Wild

Mike Bartlett

• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9781780017860
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

A darkly comic play that explores the unexpected, bewildering, and life-changing consequences of challenging the status quo at a global level.

Last week, Andrew was that guy with his girl lunching in KFC, discussing apartments and making plans for the future. Today he's in Moscow, in an undisclosed hotel room, on the run and at risk of assassination.

Last week, a nobody. This week, America's Most Wanted: a man who humiliated his country with one touch of a button.

Mike Bartlett's Wild premiered at Hampstead Theatre, London, in June 2016, in a production directed by James Macdonald.

1.

A nondescript hotel room.

ANDREW is in the room.

A WOMAN has entered the room thirty seconds ago.

ANDREW	Miss Prism?
WOMAN	That’s right.
ANDREW	Is that a joke?
WOMAN	What?
ANDREW	Your name?
WOMAN	No.
ANDREW	Like a reference.
WOMAN	No.
ANDREW	A reference to –
WOMAN	It’s not a reference.
	It’s a coincidental pun.
	Which I thought you’d appreciate actually. And let me tell you, now you’re in the club, that it’s important to keep a sense of humour, because things are going to get, now and for the rest of your life, extremely difficult.
ANDREW	Well that’s made me feel just rosy.
WOMAN	You want to know where it came from, the name?
ANDREW	Isn’t it obvious?
WOMAN	No.
ANDREW	I’m fine.
	Beat.
WOMAN	You don’t want to play. Okay. Do you want a drink?
ANDREW	No thank you.
WOMAN	I’ve got a sense, a feeling, I just know you want a gin and tonic? Something like that.
ANDREW	You’re wrong.
	Beat.
WOMAN	I’d like one.
ANDREW	Okay.
	Beat.
WOMAN	I’m uneasy if it’s just me. Not a party on my own, is it? If I have one will you have one?
ANDREW	I need to keep a clear head.
WOMAN	Why? Nothing’s going to happen.
ANDREW	Well.
WOMAN	Nothing important’s going to happen overnight, we’re just going to talk and then tomorrow’s another day.
ANDREW	Okay so we’re going to talk, right, so I need to keep a clear head. Is he calling on the phone?
WOMAN	Who? Oh. You think he’s going to call you on the phone?
ANDREW	They said he’d get in contact and he’s hardly likely to turn up in person.
WOMAN	Why not?
ANDREW	He’s trapped in an embassy in the middle of London.
WOMAN	Officially. Trapped is perhaps overstating it, the thing is we’ve got to make sure no one knows exactly where he is, so if he was coming to see you I wouldn’t be able to tell you in advance, if you take my meaning.
ANDREW	So you’re saying… what… he might come here? Tonight?
WOMAN	Look, you’ll appreciate this when it’s you – we couldn’t have got you here without this kind of thing – the point is that if he’s here, he’s here, or if he’s not here he’s somewhere else. There are a lot of people who – let’s not put too fine a point on it – want him dead, who are really out to kill him, and that’s the club that you are part of now. You are Trotsky in Mexico, you are John Lennon in New Yor...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title page
• Contents
• Original Production
• Dedication
• Characters
• Wild
• About the Author
• Copyright and Performing Rights Information