Adam

by Frances Poet

  Frances Poet

  ADAM

  NICK HERN BOOKS

  London

  www.nickhernbooks.co.uk

  Contents

  Title Page

  Original Production

  The Adam World Choir

  Dedication

  Acknowledgements

  Characters

  Adam

  About the Author

  Copyright and Performing Rights Information

  Adam was presented by the National Theatre of Scotland and first performed at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, as part of the Made in Scotland Showcase, on 6 August 2017 (previews from 30 July). The cast was as follows:

  ADAM/VARIOUS ROLES

  Neshla Caplan

  ADAM/VARIOUS ROLES

  Adam Kashmiry

  Featuring a recording of Myriam Acharki as Adam’s mother, and additional recorded performances from:

  Rylan Gleave

  Harry Knights

  Juliana Yazbeck

  Umar Ahmed

  Adam Buksh

  Nafee S. Mohammed

  Director

  Cora Bissett

  Composer & Musical Director

  Jocelyn Pook

  Set & Costume Designer

  Emily James

  Lighting Designer

  Lizzie Powell

  Projection Designer

  Jack Henry James

  Sound Designer

  Garry Boyle

  Movement Director

  Janis Claxton

  Voice Coach

  Morag Stark

  Assistant Director

  Rachael Macintyre

  Project Manager on

  The Adam World Choir/

  Assistant Producer

  Leonie Rae Gasson

  Production Manager

  Gavin Johnston

  Company Stage Manager

  (Rehearsal Cover)

  Alison Brodie

  Company Stage Manager

  Fiona Findlater

  Deputy Stage Manager

  Emma Skaer

  Assistant Stage Manager

  Annie Winton

  Lighting Supervisor

  Paul Froy

  Sound Supervisor

  Andy Stuart

  Video Supervisor

  Ellie Thompson

  Stage Supervisor

  David Hill

  Costume Supervisor

  Kylie Langford

  Blogger in Residence

  Oceana Maund

  Cover Photograph

  Andy Bell

  Adam was conceived for the stage by Cora Bissett

  The Company would like to thank

  Anna Hodgart, Elly Goodman and Neil Packham, Ben Power, Katrina at LGBT Health, Martha Steed, Douglas Maxwell, George Aza-Selinger, Jamie Christian-Ward, Umama Hamido, Hazel Gray, David Gerber, Urban Outfitters, Julia from New Look (Glasgow), Carol from les100ciels, Melissa Rankin and Rhonda Barclay at The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

  The Adam World Choir

  This performance features videos sent in from members of the Adam World Choir, a global digital community of transgender and non-binary people from the USA to Russia, Denmark to Slovenia, Australia to the Netherlands.

  A massive thank-you to every member of the Adam World Choir around the globe who have taken part in the project. Thank you to all the members who sent in their videos and are singing in this production; thanks to the members who wrote down their powerful stories to be shared in a book; thanks to those members who wrote beautiful songs to be featured in the album; thank you to all the amazing artists, programmers and producers who contributed to our digital symposium and the wonderful people who worked front of house; thank you to the brilliant local members who took part in the singing workshop; thank you to the extraordinary performers and artists who presented work as part of the Home Away event.

  Every member of the Adam World Choir has made this project a glorious celebration of trans and non-binary identities around the globe.

  To take part or find out more visit www.adamworldchoir.net

  For Daisy Hermione

  Acknowledgements

  Huge thanks to Douglas ‘Hero’ Maxwell, George Aza-Selinger, Neshla Caplan, Jamie Christian-Ward, Umama Hamido, Harry Knights, David Gerber, Hazel Gray, Davina Shah, Gary McNair, Yvonne Hay, Leigh Kelly, The MacKenzies, Andrew & Maggie Stirk, Janet Stirk and my brilliant gang – Richard, Peter and Elizabeth. Special thanks go to Cora Bissett for bringing me on to her dream team; and, of course, to Adam Kashmiry, who shared his story with such generosity, courage and openness – thank you, Adam.

  F.P.

