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- Herausgeber: Nick Hern Books
- Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
- Serie: NHB Modern Plays
- Sprache: Englisch
A thrilling, epic story about innocence, community and the dangerous power of unquestioning belief. It's 2072. Following a cataclysmic economic and social decline, the UK has been abandoned by its inhabitants in a mass exodus. Almost everyone got out. Almost. In a disused office somewhere in the ghost city of London lives a group of twenty abandoned young people. At the top of a ruthless hierarchy is sixteen-year-old 'Daddy', who has taken control of the only Internet connection, promising that one day they will all be lifted to safety by a red helicopter. But when a stranger from the North arrives looking for a girl who disappeared from the group a year ago, nothing can ever be the same again…. Robin French's play The Red Helicopter was first performed at the Almeida Theatre, performed by the Young Friend of the Almeida LAB Company. The Nick Hern Books Multiplay Drama series features large-cast plays specifically written to be performed by and appeal to young people.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019
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Robin French
THE RED HELICOPTER
NICK HERN BOOKS
London
www.nickhernbooks.co.uk
Contents
Introducing Multiplay Drama
Original Production
Characters
Costume
The Red Helicopter
About the Author
Copyright and Performing Rights Information
Introducing Multiplay Drama
John O’Donovan
Every year, a great number of original plays are commissioned and performed by drama schools, educational institutions, and youth, student and amateur-theatre companies. Reading them, talking to their writers, seeing them in production, we are always struck by the complexity of their themes, the invention of their storytelling and the calibre of their playwrights.
Some of these plays are revived in professional productions – for instance, Growth by Luke Norris was first seen at the Royal Welsh College before being revised and produced on tour by Paines Plough in their pop-up theatre, Roundabout, and winning a Fringe First Award in Edinburgh – but most haven’t yet had a further life. It seems like the very raison d’être of many of these plays – the creation of large-scale complex pieces for young, large casts – has meant theatre companies, hamstrung by ever-shrinking budgets, haven’t been able to find a way to give the plays the continuing existence that they deserve.
That’s why Nick Hern Books has created Multiplay Drama – a new series aiming to bring back to the fore some of the best plays for large casts we’ve read. Offering ten high-quality plays that originated with various drama schools and youth-theatre companies, it provides a selection of ambitious, complex, dramatic and theatrical plays with one common factor: large casts of rich, exciting characters for teenagers and young adults to perform.
No one-person shows. No knotty two-handers. No triptychs. These are plays with big ideas and need big companies to put them across. From the relatively modest seven-hander Blue to the 75+ speaking characters in katzenmusik, these plays offer multiple perspectives and clamorous takes on some of the most important issues of today.
In making these plays available to read and perform, we’re hoping to see a legion of other drama schools, youth theatres, student-drama societies, sixth-form colleges and amateur-theatre companies gaining ready access to the kinds of plays that interrogate both theatrical storytelling form as vigorously as they question the world we live in today. In every play in this first ‘season’ of the initiative, actors will find roles that are fleshed out and demand self-reflection, that justify their time on the stage and find their place within a larger set of characters.
If your performance group is looking for a play that builds a post-apocalyptic world and focuses on a large group of identifiable characters navigating through a dystopian vision of Britain – we have the play for you; if you prefer a play where a Chorus comes and narrates across time zones and locations, splitting up voices to tell a fragmented story – we have the play for you; if you want to wonder what it’s like to spend every day in a psychiatric unit; or in mourning for a loved one; or even what it’s like to metamorphose into an animal – we have the plays for you…
Multiplay Drama is a great way for plays with large casts to find even larger audiences. Commissioned by some of the most illustrious educational and youth groups in the country, and featuring playwrights whose work has been seen on the most celebrated of stages, these ten plays offer rigorous storytelling, unflinching explorations of contemporary issues, and a willingness to experiment with theatrical form and invest even the smallest of roles with significance and dignity. They are ideal for companies with a lot of performers looking for fresh, modern and dramatic stances on the world we live in today.
John O’Donovan is Consultant Editor at Nick Hern Books.
An exciting new series of large-cast plays, specifically written to be performed by and appeal to older teenagers and young adults.
