Rockets and Blue Lights (NHB Modern Plays)

Winsome Pinnock

• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781848429406
• eBook ISBN: 9781788503365
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

'I am the slave ship. Wrecked. Empty. I am a shark, livid with the desire for blood. I am the sea, boiling with fury.'

Amid the gloom of Victorian England, a black sailor, Thomas, prepares to take one last voyage, while an ageing painter, J.M.W. Turner, seeks artistic inspiration in a half-remembered story. In twenty-first-century London, an actress finds herself handcuffed by history – two centuries after abolitionists won her ancestors their freedom.

Winsome Pinnock's astonishing play retells British history through the prism of the slave trade. Fusing fact with fiction, past with present, the powerfully personal with the fiercely political, Rockets and Blue Lights asks who owns our past – and who has the right to tell its stories?

Winner of the 2018 Alfred Fagon Award, the play opened at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, in March 2020, directed by Miranda Cromwell.

'The godmother of Black British playwrights' - Guardian

Prologue

2007. ESSIE and LOU stare at Turner’s painting The Slave Ship (which the audience can’t see) on the ‘fourth wall’ of a museum on board a ship, which is the reproduction of a slaver. LOU wears a beautiful designer gown and jewellery.

LOU glances at ESSIE who is absorbed in the painting.

LOU. Tell me what you see.

ESSIE. The ship tries to distance itself from the nightmare, but is dragged back to the furious feeding frenzy by the undertow. Amber, gold, chrome, the darkest darkest sea.

LOU. I nearly drowned once. At the lido in Streatham. Swimming bodies made it look easy, so I dove in. When they fished me out I was limp, dead for a split second. Why does he make something so ugly beautiful?

ESSIE. Other painters produce noble victims or make the abolitionists into saints; Turner comes up with this portrait of a massacre. It’s incredible. (Slight pause.) What do you see?

LOU. A pair of disembodied black tits, and a leg that looks like a pig’s trotter.

They both laugh.

They gaze at the picture.

ESSIE. At first you can’t make out what’s going on. You have to look, really look. You can’t turn away.

Slight pause.

LOU. When I look at this painting I think about his amazing use of colour, his elegant suggestion of bloodshed in a captured sunset. The only person we can see has her head submerged in the water. I look at this painting and I don’t think about what’s just happened to those poor men, women, children. They’re invisible.

ESSIE. We can’t see the drowning bodies but we know they’re there. We have to imagine, and what we imagine is so much worse than anything he could show us. He turns the world upside down. The sky reflects the carnage underneath. You can taste the blood in the water, you can hear their screams.

LOU. And we just stand here looking; watch their hands search for ours, knowing full well that we can’t help them.

ESSIE. The critics bludgeoned him for this. They all thought he’d gone mad.

Silence. ESSIE takes a sneaky sidelong look at LOU as she contemplates the painting.

LOU. When I look at this I feel as though I’m inside Turner’s mind. And that is not a good place to be.

ESSIE. It’s art. All it can do is bear witness.

They look at the painting. LOU takes a quick sidelong look at ESSIE.

LOU. I’m getting together with a few friends later. There’ll be a lot of creative people there. I think you’ll find it interesting. Will you come?

ESSIE. I er . . . I um . . . thank you, but I –

LOU. You’ve heard of Reuben Sumner?

ESSIE. Of course . . . he’s amazing. He makes those underwater sculptures . . .

LOU. He’s also – you know, for his day job he’s a marine archaeologist. He was historical adviser on that film about Turner.

ESSIE. Oh yes, that film. The Ghost Ship.

LOU. Have you seen it?

ESSIE. Yes, I’ve seen it. It has its moments, but . . .

LOU. I know what you mean. England is an abolition theme park right now, and I hate the way this painting contributes to the abolitionist narrative of white saviourism.

ESSIE. Does it, though? I mean look at it, it’s an extraordinary indictment of those very narratives, isn’t it?

BILLIE enters carrying a clipboard.

Hello, you. What are you doing here? Where’s Mr Richmond?

BILLIE. Don’t know, miss.

ESSIE. You’re supposed to be doing the Coffle Walk with him.

BILLIE. I don’t like him, miss. I prefer to hang with you.

