Something Awful E-Book

Tatty Hennessy

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

Seitenzahl: 47

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Beschreibung

A thrilling play inspired by the true-crime story of the Slenderman. Soph and her best friend Jel love scary stories and hunt for the best online. But then new girl Ellie turns up at school with one of her own. Tatty Hennessy's play Something Awful was first staged at VAULT Festival, London, in 2020.

Leseprobe

Tatty Hennessy

SOMETHING AWFUL

NICK HERN BOOKSLondonwww.nickhernbooks.co.uk

Contents

Welcome to VAULT Festival

Original Production

Characters

Something Awful

About the Author

Copyright and Performing Rights Information

Welcome to VAULT Festival

Theatre’s a funny thing, isn’t it? Being in a dark room with a bunch of strangers, being asked to give your time and attention to this moment, here, now. And in return asking for a story, a voice, a perspective on the world. Asking to be moved. To be changed. And then we disperse. To the bar to dissect. Back home to our family or friends. Back to the everyday. But for an hour or two, we have all been a part of something. We have, artists and audience alike, been a community. Part of a story that, while it may be told again, will never exist in that exact way. It’s pretty exhilarating. And at VAULT Festival, there is the opportunity to have that experience, that immediacy, that joy and risk, hundreds of times through thousands of artists. That’s pretty fucking incredible.

Now, more than any other time I can think of, we are questioning whose stories we are being presented with. Who has been left out of the narrative? And why? VAULT Festival is one of the increasingly rare places where artists who are traditionally underrepresented on our stages, whether that be race, background, gender, class or ability, can have their voices heard. Their stories told. Can be seen.

This year, VAULT Festival is welcoming some of the best and strongest new writing in the country. The plays published in this collection represent a fraction of the incredibly varied, raw, vibrant, urgent and playful work across the 2020 Festival. The writers in this collection have delivered unique perspectives on the world and their experiences moving through it. I could not be more proud of this collection, and of all the work presented at this year’s festival. Of the risks artists are taking in this strange and scary world, and of the unfaltering belief from everyone who comes to VAULT Festival, from audiences, staff and the artists themselves in the power of art to change that world.

As always, this collection and the new writing presented in the Festival would not be possible without the ongoing support of Nick Hern Books. Their dedication and belief in writers and their willingness to platform them through the VAULT Festival has been unwavering and we are all so thankful.

So have a read. Go see these shows. Go see the rest of them. And when you’re sat in that room, willing to be moved and changed, being witness to the unique power and transience of theatre, remember we’re all in this together.

Bec Martin-Williams

Head of Theatre and Performance

VAULT Festival 2020

This is the introduction to Plays from VAULT 5, the collection in which this play first appeared.

Something Awful was first performed at VAULT Festival, London, on 28 January 2020.

SOPH

Natalya Martin

JEL

Monica Anne

ELLIE

Melissa Parker

Director

Lucy Jane Atkinson

Producer

Georgie Staight

Will Adolphy for Flux Theatre

Lighting Designer

Holly Ellis

Stage Manager

Bethany Pratt

Sound Designer

Sam Glossop

Characters

JEL, female, thirteen

SOPH, female, thirteen

ELLIE, female, thirteen

/ denotes an interruption by the following character.

Prologue

SOPH and JEL are at the computer. SOPH is telling a story, JEL’s eyes are glued to the screen.

SOPH. I was walking home from a late class one evening. It was autumn, not really cold yet, a chill in the air, but not too bad. The streets were totally empty. I had my earphones in listening to my favourite song. And then I looked up and –

Ahead of me there was a woman. Standing in the pool of light from a lamp-post. She definitely hadn’t been up ahead of me when I last looked up. She must have moved to that spot very quickly, but now she was just. Standing there. But she was just a little woman, she didn’t look threatening, out for a late stroll or on her way home from work, just like me.

She had something over the lower half of her face, covering her mouth and nose. At first I couldn’t process what it was but as I drew near I could see it was a white surgical mask, white elastic tucked behind her ears.

Can I help you?

I asked.

She looked sad. Her eyes. Like maybe she’d been crying. She looked up at me. And she said something. She spoke really quietly, almost in a whisper, and her voice was muffled by the mask.

Sorry?

I leaned in a little closer to hear her.

Do you think I’m beautiful?

She asked.

Right. I figured. She’s just been dumped and she’s out here crying feeling sorry for herself and just wants cheering up.

Poor thing. So I smile and I say:

Sure, of course you’re beautiful.

And her eyes lock on to mine and she reaches up to her ear and unhooks the white elastic and pulls off the mask and

I want to throw up.

Her face is split open, two thick jagged cuts from the edges of her mouth all through her cheeks up to her ears, like a child covering their face in red lipstick. The cuts are stitched roughly together with thick black bloody twine and the scars are still wet.

How about now?

She asks.

Suddenly, a very loud horrible noise bursts from the laptop speakers. The masked woman attacks. JEL screams and slams the laptop shut.

JEL. FUCK!

SOPH laughs, JEL thumps her arm, furious.

You know I hate the jumpy ones.