Plays from VAULT 3 E-Book

Various

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

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

This anthology comprises five of the best plays from VAULT 2018, London's biggest and most exciting arts festival. Young men are dying and everyone assumes they're just casualties of London's chemsex scene. Everyone, that is, but Anthony, who is determined to investigate. Tumulus by Christopher Adams is a chilling, queer play-noir set amongst the shadowy hills of Hampstead Heath.  Critically acclaimed during its run at Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Lucy Burke's Glitter Punch – set in Greater Manchester – charts a troubling new relationship between mysterious John and sixteen-year-old Molly, a love that will change their lives forever. 'Powerful' (The Stage). Set in a Wigan taxi, Burkas and Bacon Butties by Shamia Chalabi and Sarah Henley is a heart-warming comedy about taxi-driver Ashraf and his twenty-something daughter, Shaz, as they negotiate the ups and downs of living in a mixed-culture family. When bereaved mother Mary finds a disembodied arm, a conspiracy builds: maybe her child isn't quite so dead after all. Shortlisted for Soho Theatre's Tony Craze Award, Sami Ibrahim's Wind Bit Bitter, Bit Bit Bit Her is an enthralling monologue about love and loss. The Strongbox by Stephanie Jacob is a story of domestic servitude and abuse of power, as authoritarian Kat, her ageing mother, Ma, and their teenaged slave, Maudie, jostle for power – and affection – in their dilapidated London home. 'A major London festival … showcasing new and rising talent' Independent on VAULT Festival

Leseprobe

PLAYS FROMVAULT 3

TUMULUSChristopher Adams

GLITTER PUNCHLucy Burke

BURKAS AND BACON BUTTIESShamia Chalabi & Sarah Henley

WIND BIT BITTER, BIT BIT BIT HERSami Ibrahim

THE STRONGBOXStephanie Jacob

NICK HERN BOOKS

London

www.nickhernbooks.co.uk

Contents

Welcome (back) to VAULT

Tumulus by Christopher Adams

Glitter Punch by Lucy Burke

Burkas and Bacon Buttties by Shamia Chalabi & Sarah Henley

Wind Bit Bitter, Bit Bit Bit Her by Sami Ibrahim

The Strongbox by Stephanie Jacob

About the Authors

Copyright and Performing Rights Information

Welcome (Back) to VAULT

We once dreamed about offering the chance for talented writers at VAULT to see their work published. (Enter Nick Hern Books, confident, bold, even foolhardy.) Three years on, and Plays fromVAULT is becoming a festival staple. It’s energising to know that there is interest in, and demand for, the VAULT alumni of 2018.

This year, these committed and passionate publishers have gone a step further, becoming the sole sponsors of the VAULT New Writers Award. Alongside writer Camilla Whitehill, and producer Rosalyn Newbery, eight brand-new playwrights are taking part in an eight-week writers’ course at VAULT. It wouldn’t have happened without Nick Hern Books and they deserve loud thanks for their belief in nurturing new talent.

VAULT 2018, the sixth festival, runs for eight weeks. We are joined by more venues than ever including the Waterloo East Theatre, the Network Theatre, and the Travelling Through Bookshop. There are already over 330 groups of artists featured in the programme at this year’s festival.

If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you’re already curious, so forgive us if we co-opt you a little further. If you’re good at being an audience member, come and see more than you planned to at VAULT. If you’re good at being an artist, think about bringing something to VAULT 2019. If you’re good at being a commissioner, you can go right ahead and commission these writers.

To the future!

Mat Burt, Andy George & Tim WilsonVAULT Festival Directors

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

TUMULUS

Christopher Adams

For Tim, and Auntie Em

Tumulus was first performed at VAULT Festival, London, on 24 January 2018, with the following cast:

IAN HALLARD

TOM RHYS HARRIES

CIARÁN OWENS

DirectorMatt SteinbergProducerJoanne L WilliamsDesignerAlison NeighbourSound DesignerNick ManningLighting DesignerLucy AdamsStage ManagerMegan BlyIllustratorWill AdamsMovement DirectorNatasha HarrisonFilmmakerCiara O’Grady

This production acknowledges support received from Arts Council England.

