The Girlfriend Experience E-Book

Alecky Blythe

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

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

A true-life play about friendship, heartbreak and business enterprise... in a seaside brothel. Tessa has set up a business: a brothel where mature women specialise in offering the 'Girlfriend Experience', a surprisingly caring and sympathetic service. As the women stoically strive to make a living in a competitive market, their personal lives start to crumble. Will they ever have loving relationships outside work and enjoy being girlfriends themselves? The Girlfriend Experience continues the verbatim-theatre technique Alecky Blythe developed in Come Out Eli and Cruising. The play is created entirely from conversations recorded inside an actual brothel, edited and replicated on stage in all their uncanny verisimilitude. Alecky Blythe's play was first performed at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in September 2008. The production transferred to the Young Vic, London, in July 2009.

Leseprobe

Alecky Blythe

THE GIRLFRIENDEXPERIENCE

NICK HERN BOOKS

London

www.nickhernbooks.co.uk

Contents

Title Page

Introduction

Original Production

Characters

Setting and Notes

Act One

Act Two

About the Author

Copyright and Performing Rights Information

Introduction

As soon as I met the women at the parlour I knew I wanted to make a play about them. Apart from being immediately likeable, they broke the stereotype of working girls that is presented in the media. Prostitution has had plenty of coverage over the past couple of years for good reason but none of it has addressed this particular niche.

The popular notion of prostitutes is that they are either high-class escorts, drug-addicted street walkers or pimped victims of human trafficking. The women at the parlour, on the other hand, are an entirely different category, but they still represent an important sector in the industry. They are self-employed, middle-aged women carving out a business under their own rules. It is their very ordinariness that makes them and their hidden world so extraordinary to me.

In an increasingly competitive market due to the influx of foreign girls, the women have to sell more than just sex to make a living. The ‘Girlfriend Experience’ is a service that they offer which is more personal and intimate than the physical act alone. The play explores the ways the ‘Girlfriend Experience’ impacts upon the women and blurs the boundaries between their work and their private lives.

Special thanks to the women at the parlour who let me into their secret world.

Thanks to Mark Wing-Davey for teaching me the Recorded Delivery writing and performance technique.

A.B.

The Girlfriend Experience was first performed at the Royal Court Theatre, London, on 18 September 2008, with the following cast:

TESSA

Debbie Chazen

AMBER

Esther Coles

POPPY

Lu Corfield

SUZIE

Beatie Edney

MAN

Alex Lowe

Director

Joe Hill-Gibbons

Designer

Lizzie Clachan

Lighting Designer

Charles Balfour

Sound Designer

David McSeveney

The production transferred to the Young Vic, London on 24 July 2009.

Characters

THE GIRLS

TESSA, real age fifty-eight. Striking. Youthful complexion and energy. Gothic ex-dominatrix.

POPPY, real age thirty-eight. Scruffy. A carefree, childlike manner. Vulnerable.

SUZIE, real age forty-two. Cuddly. Kind, sparkly eyes. Fast talking and a dirty laugh.

AMBER, real age thirty-five. Sweet-looking. Cynical and worldy wise.

THE PUNTERS

VIAGRA MAN, early sixties. Friendly.

MARTIN, mid-forties. Tracksuit bottoms, work boots.

GOD'S GIFT, mid-forties. Tennis shorts, blue V-neck jumper.

MIKE, late thirties. Smart, dark-grey suit.

GROPER, late fifties. Balding, jeans, leather jacket.

GLOVE MAN, late seventies. Large girth, high-waisted trousers, walking stick.

DICKBRAIN, mid-sixties. Short, beige bomber jacket, slacks.

TERRY, early sixties. Tall, slim, grey haired, short-sleeved shirt, Hush Puppies.

FRANCIS, late fifties. Beard, glasses, navy-blue mackintosh.

ALECKY, voice-over. Polite and friendly manner

Setting

A basement flat in Bournemouth. The action of the play takes place in the sitting room and the hallway. The view of the hallway is partly obscured. There are two bedrooms off the hallway. The kitchen is off the sitting room. In the sitting room there is a sofa, two armchairs, a television, and a small side table with a phone and a notebook.

Notes

Some names and place names have been changed.

Further physical and costume details for the women can be found in the stage directions, and in the text when they describe themselves to punters over the phone.

A forward slash ( / ) indicates the point at which the next speaker interrupts. When two adjacent lines begin with a forward slash, the dialogue begins simultaneously.

Dialogue starting with a ( – ) indicates that it follows immediately on from the character's previous line.

Dialogue in [square brackets] is not to be spoken, but is included as a guide to pronunciation.

ACT ONE

Prologue – Technique

ALECKY (voice-over). I feel like I should explain – what I'm doing with m-microphones an’ stuff like that – / just so that you know –

TESSA. Mmm – We did sort of / – a bit.

POPPY. Yeah –

Beat.

ALECKY (voice-over). Um (Beat.) – I, um (Beat.) – I kindof make (Beat.) – um (Beat.) – they're sortof documentary plays. (Pause.) But – I don't – film anything (Beat.) – I just record – hours and hours of-of – audio. (Pause.) Um (Beat.) – and I – edit it (Beat.) – and then, um (Beat.) – those (Beat.) – so (Beat.) – people's real words your real words – then become the words that the actors speak in the play – and they, they – hear – your voice – speaking – through earphones – and then they copy – exactly your intonation, accent – I'll describe – y'know – one was sat here, one was sat here, and whatever.

POPPY. Yeah.

ALECKY (voice-over). And it's – it's a really weird, kindof very true – obviously so so true to life, kindof thing –

TESSA. So you ’ave to be careful what you say –

They laugh.

Scene One – Happy Hookers

Mid-morning, 5th October 2006. SUZIE TESSA