Book Read Free

Plays 5

Page 1

by Caryl Churchill




  CARYL CHURCHILL

  Plays: Five

  introduced by the author

  Seven Jewish Children

  Love and Information

  Ding Dong the Wicked

  Here We Go

  Escaped Alone

  Pigs and Dogs

  War and Peace Gaza Piece

  Tickets are Now On Sale

  Beautiful Eyes

  NICK HERN BOOKS

  London

  www.nickhernbooks.co.uk

  Contents

  Introduction

  Seven Jewish Children

  Love and Information

  Ding Dong the Wicked

  Here We Go

  Escaped Alone

  Pigs and Dogs

  War and Peace Gaza Piece

  Tickets are Now On Sale

  Beautiful Eyes

  About the Author

  Copyright and Performing Rights Information

  Introduction

  Some of these plays were written quickly, triggered by specific events, others not. Love and Information has the longest background, starting as a few scenes in the 90s which I abandoned, and rediscovered fifteen years later. I kept a few of the original scenes – ‘Virtual’ is one – and this time saw what I wanted to do and wrote the rest. By contrast, I wrote Seven Jewish Children in January 2009 at the time of Israel’s bombing of Gaza in which over 1000 people were killed. Dominic Cooke at the Royal Court responded at once and it was on stage in early February and online soon after.

  The three other very short plays were written in response to being asked. In 2014 Jonathan Chadwick of Az Theatre, which has a relationship with Theatre for Everybody in Gaza, wanted contributions to an evening launching a cooperative project based on Tolstoy’s War and Peace. He suggested looking at a short section of the novel, and I had also read accounts by one of his colleagues in Gaza of family life there. War and Peace Gaza Piece came from that. The following year Cressida Brown of Offstage Theatre produced a show of short plays, Walking the Tightrope: the tension between art and politics. I’d been concerned for some time about the complicated issue of sponsorship, and the implications for the arts of being used as part of an advertising campaign to boost the image of a product. Fossil-fuel firms are particularly keen to look attractive, and I knew about the spectacular disruptions by the activist group ‘BP or Not BP’ at the RSC and the British Museum. In 2017, the week of Trump’s inauguration, Cressida put on a show called Top Trumps and my piece for that was Beautiful Eyes.

  Pigs and Dogs was less immediately topical, but it did come from news of a surge in action against homosexuality in Uganda, where the death penalty was proposed though later withdrawn, and from reading the book Boy-Wives and Female Husbands, a collection of material edited by Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe showing how varied and fluid sexuality was in many African tribes before European Christian missionaries imposed rigidity and intolerance. Many former colonies have taken those laws and values on board and come to regard them as their own, seeing recent Western acceptance of homosexuality as a colonial imposition and, ironically, welcoming American missionaries who condemn it.

  The other plays, like Love and Information, have less clear origins, though Ding Dong the Wicked suddenly became possible when I had the idea of making two families on separate sides in a war use exactly the same words. I think I’ve been accurate down to the ‘and’s and ‘the’s, not that anyone seeing or reading the play would know. I can’t think of anything to tell about Here We Go, except an old person having said to me how boring it became that trivial things like getting washed and dressed now took up so much time. There was more to it than that of course, as there was more to Escaped Alone than once seeing some women in a back yard through an open gate in a fence.

  C.C.

  SEVEN JEWISH CHILDREN

  a play for Gaza

  Seven Jewish Children was first performed at the Royal Court Theatre Downstairs, London, on 6 February 2009. The cast was as follows:

  Ben Caplin

  Jack Chissick

  David Horovitch

  Daisy Lewis

  Ruth Posner

  Samuel Roukin

  Jennie Stoller

  Susannah Wise

  Alexis Zegerman

  Director

  Dominic Cooke

  Lighting Designer

  Jack Williams

  Sound Designer

  Alexander Caplan

  The play can be read or performed anywhere, by any number of people. Anyone who wishes to do it should contact the author’s agent (see details on page iv), who will license performances free of charge provided that no admission fee is charged and that a collection is taken at each performance for Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), www.map-uk.org

  Note

  No children appear in the play. The speakers are adults, the parents and if you like other relations of the children. The lines can be shared out in any way you like among those characters. The characters are different in each small scene as the time and child are different. They may be played by any number of actors.

  The play starts during a nineteenth-century Russian pogrom and ends during the bombing of Gaza in 2009.

  1.

  Tell her it’s a game

  Tell her it’s serious

  But don’t frighten her

  Don’t tell her they’ll kill her

  Tell her it’s important to be quiet

  Tell her she’ll have cake if she’s good

  Tell her to curl up as if she’s in bed

  But not to sing.

