Papatango Plays E-Book

Nkenna Akunna

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

Seitenzahl: 139

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Beschreibung

Three urgent and compelling plays, joint winners of the 2021 New Writing Prize awarded by acclaimed theatre company Papatango, in partnership with English Touring Theatre. Some Of Us Exist In The Future by Nkenna Akunna Fresh off the plane from the UK, Chiamaka is new to Brooklyn and its extremes. She's new to queer dating, to the realities of being an immigrant. Most of all, she's new to the voices of the gods… Utterly original, wryly funny and always gripping, Some Of Us Exist In The Future follows one woman's search for a place to belong in a world that's not all it seems. Ghost Stories from an Old Countryby Tajinder Singh Hayer Amar's older brother Dalvir has always told a good ghost story – properly unsettling, dark tales that send a chill right through Amar's soul. But now Dalvir's almost a ghost himself, cloistered and secretive. Amar desperately wants his brother back, but can he unravel Dalvir's stories to reconnect with the only family he has left? Ghost Stories from an Old Country is a riveting and poignant exploration of the ties that bind us, threaded through with captivating fables. The Silence and The Noise by Tom Powell Every teenager knows what it's like to be stuck between things: childhood and maturity, innocence and experience, hope for the future and uncertainty about what it might bring. But Daize is torn between even greater challenges: her love for her vulnerable mother and her dangerous friendship with Ant. An outsider with knockout trainers, Ant has just appeared on her doorstep, bringing with him a whole world of trouble. The Silence and The Noise beautifully captures the story of two young people on the edge. All three plays were produced and premiered by Papatango and English Touring Theatre in 2021 as audio plays, presented to audiences via specially designed audio stations that toured UK theatres. 'Remarkable unearthers of new talent'Evening Standard on Papatango 'Astonishingly brilliant… one of the best debut plays I have ever seen' BBC Radio 4's Saturday Review on Shook by Samuel Bailey, winner of the 2019 Papatango New Writing Prize

Leseprobe

UK Tour Dates 2021/2022

Bush Theatre 26–30 October 2021 www.bushtheatre.co.uk

Everyman Theatre, Liverpool 2–6 November 2021 www.everymanplayhouse.com

Theatr Clwyd – via QR code only 2–6 November/Tachwedd 2021 www.theatrclwyd.com

Leeds Playhouse 9–13 November 2021 www.leedsplayhouse.org.uk

Laurels Whitley Bay 16–20 November 2021 www.laurelswhitley.co.uk

Chichester Festival Theatre 23–27 November 2021 www.cft.org.uk

Stephen Joseph Theatre 7–11 December 2021 www.sjt.uk.com

An Tobar & Mull Theatre 16–18 December 2021 www.comar.co.uk

Theatre Royal Plymouth 11–15 January 2022 www.theatreroyal.com

Bristol Old Vic 18–22 January 2022 www.bristololdvic.org.uk

Southwark Playhouse 25–29 January 2022

SOME OF US EXIST IN THE FUTURE

Writer

Nkenna Akunna

Director

Rasheka Christie-Carter

Composer and Sound Designer

Xana

Cast in order of appearance

Black Masc/Dad

Oseloka Obi

Neighbour/You

babirye bukilwa

Chiamaka

Rachel Nwokoro

Isata

Funmi James

Coe

Florian Clare

GHOST STORIES FROM AN OLD COUNTRY

Writer

Tajinder Singh Hayer

Director

Jessica Lazar

Composer and Sound Designer

Farokh Soltani

Cast in order of appearance

Amar

Shane Zaza

Paula

Rebecca Crankshaw

Dal

Raj Ghatak

THE SILENCE AND THE NOISE

Writer

Tom Powell

Director

George Turvey

Composer and Sound Designer

Asaf Zohar

Cast in order of appearance

Daize

Shakira Riddell-Morales

Ant

Aldous Ciokajlo-Squire

Production Acknowledgements

2021 Papatango New Writing Prize Reading Team | Stella Ajayi, Olu Alakija, Lucy Allan, Ayad Andrews, Tutku Barbaros, Safaa Bensom-Effiom, Joanna Bowman, Kate Brower, Laura Clifford, Bridie Donaghy, Antonia Georgieva, Rebecca Hill, Jonny Kelly, Shabnom Khanom, Julia Levai, Lily Levinson, Gemma Murray, Dan Sareen, Louis Shankar, Sarah Stacey, Blythe Stewart, Krystal Sweedman, Roisin Symes, Leigh Toney, Katie Weatherill, Alastair Wilkinson, Emma Wilkinson, Matt Woodhead and Rosie Wyatt