Characters

Suggested doubling:

Male, thirties

ANTHONY

Male, early twentiesMale, fortiesMATTSIMONVIJAYCHRISSAMOLLIECARLMIKEGEORGEJOEJONATHANNEWSPAPERHENRYCOUNSELLORWILLIAMPLACARDJACK (THE YOUNGER)GENECALLUMJACK (THE ELDER)OFFICER BEDWARDA, C, E, G, JCHRISTOPHERFELIXMARTINTEXTOWENPERCYOFFICER AVOICEMAILB, D, F, H, I

Setting

North London, the modern day.

Note on Text

Text in square brackets is unspoken.

ACT ONE

Scene One

ANTHONY

On a Saturday night in January

I arrive at a flat

In Willesden Green

There are six

Seven

Guys here already

They greet me like an old friend

SIMON

Hey

MATT

Hey

CHRIS

Hey man

Good to see you

VIJAY

What’s up?

Haven’t seen you in a while

OLLIE

How’s you?

SAM

Heya

MIKE

Hey

You’re Roger right?

ANTHONY

Anthony

Actually

Like me they have been going for eighteen hours

One guy

(Simon?)

Has brought his pug

SIMON

Her name is Marigold

Isn’t she gorgeous?

ANTHONY

She’s ghastly

Another

(Matt?)

Rushed from his shift at the Royal Free

His nursing scrubs are piled in a corner

He says to me

MATT (holding out a pair of shorts)

Here

Put these on

ANTHONY

Thanks

But I have my own

The Uber from Kentish Town

Took about twenty minutes

Along the way I started to hear the sound

Sound.

This is generally my cue

That it’s time for another hit

I find the kitchen

I am pleased to see Wandering Joe

He crops up at parties like these across North London

He brings a comforting air of middle management

The type of man who would feature

In a diarrhoea advertisement

An Excel spreadsheet is in front of him

I’m due

JOE

One hour?

ANTHONY

One hour exactly

Joe adds my name to his spreadsheet

JOE

I’m adding your name to my spreadsheet

ANTHONY

He notes the time

JOE

1 32 a.m.

ANTHONY

He’s precise

JOE

A good accountant should always be precise

ANTHONY

He sticks a syringe

Into a small bottle of clear liquid

He offers me a choice

JOE

Apple juice

Or Lucozade?

ANTHONY

Apple

(I always have it with apple)

He drops the liquid in

JOE

One millilitre

Two millilitres

All done

Don’t want to kill you

ANTHONY

He tells me to chug it

JOE

Chug it

ANTHONY drinks.

He makes a face to indicate how awful it tastes.

ANTHONY

I wander back into the living room

The flat is clean

(Not like other flats I’ve been in)

But only because there is very little in it

The only books are

Two self-help works

And a biography of Thatcher

They aren’t alphabetised

Some guys have their tops off

There are flecks of powder

Meow

M-cat

M

Scattered around

But no Tina

No pins

No one slamming into their veins

This is a classy party

Not like the party I will end up in

By hour forty

After a few moments

It starts

My limbs

(Previously solid and cumbersome)

Begin to loosen

I feel made of cartilage instead of bone

I realise I am attractive

Confident

And though Wandering Joe is the only person

Whose name I can accurately recall

Suddenly I feel I know

The intimate lives of every guy around me

We are like live wires plugged into the same circuit

And crucially

Crucially

The sound that began in the Uber

Sound.

Disappears

The sound fades.

I spot a guy in the corner

CARL

Want a bump?

ANTHONY takes a bump.

ANTHONY

Thanks

CARL

I’m Carl

ANTHONY

I’m Anthony

Carl is short but lithe

His ears are like teacups

He is young

Twenty-two at most

(I myself am not yet thirty-three)

Carl has a spot of fluff on his T-shirt

You have a spot of fluff on your T-shirt

CARL

Would you like to remove it?

ANTHONY

I am a librarian

I appreciate order

ANTHONY removes the spot of fluff.

CARL

Come sit on the sofa with me

CARL takes ANTHONY by the hand.