Barney Norris: Plays One

Visitors; Eventide; While We're Here; Nightfall

Barney Norris

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781786824134
• eBook ISBN: 9781786824141
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Theatre

The first collection of plays from the multi-award-winning playwright and novelist. Introduction by Alice Hamilton. Visitors: On a farmhouse at the edge of Salisbury Plain, a family is falling apart. Stephen can't afford to put his mother into care; Arthur can't afford to stop working and look after his wife. When a young stranger with blue hair moves in to care for Edie as her mind unravels, the family are forced to ask: are we living the way we wanted? Visitors is a haunting, beautiful look at the way our lives slip past us. Eventide: A love song, an elegy, a celebration: Eventide tells the story of three people whose worlds are disappearing. John is a landlord forced to sell up; Liz is a church organist who can't get a gig; Mark takes what work he can just to pay the rent. Their tales unfold round the back of a pub hidden deep in the heart of the Hampshire countryside - a heart that doesn't seem to be beating any more. While We're Here: Eddie and Carol were lovers once, but their lives went in different directions. Now they meet again on a park bench in a town full of memories, and find something still burns between them. Nightfall: On a farm outside Winchester, Ryan struggles to make a living off the land. His sister Lou has returned home after the death of their father to support Jenny, their formidable mother. Not so long ago, when a neighbour's Labrador strayed onto the farm, their dad reached for his shotgun. Now, when Lou's boyfriend Pete reappears, flush with money from his job at an oil refinery, Jenny fights to hold her children to the life she planned for them.

NIGHTFALL

For Hayden.

i.m. Margaret ‘Peggy’ Norris

O as I was young and easy in the mercy of his means,
Time held me green and dying
Though I sang in my chains like the sea.

Dylan Thomas, ‘Fern Hill’

Characters

RYAN
A farmer, 20s

LOU
Ryan’s younger sister, 20s

PETE
Underwater welder, 20s

JENNY
Ryan and Lou’s mum, 50s

The action takes place in the garden of a Hampshire farmhouse.

Nightfall premiered at the Bridge Theatre, London, on 1 May 2018, with the following cast in order of speaking:

Ophelia Lovibond – LOU

Sion Daniel Young – RYAN

Ukweli Roach – PETE

Claire Skinner – JENNY

Director, Laurie Sansom

Designer, Rae Smith

Sound Designer, Christopher Shutt

Lighting Designer, Chris Davey

Music, Gareth Williams

Video Designer, Ian William Galloway

This text went to press before the end of rehearsals and as such may differ from the play as performed.

Act One

SCENE ONE

A farm, late evening, almost dark. Night will fall across the course of the scene. An oil pipe runs across the stage, raised on struts above the ground so it stays level on its journey from Fawley up to Birmingham. There’s a septic tank at the edge of the stage. PETE wears a welding mask and carries a welding iron. RYAN watches him. PETE fires his welding iron, and a light jumps into the sky. PETE goes to work on the silage tank. He’s sealing in a tap he’s just installed. From the other side of the stage LOU watches them, sipping on a bottle.

LOU: And there’s no way anyone’s ever gonna know?

RYAN: It’s totally safe, Lou. Pipe like this loses gallons already. This runs for like a hundred miles, right? So you get leaks and dirt, loads of wastage. Sometimes it runs underground, and then you’ve got ploughing or roadworks. Then above ground there’s corrosion. Or someone’ll drive into it.

LOU: Or pikey lads might tap it and siphon some off.

RYAN: It’s not pikey.

LOU: No, just fucking reckless. Has he got it?

PETE has lifted his visor.

RYAN: Safeways here we come!

PETE dumps his welding gear on the ground.

PETE: You got it then?

RYAN grabs a metal object to be screwed onto the pipe, and passes it to PETE.

RYAN: Oh yeah.

LOU: Oi Pete your arse is hanging out!

PETE: What?

LOU: (Laughing at her joke.) No don’t worry.

PETE: Was my arse hanging out?

LOU: No, it was a joke. Cos you both look sort of like builders. And builders always have their arses out. Don’t worry.

PETE: You know this is basically what I do for a living?

LOU: Is it? I thought you did skilled work.

PETE: This is skilled work.

LOU: Doesn’t look it.

PETE: That’s cos I’m doing it badly. I’ll get this on.

RYAN: Woo!

PETE: Keep your tits on, work environment.

RYAN: Sorry.

PETE: This is a fucking SAS mission, remember. Special Forces shit.

RYAN: Gears of War.

PETE: Not Gears of War, for real.

LOU: X Box monkey.

RYAN: Fuck off.

PETE: It’s on.

RYAN: Woo!

LOU: Getting proper dark now.

PETE: Don’t worry. Wasn’t in scouts for nothing. Hashtag prepared.

PETE fishes about in his pocket, takes out a head torch, puts it on and turns it on.

LOU: Is that the scout motto?

PETE: No, that’s Durex.

LOU: Surprised you know that one, with your latex allergy.

PETE: My latex allergy is not a laughing matter.

LOU: Course not.

RYAN: You look proper Duke of Edinburgh.

PETE: Think that’s when I bought it. Shall we do this?

RYAN: Fuck yeah!

PETE sets to piercing the pipe by turning a massive spanner that’s tightening the bit of metal he’s just attached.

LOU: How much is it gonna make us then?

RYAN: I dunno like, loads. Don’t worry about it.

...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Introduction by Alice Hamilton
• Visitors
• Eventide
• While We’re Here
• Nightfall