up again after a year of chaos. Yes, admittedly, the production in question (Nine Lessons and Carols: Stories for a Long Winter) was closed the day after we opened as London entered another tier of lockdown, but it remains one of my happiest theatre-making experiences. The joy and gratitude we all felt simply to be back in a room making work will always stick with me. There is no place I’d rather open Otherland than here, and I’m endlessly thankful that they were bold enough to programme it. This is a play I needed to write – I can only hope it finds the people who need to see it.

Chris Bush February 2025

Characters

CHORUS 1

DOCTOR 2

CHORUS 2

MAN

CHORUS 3

DOCTOR 3

CHORUS 4

TECHNICIAN

JO

CAPTAIN

HARRY

BOSUN

EVE

PROFESSOR

LILY

HERA

RUTH

WAITRES

LEIGH

ELAINE

TESSA

RECEPTIONIST S

DOCTOR 1

TATTOOIST

WOMAN

JEN

MOIRA

CLERK

DOCUMENTARIAN

ASSISTANT

TEENAGER

GABBY

GAYLE

ASH

MAYA

BETH

Written for an all-female cast. HARRY must be played by a trans woman. She is only ever represented as a woman. The broader casting should always aim to present as diverse a picture of womanhood as possible.

Suggested Doubling for Eight Actors

1. JO

2. HARRY

3. GABBY

4. ELAINE, HERA, WAITRESS

5. CHORUS 1, EVE, RECEPTIONIST, JEN, ASH, CAPTAIN

6. CHORUS 2, LILY, WOMAN, CLERK, TEENAGER, BOSUN

7. CHORUS 3, RUTH, TESSA, TATTOOIST, GAYLE, MAN, DOCTOR 3, PROFESSOR, DOCUMENTARIAN

8. CHORUS 4, LEIGH, DOCTOR 1 and 2, MOIRA, ASSISTANT, MAYA, BETH, TECHNICIAN

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

ACT ONE

1.

HARRY and JO are getting married. They are extraordinarily happy. Music plays as JO walks down the aisle, something akin to Pachelbel’s Canon. All their friends are there. They speak to us as CHORUS.

CHORUS 2. This is Jo

CHORUS 1. And this is Harry

CHORUS 3. And they are in love.

CHORUS 4. They are beautiful.

CHORUS 3. They are unbearable.

CHORUS 1. They are the best of us. Hashtag-couples-goals.

CHORUS 2. Their love is a blinding, brilliant, beautiful thing.

CHORUS 4. And it is a privilege to witness.

The music moves rapidly through various different forms: a romantic first dance, a wild ceilidh, a late-night disco. Full of energy and excitement and love. HARRY and JO could take on the world right now. Then another shift – something stranger, ominous, foreboding:

CHORUS.

YOU ARE MY ANCHOR

WEIGH ME DOWN

YOU ARE MY ANCHOR

WEIGH ME DOWN

DON’T LET ME DRIFT AWAY

DRIFT AWAY, DRIFT AWAY

HOLD ME TIGHT

HOLD ME TOO TIGHTLY

Then as abruptly as it started, the moment ends. We return to the uplift and ecstasy of the wedding disco, as the GUESTS head off into the night. Sharply into –

2.

Years later. JO and HARRY are amidst boxes. JO holds a piece of crockery.

JO. I think that’s everything from the kitchen.

HARRY. Right.

JO. We have so much shit. When did that happen?

HARRY. It just happens, doesn’t it? You accumulate shit.

JO. You accumulate. You hoard. (Holding up the crockery.) This is the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.

HARRY. Be nice. My sister gave us that.

JO. Really? (Trying hard to make HARRY laugh.) What a stone-cold bitch.

HARRY smiles.

What happened to the big red one? Wasn’t there like a big red one – big, rectangular, for… like for lasagne and things?

HARRY. I’ve not seen anything like that.

JO. Yeah, but have you just done man-looking? (Beat.) Sorry.

HARRY. That’s –

JO. I’m sorry.