  Tell her not to come out

  Tell her not to come out even if she hears shouting

  Don’t frighten her

  Tell her not to come out even if she hears nothing for a long time

  Tell her we’ll come and find her

  Tell her we’ll be here all the time.

  Tell her something about the men

  Tell her they’re bad in the game

  Tell her it’s a story

  Tell her they’ll go away

  Tell her she can make them go away if she keeps still

  By magic

  But not to sing.

  2.

  Tell her this is a photograph of her grandmother, her uncles and me

  Tell her her uncles died

  Don’t tell her they were killed

  Tell her they were killed

  Don’t frighten her.

  Tell her her grandmother was clever

  Don’t tell her what they did

  Tell her she was brave

  Tell her she taught me how to make cakes

  Don’t tell her what they did

  Tell her something

  Tell her more when she’s older.

  Tell her there were people who hated Jews

  Don’t tell her

  Tell her it’s over now

  Tell her there are still people who hate Jews

  Tell her there are people who love Jews

  Don’t tell her to think Jews or not Jews

  Tell her more when she’s older

  Tell her how many when she’s older

  Tell her it was before she was born and she’s not in danger

  Don’t tell her there’s any question of danger.

  Tell her we love her

  Tell her dead or alive her family all love her

  Tell her her grandmother would be proud of her.

  3.

  Don’t tell her we’re going for ever

  Tell her she can write to her friends, tell her her friends can maybe come and visit

  Tell her it’s sunny there

  Tell her we’re going home

  Tell her it’s the land God gave us

  Don’t tell her religion

  Tell he
r her great great great great lots of greats grandad lived there

  Don’t tell her he was driven out

  Tell her, of course tell her, tell her everyone was driven out and the country is waiting for us to come home

  Don’t tell her she doesn’t belong here

  Tell her of course she likes it here but she’ll like it there even more.

  Tell her it’s an adventure

  Tell her no one will tease her

  Tell her she’ll have new friends

  Tell her she can take her toys

  Don’t tell her she can take all her toys

  Tell her she’s a special girl

  Tell her about Jerusalem.

  4.

  Don’t tell her who they are

  Tell her something

  Tell her they’re Bedouin, they travel about

  Tell her about camels in the desert and dates

  Tell her they live in tents

  Tell her this wasn’t their home

  Don’t tell her home, not home, tell her they’re going away

  Don’t tell her they don’t like her

  Tell her to be careful.

  Don’t tell her who used to live in this house

  No but don’t tell her her great great grandfather used to live in this house

  No but don’t tell her Arabs used to sleep in her bedroom.

  Tell her not to be rude to them

  Tell her not to be frightened

  Tell her they’re good people and they work for us.

  Don’t tell her she can’t play with the children

  Don’t tell her she can have them in the house.

  Tell her they have plenty of friends and family

  Tell her for miles and miles all round they have lands of their own

  Tell her again this is our promised land.

  Don’t tell her they said it was a land without people

  Don’t tell her I wouldn’t have come if I’d known.

  Tell her maybe we can share.

  Don’t tell her that.

  5.

  Tell her we won

  Tell her her brother’s a hero

  Tell her how big their armies are

  Tell her we turned them back

  Tell her we’re fighters

  Tell her we’ve got new land.

  6.

  Don’t tell her

  Don’t tell her the trouble about the swimming pool

  Tell her it’s our water, we have the right

  Tell her it’s not the water for their fields

  Don’t tell her anything about water.

  Don’t tell her about the bulldozer

  Don’t tell her not to look at the bulldozer

  Don’t tell her it was knocking the house down

  Tell her it’s a building site

  Don’t tell her anything about bulldozers.

  Don’t tell her about the queues at the checkpoint

  Tell her we’ll be there in no time

  Don’t tell her anything she doesn’t ask

  Don’t tell her the boy was shot

  Don’t tell her anything.

  Tell her we’re making new farms in the desert

  Don’t tell her about the olive trees

  Tell her we’re building new towns in the wilderness.

  Don’t tell her they throw stones

  Tell her they’re not much good against tanks

  Don’t tell her that.

  Don’t tell her they set off bombs in cafés

  Tell her, tell her they set off bombs in cafés

  Tell her to be careful

  Don’t frighten her.

  Tell her we need the wall to keep us safe

  Tell her they want to drive us into the sea

  Tell her they don’t

  Tell her they want to drive us into the sea.