ESSIE. Just because we’re not on school property doesn’t mean that we’re ‘hanging out’. You’ve got to treat today like one long lesson.

BILLIE (notices LOU). Oh my days. It’s her. Captain Thingy. It’s her, miss.

ESSIE (amused by BILLIE’s excitement). What are you talking about?

BILLIE. It’s her, miss. Off the telly. Captain Sola Andrews of the space ship SS Rego.

ESSIE. Oh. (Suddenly realising who LOU is.) Oh.

BILLIE. What’s she doing here, miss?

LOU (holds her hand out). Very nice to meet you.

BILLIE and ESSIE are star-struck, stand with their mouths open. ESSIE quickly pulls herself together.

ESSIE. Where are your manners, Bille? Say hello.

LOU shakes BILLIE’s hand. He can hardly speak.

BILLIE. And she’s in that film. I seen the posters everywhere. Can I have your autograph, Captain?

LOU. Of course. And you don’t have to call me Captain. You can call me Lou. Do you have a pen? Where shall I sign?

BILLIE gives LOU his clipboard. LOU looks at it.

You’re a very talented artist.

BILLIE. It’s this boat-museum, Captain.

LOU (to BILLIE). I don’t want to sign on that, do I? It’ll look as though it’s my drawing instead of yours. (Turns the page, signs.) There.

BILLIE. It’s going to take us up the river. When’s it sailing, miss?

ESSIE. It’s leaving at five o’clock, after the Coffle Walk.

BILLIE. Are you coming with us?

LOU. Me? Oh no. I’ve just come to look at this painting.

LOU hands back the clipboard.

I’ll tell you a secret, though: This is the boat we used in our film.

BILLIE. Is it? Wow.

LOU. The production company donated it to the Foundation and they turned it into this floating museum.

BILLIE. And I’ll tell you a secret . . . I’m going to be famous, too. I’m going to be a footballer or a boxer, or a street dancer.

LOU. Well, you’ve got a lot of options there.

BILLIE. Man U’s gonna buy me for millions of pounds.

ESSIE. Run off and find Mr Richmond, Billie. He’ll be going mad with worry.

BILLIE. Do I have to, miss?

ESSIE. Yes, you do. Go on. I’ll catch you up.

BILLIE. I think you’re awesome.

LOU. Well, I think you’re awesome too.

BILLIE is made up. He runs off.

ESSIE. I’m sorry . . . I didn’t . . . I didn’t recognise you . . .

LOU. I wouldn’t have got talking to you if you had.

ESSIE. You’ve been nominated for an award, haven’t you? Of course. That’s why you’re . . . I love your dress. Aren’t you going to be late?

LOU. I’m not going. No point. I won’t win.

ESSIE. You might. It’s an interesting film.

LOU (suddenly). Did you see that? The woman in the painting. She moved.

ESSIE. Sorry?

LOU (laughs at herself). I thought I saw . . . That’s ridiculous. There! Look, she did it again. She pulled her head out of the water. She looked right at me. Jesus, it’s time for me to leave. I’ve got to get ready for the . . . You are coming, aren’t you?

ESSIE. If you’re sure . . .

LOU. Here’s the address. (She gives ESSIE her card.) You know, when Turner died John Ruskin tried to burn his old friend’s secrets: lurid sketches he’d discovered of genitalia and couples fucking. To my mind that proves Turner’s pornographic tendency. I’m not surprised that this painting drove Ruskin mad. It’s beginning to have the same effect on me.

ACT ONE

Scene One

2006. London. A rehearsal room. TREVOR is on his mobile phone. REUBEN is putting papers into files. The actors playing PEARSON and JOHNSON sit together, going over lines. JEANIE, the PA, has a tape measure around her neck and is handing out cups of tea and coffee.

ROY. Fancy meeting you here. Long time no see.

LOU. Good to see you, Roy.

ROY. Me and Deanne were talking about you just the other day.

LOU. How is Deanne?

ROY. You know Deanne. You changed your number? I tried calling a couple of times, couldn’t get through.

LOU. I’m mostly based in the States now, Roy.

ROY. Yes, I heard.

JOHNSON. ‘She danced?’

PEARSON. ‘I made su...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Original Production
• Dedication
• Characters
• Rockets and Blue Lights
• About the Author
• Copyright and Performing Rights Information