Press Representation | Kate Morley PR

Many thanks to the 2021 Papatango New Writing Prize’s generous supporters: Amazon Literary Partnership; Arts Council England; Backstage Trust; Boris Karloff Charitable Foundation; Golsoncott Foundation; and the Garfield Weston Foundation.

‘Remarkable unearthers of new talent’ Evening Standard

Papatango was founded to champion the best new playwriting talent in the UK and Ireland. We discover and launch playwrights through free, open application opportunities. Our motto is simple: all you need is a story.

Our flagship programme is the Papatango New Writing Prize, the UK’s first and still only annual award to guarantee a playwright a full production, publication, royalties and an unprecedented commission for a second play. Prize-winners have transferred worldwide, received many awards, and risen to the forefront of theatre, film and TV.

The Prize is free to enter and assessed anonymously. All entrants receive feedback on their scripts, an unmatched commitment to supporting playwrights. 1,504 entries were received in 2020, meaning the Prize continues to receive more annual submissions than any other UK playwriting award – and yet is unique in giving support to all.

Papatango also run an annual Resident Playwright scheme, taking an emerging playwright through commissioning, development and production. It gives in-depth, sustained support to writers who might not otherwise be in a position to win the Prize, for lack of access to resources such as training, commissions or mentoring. Our Residents have toured the UK, adapted their work for radio, and transitioned to full-time careers as writers.

We use the astonishing success of the writers discovered and launched through these opportunities to inspire others that they too can make and enjoy top-class theatre. Our GoWrite programme delivers extensive, free playwriting opportunities nationwide. Young people in state schools write plays which are professionally performed and published, while adults join workshops, complete six-month courses at a variety of regional venues culminating in free public performances, or access fortnightly one-to-one career advice sessions. GoWrite delivers face-to-face training for over 3000 writers each year, with travel bursaries to enable anyone to access its free opportunities.

Writers launched by Papatango have won BAFTAs, The Times Breakthrough, OffWestEnd, RNT Foundation Playwright and Alfred Fagon Awards, been nominated for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and Evening Standard Most Promising Playwright Award, and premiered worldwide.

Our first book Being A Playwright: A Career Guide for Writers was published in 2018 (‘a phenomenon for playwriting good… a bible for playwrights’, Steve Waters).

Online

For up-to-date news and opportunities please visit:

www.facebook.com/pages/PapaTango-Theatre-Company/257825071298 www.twitter.com/PapaTangoTC www.instagram.com/papatangotc/www.papatango.co.uk

Artistic Director George Turvey

Executive Director Chris Foxon

Education Officer Sarah Parkes

Assistant Producer Robyn Bennett

Funding and Development Manager Ruth Tosha Mulandi

Resident Playwrights

May Sumbwanyambe

Samantha Potter

Sam Grabiner

Dare Aiyegbayo

David Lane

Board

David Bond

Sally Cookson

Rachel De-Lahay

Sam Donovan

Nicholas Rogers

Papatango Theatre Company Ltd is a registered charity and a company limited by guarantee. Registered in England and Wales no. 07365398. Registered Charity no. 1152789

ETT (English Touring Theatre) are a UK based international touring company which creates productions of outstanding quality, imagination and ambition; work which interrogates and celebrates contemporary England and reflects the diversity of our nation.

ETT make theatre and digital work that is imaginative, ambitious, responsive and alive: sparking dialogue and fostering connectivity. We are proud to tour productions that reach the widest range of audiences across the UK and beyond.

In 2020/21 ETT produced over 15 new and multi-faceted projects and expanded its digital audience to over 48,000 people with brand new work including: three podcast series, THAT PODCAST, Behind the Curtains, F**cked Up Bedtime Stories For Adults, Signal Fires (a national storytelling event which saw collaborations with over 40 other touring companies) and the short film, Children’s Children.

