M.A.D.

Mutual Assured Destruction

David Eldridge

• Publisher: Methuen Drama
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN: 9780413774439
• eBook ISBN: 9781408117262
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Drama
• Index: Literature

At the height of the cold war M.A.D. stood for Mutually Assured Destruction. For 11-year-old John it meant Mum and Dad.
M.A.D. is a family drama following the lives of a struggling market trader, his frustrated wife and their young boy John, as their whole world appears to be coming to an end.
Set in 1984, in the aftermath of the terrifying post-apocalyptic TV drama Threads, and then nearly twenty years later, M.A.D. tenderly explores the gap between the lifestyles and aspirations of parents and son. Out of a world full of cold war paranoia, an emotional fall-out haunts this ordinary family, threatening to rip apart the love that once drew them together.

One

Monday 24th September 1984. A semi-detached house in Collier Row, Romford, Essex. A living room. There’s a battered sofa and a matching armchair propped up by a baking tin. There’s a seventies-style coffee table, a TV and a record player with at least a hundred LPs and seven-inch singles. There’s a boy’s West Ham United football shirt drying over a radiator, along with a pair of underpants and a handkerchief. There’s a bookcase but there are only a few books on it, well-thumbed Mills and Boon novels and the odd Beano annual. There is one picture of Kelly and Alice, much younger, on their wedding day on the side and one of John, aged Jive. There’s a small dining table, on which is a piece of plywood with a Subbuteo pitch glued to it. Model fencing rings the pitch, which has a huge tea stain across the middle. There is a serving hatch through which you can see into the kitchen, which is very small. The room looks as if someone started to decorate, but then gave up after an hour or so. Some of the wallpaper has been scraped off and there is no skirting board. You can see from one patch of wallpaper where a picture or mirror has been removed, and there is no lampshade covering the bulb, which hangs from the ceiling.

Stacked where there is space against the walls are six-dozen pairs of shoes, tied in bundles of a dozen each. There’s also a large cardboard carton.

John packs away his Subbuteo players. He has his school uniform on.

Alice enters. She has two plates of ham, egg and chips. She watches John. She puts the plates down on the middle of the pitch. John scowls at her. She exits.

John Mum.

A slight pause.

Mum?

John picks up the plates. Alice enters with knives and forks and tomato ketchup.

I said I’d do it.

Alice It’ll get cold.

They sit down and eat.

John Is Dad still getting tickets for the Arsenal?

Alice I don’t know. I think so babe.

John dips chips in his egg yoke.

Alice I told you no fingers, mister man.

John I’m looking forward to it.

Pause.

Do you still like Ray Stewart?

Alice I don’t like Ray Stewart.

John You do. You said he’s your favourite.

Alice No I didn’t. Eat your dinner.

John You did.

A slight pause.

Alice I quite like Geoff Pike.

John Geoff Pike? Err. Yuk. Yukky-yuk-yuk. Geoff Pike.

Alice Geoff Pike seems polite. He was on the radio.

John You fancy Geoff Pike.

Alice Shut up, John.

John Geoff Pike’s ugly.

Alice Shut it, John.

John You’re bound to be ugly with a name like Pike. Pause.

Do you think we’ve got a chance of winning the Milk Cup?

Pause.

Alice nods.

John Am I ugly?

Alice As sin.

John No, I’m not, I’m handsome.

Alice looks at his plate. John continues to eat his meal. Alice can’t finish hers. Pause.

Alice Geoff Pike could give me a cuddle.

John laughs and throws a chip at his mum.

John Can I put the radio on?

Alice No.

John does some hand-dancing and nods his head.

John Go on.

Alice You wally.

John I is an handsome wally.

Alice laughs and John waggles his fingers on the way out.

Alice You can get your soldiers out after you’ve done your reading.

John It’s not a ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Table of Contents
• Dedication
• Acknowledgements
• One
• Imprint