Blister
The Red Helicopter
Laura Lomas
Robin French
Blue
Skunk
Joe Ward Munrow
Zawe Ashton
katzenmusik
Spooky Action at a Distance
Tom Fowler
Eve Leigh
Landmines
THREE
Phil Davies
Sophie Ellerby
The Real Estate
VS09
Freddie Machin
Hayley Squires
‘Some of the freshest and most relevant theatre being made today is when dynamic next-generation playwrights collaborate with young companies and drama schools. Making these plays available will continue to bring them to life in new and exciting ways. A brilliant initiative.’ Sarah Frankcom, Artistic Director of Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre, and Director Designate of LAMDA
www.multiplaydrama.co.uk
The Red Helicopter was first performed by the Young Friends of the Almeida Lab at the Almeida Theatre, London, on 7 August 2010. The cast was as follows:
DADDY
Misha Patel
ZADIE
Zakiyah Rawat
WILLIAM
Jake Head
ELIZABETH
Emma Tye
RIDLEY
Nickcolia King
SAIMA
Jessica Defreitas
ELLIS
Nina Chograshi
ANDREA
Josie Roughneen
HALLER
Diego Alejandro
HUMBERT
Robert Risitc
KEITH
Omar Choudhury
GOLDING
Hauk Pattison
BLAIR
Mollie Keane
BLONDEL
Catalina Zulianai
Director
Tessa Walker
Stage Manager
Laura Flowers
Deputy Stage Manager
Nicole Keighley
Assistant Stage Manager
Kim Brewin
Wardrobe
Eleanor Dolan
Sound
Howard Wood
Characters
The characters are aged between thirteen and sixteen.
DADDY
GOLDING
SAIMA
ZADIE
WILLIAM
RIDLEY
ELIZABETH
ELLIS
KINGSLEY
KEITH
HALLER
HUMBERT
BLONDEL
BLAIR
ANDREA
Costume
All characters are dressed in rag-tag second-hand clothes that often don’t match or suit them. They look unwashed, grubby and unhealthy. Hierarchy within the group is clearly delineated by clothes – the more colourful the clothes, the more favoured the person is.
Scene One
A Wednesday afternoon in 2072. The action takes place on the third floor of a skyscraper in the east of London, south of the river. The third floor is now the ground floor because of the level of the snow. The office space is clearly no longer used for office activities, though there is still a lot of office furniture there.
In general, this scene should feel like a hubbub. A hive of activity. This is a society which works. Other characters may well walk through the space in the course of the scene.
KEITH is playing a bashed-up guitar. BLONDEL and BLAIR are sat on improvised thrones made out of office swivel chairs and various shiny objects. BLONDEL is styling BLAIR’s hair. Both girls are pregnant. They give the impression of ladies of leisure.
ANDREA approaches SAIMA. She gives her a drawing.
ANDREA. E… E… E…
ANDREA can’t manage to push the word out. SAIMA has unfurled the drawing.
SAIMA. Elizabeth!
This is H-Buzz, Andrea. This is just like her.
You did that from memory, that’s…
Blair! Looks like her doesn’t it?
BLAIR. Not interested.
SAIMA (to ANDREA). Did you do that for tonight? It’s really good.
ANDREA nods. KINGSLEY enters.
SAIMA. You seen Zadie?
KINGSLEY. She went north. She’s not back?
SAIMA. We’re meant to be rehearsing.
KINGSLEY takes his bag over to a pile of tinned food in the corner. KEITH moves near him.
BLONDEL. How far you go?
KINGSLEY. Parsons Green.
He throws the bag to KEITH. KEITH opens it.
KEITH. Not bad!
KINGSLEY (from memory). Plum Tomatoes. Twice. Whiskers. Novelty cigarette lighter. Anchovies.
KEITH. Correct.
KINGSLEY. Saw another dead body.
You ever notice – they always have the same expression. Corpses do.
Like:
He does an impression.
Quizzical.
KEITH. Oh my god! Starburst!
KEITH has found one lone Starburst sweet. KINGSLEY runs to try and get it off him.
KINGSLEY. Come on, Keith. That’s my bag.
BLONDEL. You got to give that to Daddy.
KEITH. Too late.
KEITH has already crammed it into his mouth.
KINGSLEY. Gong.
ELLIS saunters in. She is wearing a bright-blue old lady’s cardigan. She is obviously incredibly proud of it.
SAIMA. Ellis, you seen Zadie?
ELLIS ignores SAIMA.
