Perve E-Book

Stacey Gregg

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

Seitenzahl: 76

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Beschreibung

An irreverent and unsettling play that interrogates paranoia, ambiguity and innocence in our highly sexualised world. Gethin has just finished his film course and reckons he's the next Scorsese. His mum is on at him to do her friend's wedding video - before the couple get divorced! But Gethin is interested in a much more daring project - one that will get him into dangerously deep water, question his idealism and turn his life and that of his family upside down. Stacey Gregg's play Perve was first staged at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, in 2011.

Leseprobe

Stacey Gregg

PERVE

NICK HERN BOOKS

London

www.nickhernbooks.co.uk

Contents

Original Production Details

Characters

Perve

About the Author

Copyright and Performing Rights Information

Perve was first performed at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, on the Peacock stage on 31 May 2011. The cast was as follows:

GETHIN

Ciarán O’Brien

NICK

Peter Campion

LORRAINE

Andrea Irvine

SARAH

Roxanna Nic Liam

TAYLOR’S MUM

Hilda Fay

LAYLA

Kerrie O’Sullivan

AUTHORITY

Jane Brennan

Director

Róisín McBrinn

Set Design

Alyson Cummins

Lighting Design

Aedín Cosgrove

Costume Design

Donna Geraghty

Sound Design

Denis Clohessy

Company Stage Manager

Stephen Dempsey

Deputy Stage Manager

Elaine Walsh

Assistant Stage Managers

Jean Hally

Deirdre McClean

Voice Director

Andrea Ainsworth

Casting Director

Holly Ní Chiardha (CDG)

Hair and Make-up

Val Sherlock

Photographer

Johnny Savage

Sign Language Interpreter

Ali Stewart

Characters

GETHIN, twenty-three

NICK, twenty-two

LORRAINE, Gethin and Sarah’s mum

SARAH, sixteen

TAYLOR’S MUM

LAYLA, eighteen

AUTHORITY

Note on the Text

A forward slash ( / ) in the text indicates the point at which the next speaker interrupts.

A word in brackets is usually thought but not spoken.

Whole lines in brackets indicate the less dominant voice in ongoing and overlapping dialogue.

This text went to press before the end of rehearsals and so may differ slightly from the play as performed.

Scene One

A graffitied house.

‘Pervert’ and ‘GET OUT’ scrawled across, paint splats.

GETHIN, bright and charismatic, sits on a wall, fiddling with a video camera on a tripod. Beside him sits NICK, genial, drinking from a can. They have the easy banter of old mates.

NICK watches him fiddle for a few moments.

NICK

reckon Spielberg started like this?

GETHIN ignores him.

Gethin, d’ya reckon / Spielberg started like this –

GETHIN

(Concentrating.) Shut up

NICK sniggers, takes a slug from the can. Looks bored.

NICK

Hurry up, mate, we’ll miss the match

GETHIN

We won’t, chill out.

I just want a few shots…

NICK

Shag marry kill: Spielberg, Scorsese, Tarantino

GETHIN

Spielberg, he’s the best. Easily.

NICK

mmm.

I liked E.T.

GETHIN

See Schindler’s List?

NICK screws up his face.

NICK

Nah, not my cuppa tea.

Hah – ‘not my cuppa tea’, ‘E.T.’

GETHIN

the Holocaust isn’t your cuppa tea?

NICK

nah.

Who would you shag –

GETHIN

don’t know

NICK

– Tarantino all the way.

GETHIN

Tarantino?

NICK

by a mile. Pass the soap – oh Quentin!

GETHIN breaks a smile.

GETHIN

So, like, watching a film about the Holocaust is worse than watching – I don’t know – the same old Tarantino torture shit, like, women with guns attached to their limbs?

NICK

Yeah but it’s cool

GETHIN

cretin.

It’s NICK’s turn to scoff.

NICK

Schindler’s List… pft.

Came on TV, over Christmas, and it was like boohoohoo BANG face blown off a small child and Mum switched it over. Like, Mum doesn’t even watch the news. On principle. Says she doesn’t want to see any wickedness, there’s enough wickedness in the world. She reckons that’s why people get the depression, watching too much news.

GETHIN

it’s a stunning movie

NICK

stunningly depressing

GETHIN

Fellini is the all-time best

NICK

Fellatio. Panini.

GETHIN

I’m not gonna bite

NICK

what’s that supposed to mean?

GETHIN

I mean you’re winding me up

NICK

no I’m not

GETHIN

and I’m above it, mate

NICK

mate, I don’t premeditate my small talk with the sole intention of winding you up, I’ve better things to think about.

Like chips. And a cold pint. A cold pint of / beeeeeer

GETHIN

okay, God.

GETHIN starts recording.

NICK

So what’s it for?

A Gethin Spotlight Special.

‘Paedos on the Run’

GETHIN

Yep

NICK

‘Paedos on Ice’

GETHIN

Yep

NICK

‘Stars in Your Paedo’

GETHIN

yep

NICK

‘Paedo Swap’

GETHIN

yep

NICK

‘I’m a Perve, Get Me Out of Here’?

