Nicholas Wright: Five Plays

Nicholas Wright

• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781854594730
• eBook ISBN: 9781788500067
• Topic: Literatur
• Subtopic: Britisches Drama

A rich selection of work by leading playwright Nicholas Wright, introduced by the playwright.

The plays contained in this volume are:

The Custom of the Country
An early play, premiered by the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1983, transposing John Fletcher and Philip Massinger's bawdy Jacobean drama to 1890s Johannesburg.

The Desert Air
A wartime comedy set in Cairo in the 1940s, first staged by the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1985.

Mrs Klein
A play about the controversial psychoanalyst Melanie Klein, a haunting and poignant study of mother-daughter relationships, first performed at the National Theatre, London, in 1988.

One Fine Day
A comedy about the gulf that separates Britain and Africa, premiered at the Riverside Studios, London, in 1980.

Treetops
Set in Cape Town in 1952, Nicholas Wright's debut play is about the early resistance to policies of apartheid or racial segregation. It was first staged at Riverside Studios, Hammersmith, in 1978, winning the George Devine Award for playwriting.

THE CUSTOM OF THE COUNTRY

Characters

in order of appearance

ROGER DU BOYS, a gentleman of leisure

PAUL DU BOYS, his brother, a missionary

TENDAI, Paul’s fiancée

COUNT ANTONIO DE ROSARIO, a feudal lord

LAZARUS, a scholar

ELIAS, a butler-boy

DAISY, an entrepreneuse

WILLEM, a boy of twenty

DR. JAMESON, a British agent

HENRIETTA VAN ES, Willem’s mother, owner of the Nooitgedacht Goldmine

DR. BRINK, her brother, a lawyer

A WAITER

JUSTIN, butler-boy to Mevrouw van Es

The play is set in 1890, in the Zambesi Valley and in the town of Johannesburg in the Transvaal Republic.

ACT ONE

Scene One

Africa 1890. The Zambesi Valley. Late afternoon.

ROGER is sitting waiting. He is thirty, handsome, fleshy, sunburnt and at present battered and footsore from travel. He has a small, battered hold-all. It’s hot.

PAUL calls from out of sight:

PAUL. Roger!

ROGER. Paul!

PAUL comes running on. He’s a missionary: twenty-five, lean, fit.

My dear fellow! How are you?

They embrace, then shake hands.

I’ve been walking bloody weeks. You look well! Fit eh? Surprised to see me? Eh?

PAUL. I’m shattered. Why’re you here?

ROGER. Why d’you think?

PAUL. I don’t know.

ROGER. We were worried about you!

PAUL. I’m fine!

ROGER. Good, good.

Pause.

Mother’s bearing up.

PAUL. Is there something wrong with her?

ROGER. Well, you know, the leg. I brought any amount of presents from her and letters from various relations but they got lost with the baggage. Well, there’s this.

He looks in his hold-all and finds a blue scarf which is wrapped around a whisky bottle.

PAUL. I don’t want it.

ROGER. You haven’t seen it.

PAUL. I don’t want it whatever it is.

ROGER. It’s a scarf. Nanny knitted it. I’ve been using it to guard the breakables. Go on.

PAUL. All right. Thanks.

He takes it, stuffs it in a pocket.

ROGER. Drink?

PAUL shakes his head. ROGER drinks.

PAUL. They told me another white man had arrived. I was coming to tell him to clear off. I wasn’t expecting you. You’ve put me off my stroke. What happened to your luggage?

ROGER. Porter trouble. Splendid bunch until this morning, then I woke up to find they’d buggered off with everything they could carry.

PAUL. They’re frightened of this place. I love it. I’ve been incredibly lucky. I run my own mission now. I had two hundred converts when I started, but they’ve drifted off, except for one. There’s somebody you must meet. I’ve fallen in love. Listen.

They do. Drums are beating in the distance.

Drums. Our wedding’s tomorrow. The ceremony of course will be an ordinary Congregational one, but the reception’s for all the village. There’ll be singing. Beer. Dancing-girls.

ROGER. Splendid!

PAUL. No, there’s a problem. In this country, when a young woman marries, the chief has the right to sleep with her on the wedding night.

ROGER. Well I’m damned!

PAUL. Sometimes I think I don’t mind. It isn’t her fault. It isn’t mine. Then suddenly my stomach heaves, or I start to cry. What should I do?

ROGER. Easy. Skip the wedding and carry on as was, then you’ll still get the fun and it’ll be none of his business.

PAUL. There’s no ‘as was’ about it. I love and respect her. If you touch the women round here I’ll chuck you out.

ROGER. Don’t you trust me?

PAUL. I know you!

He sees someone.

Here she is.

TENDAI comes on in a white, homemade mission dress. She bobs and claps to PAUL. She is eighteen: slight, beautiful, self-possessed, never surprised.

Tendai, this is my brother Roger. He’s come all the way from England.

TENDAI bobs and claps.

ROGER. Charming!

TENDAI. Brother, now you are here you must be putting a fire under my husband. Why is he not stopping our custom? Why is he not thinking of a trick? I am rather upset.

ROGER. She’s right!

PAUL. What can I do?

ROGER. Run away!

TENDAI. Yes!

PAUL. I can’t leave the mission.

TENDAI (to ROGER). This is what he is like. Once he is having a thought in his head it become a rock. (To PAUL.) No one is liking this place except for you. The wood is too hard to cut, the water is too far to carry. Everybody would be running away this day if they are having a place to run to. We can be running to England, once we are married.

PAUL. That’ll be too late.

ROGER. Don’t wait till tomorrow, old boy. You’re the minister, you can marry yourself any old time you want.

TENDAI. You can marry me now!

ROGER. Exactly! Whyever not? You’ll spoil the party, but there’s bigger things at stake. A lady’s happiness! Honour of the family! Wake up, lad!

PAUL. All right. I’ll do it. Under protest.

ROGER. Nonsense, you can’t wait.

PAUL. How do you know?

ROGER. I’m your brother.

Pause. Thinks, then lights up.

PAUL. You’re right! I want to go back to England! We’ll be home by Christmas! Let’s get married at once!

ROGER. Look out!

TENDAI. It is he.

ANTONIO comes on. He is middle-aged, black, dignified, grandly dressed. TENDAI and PAUL clap to him.

PAUL. Honoured chief, this is my brother, Roger.

ANTONIO nods to ROGER.

ROGER. I like your country. Very good. Your African customs, very nice.

ANTONIO. I am not an African.

ROGER. No?

ANTONIO. No. My ancestor came to this country long ago. It was when my father’s father’s father was alive . . .

ROGER. That he came?

ANTONIO. No. When they lost the book with the dates in it. Before him was another father, then twins, then a tall man known as the Beheader, and before him, one with three eyes, two a...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• Treetops
• One Fine Day
• The Custom of the Country
• The Desert Air
• Mrs. Klein
• About the Author
• Copyright and Performing Rights Information