by Nina Raine
Beat.
All we can do is keep your symptoms at bay.
Pause.
So the question now is, Mr Mercer, what you want.
Beat.
Because… what we want now is to make this as easy as we can for you.
Pause.
Do you understand?
Beat.
MR MERCER. Am I dying?
VASHTI.…Yes.
MR MERCER. How long?
Beat.
VASHTI. I can’t tell you that. I don’t know.
All I would suggest… What I would suggest, is that, what we do now is… we just… leave you alone.
Pause.
Leave you in peace.
Pause.
No more drip.
No more antibiotics.
No more taking your pulse and temperature. Because… I think we’ve reached the end of the road with all that.
I think we’ve finished with all that now.
OLGA silently nods.
Do you agree?
A pause.
And if your heart were to stop beating…
I don’t think we should try and start it again.
If you’d like us to, we could try.
But I don’t think we should.
Pause.
MR MERCER. No.
Beat.
VASHTI. So we’re agreed on that?
MR MERCER. Yes.
Beat.
VASHTI. And now the most important thing – for us – is that you’re comfortable.
And we’ll do everything we can to make that happen.
Pause. She squeezes his hand.
Mr Mercer.
Pause.
We’re all very proud of you.
And we’ll all be here.
Geoffrey. You’ve done so well.
And that’s me being completely honest with you.
Beat.
I’ll be in again soon.
She is about to leave but he stops her.
MR MERCER. Thank you, doctor.
Beat.
VASHTI. That’s a pleasure.
MR MERCER. No, thank you.
VASHTI. That’s a pleasure.
That’s what we’re here for.
She goes. OLGA follows her out of the room and immediately, outside the room, VASHTI crumples into tears. OLGA puts a hand on her shoulder.
I had to tell him. I had to tell him.
And around her, the sounds of the hospital engulf us, as once more, we see the doctors, but not the patients they are referring to:
REBECCA (to no one in particular). I’ve got a lady, sixty-five, chest pains, can I refer her to one of the medics please?
BRIAN (urgently, pushing his head round a door). Okay, she’s arrested, can we put out a crash call please?
The assorted alarms of the crash call sound out. The same flurry of activity.
LAKSHMI (her voice amplified over a tannoy). Can we have a doctor in resuss now, / please?
A bed is wheeled through the doors, people around it so we cannot see who is in it.
ANAESTHETIST (at the head of the bed, wearing surgical hat and scrubs). What’s her history? Does anyone know what drugs she’s on? We need to know who’s leading this arrest!
EMILY (arriving at the bed).I’m leading this arrest!
The defibrillator has arrived at the bedside.
ROSIE. There are too many people round this bed!
Everyone ignores her.
EMILY (holding pads aloft).I’m clear, clear at the end, clear at the sides, shocking at two hundred, go!!
She shocks. There are so many people standing round the bed now we can’t see what is happening.
MARK stands a little distance away, looks at the knot of activity.
MARK. I don’t run to arrests any more. I take my time.
He watches them.
EMILY. Stop.
Rhythm check.
BRIAN. Asystole.
No pulse.
EMILY. Start chest compressions again / please –
Everyone perspiring, chest compressions taking place.
MARK. I mean it’s not like you’re going to save anyone’s life, or anything, is it?
He watches them.
BRIAN. We need more oxygen here –
LAKSHMI. I’ll get it –
ANAESTHETIST. I don’t think we’re winning here –
MARK. Five minutes… and it’s all over.
He watches them.
EMILY (suddenly stepping back). Okay, okay, okay, everybody.
Beat.
I’m not certain this is in the best interests of the patient.
Any objections to calling this off?
Slowly, everyone straightens up from the bed. It is empty.
Does anyone object if we stop now?
They shake their heads. EMILY turns to each person in turn.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you, everybody.
Thank you.
The empty bed is wheeled off. Left behind them on the empty stage, a solitary HOSPITAL PORTER, a metre-wide broom in front of him, pushes the pile of the debris from the failed cardiac arrest across the stage: bubble wrap, tubes, plastic shrink-packaging.
MARK watches him go. Then turns and goes himself.
Curtain.
NINA RAINE
Nina Raine’s other plays include Tribes (Royal Court, London, 2010/Barrow Street Theatre, New York, 2012) and an adaptation of The Drunks by the Durnenkov Brothers (Royal Shakespeare Company, 2009). She was shortlisted for the 2004 Verity Bargate Award and awarded the 2006 Evening Standard and Critics’ Circle Awards for Most Promising Playwright for her debut play Rabbit.Tribes won the Drama Desk Award for outstanding play, the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Foreign Play and the Off-Broadway Alliance Award for Best New Play. It has also been produced in LA, Chicago, throughout Europe and the rest of the world, having been translated into over ten different languages including Croatian, Estonian, Italian, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish.
A Nick Hern Book
Tiger Country first published in Great Britain as a paperback original in 2014 by Nick Hern Books, The Glasshouse, 49a Goldhawk Road, London W12 8QP
This ebook edition first published in 2014
An earlier version of Tiger Country was published by AretéBooks in 2011
Tiger Country copyright © 2014 Nina Raine
Nina Raine has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work
Cover image: www.istockphoto.com/©Amriphoto
Designed and typeset by Nick Hern Books, London
ISBN 978 1 78001 555 2 (ebook edition)
ISBN 978 1 84842 136 3 (print edition)
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