GETHIN

Good for you, admitting it, Nick, after all these years.

NICK

only thanks to your mum.

Beat.

So what is it? What’s it for?

GETHIN

don’t know yet. Just an idea. A concept, you know

NICK

ooh a ‘concept’

GETHIN finally has the camera set.

He steadies and takes a shot of the damage. The graffiti.

GETHIN

No one ever gets done for this crap.

I mean, that’s vandalism really.

Beat.

NICK

Why don’t you make a nice film about a guy who falls in love with a girl, but he doesn’t know he likes her cos she wears big glasses and looks like a nerd, but then, one night of pure passion she / takes off the glasses

GETHIN

let me guess, she / takes off the glasses –

NICK

And in the bedroom she’s a total dominatrix, / and –

GETHIN

Nah.

NICK

what?!

GETHIN

Been done.

NICK

Not enough. Never enough.

NICK mimes swishing his hair.

(Movie voice.) ‘Of course I’ll help you with your library card, sir’

GETHIN

besides, that’s like, fiction. Real life’s much weirder.

NICK

I’ll tell you what’s weird. Two guys sitting outside a perve’s house perving on him with a video camera.

GETHIN

he’s not even a perve

NICK

What?

GETHIN

(A shrug.) I mean, we don’t know that.

Necessarily.

NICK

he is

GETHIN

you don’t know

NICK

there’s a fair consensus

GETHIN

there were no charges, so…

NICK

yeah but no smoke without fire

GETHIN

habeas corpus

NICK

Your what’s itchy?

GETHIN

my balls – innocent till / proven guilty

NICK

why’re you defending him?

GETHIN

I’m not

NICK

you are

GETHIN

I’m not ‘defending him’

NICK

you are

GETHIN

I’m not defending – just wonder when it became like, guilty until proven innocent.

Like, what if he is innocent. Like, all these guys out there that’ve been accused of rape or abuse and then the allegations turn out to be false, you’re always reading about it, and their lives are totally screwed up. That’s it for them. I mean, surely that’s crueler than –

NICK

child abuse itself? Yeah see what you mean there – good point

GETHIN

that’s not / what I was –

NICK

sick, sicko bastard

GETHIN

fuck, see?

NICK

see what

GETHIN

exactly what I mean

NICK

for someone who’s such a brainybox

GETHIN

everyone’s so hysterical, get so hysterical – just takes one person to / throw a stone

NICK

I’ll tell you what makes me hysterical

GETHIN

then it’s paint and graffiti / and lynching

NICK

– you faffing about on that camera when the match is about to start

GETHIN

okay

NICK

Can we go now?

GETHIN

Yes.

Philistine

NICK

I know you are

GETHIN

Alright fine, whatever.

GETHIN closes down the shot.

NICK

Got what you needed?

GETHIN

yep. Let’s go!

NICK

woo

GETHIN switches off the camera and NICK gives a hand, jangling his car keys as they go.

NICK is singing a football song joyfully.

GETHIN catches a glimpse of something.

GETHIN

wait –

NICK

what?

GETHIN

think I just saw him, at the window

NICK

what, paedo Bob?

GETHIN

yeah.

NICK

where?

GETHIN

Y’know he was a caretaker

NICK

bet he was

GETHIN

at a school

NICK

(Paedo voice.) ‘like a sweetie from my pocket?’

GETHIN

and has like, learning difficulties

NICK

whatever

GETHIN

that’s what I heard. Just sayin’.

Poor bastard.

NICK

fuck, d’you want to go and make friends with him or wha’? Play a quick game of table tennis together? Cos I’m goin to the pub now, okay?

GETHIN

yeah, I’m coming, it’s my round.

They leave, messing about.

Scene Two

Evening.

GETHIN’s bedroom.

GETHIN on the internet.

His finger hovers over the mouse. He is on the brink of clicking.

His hand withdraws, suspended.

LORRAINE

(From the kitchen.) GETHIN! DIN-NER!

GETHIN is startled, edgy.

GETHIN

Coming

LORRAINE

I’VE ALREADY CALLED YA

Behind him, SARAH peeps into his room. She squints to see what GETHIN is doing.

GETHIN turns back to the screen.

Impulsively clicks in.

He looks immediately disgruntled and clicks out again.

SARAH

is shocked, and then delighted.

She scuttles off. GETHIN spins round at the noise.

GETHIN

– Sarah?

LORRAINE

GETHIN!

GETHIN

OKAY!

GETHIN shuts his laptop and goes.

Scene Three

Dinner table. GETHIN, LORRAINE and SARAH sit around the table eating.

SARAH

You so are

GETHIN

I’m so not

SARAH

Oh my God, you so are

GETHIN

I’m so not

SARAH

you ARE

GETHIN

Mum

LORRAINE

(Autopilot.