The Last of the Pelican Daughters

The Wardrobe Ensemble

• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781848429352
• eBook ISBN: 9781788503389
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

In folklore, pelican mothers feed their young on their own blood. Today, four sisters are trying to come to terms with their mother's death – and divide their mother's house between them.

Joy wants a baby, Storm wants to be seen, Sage wants to be paid, Maya doesn't want anyone to find out her secret. Granny's in a wheelchair on day release – and Mum's presence still seeps through the ceiling and the floors.The Pelican Daughtersare home for the last time.

The Wardrobe Ensemble's play The Last of the Pelican Daughters is a comedy about four sisters trying to come to terms with their mother's death. It combines the company's trademark irreverent humour and lovable characters to tackle the idea of what it means for young people to grapple with inheritance, loss and justice.

The Last of the Pelican Daughters was first staged at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2019. In addition to the full script of the play, this published edition includes an extensive oral history of The Wardrobe Ensemble by its members, and a workshop plan for two people of different generations to communicate and collaborate in person or online.

THE LAST OF THE PELICAN DAUGHTERS

The Wardrobe Ensemble

Characters

JOY PELICAN, the eldest child of Rosemary Pelican

DERREN, her husband, from Swindon

STORM PELICAN, the second-born child of Rosemary Pelican

SAGE PELICAN, the third-born child of Rosemary Pelican, an artist

MAYA PELICAN, the youngest daughter of Rosemary Pelican

DODO, her life partner, American

GRANNY, old

LARA, her carer

SOLICITOR, Susie Stephens of Stephen Stephens and Sons Solicitors

LUKE, a difficult brother, the youngest child of Rosemary Pelican

… at the end of a speech means it trails off or it indicates a pressure, expectation or desire to speak.

/ means an interruption when the next character’s text should start.

Prologue – Origin Stories

Projection: ‘The Last of the Pelican Daughters’.

Dimly lit room. Orchestral strings start tuning up.

Projection: ‘“They fuck you up, your mum and dad.

They may not mean to, but they do.

They fill you with the faults they had.

And add some extra just for you.” – Philip Larkin’

Projection: ‘“Hold dear to your parents for it is a scary and
confusing world without them.” – Emily Dickinson’

Projection: ‘“Remember who you are.” – Mufasa’

The four DAUGHTERS enter after the Mufasa quote fades,
wearing the same red dress.

JOY. Imagine an end-terrace Victorian house.

MAYA. On Mina Road.

STORM. In St Werburghs.

SAGE. In Bristol. Three bedrooms.

JOY. A living room.

MAYA. An upstairs bathroom and a downstairs toilet.

STORM. An open-plan kitchen diner and a nice-size garden.

JOY. Imagine a large dining table.

SAGE. Pink walls.

JOY. Very pink walls.

MAYA. Exposed floorboards.

STORM. Frida Kahlo painted on the chimney breast.

MAYA. Statuettes of Shiva and Buddha and Sau Sing Gong.

SAGE. Bookshelves filled with de Beauvoir and Butler and Plath.

JOY. This is where my daughters –

MAYA. The Pelican daughters –

JOY. Learned their values.

MAYA. Where I taught them to look at the world and imagine.

SAGE. Imagine a whole different way of being.

STORM. In 1977 this house was valued at…

Projection: ‘£6,067’.

JOY. A pint of milk cost…

Projection: ‘£0.12’.

SAGE. The Prime Minister was…

Projection: Photo of James Callaghan.

MAYA. And the Queen looked like…

Projection: Photo of the cover of the ‘God Save the Queen’ single by Sex Pistols.

STORM. And it was in that year that I bought this house using my student grant as a deposit.

JOY. This is where my children grew up.

SAGE. Where they had their first periods.

STORM. Where they fought each other.

JOY. It’s where they were born.

Music. ‘Damaged Goods’ by Gang of Four. As each sister tells her birth story, she takes off her red dress.

Projection: ‘Joy 1984’.

Joy, meaning delight or great pleasure, was born in September 1984. The agony of the thirty-six-hour labour was endured with only paracetamol and gas and air. A handy trainee midwife with a set of forceps, clamped down on my skull and yanked, ripping my mother’s vagina wider than the Avon Gorge. It was a day of pure joy. Joy.

Projection: ‘Storm 1987’.

STORM. Storm. A disturbance of the normal condition of the atmosphere. I was born during the hurricane-strength winds of 1987 on the night of the most destructive weather event in almost three hundred years. As Michael Fish cried himself to sleep, I tore through my mum’s perineum. Tiles fell out of the sky, trees toppled, the country came to a halt, and I gushed into the world at a hundred and fifteen miles per hour onto the kitchen table. My mother collapsed. My sister screamed from her cot upstairs. Storm.

Projection: ‘Sage 1990’.

SAGE. Sage, from the Latin sapere, meaning to taste, to discern, to be wise. In November 1990, as my mum push, push, pushed me out into a paddling pool in the living room, Thatcher was pushed out of Downing Street. Good job, Mum. Sage.

Projection: ‘Maya 1995’.

MAYA. Maya, Latin for great, was born in 1995. My mum sneezed and out I skipped, three weeks early, cutting short a family holiday to the Norfolk Broads. My mum would joke at every family gathering for the next twenty years that it was the only time I ever arrived early. Maya.

The SISTERS are in their mum’s house.

SAGE. Imagine this is where I drew my first picture.

MAYA. Where there are notches on the door that track our heights.

JOY. A strange smell that never quite goes away.

STORM. Mum’s endless attempts at vegetarian cooking.

SAGE. Mum was many things but she was not a cook.

STORM. This house was a meeting place for Mum’s friends.

SAGE. Coming and going, staying the night. Big parties.

JOY. Weirdos.

SAGE. Making placards in the kitchen.

STORM. ‘Bollocks to the bypass.’

MAYA. ‘Bulldozer fascists.’

STORM. Packing for festivals.

JOY. Festival after festival after festival.

MAYA. Mum’s music.

SAGE. The best record collection. Minnie Riperton, Patti Smith.

JOY. Always music in the house.

STORM. Mum’s taste knew no bounds.

SAGE. We’d make up dances to Grace Jones.

JOY. And Mum. At the centre of it all.

MAYA. Our mum, Rosemary Pelican, who lived in this house for forty-one years. Forty-one years before…

‘Symphony No. 45 in F-Sharp Minor “Farewell”: IV...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• An Oral History of The Wardrobe Ensemble
• Production Note
• Original Production Details
• The Last of the Pelican Daughters
• An Intergenerational Workshop
• About the Company
• Copyright and Performing Rights Information