  Characters

  EGYPTIAN ADAM

  GLASGOW ADAM

  The two Adams also play:

  MARYAM

  ADAM AT SIX

  ADAM AT NINE

  ADOLESCENT ADAM

  THE MANAGER

  AMIRA

  STRANGER

  MALAK

  HOME OFFICE REPRESENTATIVE

  GP

  TRANSLATOR

  MENTAL-HEALTH NURSE

  TONI

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

  Flesh of my Flesh

  A room. A screen. A sense of a cramped Glasgow flat but also the inside of a brain.

  An Arabic lament plays its painful melody. Lights snap up on EGYPTIAN ADAM holding a large kitchen knife. EGYPTIAN ADAM places it on the floor and then calmly and methodically folds a towel and places it next to the knife. EGYPTIAN ADAM then retrieves a mobile phone and places that on the pile.

  EGYPTIAN ADAM kneels by the pile, unbuttons shirt, lifts out breast and holds the knife to it.

  EGYPTIAN ADAM presses the blade more and more firmly into the flesh.

  The lament surges.

  Blackout.

  In the Beginning was the Word

  Lights up on GLASGOW ADAM, who takes in the audience. Regards them in a simple, direct and honest way before beginning.

  GLASGOW ADAM. In Arabic, our words are either masculine or feminine. It’s a language which likes things to be one thing or another.

  In English, you talk of ‘the teacher’ and I don’t know whether it’s a man or a woman – it’s irrelevant. Same with ‘the student’ or ‘the friend’.

  In Arabic, the word changes – it matters whether my ‘friend’ is a woman or a man.

  In English, when a person says ‘I hear you’, ‘I understand you’, ‘I love you’. They’re not speaking to a woman or a man as they would in Arabic. They are speaking to the soul of the person they are addressing.

  I like English. I like the words you have for things.

  There’s a term – I’ve forgotten it – for words that have more than one meaning. But the meanings are opposite.

  ‘Sanction’ is one. It means ‘to permit’ but also ‘to penalise’. It’s two things at once. Opposites that live together within this one little word. And ‘screen’. ‘To show’ but also ‘to conceal’.

  I love these words. Words are not always black and white. And neither are we.

  EGYPTIAN ADAM, top buttoned-up and restored, joins the scene and defends their mother tongue…

  EGYPTIAN ADAM. We have those words in Arabic too. In Ancient Arabic – Saleem ‘One who has been bitten by a snake’. But also ‘One who is cured’.

  The ADAMS turn to face each other. Their likeness is striking, in their movements and their clothes. They are two sides of a single coin.

  English isn’t so special. It’s still ‘she’ and ‘he’. One or the other. Right or wrong. Truth or lie.

  English words don’t speak to the soul of a person. Who here even knows what a soul is? There are two parts to a soul. Ka and –

  GLASGOW AD
AM. Ba. What has this got to do with –

  EGYPTIAN ADAM. Without the body and its shadow which protects it. Without the name given to a person at their birth, the soul becomes lost.

  GLASGOW ADAM. I don’t want to talk about Egypt. What my ancestors believed.

  EGYPTIAN ADAM. Mama gave me a name.

  GLASGOW ADAM. It’s too painful to think about Mama.

  EGYPTIAN ADAM. Have you forgotten it?

  GLASGOW ADAM. It was the wrong name.

  EGYPTIAN ADAM. Have you forgotten it?

  GLASGOW ADAM. No.

  EGYPTIAN ADAM. I can’t be explained away with a cute English word. All this begins with Egypt. Where I was born.

  GLASGOW ADAM. I was born in Glasgow.

  This wounds EGYPTIAN ADAM, who dons a shawl and becomes MARYAM.

  The Word of Truth

  MARYAM. You’re lying.

  GLASGOW ADAM reluctantly becomes ADAM AT SIX.

  ADAM AT SIX. No, Mama.

  MARYAM. You did it on purpose.

  ADAM AT SIX. I didn’t.

  MARYAM grabs a child’s dress. It is wet with urine so she holds it at arm’s length.

  MARYAM. Your auntie made this for you.

  ADAM AT SIX. I hate it.

  MARYAM. That’s because it is ugly. Your auntie has terrible taste. But if she makes you a dress, you wear it.

  ADAM AT SIX. I did wear it.

  MARYAM. You soiled it. Deliberately.

