Steel E-Book

Lee Mattinson

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

Seitenzahl: 70

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

Two lads. Twelve hours. One million pounds. On the rain-drenched West Cumbrian coast, James and Kamran have been mates for more than a decade. They're seventeen, so the world should be theirs – but Workington is a ghost town, an unemployment blackspot where lasses drink Bacardi by the pint and boys don't cry. When James discovers he is heir to a single mile of the British railway network, the lads set out on a high-stakes chase through town, where annihilated aunties, Snakebite-drenched drag queens and a zombie Princess Diana are lying in wait. Lee Mattinson's Steel is a hilarious and heartfelt play about first loves, forging identities and the wild, wild hearts of teenage boys. It was first performed at Theatre by the Lake, Keswick, in 2024 followed by a UK tour. The production won the award for Excellence in Touring at the 2025 UK Theatre Awards.

Leseprobe

Lee Mattinson

STEEL

NICK HERN BOOKS

London

www.nickhernbooks.co.uk

Contents

Dedication

With Thanks to

Original Production Details

Characters

Notes on the Text

Steel

About the Author

Copyright and Performing Rights Information

To Mike

With Thanks to

The pupils at Workington Academy, West Lakes Academy, Keswick School and the young artists of Kirkgate Youth Theatre.

Janett Walker and Erika Ghinelli at Anti Racist Cumbria for helping me deliver a series of workshops with their young people and Ainka, Andreina, Charles, Janice and Millie for their invaluable contribution to the lives and ideas of the play.

The Community Choir for co-creating the song for the finale: Lesley Askew, Isel Asquith-Vallance, Grace Edgar, Lauren Elliott, Lynda Grisdale, Glenis Holiday, William Hoodless, Janice Houghton, Michael Huit, Holly Hunter, Stephen Hunter, Andrea Jones, David Jones, Katie Key, Matthew Key, Debra Knight, Pauline McNab, James Mossop, Pat Nelson, Ali Philips, Jennie Rankin, Emily Roper, Bruce Stephens, Carol Telford, Mark Topping, Bethany Webb, Laurence Weldon and Linda Wilkinson.

National Theatre Studio and everyone at the Carnegie Theatre & Arts Centre.

Katie Posner, Akshay Shah, Colin Brind, Cooper McDonough, Louie Ingham, Jill Gordon, Ann Macdonald, David & Sue Thomas and Jim Askew.

And to Rich Henderson, always, for solving the mystery of love.

L.M.

Steel was first performed at Theatre by the Lake, Keswick on 3 October 2024. The cast was as follows:

KAMRAN

Suraj Shah

JAMES

Jordan Tweddle

Director

Liz Stevenson

Designer

Simon Kenny

Composer and Sound Designer

Mark Melville

Lighting Designer

Jessie Addinall

Movement Director

Kieran Sheehan

Assistant Director

Mark Macey

Community Choir Musical Director

Colin Brind

Scenic Floor Illustrator

Emily Ford

Producer

Jamie Walsh

Production Manager

Phil Geller

Assistant Production Manager

Helen Hall

Company Stage Manager

Sarah Goodyear

Costume Supervisor

Gemma Reeve

Promotional Photography

Grant Archer

Steel Community Choir Lesley Askew, Isel Asquith-Vallance, Grace Edgar, Lauren Elliott, Lynda Grisdale, Glenis Holiday, William Hoodless, Janice Houghton, Michael Huit, Holly Hunter, Stephen Hunter, Andrea Jones, David Jones, Katie Key, Matthew Key, Debra Knight, Pauline McNab, James Mossop, Pat Nelson, Ali Philips, Jennie Rankin, Emily Roper, Bruce Stephens, Carol Telford, Mark Topping, Bethany Webb, Laurence Weldon and Linda Wilkinson.

Characters

JAMES

KAMRAN

MARC

LYNN

NICK

WENDY

GWEN

TED

SAM

AARON

GITA

Notes on the Text

This should be achieved with two actors with the following doubling:

Actor 1  James

Actor 2  Everyone Else

Dialogue in bold denotes the role-playing of a memory.

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

After midnight. The steps of St. John’s Church. Workington.

JAMES (seventeen) stands and stares at a microphone, top step, centre.

KAMRAN (seventeen) loiters at the back of the portico, unseen by JAMES.

JAMES (into mic). I reckon the best spot to start’s…

Suppose…

(To himself.) Think…

KAMRAN. Burger King.

JAMES turns and clocks KAMRAN.

KAMRAN. Salterbeck kiss.

JAMES. Course.

I thought you’d gone.

KAMRAN. Come back, didn’t I?

JAMES. They can’t hear you.

KAMRAN joins JAMES at the microphone.

KAMRAN (into mic, loud ). I come back.

JAMES. There’s no need to shout.

They look at one another. Awkward.

JAMES (into mic). It started with a Salterbeck kiss.

KAMRAN (into mic). Means headbutt.

JAMES (into mic). Up Distington Burger King.

JAMES stares out. Freezes. KAMRAN flicks JAMES’s arm.

KAMRAN. And?

JAMES. Nervous.

KAMRAN (into mic). I dunno if you know Burger King but we do burgers. Shakes. Crispy Chicken Tenders.

JAMES (into mic, loud). Whoppers.

We work there.

KAMRAN. Worked there. Past tense.

JAMES. Zero-hour contracts.

KAMRAN. We’re mostly ‘out back’.

JAMES. I’m not allowed around food.

