Save + Quit E-Book

Sophia Chetin-Leuner

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

Seitenzahl: 50

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

Save + Quit shares the stories of four young people in London and Dublin and how they attempt to live in the cities they call home. Sophia Leuner's play was first performed at the 2016 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, before being selected for the 2017 VAULT Festival, London.

Leseprobe

Sophia Leuner

SAVE + QUIT

NICK HERN BOOKSLondonwww.nickhernbooks.co.uk

Contents

Welcome to VAULT

Original Production

Characters

Save + Quit

About the Author

Copyright and Performing Rights Information

Welcome (Back) to VAULT

2017 marks the fifth time the VAULT Festival has taken over the tunnels beneath Waterloo Station, transforming them into a hub for artists and audiences to explore the very best in exciting, innovative and risky creative arts projects. A seemingly impossible idea we had in late 2011 has grown, through the hard work of hundreds of people, into an annual celebration that London has embraced with an unruly and humbling passion.

From theatre and comedy to film and late-night entertainment, our goal with VAULT remains to create a vibrant underworld in which daring performers can find intrepid audiences without the financial and structural burdens that too often accompany any artistic enterprise.

It takes courage to come to these bizarre tunnels – now a fantastic year-round venue known as The Vaults – and present something for all to see. If the plays included in this collection are anything to go by, courage is not in short supply among the crop of artists that we are immensely proud to be hosting this year.

This volume represents just a fraction of the wealth of talent lurking below the surface of our city, and it’s with great pleasure that we present it to you.

Mat Burt, Andy George & Tim WilsonVAULT Festival Directors

This version of Save + Quit was first performed at VAULT Festival, London, on 8 February 2017, with the following cast:

JOE

Eddie Joe Robinson

STEPH

Josie Charles

CARA

Niamh Branigan

DYLAN

Peter Mooney

Directors

Billie de Buitléar Sophia Leuner

With special thanks to my trusty editor Billie, my friends Karan and Caoimhe, the very large de Buitléar family, and the very small Chetin-Leuner family.

Characters

PART ONE, LONDON

JOE, male, twenties, London

STEPH, female, twenties, Hull

PART TWO, DUBLIN

CARA, female, twenties, Tallaght

DYLAN, male, twenties, Dalkey

Note on Play

This play is to be performed on a bare stage, with no or limited set or props.

The play is divided into monologues. Within these, the characters fully embody the different people they encounter or recall.

The characters can be lit simultaneously or separately.

A forward slash (/) marks the point of interruption in overlapping dialogue.

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

PART ONE

JOE. I was supposed to be meeting this girl in Regent’s Park so we could go on a walk or something, I dunno, but when the Bakerloo line pulled in I didn’t want to get off – we’d only been out a few times – so I stayed on, thought I’d go visit my mum instead. I got off ten stops and half an hour later at Willesden Junction. Tapped out and ran into someone I knew –

‘Oi my man! Long time no see.’

We went to school together. I didn’t like him much –

‘What brings you back, man?’

‘You know, visiting my mum.’

‘Fair fair. Oi you know, you should come out wiv us later we’re going to –’

‘Cheers bruv, but I gotta run, nice catching up, man, hope you’re good.’

He thought I was being rude and I guess I was but I couldn’t be bothered, you know? I hate coming back here because you run into all these people you thought you were never gonna see again. The corner shops are run by the same people and the same shit is being repaired. This ain’t London. It’s grey and shit and flat. But it’s actually what most of London is. Places like this.

STEPH. My interview was really weird. I went in and the headteacher, this munter with wrinkly cleavage shook my hand. She smelt like new car and stale cigarettes. Before I even sat down she was like

‘What did you study at Birmingham then?’

‘Geography,’ I say, and I want to seem friendly, you know, so I add – ‘my family always say I chose Birmingham because it was a few miles closer to London.’

It isn’t well received.

‘You have good scores on ITIT and great references, why do you want to work here?’

It wasn’t asked like you would expect a job interview to go, you know? It was all like passive aggressive. I ignored it though.

‘In my opinion, a teacher should help those who are less advantaged than his or herself. Eastbury Comprehensive is a place where I can give back to the community and educate those who are just as worthy of an education as the rest of the country, and yet are often neglected –’

‘Okay. You’re one of those. Fine. Twenty-one starting salary, if you last a year, it will go up.’

JOE. My mum hobbled round the kitchen fixing me something to eat.

(Middle-aged, with any accent indicating she is a first-generation immigrant.) ‘Look I need to tell you something. I don’t want you to shout. I don’t want you to get angry. But… I’m… I’m moving.’

I couldn’t believe it. Mum had lived here for, like, thirty years.

‘This house is too big for me, I’m moving to your aunt’s –’

‘In Wembley? Why it’s a shithol–’

‘Don’t you swear at me, young man. You have your own flat now, you never come round here. With my hip the stairs are hard and –’

She kept going, listing loads of good reasons why she should move. Closer to family. Memory of Dad. Dangerous. House prices in London. It all made sense.

‘You take the Xbox with you today.’