  ADAM AT SIX. No.

  MARYAM. What have I taught you? What is our contract? Say it for me.

  ADAM AT SIX. I promise to be kind.

  I promise not to hurt others.

  I promise always to tell the truth.

  MARYAM. And the truth is… you urinated on the dress deliberately. I’m taking away your football.

  ADAM AT SIX. No, Mama!

  MARYAM. It’s bad enough that we always have battles over what you wear. I’m your mother, if I ask you to wear a dress, you wear it.

  ADAM AT SIX. I did wear it!

  MARYAM. For less than one hour!

  ADAM AT SIX. I didn’t mean to get it wet.

  MARYAM. Then how? How did you manage to wee on this dress? Remember your promise. No lies.

  ADAM AT SIX. I just copied my cousin. I wanted to go to the toilet the way Farouk does. Standing up.

  A moment. MARYAM processes this. Her daughter’s otherness scares her.

  Mama? Are you cross, Mama?

  EGYPTIAN ADAM is back.

  EGYPTIAN ADAM. Born in Glasgow? With no mama? Do you want to obliterate everything that came before?

  GLASGOW ADAM doesn’t want this.

  Then remember.

  Before the Mountains were Born

  GLASGOW ADAM becomes ADAM AT NINE.

  ADAM AT NINE. Mama, you must crouch. You are too tall.

  EGYPTIAN ADAM becomes MARYAM.

  You need to crouch, Mama!

  MARYAM crouches.

  MARYAM. I’m too old for this.

  ADAM AT NINE. We must huddle together for we are in grave danger. The orcs are all around.

  MARYAM. Orcs in Alexandria, fancy that?

  ADAM AT NINE. We are in Middle Earth!

  MARYAM. And the orcs are the baddies?

  ADAM AT NINE. Sauron is the real baddy. He’s evil, always watching and bringing darkness.

  MARYAM. Sounds like Mubarak.

  ADAM AT NINE. He is a giant eye and if he casts his gaze at you, you can die.

  MARYAM. Definitely Mubarak.

  ADAM AT NINE. Shhh, they are coming.

  MARYAM. ‘Oh no, Sam, the orcs are coming.’

  ADAM AT NINE. Who said you could be Frodo?

  MARYAM. Sorry, I…

  ADAM AT NINE. I’m Frodo. He’s the main part. You’re Sam. Pretend to be short and a bit stupid but very very loyal.

  MARYAM. ‘Oh no, Frodo, the orcs are coming.’

  ADAM AT NINE. You don’t sound believable.

  MARYAM. Well I’m not as good at pretending as you.

  ADAM AT NINE. I’m actually very like Frodo so I don’t need to pretend.

  I put on the ring and that makes me invisible so I am safe. But hiding like that is dangerous too because it can turn you into Gollum. ‘My precious, my precious.’ Frodo cannot hide himself for long or he will go mad.

  MARYAM. I can’t crouch for long or I’ll go mad.

  ADAM AT NINE. You said you’d play!

  MARYAM. Can’t you play with your friends?

  ADAM AT NINE. Doing our hair and kissing boys’ pictures in magazines? I hate it.

  MARYAM. You won’t always feel that way.

  ADAM AT NINE. I’ll never fit in with them.

  MARYAM. Everything will change when you become a woman, princess. You can’t be a hobbit for ever.

  MARYAM becomes EGYPTIAN ADAM once more.

  EGYPTIAN ADAM. Lord of the fucking Rings?

  GLASGOW ADAM. I love that film.

  She Shall Be Called Woman

  EGYPTIAN ADAM. I’m playing football in school, running fast as the wind. Faster than them all. Me and the ball, like one, speeding past every last person on the pitch until I tap it into the goal. Like a pro. Goooooooooaaaaaaaal!

  I run round the pitch, hi-fives here and there. Sweat forming on my top lip.

  Feeling my heart beating hard here.

  Boom. Boom. Boom. I am alive.

  GLASGOW ADAM. And then…

  EGYPTIAN ADAM. I’m in a toilet cubicle and when I wipe myself I see a flash of red on the paper. It’s here.

