Wild E-Book

Mike Bartlett

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

Seitenzahl: 83

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

A darkly comic play that explores the unexpected, bewildering, and life-changing consequences of challenging the status quo at a global level. Last week, Andrew was that guy with his girl lunching in KFC, discussing apartments and making plans for the future. Today he's in Moscow, in an undisclosed hotel room, on the run and at risk of assassination. Last week, a nobody. This week, America's Most Wanted: a man who humiliated his country with one touch of a button. Mike Bartlett's Wild premiered at Hampstead Theatre, London, in June 2016, in a production directed by James Macdonald.

Leseprobe

Mike Bartlett

WILD

NICK HERN BOOKS

London

www.nickhernbooks.co.uk

Contents

Title Page

Original Production

Dedication

Characters

Wild

About the Author

Copyright and Performing Rights Information

Wild was first performed at Hampstead Theatre, London, on 11 June 2016, with the following cast:

WOMAN

Caoilfhionn Dunne

ANDREW

Jack Farthing

MAN

John Mackay

Director

James Macdonald

Designer

Miriam Buether

Lighting

Peter Mumford

Sound

Christopher Shutt

For Joseph

Characters

ANDREW

WOMAN

MAN

( / ) means the next speech begins at that point.

( – ) means the next line interrupts.

(…) at the end of a speech means it trails off. On its own it indicates a pressure, expectation or desire to speak.

A line with no full stop at the end indicates that the next speech follows on immediately.

A speech with no written dialogue indicates a character deliberately remaining silent.

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

1.

A nondescript hotel room.

ANDREW is in the room.

A WOMAN has entered the room thirty seconds ago.

ANDREW

Miss Prism?

WOMAN

That’s right.

ANDREW

Is that a joke?

WOMAN

What?

ANDREW

Your name?

WOMAN

No.

ANDREW

Like a reference.

WOMAN

No.

ANDREW

A reference to –

WOMAN

It’s not a reference.

It’s a coincidental pun.

Which I thought you’d appreciate actually. And let me tell you, now you’re in the club, that it’s important to keep a sense of humour, because things are going to get, now and for the rest of your life, extremely difficult.

ANDREW

Well that’s made me feel just rosy.

WOMAN

You want to know where it came from, the name?

ANDREW

Isn’t it obvious?

WOMAN

No.

ANDREW

I’m fine.

Beat.

WOMAN

You don’t want to play. Okay. Do you want a drink?

ANDREW

No thank you.

WOMAN

I’ve got a sense, a feeling, I just know you want a gin and tonic? Something like that.

ANDREW

You’re wrong.

Beat.

WOMAN

I’d like one.

ANDREW

Okay.

Beat.

WOMAN

I’m uneasy if it’s just me. Not a party on my own, is it? If I have one will you have one?

ANDREW

I need to keep a clear head.

WOMAN

Why? Nothing’s going to happen.

ANDREW

Well.

WOMAN

Nothing important’s going to happen overnight, we’re just going to talk and then tomorrow’s another day.

ANDREW

Okay so we’re going to talk, right, so I need to keep a clear head. Is he calling on the phone?

WOMAN

Who? Oh. You think he’s going to call you on the phone?

ANDREW

They said he’d get in contact and he’s hardly likely to turn up in person.

WOMAN

Why not?

ANDREW

He’s trapped in an embassy in the middle of London.

WOMAN

Officially. Trapped is perhaps overstating it, the thing is we’ve got to make sure no one knows exactly where he is, so if he was coming to see you I wouldn’t be able to tell you in advance, if you take my meaning.

ANDREW

So you’re saying… what… he might come here? Tonight?

WOMAN

Look, you’ll appreciate this when it’s you – we couldn’t have got you here without this kind of thing – the point is that if he’s here, he’s here, or if he’s not here he’s somewhere else. There are a lot of people who – let’s not put too fine a point on it – want him dead, who are really out to kill him, and that’s the club that you are part of now. You are Trotsky in Mexico, you are John Lennon in New York, Kennedy in fucking Texas.

ANDREW

Dallas.

WOMAN

I beg your pardon?

ANDREW

Kennedy got shot in Dallas.

WOMAN

Yeah, and Dallas is in Texas.

ANDREW

Yeah, I know, but…

WOMAN

Jesus this is your country.

ANDREW

I know – it doesn’t matter.

WOMAN

We are very careful about saying where he is, and so long as you work with us, rest assured we’re going to be equally careful about disclosing your location. I promise.

ANDREW

Good.

Pause.

WOMAN

How are you doing?

ANDREW

Okay.

WOMAN

This is weird for you.

ANDREW

Yeah.

WOMAN

All this.

ANDREW

Weird yeah.

WOMAN

Like it happened just… overnight.

ANDREW

Well it did. Pretty much.

Beat.

WOMAN

You must have predicted it though, you must have known.

ANDREW

Yeah for a long time

But it’s different, sat there at your desk, trying to work through all the consequences, just in your small life, trying to work out that the moment you click that button, you are going to have to walk out and your entire existence will change for ever, you know that’s a difficult thing to imagine, I don’t have that kind of imagination, I don’t think anyone does. Last week, okay last week, last Thursday I wasn’t in Russia, I wasn’t being chased, I wasn’t at risk of being assassinated, I was having chicken with my girlfriend in KFC, you understand what I’m talking about? –

WOMAN

Yeah.