KAMRAN. How many times you failed that food hygiene now?

JAMES. Six. And eleven.

KAMRAN. Seventeen. So I’m mostly shadowing him ‘out back’.

JAMES. Meaning cleaning toilets.

KAMRAN. Exactly where we were when it started.

JAMES. The best spot to start.

KAMRAN. The only spot to start.

They both can’t help but swap a small smile.

JAMES. 19:10.

KAMRAN. The time not the year.

JAMES. This one lad’s been headbutted.

KAMRAN. Salterbeck kissed by some other lad in the lad’s bogs.

JAMES. ‘Bloodbath’, reportedly.

KAMRAN. Which it’s not.

JAMES. There’s just a bit of nosebleed by the bin.

KAMRAN. I mop it up.

JAMES. Me sitting watching in the sink.

KAMRAN. It’s total silence.

JAMES. Kamran’s not talking to me.

KAMRAN. Tell them why.

JAMES. Doesn’t matter.

KAMRAN. Dare you.

JAMES. No.

When in comes my dad.

KAMRAN. Absolute first.

JAMES. Too far out of his way.

KAMRAN. Plus he only really eats pizzas.

JAMES. He kicks the ‘Cleaning in Progress’ sign clean off its hinges.

KAMRAN. Retches at the stench of the bleach.

JAMES. I slip out the sink and stand to attention.

KAMRAN. His dad leans against the hand dryer. Activates it. Shits himself.

JAMES. Stares me up and down and says…

Be him then.

KAMRAN. Why?

JAMES. Cos it’s quicker.

KAMRAN. Than what?

JAMES. This. He waits for the dryer to finish and says…

MARC. James?

JAMES. Lower.

MARC (lower). James?

JAMES. What, Dad?

MARC. Listen, lad.

JAMES. He’s pissed.

MARC (slurs). Some snooty lass has left a message on the house phone answerphone for you.

JAMES. And you’ve come all this way to tell me? Must be important. Wanting what?

MARC. Asking you to call her.

JAMES. He hacks up a phlegm and lands it by his bucket.

KAMRAN. Barely missing my trainers.

JAMES. Show them.

KAMRAN. No.

JAMES. Did she say owt else, Dad?

MARC. She did. That there’s some sorta money going owing.

JAMES. For me?

MARC. Aye. Summat to do with the steelworks. With an ancestor on your mam’s side. George.

JAMES. How much?

MARC. A million.

JAMES. Bollocks.

KAMRAN. He turns from James to me and he stares.

JAMES. I’ve told you, he’s pissed.

KAMRAN. Nowt out of the ordinary. But tonight I dare to match it. Stare back.

Knowing how his wad of phlegm was likely meant for me.

JAMES. He’s got sinuses.

KAMRAN. He does it all the time.

JAMES. Gob at you?

KAMRAN. Remind me this is his town. His territory. Taken.

JAMES. We watch him leave. Dad. Neither knowing what to say.

KAMRAN. I wasn’t talking to you, remember?

JAMES. Dad’s always coming out with some shite but this… even for him.

KAMRAN. Was to tell you after work to find a new best mate. Wish I had now.

JAMES. When in comes Chris. Manager. He says…

KAMRAN. ‘There’s a call for you… some snooty lass.’

JAMES. 19:20. I find him round the back, swilling out his bucket at the drain.

We’re finishing early. Move it.

KAMRAN. What about my anorak?

JAMES. Where we’re going we don’t need anoraks.

KAMRAN. I ask him if he means abroad. He doesn’t say.

JAMES. Not a word.

KAMRAN. Says nowt till we’re both on the bus down to town.

JAMES. 19:22.

KAMRAN. Well? What did Snooty McSnoot want?

JAMES. Lynn. Likely short for Linda. She didn’t fully say.

KAMRAN. Whatdid she say? Tell them.

JAMES. That my Great-great-great-grandad George – who I can’t remember ever even meeting – owns a mile of British railway track.

KAMRAN. And has done for over a hundred year.

JAMES. A mile they want back.

KAMRAN. James went white.

JAMES. My kegs went brown. I can’t believe it.

KAMRAN. What you gonna do?

JAMES. What’rewe gonna do? I need you now more than ever. Do this one little thing for me and I’ll never ask nowt of you never again.

KAMRAN. How is it ‘one little thing’?

JAMES. By being tiny. You can do what you want when it comes to being mates –

KAMRAN. I know I can –

JAMES. I’m saying you can, Kamran. But just help me meet her.

KAMRAN. Who?

JAMES. Linda. Lynn. Ten minutes. In how many years?

KAMRAN. Eleven.

JAMES. Cos I’m already confused. Please.

KAMRAN. I thought.

JAMES. For what felt like eleven more years. Please.

KAMRAN. Where you meeting her?

JAMES. Butterflies Café.

KAMRAN. Don’t they shut at six?

JAMES. Nine now. They’re ‘diversifying into tapas’.

KAMRAN. Who says?

JAMES. Lynn says. Where’s tapas? French?

KAMRAN. Can’t remember.

JAMES. I barely understood her on the phone. I think she’s the most middle class thing I’ve ever interacted with.

KAMRAN. What about that time you had a Toblerone?

JAMES. See? I need you.

KAMRAN. Ten minutes.

JAMES. Max. So?

KAMRAN. The first rule of any negotiation.

JAMES. I’m both ears.

KAMRAN. Position yourself as an equal. She can’t think she’s above you.

JAMES. Right.

KAMRAN.