ETT, in collaboration with its Innovation Associate Sacha Wares, created two new immersive XR shows, Adult Children (Donmar Warehouse, in association ETT, ScanLab Projects and Trial and Error Studio) and Museum of Austerity (co-produced by ETT, National Theatre Immersive Storytelling Studio and Trial & Error Studio). Both pieces were selected for presentation at the BFI London Film Festival Expanded Programme 2021.

2021 also saw ETT return to in-person touring with Trailer Story – its travelling outdoor performance space which celebrates local creativity and forges national connections. In its inaugural year Trailer Story championed over 50 artists who were met with enthusiastic audience responses at both partner venues, Northern Stage and Theatre by the Lake.

ETT also returned to co-producing full-scale productions with Gin Craze (Royal & Derngate Northampton), Mugabe My Dad & Me (York Theatre and Alison Holder) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Curve Theatre in Leicester, the Liverpool Playhouse, Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury, The New Wolsey Theatre in Ipswich, Theatr Clwyd in Wales and Mast Mayflower Studios in Southampton).

ETT was the UK Theatre Award winner for Best Touring Production in 2014, 2015, 2016 and Best Play Revival in 2019.

‘English Touring Theatre is surely the national theatre of touring’

– ETT Patron Sir Ian McKellen

Online

www.ett.org.uk

Twitter @ETTtweet

Instagram @Englishtouringtheatre

Facebook @EnglishTouringTheatre

Staff

Artistic Director Richard Twyman

Executive Producer Sophie Scull

Creative Associate Jennifer Bakst

General Manager Kadir Ali

Executive, Administrative & Participation Co-Ordinator Megan Cronin

Assistant Producer Ben Quashie

Head of Finance (PT) Candida Ronald

Head of Development (PT) Sue Lloyd

Finance Officer (PT) Katherine Brown

Board

Robert Delamere (Chair)

Jenny Abramsky

Dan Bates

Floriana Dezou

Paapa Essiedu

Olivia Highland

Renuka Venkatraman

Igor

Tara Wilkinson

Saphié Ashtiany

Olivier Brémont

Rubi Gubara-Sannie

Rosie Stanbury

Sanj Surati

ETT is a registered charity and we need your help in order to keep making ground-breaking work for audiences across the country. Visit ett.org.uk to find out how to play your part or contact us at [email protected]

English Touring Theatre 25 Short Street, London, SE1 8LJ Registered in England No 2746850 Registered Charity No 1016895 VAT No. 595 9805 71

PAPATANGO PLAYS

Three Prize-winning Plays

Contents

Some Of Us Exist In The Future

Ghosts from an Old Country

The Silence and The Noise

Copyright and Performing Rights Information

SOME OF US EXIST IN THE FUTURE

Nkenna Akunna

Characters

CHIAMAKA, Black, femme, British

BLACK MASC, Black, masc

DAD, 60s, Nigerian accent

NEIGHBOUR, Black

YOU, Black

ISATA, Black, femme, North American

COE, White, not a man, North American

Location

Brooklyn, New York. Lenapehoking soil.

Notes

Speech in parenthesis is speech we shouldn’t hear. But we do. Speech in bold is spoken/projected from somewhere in space. Lines without full stops should sound unfinished

Cultural accents should not be approximated, and so parts should be cast with input of someone who has intimate or first-hand knowledge or experience of these accents.

1.

A space in darkness.

A TV switches on. A sigh-cough, the unconscious or habitual kind. The welcome tone of a video-on-demand streaming service plays. A sharp inhale at the shock of its loudness.

Scrolling through. Shows and films. Shows and films. A deep inhale, the sound of a spliff burning. Scrolling pauses, spluttering coughs.

Button click. The opening scene of a show or film. A jingle.

Speech coming from inside the TV should sound different than from the rest of the room.

BLACK MASC. A beautiful daaay to be a Bla(ck–)

Button click, fast-forward.

on my own land

Button click, fast-forward.

Free! Yessir!

Free. You hear me?

