Love and Money

Dennis Kelly

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781849431583
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

David conducts an office romance by e-mail. He has love at his fingertips. But a shocking admission unravels his relationship piece by chilling piece. Jess loves David. She believes happiness can be bought – but it doesn't come cheap in a world of easy credit. Jess and David's ideal blend of love and money is killing them. Funny but heart wrenching, this ingenious drama dares us to enter a dislocated world of bad debts and even worse desires. Love and Money opened at the Manchester Royal Exchange in October 2006 with a transfer to the Young Vic, London.

SIX

(JESS sits in a hospital waiting room. She is deep in thought. She stays like that for a while. There is blood on her sleeves. DAVID enters.)

DAVID: Fucking hell

JESS: I know

DAVID: Are you alright?

JESS: Yeah

DAVID: really?

JESS: yeah

DAVID: Are you?

JESS: Yeah, no I mean

DAVID: No?

JESS: No, I mean yeah, yeah, I am, I’m

DAVID: Are you?

JESS: Yes, please, stop

DAVID: are you sure, I mean have they fucking seen you or what?

JESS: Look there’s nothing wrong with me, don’t get all

DAVID: I mean is there anyone here?

JESS: clingy, because there’s nothing

DAVID: doctors or, I mean fucking hell where is everybody?

JESS: busy, they’re busy

DAVID: I mean have you spoken to anyone?

JESS: The police.

DAVID: Clingy?

JESS: Everything’s

DAVID: I’m not clingy, I’m worried

JESS: fine

DAVID: Are you okay?

JESS: I am, I’m

DAVID: You’ve got blood on your sleeve, Jess.

She looks at her sleeve.

JESS: What?

Yeah, no, that’s the man’s

DAVID: The man’s...blood?

JESS: Yes.

That’s the man’s blood.

He hugs her. They stay like that for a while.

DAVID: What happened?

JESS: He just stabbed

DAVID: Who, the man?

JESS: No, he stabbed the man.

DAVID: Who?

JESS: The other man

DAVID: Why did he stab him?

JESS: Because he bumped into him.

DAVID: He stabbed him because he bumped into him?

JESS: Yeah

DAVID: Because he bumped into him?

JESS: Yeah and

DAVID: Fuck

JESS: Yes, yeah, because he fucking

DAVID: What because he bumped into him?

JESS: Well, he was on the phone

DAVID: Who?

JESS: The man – no, sorry, the other man, the other man was on, he was on the phone, phoning he, and the man, he was running for a bus and the street was crowded so

DAVID: Where was this?

JESS: Oxford Street, he was running for a

DAVID: On Oxford Street?

JESS: Yes, he was, he was running for this

DAVID: On Oxford Street?

JESS: Yes, on, it was on Oxford Street, I said it was on Oxford Street

DAVID: Sorry

JESS: and he bumps into the other man and he knocks, right, and he knocks the phone out of his hands and it goes skittering

DAVID: The phone

JESS: yes, the phone, it goes skittering under this bus

DAVID: are you okay?

JESS: Yes I’m fine.

DAVID: under a bus?

JESS: yeah, yes, like in a joke or something

DAVID: Was it broken?

JESS: It was fucked

DAVID: Was it?

JESS: It was completely fucked

DAVID: You didn’t say it was Oxford Street.

Beat.

When you phoned. When you phoned you didn’t say it was Oxford Street

JESS: No, but I’m saying it now.

DAVID: Yeah, but you didn’t then

JESS: Because a man had been stabbed in the chest, David.

DAVID: Right.

JESS: He was stabbed, he was stabbed in the chest.

DAVID: Okay, I’m just

JESS: What?

DAVID: No, nothing. Sorry, I’m just

JESS: He was dying, the man was

DAVID: Is that what they said, that he’s dying?

JESS: No, they’re not saying anything

DAVID: Why not?

JESS: Because they’re trying to save his life.

DAVID: Why were you on Oxford Street?

Beat.

JESS: I was on my way to the fucking tube!

DAVID: I’m just asking, Jess.

JESS: He was stabbed!

DAVID: I know I’m just

JESS: Because of a phone

Because of a...thing.

Beat.

I think it was a Nokia.

DAVID: Was it?

JESS: Yeah, it was a, like Jane’s.

DAVID: Jane’s is a Nokia.

JESS: That’s what I’m saying, and th...