  Oestrogen has been swimming through my body. While I played and ran and laughed with my friends it has been stimulating the cells on my chest to grow. Moving my body fat onto my hips, buttocks and thighs. I have a waist, I have breasts and now blood. I feel –

  GLASGOW ADAM. Hopeful? Excited?

  EGYPTIAN ADAM. Empty.

  GLASGOW ADAM. And then the cramps start.

  GLASGOW ADAM curls up in pain.

  EGYPTIAN ADAM becomes MARYAM once more and brings GLASGOW ADAM (ADOLESCENT ADAM) a cup of anise tea.

  MARYAM. Anise tea. There’s nothing that can’t be made better by drinking a cup.

  ADOLESCENT ADAM. It smells like Baba’s socks.

  MARYAM. Drink it. Best not to think of your father’s socks.

  ADOLESCENT ADAM sips at the tea.

  Today is a happy day.

  ADOLESCENT ADAM. Is it?

  MARYAM. My little princess is a woman.

  ADOLESCENT ADAM doesn’t like this, pushes the tea away.

  ADOLESCENT ADAM. This is too hot.

  MARYAM. You don’t feel it yet?

  ADOLESCENT ADAM gives a shake of the head.

  Let me help you.

  MARYAM takes out a vanity case and puts make-up and feminine clothes on ADOLESCENT ADAM. When she is finished, MARYAM holds a mirror to ADOLESCENT ADAM.

  Well, what do you think?

  ADOLESCENT ADAM doesn’t answer. A moment.

  Garments of Skin

  EGYPTIAN ADAM addresses the audience again.

  EGYPTIAN ADAM. I am in a room full of women’s clothes. Rails of different fabrics and colours. Mannequins wearing the latest fashions. Hip music blasting into the street to entice in potential shoppers. Not me. I work here now. I am a ‘visual merchandiser’.

  The other staff have an easy way of talking to shoppers, charming and effortless. I watch them and try to be invisible. A pretty woman who smells sweet like Mama’s Harisa passes me a dress she wants to try on. I walk her to the dressing room, hang up the dress and return to being invisible.

  GLASGOW ADAM becomes THE MANAGER.

  THE MANAGER. Hey? What are you doing? You don’t just leave the customer in there.

  EGYPTIAN ADAM. Sorry. I just did it how I saw him do it.

  THE MANAGER. Different for guys. Women don’t want them hanging round the cubicle. You need to stay, offer advice, pick out alternatives. Go on.

  EGYPTIAN ADAM. What advice should I give?


  THE MANAGER. I don’t know. You’re the woman. Tell her what looks good. And smile more – you look like thunder.

  EGYPTIAN ADAM tries on a smile.

  EGYPTIAN ADAM (to the imagined woman, in the dressing room). Hello. How is it? Would you like me to look? Do you like the… er, fabric? The way it moves? Is the colour right?

  (To the audience.) The sweet-smelling woman comes out in the dress. She worries it is too tight here. Is it too short? Can I see her knickers when she bends over?

  I don’t know this game but I learn fast.

  GLASGOW ADAM. I learn how women wear clothes and I use it to better pass as one myself. I watch the way they move, talk and laugh and teach myself how.

  GLASGOW ADAM manipulates EGYPTIAN ADAM like a mannequin.

  Slow down. That’s too fast. Don’t walk like a soldier. Relax. Lower the shoulders. Softer, slower, smoother. Arch the back. Walk with the hips. Take it easy.

  Use the hands when talking. Not like that. Not like a gangster. Hold the hand to the face. But don’t speak – the voice is too flat and coarse. It needs to be softer, higher, an occasional squeal of excitement.

  GLASGOW ADAM attempts a squeal of laughter.

  EGYPTIAN ADAM. That is your best squeal? It sounds like a growl.

  GLASGOW ADAM. Maybe that is why I am taken off the shop floor and put in charge of dressing the mannequins.

  EGYPTIAN ADAM. And it’s there that I meet…

  GLASGOW ADAM. There’s no need to tell them about her.

  EGYPTIAN ADAM. It’s there that I meet…

  Visible and Invisible

  EGYPTIAN ADAM pulls on a hijab and becomes AMIRA. She drags a female mannequin into the centre of the room.

  AMIRA. No, no, no, you’re making it up.