HARRY. It’s okay. Um. I’ll, uh, if anything like that turns up –

JO (putting the crockery down). Don’t worry about it.

HARRY. Any stuff you want –

JO. I don’t. (Beat.) I really don’t. Stuff is… oppressive. I don’t even think I want internet in my new place.

HARRY. What?

JO. I mean it – I just want my CDs, that’s all. (Beat.) Have you gone through yours yet? We could do it now? We don’t have to, but I would like to get it done, and I don’t want to take stuff that’s yours – anything you think is yours –

HARRY. Yeah.

JO. And I know you say you don’t mind, you say ‘take anything’ now, but –

HARRY. Yeah, we can look at CDs. Sure.

JO. I’m not enjoying this either.

HARRY. I know.

JO. I’m not trying to upset you.

HARRY. I know.

JO. I love you. (Beat.) Harry? I do. I still –

HARRY. Then what are we doing here? Because if that’s true –

JO. Don’t –

HARRY. No one’s making us do this.

JO. We can finish up another time. You can go through CDs by yourself, when you’re less upset.

HARRY. Just –

JO. But you do have to do it. You have to accept that this is happening. You have to respect me when I –

HARRY. What if we just pressed pause? What if we… we… took the pressure off, put everything in storage, bought some breathing space to –

JO. Harry –

HARRY. To… to re-evaluate, re-acclimatise –

JO. That isn’t –

HARRY. We could go away somewhere.

JO. What?

HARRY. I could stop. (Pause.) What if I stopped? Not, not forever, but –

JO. Don’t do this.

HARRY. If I pressed pause?

JO. Stop it.

HARRY. Ask me to stop and I’ll stop.

JO. It isn’t fair to me when you do this.

HARRY. Because we… we… we have to try, don’t we? Jo? You owe me that.

JO. I should go. This was a bad idea. I was hoping we could be adults and friends and not one of those couples – those ex-couples who… But you know what, forget it, just keep them all. It’s only stuff.

She starts to go.

HARRY. Wait.

JO stops.

Wait, just –

JO turns back round.

JO. Fuck it. No, I won’t just… These are mine. (She picks up CDs at random.) Annie Lennox – mine, David Bowie – mine, TLC – mine. These are the only things I’ve asked for. And you won’t even play them! They’ll just sit here gathering dust, and… you don’t get everything. You don’t get to keep everything as some compensation for… Don’t. Don’t just… This is what you do – you stand there like some wounded animal and you put everything on me, so I’m the one who has to… I’m the monster, I’m the bad guy, and you just stand there, and what it means is you end up with everything you wanted. Fuck it. Say something.

HARRY (softly). Do you think this is everything I wanted?

JO. I’m sorry, I am, but I can’t keep going over… I can’t do this. I can’t. (She softens.) I, uh, I’ve left a bag on the dresser too. Some jewellery and make-up and other bits and pieces, stuff I never use. You can chuck it, donate it, do whatever, but it’s going to be expensive, starting everything over.

HARRY. Yeah.

JO. I’m sorry.

HARRY. You have to have the internet.

JO. Why?

HARRY. Because you have to! How else are you going to do anything?

JO. I don’t know – with my hands, maybe? With my fucking hands. To feel something again. (Beat.) Do you know where you’re moving to yet? (Beat.) You should start looking. I want you to find somewhere nice.

Straight into –

3.

JO and HARRY remain onstage. The CHORUS come forward to tell their story.

CHORUS 2. This is Jo

CHORUS 1. And this is Harry

CHORUS 3. And they were in love once. We know – we were there.

CHORUS 4. They were happy and they were beautiful.

CHORUS 3. Met at university, married five years later, never one of the couples we had to worry about.

CHORUS 1. But a lot has happened since then. A lot of ground to cover between swearing vows and divvying up the Le Creuset.

CHORUS 4. We’re still trying to make sense of it.

CHORUS 2. So lately they’ve both been getting a lot of –

The CHORUS now become various friends (EVE, RUTH and LEIGH) addressing