Girl in the Machine

Stef Smith

• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9781780018829
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

'Do you want to live forever?
YES or NO.'

Polly and Owen have nailed it. Successful in their careers and wildly in love with each other, they feel ready to take on the world.

But when a mysterious new technology, promising a break from the daily grind, creeps into everyone's phones, their world is turned upside down. As the line between physical and digital rapidly dissipates, Polly and Owen are forced to question whether their definitions of reality and freedom are the same.

Girl in the Machine is a disturbing but compassionate vision of our potential digital future, and what it might mean for 'life' as we know it. The play premiered at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, in 2017, directed by Traverse Artistic Director Orla O'Loughlin.

ONE

Night-time. POLLY’s office.

OWEN enters. He presents POLLY with a shiny black box. It’s a stylish, classy design.

OWEN Black Box.

POLLY What?

OWEN It’s called Black Box. I thought you might like to try it?

POLLY You got me a present?

OWEN Yes. No. Well. We got given them at work. Does that still count as a present?

POLLY Was it free?

OWEN Maybe.

POLLY Did you take it without anyone knowing?

OWEN Possibly.

POLLY Sounds more like petty theft than a present.

OWEN Look. I know this promotion is… a lot… and I know you love this stuff – a new gadget to get to grips with, so I thought it might be a welcome distraction.

POLLY What does it do?

OWEN It relaxes you.

POLLY How?

OWEN Something about brainwaves, something about syncing to your heartbeat, something about… I don’t know. But apparently you can have visions – I thought at the very least it might be fun.

POLLY It feels like a very expensive thing to just get given.

OWEN It’s like the dealer giving the first gram out for free – even the sick and the dying are a market, an infinite market. Open it.

POLLY Cynical, are you?

POLLY opens the box to find a headset. It should feel new and expensive without being too otherworldly.

OWEN The order arrived just as my patient went into cardiac arrest. This lovely old lady, flatlining, and the delivery boy is just hovering in the background looking for a signature. Tapping his pen against his pad.

POLLY Did she die? The woman.

OWEN Yeah. She was at least a hundred and forty. Polish. She went back to speaking Polish at the end. Saying prayers – turns out the Polish for ‘amen’ is just ‘amen’. It’s amazing how many people pray at the end. But death will die out… eventually.

POLLY You know sometimes… I forget.

OWEN What?

POLLY You’re there. Doing that. At the end…

OWEN I change drips and clean out bedpans. It’s just body fluids.

POLLY But it’s just so… real.

OWEN shrugs.

OWEN Go on then – I’ll be annoyed if I nicked it from work and you didn’t at least try it.

POLLY Alright! How do I /

OWEN Press power.

POLLY Thanks.

POLLY puts on the headset.

Nothing is /

VOICE Welcome to Black Box.

POLLY Can you hear that?

OWEN Yes. There must be / speakers.

VOICE Please state your name.

POLLY Polly.

VOICE Welcome – Polly.

POLLY That’s creepy.

VOICE Please state your reason for using the programme.

POLLY Because my husband made me.

VOICE Thank you – Polly. We can tell by your heartbeat you are experiencing low levels of stress. We have automatically selected our relaxation mode.

POLLY Where does the Merlot come out of?

OWEN Just / breathe.

VOICE Please prepare yourself for Black Box.

POLLY I’ve got shit to do, Owen.

OWEN I know. But that’s not the / point

VOICE Please close your eyes.

POLLY I don’t feel very / relaxed

VOICE In five

four

OWEN Close your eyes.

VOICE three

POLLY Don’t watch me.

VOICE two

POLLY Don’t watch.

VOICE one

POLLY gestures for OWEN to leave.

OWEN Fine.

He leaves. She sits with the headset on and she closes her eyes.

VOICE Welcome to Black Box.

Silence.

POLLY tilts her head. Wriggles in her seat. Sighs.

POLLY It’s just. Nothing. A nothingness.

Not a sound. Not a glimmer. Not a… focus. Polly.

Focus on feeling… nothing. How the hell do you feel nothing?

Focus on feeling… focus on feeling… focus on and it foams up – that familiar stomach swirl and whirl, with the motion that says I must. Move. Forward. As fingers twitch and itch...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Original Production
• Acknowledgements
• Characters
• Notes
• Girl in the Machine
• About the Author
• Copyright and Performing Rights Information