The Container

Clare Bayley

• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN: 9781780016795
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

A harrowing, intense drama about people-trafficking, set inside a container lorry.

A freight container, somewhere in Europe. Inside are five people with one common aim: to reach England and start a new life. Can they trust the agent to get them there? Can they rely on each other? And how far will each of them go to get what they want?

Clare Bayley's play The Container was first performed (inside an actual container lorry) at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2007. It won a Fringe First Award for outstanding new writing on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and an Amnesty Freedom of Expression Award.

Scene One

A container, which appears to be empty except for some pallets. The drone of an engine is heard. As the play begins, the lorry is heard to come to a halt. FATIMA, ASHA, JEMAL and AHMAD emerge from their hiding places behind and under the pallets. They whisper.

FATIMA. What happened? Have we stopped?

JEMAL. Yes.

AHMAD. Why are we stopping? What is going on?

JEMAL. Keep your voice down.

FATIMA. Someone will let us out.

JEMAL. Shhhh.

AHMAD. What?

JEMAL. I’m listening.

AHMAD. What can you hear?

JEMAL. Nothing, if you don’t shut up.

AHMAD. Did you hear something?

JEMAL. Shut up. There could be police outside.

FATIMA. Police? Outside?

JEMAL. Shut up, do you hear me? Shut up.

Silence.

FATIMA stands and starts to move around.

What you doing?

FATIMA ignores him.

What you doing?!

FATIMA. I’m stretching my legs.

JEMAL. Keep still, can’t you? You’ll make noise.

FATIMA. My leg is dead. I have to move.

JEMAL. Sit down, you stupid woman!

FATIMA. Don’t speak like that to me!

AHMAD. Shhhh. Both of you. You want to get us all caught?

FATIMA. He is so rude, this man!

AHMAD. Just sit down.

JEMAL. I’m trying to hear what’s going on.

AHMAD. Is it police?

FATIMA. There’s no need to be so rude.

A pause.

AHMAD. Can you hear something?

JEMAL listens.

JEMAL. Nothing. I can’t hear anything.

A pause. JEMAL gives up and sits down.

FATIMA. Why have we stopped?

Nobody answers her.

You. Rude man. Why have we stopped?

JEMAL. I’m not the fucking tour guide, am I? I don’t fucking know why we’ve stopped.

FATIMA. Don’t listen to him, Asha. You see? Always so rude. And bad language, too.

The doors are opened. The sudden light is dazzling. They all melt back into their hiding places.

MARIAM enters.

She stands, trying to see in the darkness, her hand over her mouth and nose, because of the smell in there. She retches. The doors are closed behind her. AHMAD emerges.

AHMAD. Where’s the agent?

FATIMA. Where is the food?

JEMAL. Do you know where we are?

The truck starts moving.

FATIMA. We are moving again. Where is our food?

JEMAL. Did you see the agent?

AHMAD. Did he give you some food?

FATIMA. Yes – and water. Where is the water?

JEMAL. Do you know where we are?

Do you speak English?

FATIMA. I think she is sick.

MARIAM. I don’t know the name. The north of Italy. Very north.

JEMAL. Near the border?

MARIAM nods.

The border with Switzerland?

MARIAM. With France. We will go through France.

JEMAL. Good. That’s good. Two, three more days.

MARIAM sits.

MARIAM. How long have you been in here?

AHMAD shrugs.

AHMAD. Is it three days or four?

JEMAL nods.

We came across from Turkey, through the Balkans. We have no food left, and only a little water.

FATIMA. My daughter is very hungry. Very hungry.

JEMAL. Yeah, you always say it’s your daughter who’s hungry, but then you eat all her food yourself, don’t you? Eh?

FATIMA. Don’t listen to this man. He is a very bad man. Very bad.

AHMAD. How long have you been travelling?

MARIAM. I was in Milan for a month. But I left my country three months ago.

AHMAD. The agent, he’s supposed to bring us food, that was the agreement, but he hasn’t brought anything.

JEMAL. Where you from, then?

MARIAM. From Afghanistan.

AHMAD (in Pashto). Pa her ram ghlasp. [Welcome.]

JEMAL. Speak in English.

AHMAD (in Pashto). Hagha khawkh gain chi pam mar sap ho shi. [He likes to know everything that’s going on.]

AHMAD laughs loudly.

JEMAL. We’re all Europeans now. Speak in English.

AHMAD. You don’t like to feel you don’t know what’s going on, do you? She is from my country.

FATIMA. How many more days, then? Two more days?

AHMAD. Could be more.

FATIMA. We’re supposed to stop. He said we would stop. Why didn’t he let us out? It stinks in here.

AHMAD. He was supposed to bring us food, too. Did he give you food?

JEMAL. See how friendly he is? He only talks if he wants something.

AHMAD. The agent said he would –

JEMAL. Yes, yes, he said he would bring food, he said he would stop to let us out, he said many things.

FATIMA. He said he will take us to England.

AHMAD. I don’t want to starve to death inside this lorry.

JEMAL. Starve! You! (He laughs.) Starve!

AHMAD. What?

JEMAL. You don’t look as if you’re starving.

FATIMA laughs too.

FATIMA. He has a good stomach on him.

JEMAL. I can’t see it getting any smaller.

AHMAD. Now they’re laughing at me. You people. You don’t know what I’ve been through to get here.

JEMAL. We’re all the same here.

AHMAD. Oh yes? I don’t think we are all the same.

JEMAL. What’s that supposed to mean?

AHMAD. We are not all the same. I should not be travelling like this. I am a businessman.

JEMAL. Oh, I see. You’re saying you’re better than me?

AHMAD. All I’m saying is, we all different.

JEMAL. Yes, we’re different. You’re fat. I’m thin. We’ve got no food. But has she? We don’t know.

MARIAM. I have only a little food.

AHMAD. You have some?

FATIMA. And water? You have water?

MARIAM. I have water. I have some bread. And chocolate.

FATIMA. My daughter is very hungry.

She gets up.

JEMAL. You going to take her food?

FATIMA. It’s for my daughter.

MARIAM gives her some bread. She offers the rest of the food to the others.

MARIAM. Please, take it.

JEMAL. What are you going to give her for her chocolate, Mr Fat Man?

AHMAD. It is freely given.

Everyone has some. JEMAL wraps his up and puts it in his pocket.

JEMAL. You should save some for later. We don’t know when we’re going to eat again.

AHMAD. If you’re not hungry now, let someone have it who is.

JEMAL (to MARIAM). You keep some bread for yourself.

FATIMA. Look at us – it’s a shame! So excited for two little bits of bread and some ch...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Original Production
• Dedication
• Characters
• The Container
• About the Author
• Copyright and Performing Rights Information