Junkyard

Jack Thorne

• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9781780018652
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

It's 1979, rubbish is on the streets of Bristol, and it's tricky being Fiz. She's thirteen, she's got no money, her sister's pregnant and her mum thinks she's a waste of space...

Rick remembers what it's like to be a teenager. So he thinks it won't take much to get a bunch of kids to help him build a playground out of junk.

He's wrong. It takes everything he's got. But when it's finished, it's going to be something. It's going to be everything...

Jack Thorne's honest and witty Junkyard, with music by Stephen Warbeck, premiered in 2017 in a co-production between Headlong, Bristol Old Vic, Rose Theatre Kingston and Theatr Clwyd, and directed by Jeremy Herrin.

ACT ONE

Scene One

The stage is in total darkness.

Suddenly a torch runs on to the stage. Or a person holding a torch.

Then the torch goes out.

GINGERShit.

The torch is hit once, twice, three times, it briefly glows into light and then dies again.

Shit.
Fucking.
This is the sort of shit that…

A lighter is lit. A cigarette is lit. The cigarette is smoked.

The torch is hit again. It works suddenly.

It’s pointed in four directions.

Wherever you are. Wherever you are.

Then it alights on something.

TALCGinger…

GINGEROh shit. Oh shit.

The torch dies again.

TALCI… I…

GINGERGuys! Guys! Oh shit. Oh shit.

He runs, he trips, he falls, he hits at the torch. It’s not giving off anything now.

Guys. Guys! GUYS!

The lighter is relit, to pick out a prone body, a tearful TALC beside it.

TALCShit.

GINGEROh shit. Oh shit.

The lighter goes out.

Then a lighter is lit elsewhere in the theatre.

Then another one.

Then another.

Suddenly there are eight lighters lit.

And then a hum starts.

TILLY(Singing.) There is a blackbird
Sitting
On a black post
In the dark.
You may not see it.
But it’s there.

Night.
It’s the best time of the day.
It’s black. It’s dark. It’s secret.

Courage sits waiting
In a cave.
It’s got no friends.
And it’s starving
It just waits
And wants –

Scene Two

The lighters go out and the lights come up. Bang. In an instant. It’s magic.

RICK is standing alone on stage. He’s hammering two large pieces of wood together. He has a cigarette poking out of his lip in a direction he thinks is rakish.

FIZ and TALC walk on to the stage. They’re carrying a plank of wood on each shoulder. FIZ is dressed carefully in a unisex outfit. She looks well washed and cared for. TALC looks like he hasn’t seen a bath. Ever. And his clothes have never been washed. He has quite a prominent milk moustache. His shoelaces are untied. And broken.

FIZ…and she said in that case I’ll keep it in a cage. And Mum says you’re not keeping a rat in a cage. And she says but I like them, they’re furry and cuddly and Mum says rats are dirty and dangerous. And she says dirty, dangerous, furry and cuddly. And Mum says dirty and dangerous are worse than –

TALCI love your mum.

FIZYou love anyone will give you a feed… Anyway, weren’t three days that my sister comes to me, ‘think it might be dead’. I said, ‘what’s dead?’ And she said ‘my rat’.

TALCShe kept the rat? I knew she would.

They put down the wood. RICK looks up at them.
They turn and walk away again.

FIZIn Tupperware. She’d picked out a rat. Put it in her airtight box. To keep it safe. She were quite shock-ed when the fuckee expi-red.

TALCThat is nasty.

FIZThat’s not the nasty thing – the nasty thing is that she kept the corpse. Turned green now. She don’t get it and stroke it no more but… I bet it’s still in the box. Under her bed.

TALCYour sister is…

They’ve gone. RICK looks after them. Then continues hammering.

A girl – DEBBIE – walks on to the stage.

DEBBIE(Singing.) Don’t even start.
Don’t even start.
Don’t even start to start.
What you’re starting.

She looks at RICK. Who concentrates on hammering. She exits.

A guy – HIGGY – runs onstage behind her.

HIGGYNo… No… No…

RICKYou here to help?

HIGGY looks up at RICK. Who is now looking at him.

HIGGYNo.

RICKWe’ve got a lot to do.

HIGGYYeah. I can see.

RICKBut you don’t want to help?

HIGGYFuck no. You seen Debbie?

RICKWhich one is Debbie?

HIGGYDebbie. You know her.
(Singing.) Dirty Debbie.
She’s always ready.

RICKNo. I haven’t seen Debbie. And you probably shouldn’t call her Dirty.

HIGGY looks at him, slightly disbelievingly.

HIGGYDebbie? Debbie?

RICK looks after him, smiles, pulls off his top and then, bare-bac...

Table of contents

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