Acceptance

Amy Ng

• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781848427365
• eBook ISBN: 9781788500333
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

'We're supposed to be assessing their potential as college students, not conducting a quasi-criminal investigation.'

Out of 37, 451 applicants to Eliot University, Angela stands out – but not for the right reasons. An ambiguous event in her past threatens to overshadow her talent, her potential and her future prospects. Can she overcome the prejudices of those judging her application, or is she already tainted beyond redemption?

Crackling with razor-sharp dialogue, Acceptance asks whether we can ever escape our past, and investigates the destructive side of our search for acceptance. It premiered at Hampstead Theatre Downstairs, London, in 2018.

Amy Ng's other plays include Shangri-La (Finborough Theatre, London).

Scene One

The voices of Eliot University applicants read fragments from their personal essays, which accelerate, crescendo, and overlap, as if competing for attention.

A. I am

B. I am

C. I am

D. I am

A. I am Mexican-American.

B. I am Texan.

C. I am a citizen of the world.

D. I am stateless.

A. I am British.

B. I am European.

C. I am Jewish.

D. I am Muslim.

A. I am an all-American tennis champion.

B. I am Native American.

C. I come from six generations of Eliot men.

D. I come from a hearing-impaired lesbian family.

A. My parents are Vietnamese refugees.

B. My grandmother’s a Holocaust survivor.

C. My great-great-grandmother was a slave.

D. My ancestors were Native Americans wiped out by white settlers in Boston.

A. I admire Martin Luther King

B. I admire Hillary Clinton

C. I admire Buddha

D. I admire Mandela

A. I love the light at dawn

B. I love the smell of paint

C. I love David Bowie

ANGELA enters. She is a shadowy figure in the dark.

ANGELA. ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.’ I cried when I first read the American Declaration of Independence. I cried that there were rights I never knew I possessed. All my life I had been their performing monkey, their trophy-winning child prodigy, playing Bach and Mozart on demand like so much tinkling elevator music. But in my dreams I could hear another music, something vital and urgent, bloodied, embryonic, and I knew I could give form to these charging, surging energies – if only I were in the land of the free…

Scene Two

November. Evening.

Eliot University Admissions Office.

ANGELA, in school uniform, waits nervously. She cradles a violin case.

BIRCH, immaculate in twin-set cashmere and pearl earrings, enters.

BIRCH. Good evening. I’m Birch Coffin, the acting Dean of Admissions.

ANGELA. Angela Chan. Nice meeting you.

BIRCH (looking at violin). I hope you were not expecting members of our music faculty to be here tonight.

ANGELA. No, no, I’m not auditioning… I was going to a concert tonight and…

BIRCH. You’re playing at a concert tonight?

ANGELA. No. I just bring it along. For luck.

ANGELA barricades herself with the violin case on her lap.

BIRCH. Optimistic to book a concert for the evening of your interview.

ANGELA. Sorry. I thought – 5 p.m. interview – I’d definitely make it to Symphony Hall by seven thirty.

BIRCH. For the Peter Sellers/Simon Rattle ‘Matthew Passion’?

ANGELA. Yes.

BIRCH (half apology). We’ve been absolutely snowed under… I had tickets too.

BIRCH takes a seat.

ANGELA hovers awkwardly.

Do sit down.

ANGELA sits.

Pause.

Do you know why we invited you here?

ANGELA (beat). To discuss my application.

ANGELA takes out a folder.

I brought a copy. I’ve also done some of the additional essays.

BIRCH. How diligent.

ANGELA. The questions are so very interesting! ‘An intellectual experience that has meant the most to you.’ I love that you ask not just about the experience but about the ‘meaning’. I wrote about 12/8 time in Bach and the blues. The ‘Erbarme Dich – Have Mercy Upon Me’ aria in ‘St Matthew Passion’ is in 12/8 time. (Sings it, beating out the time.) It’s about Peter’s remorse, after he’s denied Christ –

BIRCH. And the 12/8 beats are the tears rolling down Peter’s cheeks. We have thirty-seven thousand, four hundred and fifty-one applicants. Thirty-seven thousand, four hundred and fifty-one applications. To be read by thirty-six admissions officers. We can’t possibly meet with every applicant. Do you know why we have asked you to come here?

ANGELA. I am honoured that you should take time from your busy schedule to meet with me.

BIRCH. Why are you here?

ANGELA. I don’t know.

Pause.

BIRCH. There are certain irregularities in your academic career.

ANGELA. Irregularities? (Pause.) I have straight-As from all the schools I’ve attended.

BIRCH. All the schools. It is unusual to attend three schools in four years.

ANGELA. I was at the Trinity Girls’ School in Hong Kong for ten years. I then won a scholarship to the Performing Arts High School in New York City, after which I transferred to the Boston Music School here.

BIRCH. The Performing Arts High School is one of the best music schools in the country. Visiting musicians from Juilliard, the New York Philharmonic, give lessons there. Why would an aspiring musician leave… voluntarily?

ANGELA. I want to focus more on composition. My Boston school is better for that.

BIRCH. We ask for two recommendations from teachers who know you well.

ANGELA. I have two recommendations from my current teachers.

BIRCH. Who have known you for two months. Why didn’t you ask the teachers in New York for recommendations?

ANGELA (beat). I am not in touch with them.

BIRCH. We need those recommendations to complete your application.

ANGELA. I’ll try…

BIRCH. Is there a reason why they wouldn’t recommend you?

ANGELA hears the ‘Unforgiven’ aria and starts strumming on her arm.

So. Additional essays. Did you try this: ‘Unusual circumstances in your life’?

ANGELA. No.

BIRCH. What about this one – ‘The Eliot Honour code declares that we “hold honesty as the foundation of our community”. Please reflect on a time when you or someone you observed had to make a choice about whether to act with integrity and honesty.’

ANGELA. I am honest! I’ve told the truth!

BIRCH. Okay. My task is to pick suitable candidates for Eliot. That will contribute to our community. Because you see, every single one of our thirty-seven thousand, four hundred and fifty-one applicants is outstanding in some way. Academic aptitude. That’s a given. Olympic athletes. Musical prodigies. We get them all. We are looking for Character. People who demonstrate Leadership. Who give back to Society. A Community where people feel safe. Where they can trust that their friends, their fellow students, are people of integrity.

ANGELA. You think I’m not – a person of integrity?

BIRCH. Did I say that?

ANGELA. So you believe I’m – a person of integrity.

BIRCH. You tell me.

ANGELA. I’m not a ‘delusional liar’ or a ‘fanta...

Table of contents

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