- 20 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
The Basement Flat
About this book
A short and unnerving play about families, property and rampant vegetation.
Fiona and Stephen's tenant has become their landlord and their daughter has taken to living in the overgrown garden, which is creeping into the house as temperatures rise...
Rona Munro's play The Basement Flat was first performed at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, in August 2009.
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Please note we cannot support devices running on iOS 13 and Android 7 or earlier. Learn more about using the app.
Yes, you can access The Basement Flat by Rona Munro in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Littérature & Théâtre britannique. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
Topic
LittératureSubtopic
Théâtre britanniqueTHE BASEMENT FLAT
The Basement Flat was first performed at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, on 13 August 2009, with the following cast:
FIONA | Cora Bissett |
STEPHEN | Matthew Pidgeon |
Director | Roxana Silbert |
Characters
FIONA
STEPHEN
FIONA and STEPHEN are sitting in silence, piles of mail and paperwork around them.
There are the sounds of heavy footsteps overhead. FIONA looks up.
FIONA. He can’t sleep either.
STEPHEN says nothing. He pulls some letters towards him, gets busy with a laptop calculator.
Thing is… I do feel sorry for him… in a way.
STEPHEN is rapidly entering figures.
Don’t you?
STEPHEN is reading the result of his calculations. He groans in dismay.
Just a little bit?
STEPHEN. What?
FIONA. Feel sorry for him?
STEPHEN (quiet, almost to himself). No, I fucking don’t.
He starts entering figures again.
FIONA. He wanted this so much. Sooooo much.
Pause.
I knew that as soon as he moved in, as soon as I saw those window boxes. Remember the little terracotta window boxes he had…? From the nice garden shop, you know, with the olive trees and the galvanised-steel planters… and the Cath Kidston aprons…
I wanted a Cath Kidston apron for my birthday.
And a matching shoulder bag.
And the oven-glove set… It would be so decorative. You could hang it on a hook and it would be kitchen decoration, really…
STEPHEN. Yeah well, I’m sorry…
FIONA. No, no… the soap was fine. Lovely. Almost as good as Molton Brown… Well, it had real floral scent in it… I think… nice liquid soap. That’s a little bit of luxury…
Just simple things. That’s all you need, isn’t it? A bit of pampering… every time you wash your hands.
Pause.
You can’t see the window boxes for dead ivy. All his ivy’s dead.
Did you hear me?
STEPHEN. What?!
FIONA. The ivy. In his lovely terracotta window boxes. It’s all dead.
STEPHEN. I think we’ll have to rent out the second bedroom.
FIONA. What?
STEPHEN. I don’t see an alternative, not if we’re going to get through this.
FIONA. Susan’s bedroom?!
STEPHEN. She’s not using it, Fiona.
FIONA. She is! All her stuff is there!
STEPHEN. She’s gone.
FIONA. She hasn’t gone! She’s only out there!
FIONA is pointing at the dark garden outside.
STEPHEN. Yes. She’s out there now. She’s gone.
FIONA. Not far! And she comes back!
STEPHEN. When did you last see her?
FIONA. Only a few days ago! Last week!
STEPHEN. Really?
FIONA. I did!
He doesn’t believe her.
I did!!
STEPHEN. Did she say anything?
FIONA. She looked lovely. Fit and healthy…
STEPHEN. What did she say to you?
FIONA. She was in a hurry. She couldn’t stop.
STEPHEN. You didn’t see her.
FIONA. I saw her! She was here! She was running across the back of the lawn…
STEPHEN. It’s not a lawn, is it? It’s a jungle. That bloody lawn broke my strimmer.
FIONA. Can’t we afford to get it done? Just the bit near the house?
STEPHEN. No.
I’ll get a scythe. Do it the old-fashioned way. Sweat and dirt. Hack the whole thing down… Plant potatoes.
A vegetable garden. That’s the way forward. Self-sufficiency.
FIONA. It all comes down to slugs and snails.
STEPHEN. Does it?
FIONA. My granddad had an allotment. It was a war against slugs. Twenty-four seven. I haven’t got the energy, Stephen. I don’t.
STEPHEN. People used to do it.
FIONA. People were used to slugs back then.
STEPHEN. Well, I’m going to hack down that fucking fox run.
FIONA. Don’t!
Please.
Don’t.
STEPHEN. I think we should move her stuff into boxes and clear out that room.
FIONA. At least wait till I’ve asked her. Let me talk to her first.
STEPHEN. Are you sure she still talks?
Footsteps overhead.
He was asking about her.
FIONA. What do you mean?
STEPHEN. She’s been damaging things.
FIONA. What things?
STEPHEN. Around the house.
FIONA. What?
STEPHEN. Structural damage. To the house.
FIONA. He never said.
STEPHEN. He said it to me.
FIONA. I can’t see any damage.
STEPHEN. The bricks. The mortar.
FIONA. Well, how could she do that?
STEPHEN. He saw her.
FIONA. Then he should have talked to her. Told her to come home!
STEPHEN. T...
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Contents
- Introduction
- Original Production
- About the Author
- Copyright and Performing Rights Information