Blue Heart

Caryl Churchill

• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9781780011639
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

Two exhilarating and teasingly entertaining one-act plays from one of the UK's leading playwrights.

Heart's Desir e sees a family awaiting their daughter's return from Australia, though in a series of alternative scenarios, the play collapses as it keeps veering off in unexpected and ridiculous directions.

Blue Kettle tells the story of conman Derek and the five women he misleads into believing he is their biological son. Try as he might, Derek's plans are scuppered as the play is invaded by a virus.

In Caryl Churchill's ever-inventive style, the two plays in Blue Heart pull apart language and structure in a way that is theatrically remarkable and fast paced, in a stirring yet truthful exploration of family and relationships.

Blue Heart was first performed at Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds, in August 1997 in a touring co-production by Out of Joint and the Royal Court Theatre.

This edition was published alongside the first major revival of Blue Heart, nearly twenty years after its premiere, in a co-production by the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, and Tobacco Factory Theatres, Bristol, in 2016.

BLUE HEART

Heart’s Desire

Characters

BRIAN

ALICE

MAISIE

SUSY

LEWIS

LOTS OF CHILDREN

TWO GUNMEN

YOUNG AUSTRALIAN WOMAN

OFFICIAL

BIRD

Brian and Alice are married. Maisie is Brian’s sister.
They are all about 60. Susy, their daughter, is 35,
Lewis, their son, is younger.

The scene is Brian and Alice’s kitchen.

...

	ALICE and MAISIE. ALICE setting knives and forks on table, MAISIE fidgets about the room. BRIAN enters putting on a red sweater.
BRIAN	She’s taking her time.
ALICE	Not really.
	They all stop, BRIAN goes out. Others reset to beginning and do exactly what they did before as BRIAN enters putting on a tweed jacket.
BRIAN	She’s taking her time.
ALICE	Not really.
	They all stop, BRIAN goes out, others reset and BRIAN enters putting on an old cardigan.
BRIAN	She’s taking her time.
ALICE	Not really.
BRIAN	We should have met the plane.
ALICE	We should not.
MAISIE	What I really envy her for is the fauna because it’s down a completely separate branch of evolution and I would love I would really love to see a platypus, not in a zoo but in its natural habitat. Imagine going to feed the ducks and there is some thing that is not a duck and nor is it a waterrat or a mole, it’s the paws make me think of a mole, but imagine this furry creature with its ducky face, it makes you think what else could have existed, tigers with trunks, anyway the platypus has always been my favourite animal, it doesn’t lay eggs like a duck, it’s a marsupial like a kangaroo so the baby’s born like a thread like a speck and has to crawl into the pouch, is that right, is a platypus a marsupial or not actually I’m not sure about that, maybe it does lay eggs like a duck, I’ll look it up or I’ll ask her when she comes and I wonder if she’s ever seen one, maybe she went swimming in a river and there was this little furry –
	Reset to top. BRIAN comes in putting on old cardigan.
BRIAN	She’s taking her time.
ALICE	Not really.
BRIAN	We should have met the plane.
ALICE	We should not.
BRIAN	She’ll be exhausted.
ALICE	She’s a woman of thirtyfive.
BRIAN	How can you speak of your daughter?
ALICE	She’s a woman of thirtyfive.
BRIAN

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Original Production
• Blue Heart
• About the Author
• Copyright and Performing Rights Information