Gary Owen: Collected Plays

Violence and Son; Iphigenia in Splott; Blackthorn; In the Pipeline; Mrs Reynolds and the Ruffian; Love Steals Us From Loneliness; Mum & Dad

Gary Owen

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN:
  9781783193318
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781783193325
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

The new collection of plays from multi-award-winning playwright Gary Owen. Includes the plays: Violence and Son, Iphigenia in Splott, Blackthorn, In the Pipeline, Mrs Reynolds and the Ruffian, Love Steals Us From Loneliness and Mum & Dad

Violence and Son: People know, you're my boy. And they know better than to lay a fucking finger on you. See? You are safer here with me, than you have ever been.' Liam's 17 years old, loves Dr Who and has lost his mum. He has had to move from London to Wales, to the valleys, to the middle of nowhere, to live with a dad he doesn't know. Whose nickname isn't Violence for nothing.

Iphigenia in Splott: What gets me through is knowing I took this pain, and saved all of you from suffering the same.' Stumbling down Clifton Street at 11:30 a.m. drunk, Effie is the kind of girl you'd avoid eye contact with, silently passing judgement. We think we know her, but we don't know the half of it. Effie's life spirals through a mess of drink, drugs and drama every night, and a hangover worse than death the next day - till one night gives her the chance to be something more. This powerful new adaptation of the enduring Greek myth drives home the high price people pay for society's shortcomings.

Blackthorn: Kate and Tom with their troubled daughter Evie decide to leave the London rat race and start afresh in the peace of the countryside. They buy a farmhouse in Wales… Watch the drama unfold. Blackthorn is a darkly comic new play by Gary Owen about the clash between the newcomers with their expectations and the way of life a Welsh farmer holds dear . . .

In the Pipeline: A massive liquid gas line tears through the countryside of west Wales. Gary Owen opens the doors to three of the residents in the port of Milford Haven, Andrew, Dai and Joan, who are caught in the path of this terrifying phenomenon.

Mrs Reynolds and the Ruffian: Friendships grow in the most unlikely of places. Mrs Reynolds is a little old lady. Jay is a troubled youth. When he vandalises her lovingly tended garden, the authorities send him back to help her fix it. It seems a recipe for disaster - but human beings are more complex than the headlines.

Love Steals us from Loneliness: A play about the stupid things you do when you're f*cked. A night out. Friends, alcohol, a shit club, a strop - the usual. But tonight is different. Tonight will change things forever. Gary Owen, one of Wales's foremost playwrights, returns to his hometown of Bridgend. The media have told us their Bridgend story, but what will a writer who spent his own teenage years here have to say?

VIOLENCE AND SON

for Brigid Larmour,
without whom I would have given all this up long ago

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Vicky and the Classic Paines Plough line-up for sticking with me. To Chris Campbell for a lovely pub lunch. And to Helen Raynor Ltd., for keeping me in a manner to which I am gradually becoming accustomed.

Violence and Son was first performed at the Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, Sloane Square, on Wednesday 3rd June 2015 with the following cast in alphabetical order:

JEN, Morfydd Clark

RICK, Jason Hughes

LIAM, David Moorst

SUZE, Siwan Morris

Director, Hamish Pirie

Designer, Cai Dyfan

Lighting Designer, Lizzie Powell

Composer & Sound Designer, Mark Melville

Characters

LIAM, seventeen.

JEN, eighteen.

SUZE, thirties.

RICK, forties.

All but LIAM have south Wales accents.

A forward slash in a speech (‘/’) indicates the
point at which the next speech should begin.

SCENE ONE

A living room in a flat above a convenience store. Beyond, a small Valleys town. Beyond that, all of Time and Space.

LIAM enters. He is dressed as Matt Smith’s Doctor. Fez, bow tie, the lot.

He stops. Looks round the place, wary.

He gets out a sonic screwdriver. Tries to scan the room. But there’s something wrong with the sonic.

JEN: (From off.) And?

LIAM: Sonic’s being temperamental. Hold on.

He fiddles with the sonic screwdriver.

LIAM: If I can just reverse the polarity of the – yes!

And now the sonic lights up, whines and buzzes. LIAM scans the room.

Inspects the reading on the sonic screwdriver.

Draws a conclusion.

And then he stops performing. Turns back to the door he came in through.

LIAM: Yeah we’re alright. Pissed bastard’ll be down the York by now.

JEN enters, dressed as Amy Pond, dressed as a WPC strippogram, as in ‘The Eleventh Hour’. Wig of long red hair, white shirt, chequered tie, stab proof vest, and a very short skirt. She looks round at the room. Liam watches her for a bit, then –

LIAM: So it’s not exactly Buckingham Palace.

JEN: Well I wouldn’t know.

LIAM: I’ll take you one day. Queen does a lovely tea, actually. Nice scones. Not stingy with the cream.

JEN: I wouldn’t be seen dead with that entitled bitch.

LIAM: Nah, fair enough…

He goes to pick up a DVD box.

LIAM: …she is a bit of a cunt.

He’s getting a disc out, giving it a bit of a wipe clean.

He stops.

LIAM: I feel bad now, calling the Queen a cunt.

JEN: Showing off a bit.

LIAM: D’you think?

JEN: Slightly.

LIAM: As an old lady – fine. I got no problem with her. I’m not calling her a – she’s someone’s mum.

JEN: I get it.

LIAM: I’m not the kind of person, would call an old lady a cunt.

JEN: It’s the institution –

LIAM: Yes!

JEN: – which is completely cunty.

LIAM: With you, sister.

He offers her a fist to bump.

She looks at it.

Looks at him. He’s very serious. Though obviously messing.

She bumps his first.

He turns away. She’s smiling about him a bit as he talks.

LIAM: So we’ll start with Rose, where we meet the Ninth Doctor. And of course Rose. And obviously… first ep of a reboot, lot to get done, lots of characters and concepts to introduce, and to be fair, Davies doesn’t do a bad job of it.

JEN: In your humble opinion…

LIAM: I just can’t believe you call youself a fan, and you’ve never seen Christopher Eccleston’s Doctor.

JEN: I don’t call myself a fan.

LIAM: She says, g...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• In The Pipeline
• Mrs Reynolds and The Ruffian
• Love Steals Us From Loneliness
• Iphigenia in Splott
• Violence and Son
• Mum & Dad