Bang Bang Bang

Stella Feehily

• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781848422117
• eBook ISBN: 9781780017068
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

Stella Feehily brings her trademark wit and emotional insight to this revealing play that goes behind the public face of charities, journalists and NGOs, and is drawn directly from workshops and interviews with aid workers, doctors, human rights defenders, government advisers, journalists and photographers.

A seasoned human rights defender and her idealistic young colleague embark on a trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo. For Mathilde, it's an induction into a life less ordinary.For Sadhbh it's back to madness and chaos away from her lover and London – exactly as she likes it.

But while Mathilde lets off steam with a photographer and a spliff, Sadhbh has her own encounter: tea with a smart but brutal young warlord she's investigating.

Stella Feehily's play Bang Bang Bang was first performed at the Octagon Theatre, Bolton, in 2011, in a production by Out of Joint that subsequently toured the UK, including performances at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in October 2011.

ACT ONE

One

London.

An apartment in Holloway.

End of April.

Late Morning.

SADHBH enters with an armful of clothes and books. STEPHEN, her boyfriend, is looking at some printed material while eating a doughnut and drinking coffee. There is a rucksack nearby. A Stetson-like hat hangs from it. She carefully packs the rucksack.

SADHBH. Stephen?

I bet we made a baby this morning.

Hey?

He looks up at her.

If it’s a girl I’m calling her Saoirse.

STEPHEN. Saoirse?

SADHBH. Means freedom.

She’ll not have your fat arse but she will have my legs. And she’ll be beautiful like you but clever like me.

She pulls out a T-shirt from the pile of clothes.

STEPHEN. What are you doing with my T-shirt?

SADHBH (smells the T-shirt). To… remind me.

STEPHEN watches her shove his T-shirt in her rucksack. He dunks his doughnut.

SADHBH sits opposite him and starts up her laptop.

That’s going to break off.

He eats the doughnut.

You can’t saturate it and expect it to taste good.

STEPHEN. It does taste good.

SADHBH. Some of it’s at the bottom of your cup.

STEPHEN. You distracted me.

SADHBH. I distracted you?

STEPHEN scoops the doughnut from his cup with a spoon and eats it.

We hear shouting from off.

Is there more coffee?

STEPHEN. Sit.

He pours coffee.

We hear a muffled argument through the walls.

SADHBH. Did you hear?

STEPHEN. What’s he said?

SADHBH. Fucking – (Makes grunting noises.)

A muffled crash.

Should we say something?

STEPHEN knocks on the table.

STEPHEN. Oh, hello. I can hear you call each other all the bastards under the sun. Would you mind awfully keeping it down?

SADHBH. To the concierge. I meant.

STEPHEN. What can he do?

SADHBH. He could tell them that they can be heard.

You know?

And say if it’s more than just an argument?

STEPHEN. It’s flat life, Sadhbh. Music, cisterns, sex –

Messy lives.

The argument stops as abruptly as it started.

Do you hear that?

SADHBH. What?

STEPHEN Maelstrom over.

SADHBH listens.

SADHBH. You’re right.

STEPHEN. If you were here for longer than a week you’d understand the rhythm of flat life.

SADHBH. The rhythm of flat life?

STEPHEN. He’s not killing her, Sadhbh. This is Islington. Or so the estate agent said.

SADHBH. Yeah? Well, he meant Holloway.

The rhythm of flat life?

SADHBH returns to her laptop.

Why are you cross with me?

STEPHEN shrugs.

You are cross with me?

You?

Why?

Pause.

STEPHEN indicates the rucksack with his thumb.

SADHBH gets up from her chair – takes the hat off the rucksack – puts it on and removes the rucksack from sight.

She re-enters.

STEPHEN. You’re not going –

SADHBH. Right.

STEPHEN. – till Monday.

SADHBH. I don’t even know why I –

Right.

They look at one another. STEPHEN resumes reading documents.

How’s the Mandarin going?

STEPHEN. Ni hao!

Qîng césuo zai nar?

Hello. Where is the toilet please?

SADHBH. All you need really.

She starts tapping the keys on her laptop.

Did she understand ‘the rhythm of flat life’?

Pause.

STEPHEN looks at SADHBH.

She resumes work at her laptop.

STEPHEN. Do you want to tell me about your lovers?

That Irish Foreign Correspondent –/

Ronan What’s-his-name?

SADHBH. Are you crazy? I’ve never been with Ronan Fitzgerald.

He’s fucked everything from here to Bujumbura.

STEPHEN. I should never have told you.

SADHBH stretches out her hand to him. He puts it against his cheek. She pulls her hand away.

SADHBH (picks up his remaining half of doughnut). This is how you dunk a doughnut. Dunk, eat, drink.

She does so.

STEPHEN. What makes you a doughnut-dunk expert?

SADHBH. I had a scene with an aid worker from New York.

STEPHEN. When was this?

SADHBH. Way, way, way, before you.

STEPHEN. Oh yes?

SADHBH. He was very particular about dunking.

STEPHEN. I’m not sure I want any –

SADHBH. As you wish.

STEPHEN. – more information.

Pause.

SADHBH. Did she mind that you had a partner?

Pause.

Answer me.

STEPHEN. She didn’t say that exactly.

SADHBH. What did she say?

STEPHEN. I can’t remember.

SADHBH. Convenient.

STEPHEN. Truth.

She knew I was with you – obviously.

SADHBH. Why obviously?

STEPHEN proffers the bag of doughnuts.

STEPHEN. Breakfast?

She takes a doughnut.

I didn’t promise anything.

SADHBH. Seeing someone over a sustained period is a promise.

STEPHEN. Not to me.

SADHBH. For you it was a...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title page
• Contents
• Original Production
• Article by Brian O’Connell
• Timeline: Democratic Republic of Congo
• Dedication
• Acknowledgements
• Note on the Text
• Characters
• Prologue
• Bang Bang Bang
• About the Author
• Copyright and Performing Rights Information