But do you hear me, though?

YOU. I hear you, though.

CHIAMAKA. Hmm.

BLACK MASC. Everybody hears me, though. Everything can hear me if they really want to.

YOU. Because you free.

BLACK MASC. You too, baby!

YOU. Uh huh.

BLACK MASC. For real for true.

YOU. I know it. I know it, I know it.

BLACK MASC. What the crystal ball say today, baby? What we getting on today?

YOU. We kissing the sky

BLACK MASC. Uh huh

YOU. Crumbling time

BLACK MASC. That’s right

YOU. Making it right Bussin’ a whine

BLACK MASC. Buss a whine buss a whine for the girl made flesh

Bussa whine buss a whine

YOU. Ay!

BLACK MASC. Girl made flesh!

YOU. Girl in the city! Human girl.

BLACK MASC. Home away from home, girl.

YOU. Uh huh.

CHIAMAKA (quietly). Uh-uh.

BLACK MASC. Beautiful day.

The jingle plays.

She can’t hear me, though.

YOU. She can. She just don’t know it yet. Listen.

Sound disconnects.

(Whispers.) I think she went under…

Pause.

(Nervous.) I’m not nervous.You nervous?

BLACK MASC (nervous). Why would I be nervous?

YOU. Exactly.

BLACK MASC. No need to be nervous.

YOU. No need.

It’s late.

After dark, while the world is asleep.

So she’s open.

She’ll do it.

Pause.

BLACK MASC. What if

YOU. It’s a beautiful day, right?

BLACK MASC (impatient). I don’t know what a day is! Never felt that! I just be sayin’ shit. Hoping she’ll hear. Hoping she’ll feel us.

TV show stops.

Something like being underwater, though we are not.

Something like falling through a tunnel, though we are not.

YOU (inhales in recognition). You feel her?

BLACK MASC. Course I do.

YOU. Then you’ve felt time.

CHIAMAKA takes in a sudden, grasping kind of breath.

BLACK MASC. She’s slipping away.

YOU. She’ll come back. You know she’ll come back.

BLACK MASC. Yeah, yeah for sure.

The TV show returns, and in it, someone is knocking on a door.

CHIAMAKA, disconnected and confused, returns to herself.

CHIAMAKA. I’m in the middle of something when I forget what I’m doing.

What I came here for

When I’ll be leaving.

I forget where here is, how I even got here.

I listen for something that might seem familiar.

Something that might remind me of reality before I’m caught outside of it.

Faint haunting of steel pans.

Life outside these walls. Walls.

I’m somewhere on the inside.

I’m in a building.

The knocking continues.

I can feel heat

so I have skin

so I must be in a body.

But the body I’m in is around me.

floating

in circles and squares dots of light and blinking waves

I’m a body.

Some body.

This body that’s mine

is blinking all over this place

I wait to come back together.

The heat.

Sweat. My sweat.

A textured ridge.

Tongue to lip.

Hairy top lip.

I have skin and I have hair.

Okay.

Exhales.

In a room, in a building.

A house? Flat?

Mine?

Knock sounds louder.

Chi!

A jolt.

Prickling across space

prickling condensed

prickling

intensifying

prickling against

soft.

The TV switches off.

Wh–?

I am coming together again.

Skin to skin,

All of me around the room, remembering.

The rush of coming together, embodied again,

it hurts!

The knocking increases in volume and urgency.

CHIAMAKA’s sharp inhale.

Quick welts ripping open on the inside.

Muscle envelopes. Tape. Wrapping.

(Guttural.) Uhhhhh!

Sound reconnects. CHIAMAKA’s front door slams open.

Time unwarps, moves.

I remember the body I’m in.

I remember the body I’m in.

2.

The room, lifeless and dark.

A US ringing tone.

Hello, this is Chi. Sorry I can’t make it to the phone right now, but if you leave a message I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

Beep.

DAD. Hello Chiamaka, I have tried texting you and calling on WhatsApp since morning, but it is not going through. Maybe you are sleeping. Or maybe your phone is dead. Did you arrive safely? Is today not the day you move in?

I am just here at home. It is very quiet.

I woke up early. Around 4 a.m., and I couldn’t fall back asleep.