  Tell her we kill far more of them

  Don’t tell her that

  Tell her that

  Tell her we’re stronger

  Tell her we’re entitled

  Tell her they don’t understand anything except violence

  Tell her we want peace

  Tell her we’re going swimming.

  7.

  Tell her she can’t watch the news

  Tell her she can watch cartoons

  Tell her she can stay up late and watch Friends.

  Tell her they’re attacking with rockets

  Don’t frighten her

  Tell her only a few of us have been killed

  Tell her the army has come to our defence

  Don’t tell her her cousin refused to serve in the army.

  Don’t tell her how many of them have been killed

  Tell her the Hamas fighters have been killed

  Tell her they’re terrorists

  Tell her they’re filth

  Don’t

  Don’t tell her about the family of dead girls

  Tell her you can’t believe what you see on television

  Tell her we killed the babies by mistake

  Don’t tell her anything about the army

  Tell her, tell her about the army, tell her to be proud of the army. Tell her about the family of dead girls, tell her their names why not, tell her the whole world knows why shouldn’t she know? tell her there’s dead babies, did she see babies? tell her she’s got nothing to be ashamed of. Tell her they did it to themselves. Tell her they want their children killed to make people sorry for them, tell her I’m not sorry for them, tell her not to be sorry for them, tell her we’re the ones to be sorry for, tell her they can’t talk suffering to us. Tell her we’re the iron fist now, tell her it’s the fog of war, tell her we won’t stop killing them till we’re safe, tell her I laughed when I saw the dead policemen, tell her they’re animals living in rubble now, tell her I wouldn’t care if we wiped them out, the world would hate us is the only thing, tell her I don’t care if the world hates us, tell her we’re better haters, tell her we’re chosen people, tell her I look at one of their children covered in blood and what do I feel? tell her all I feel is happy it’s not her.

  Don’t tell her that.

  Tell her we love her.

  Don’t frighten her.

  LOVE AND INFORMATION

  Love and Information was first performed at the Royal Court Theatre Downstairs, London, on 6 September 2012. The cast was as follows:

  Nikki Amuka-Bird

  Linda Bassett

  Scarlett Brookes

  Amanda Drew

  Susan Engel

  Laura Elphinstone

  John Heffernan

  Joshua James

  Paul Jesson

  Billy Matthews

  Justin Salinger

  Amit Shah

  Rhashan Stone

  Nell Williams

  Josh Williams

  Sarah Woodward

  Director

  James Macdonald

  Set Designer

  Miriam Buether

  Costume Designer

  Laura Hopkins

  Lighting Designer

  Peter Mumford

  Sound Designer

  Christopher Shutt

  Note

  The sections should be played in the order given but the scenes can be played in any order within each section.

  There are random scenes, see at the end, which can happen any time. They need not be included, except Depression, which is an essential part of the play.

  The characters are different in every scene. The only possible exception to this are the random Depression scenes, which could be the same two people, or the same depressed person with different others. In Piano, the singer can be a man – just change the name. I’m indicating with numbers the speakers in Piano because there’s been confusion in some productions about what’s happening.

  Caryl Churchill gratefully acknowledges that the LAB scene is based on material from The Making of Memory by Steven Rose, published by Bantam in 1992, revised edition published by Viking in 2003.


  1

  SECRET

  Please please tell me

  no

  please because I’ll never

  don’t ask don’t ask

  I’ll never tell

  no

  no matter what

  it’s not

  I’d die before I told

  it’s not you telling, even if you didn’t

  I wouldn’t

  it’s you knowing it’s too awful I can’t

  but tell me

  no

  because if you don’t there’s this secret between us

  stop it

  if there’s this secret we’re not

  please

  we’re not close any more we can’t ever

  but nobody knows everything about

  yes but a big secret like this

  it’s not such a big

  then tell me

  will you stop

  it’s big because you won’t tell me

  no I won’t.

  Is it something you’ve

  don’t start guessing

  or something you want to

  please

  or you’ve seen or heard or know or

  please

  and if it’s something you’ve done is it a crime or a sin or just embarrassing because whichever

  no I don’t want you to know.

  All right.

  All right I’ll tell you

  you don’t have to

  I’ll tell you

  yes tell me because I’ll never

  it’s not that

  tell me because I’ll always

  all right I’m telling you.

  Tells in a whisper.

  No

  yes

  no

  I warned you

  but that’s

  yes

  oh no that’s

  yes

  how could you

  I did.

  Now what? now what? now what?

  CENSUS

  Why do they need to know all this stuff?

  They’re doing research. It guides their policy. They use it to help people.

  They use it to sell us things we don’t want.

 

‹ Prev