Buggy Baby & The Mikvah Project: Two Plays

Josh Azouz

• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781848427471
• eBook ISBN: 9781788500326
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

Two plays showcasing the exciting and distinctive voice of Josh Azouz.

Buggy Baby is a horror comedy about trying to build a normal life when nothing about life is normal.

Jaden, Nur and baby Aya have escaped another country and ended up in a rotting room in London. While Nur is at college, Jaden chews leaves and has visions of giant rabbits with burning red eyes. He thinks Aya is someone else, someone dangerous. But she's just a baby. Isn't she?

The Mikvah Project is a playful and poignant play about two men who meet every Friday in a north-west London Mikvah, a traditional Jewish pool used for ritual cleansing.

Avi is married but childless. Eitan's voice is breaking and he's having wet dreams. At the Mikvah they talk about football, the synagogue choir, women. And as their bond deepens, a transformation begins…

Both plays premiered at The Yard, London: Buggy Baby in 2018, directed by Ned Bennett, and The Mikvah Project in 2015, directed by the theatre's Artistic Director, Jay Miller.

BUGGY BABY

Buggy Baby was first performed at The Yard, London, on 7 March 2018. The cast was as follows:

NUR	Hoda Bentaher
JADEN	Noof McEwan
BABY AYA	Jasmine Jones
GUNSHOT-WOUND RABBIT	Tom Clegg
BURNT-FUR RABBIT	Abrahim Jarman
Director	Ned Bennett
Designer	Max Johns
Lighting Designer	Jess Bernberg
Composer and Sound Designer	Giles Thomas

Acknowledgements

I’d like to thank the following people who helped me figure out this play. Najib Alhakimi, Alice Birch, Georgina Bednar, Bernadette Cahill, Nadia Clifford, Souad Faress, Bettrys Jones, Youssef Kerkour, Serena Manteghi, Hamish Pirie, Ashley Scott Layton, Giles Smart, Louise Stephens, Parth Thakerar, Zubin Varla, Nic Wass. The Royal Court Writers Group.

I’d especially like to thank Ned Bennett and Jay Miller for their extensive dramaturgical support. The Yard gang. The fearless actors and creative team. And lastly Zadie… for more recent inspiration.

Characters

NUR, eighteen

JADEN, mid-thirties

BABY AYA

TWO RABBITS/MEN

Author’s Note

Baby Aya wears an NHS-prescribed helmet. The sort given to babies to correct a misshapen or flat head. The character might be played by an older woman.

The actors are should speak in their own natural accent. On the odd occasion when they speak English, they should adopt an accent because it’s their second language.

Note on the Text

Words in brackets ( ) should be played by the actor, not said out loud.

… indicates a hesitation, unspoken or unfinished thought, or when a character is searching for a word.

A forward slash (/) indicates the point at which the next speaker interrupts.

The lines in BOLD should be spoken directly to the audience.

Spaces in between lines are invitations for longer pauses or signifiers of time passing.

This ebook was created before the end of rehearsals and so may differ slightly from the play as performed.

Prologue

The house lights are still on.

A damp room.

A wardrobe. A sink. Two mattresses on the floor.

People shouldn’t live here.

From the wardrobe we hear:

NUR. They’ve gone.

JADEN. Shh.

NUR. They’ve definitely gone.

JADEN. How do you know!?

NUR. I can’t hear them.

JADEN. Maybe they’re waiting for us to come out.

NUR. We’re talking quite loudly they’d hear us!

JADEN. Shush then!

NUR. I can’t feel my legs.

JADEN. Stay still.

NUR creeps out of the wardrobe. She’s sixteen years old.

NUR!

NUR looks at the audience.

A MAN enters the room.

Beat.

NUR runs. MAN chases.

Across the stage, through the seats, up the balcony, out the doors… we might even hear him chase her around the bar.

At one point during the chase the MAN puts two fingers above his head and exposes his front teeth like a rabbit. Blackout.

Spotlight on the wardrobe door. JADEN opens it and looks at us.

JADEN. IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT THEY FLED THEIR WAR-TORN HOME. FIVE JOURNEYED THROUGH AFRICA. FOUR CROSSED THE MEDITERRANEAN. THREE TOOK A LORRY THROUGH EUROPE…

JADEN WOULD TELL YOU THE NAME OF HIS HOME BUT IT NO LONGER EXISTS.

Spotlight on NUR, who pauses mid-chase, breathing hard.

NUR. NUR DIDN’T THINK THIS TYPE OF SHIT HAPPENED IN LONDON. SHE THOUGHT RUNNING BELONGED TO THE PAST. THANK GOD SHE KEPT HER TRAINERS.

NUR runs off.

Blackout.

One

The room has an addition. A baby.

BABY AYA is asleep in her buggy. She wears a helmet.

JADEN is sweeping the room.

NUR enters, aged eighteen. Takes off her shoes. Watches BABY AYA sleep.

NUR. Here. Got you something.

NUR throws a blue plastic bag to JADEN. He looks inside.

Beat.

JADEN. From where?

NUR. There’s an Ethiopian restaurant near college.

JADEN. I don’t like you hanging around those types of places.

NUR. It’s a restaurant, not a brothel.

JADEN. I didn’t know it was legal here.

NUR. It isn’t.

JADEN. Nur!

JA...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Dedication
• Buggy Baby
• The Mikvah Project
• About the Author
• Copyright and Performing Rights Information