So I got up, prayed, had my shower, and I made my breakfast.

I had to go to the post office this morning. To send the last of the documents back home.

Your mummy is stable. We are all praying.

The house is very quiet.

The car was giving me some trouble. So I went to the mechanic and he told me there was a problem with the exhaust and it may cost up to one thousand. I don’t know where I will find that money now.

But anyway

Please call me as soon as you’ve heard this message. Thanks. Goodnight. Your dad.

Beep beep.

3.

An empty space. Far-off voices, two inside, most outside.

Outside: rhythms boom out of sound-checking sound systems and steel pans.

Inside: wheels of a large suitcase pulled against a hard floor in the distance, two voices travelling along with it.

CHIAMAKA (approaching). No worries no worries! I’m in now. That’s what matters.

The door to the room squeaks open. Footsteps and suitcase wheels against the floor.

ISATA. Here it is. I know it’s small but

CHIAMAKA. I’ve seen smaller all over Brooklyn. It’s perfect.

ISATA. Good!

CHIAMAKA. Abi would talk about you all the time at uni. Literally all the time.

ISATA (laughs). I hope not all the time.

CHIAMAKA (puts on American accent). ‘You need to meet Isa, you need to meet Isa!’

ISATA. And now you live with Isa.

CHIAMAKA. Now I live with Isa! Can I call you Isa? Or do you prefer Isata?

ISATA. Either is cool.

CHIAMAKA. Cool. I like Isata.

Soca from outside fills the silence between them.

I didn’t know they had carnival here, too.

ISATA. They have J’ouvert in London?

CHIAMAKA. Yeah, around the same time as well! Walking down the parkway was mad. Seeing all the floats and that. Smelling the jerk. And those metal railings that separate the pavement from the street?

ISATA. You walked all the way from Eastern Parkway?

CHIAMAKA. From the A Train.

ISATA. Oh shit. You should have got the 2. Sorry, I should’ve mentioned that.

CHIAMAKA. It’s fine! It’s my fault, I got a shit phone plan with no internet so I couldn’t call you like I should’ve. I just used the maps on the train from the airport.

ISATA. Damn. You must be tired. I can leave you to rest? I know there’s not a lot in here…

CHIAMAKA. I’ll figure it out, it’s cool! Do you want to go up to Eastern Parkway with me later? Shake a leg at carni?

ISATA. Uh, maybe! I was gonna head back to Keisha’s and snooze a little longer…

CHIAMAKA. Oh, yes. Sorry for waking you!

ISATA. All good! Um, so I’m pretty sure Daphne has an air mattress and wouldn’t mind you borrowing it.

CHIAMAKA. Daphne is…?

ISATA. The Black one. Her room’s to the right. Adrianna’s the white one, whole top floor is hers. They’re both out of town though.

CHIAMAKA. Right. Okay.

ISATA. Okay! I’m gonna head out then…

CHIAMAKA. Okay. Thank you again!

CHIAMAKA rolls her suitcase further into the room. It catches and falls.

Oop! All good! I’ve got it.

ISATA lingers.

ISATA. Do you… know where to get furniture and stuff?

CHIAMAKA. I think so.

ISATA. Are you on Gypsy Housing?

CHIAMAKA. Yes.

ISATA. NYC Furnishings?

CHIAMAKA. Yes.

ISATA. NYC Housing for Queers?

CHIAMAKA (wide-eyed). No.

ISATA. I’ll add you

Phone tap tap tap.

done.

CHIAMAKA. Thank you, Isata. Seriously, you don’t understand. You’re such a lifesaver.

ISATA. I got you. Okay. See you later.

CHIAMAKA. Wait, so I have the house to myself today?

ISATA. I guess so! I should be back later.

CHIAMAKA. That would be nice. Post-carnival come-down?

ISATA. Sure! Listen, I’m gonna head back. Bye!

CHIAMAKA. Bye! Thank you! See you later!

ISATA (receding). See you later.

CHIAMAKA. In a bit… housemate! (Shut up, Chiamaka.)

Silence. The front door closes.

CHIAMAKA’s footsteps around the room.

(We have a home.)