ANDREW

– I was that guy, with his girl, we had plans, we were just doing our thing, our apartment, our post, our freaking parents and now… you know what I’m saying?

WOMAN

That’s shocking.

ANDREW

Right.

WOMAN

You took your girlfriend to KFC?

ANDREW

You’re really funny.

WOMAN

And she’s still with you?

ANDREW

Well no she isn’t. She’s back home.

WOMAN

I mean she didn’t break up with you? That’s not what prompted all of this?

ANDREW

No.

WOMAN

So what the fuck were you doing in KFC?

ANDREW

That’s not the point I was making.

WOMAN

I know. It’s humour. See? I defused you. That’s what I did, you were blowing up, I took a metaphorical pin, and I burst you. Like ppfff. And you just went ffffffffff.

ANDREW

You’re a strange person.

WOMAN

Yes.

ANDREW

What’s your – I don’t even know who you are.

WOMAN

No.

ANDREW

What’s your name?

WOMAN

I told you. Miss Prism.

ANDREW

Your real name not your James Bond name.

WOMAN

That is my real name.

ANDREW

No it isn’t.

WOMAN

My full, real, name.

ANDREW

Your full name so your first name is Miss?

WOMAN

My first name is George.

ANDREW

WOMAN

George was the name of the first actor to play the part of Miss Prism in The Importance of Being Earnest.

ANDREW

I think you’re gone completely crazy now.

WOMAN

A Trivial Comedy for Serious People. George was also a woman’s name then, the part was played by a woman. I said actor because actress is politically incorrect. Anyway, I liked the name George Prism, so you can call me George, or Miss Prism, depending on your mood.

ANDREW

You liked the name George Prism.

WOMAN

Yes.

ANDREW

You chose it.

WOMAN

Had a certain charm.

ANDREW

So it’s not your real name like you said it was.

Beat.

WOMAN

I’m not very good at this.

ANDREW

You know I betrayed my entire country in an act that means I could be electrocuted and killed by my own politicians, I then flew to Hong Kong where I recorded an interview which was broadcast around the world, spent two days hiding in a pod-style hotel in Moscow Airport, before being smuggled onto a plane as luggage then back off the plane, and eventually across the Russian border, but despite all that circus or strangeness, I’d say this, you, this moment now, is head and shoulders the weirdest part of it. You are a fucking nutfuck.

Pause.

Isn’t there anyone else to talk to?

WOMAN

You speak Russian?

ANDREW

No.

WOMAN

You should learn.

ANDREW

Let’s wait and see if I need to.

WOMAN

Well while you’re waiting… I’m the only person to talk to.

ANDREW

Shit.

WOMAN

Yeah.

Beat.

Nightmare stuck in the room with the nutjob nutfuck. You sure you don’t want a drink? Do you miss her?

ANDREW

What?

WOMAN

Your girlfriend. What’s her name again?

ANDREW

I didn’t tell you.

WOMAN

Oh. Yes. Sorry. What’s her name?

ANDREW

Cindy.

WOMAN

No come on her real name.

ANDREW

What?

WOMAN

Oh, you mean… you mean it really is? Wow.

ANDREW

What?

WOMAN

Well. You’re, like, American? And your girlfriend is like, called Cindy? Isn’t that, like, oh my god? Like… weirdass?

ANDREW

Why?

WOMAN

Cindy. You know, like the doll.

ANDREW

It’s not like the doll. The doll is Sindy with an ‘S’.

WOMAN

Makes no difference

ANDREW

And also Sindy was British, not American. America had Barbie.

WOMAN

How do you know this? How long have you known her?

Cindy.

Beat.

ANDREW

Since I was seventeen.

WOMAN

High school.

ANDREW

Right.

WOMAN

High-school sweethearts.

ANDREW

Well.

WOMAN

That’s so cool dude, that’s like, so rad.

ANDREW

Enjoying yourself?

WOMAN

Do you miss her?

ANDREW

Of course I miss her. I miss everybody… and I don’t know. I don’t even know what’s happened to them, if they’ve been called in for questioning –

WOMAN

They have.

ANDREW

And I don’t know by who…

WOMAN

The CIA.

ANDREW

And where they are and what they’re being asked…

WOMAN

They’re being asked if they had any notion of what you planned to do, whether they had anything to do with it, whether they currently have any contact with you, whether they have plans to join you, and if they have any sense of what your future movements might be, I would imagine that assuming neither your girlfriend, your friends or your parents say anything even slightly incriminating they’ll be let free from questioning in two maybe three weeks.

ANDREW

Okay.

Beat.

WOMAN

I mean what you did is big.

ANDREW

I know.

WOMAN

Off-the-scale massive.

ANDREW

Yeah.

WOMAN

And the thing is that as we now know they can get access to all your emails web-browsing phone lines, and it’s been a few days so any encryption you used, I’d imagine they’re through that, so they don’t really need to ask those people anything, if they go through the files they probably have it already.

ANDREW

Yeah.

WOMAN

So why are they bringing them in like that?

ANDREW

To put pressure on me.

WOMAN

Correct, they’re actually hoping that you do still have some kind of contact with Mindy –

ANDREW

Cindy

WOMAN