Dennis Kelly: Plays Two

Our Teacher's a Troll; Orphans; Taking Care of Baby; DNA; The Gods Weep

Dennis Kelly

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781783190126
• eBook ISBN: 9781783195114
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Langues et linguistique
• Subtopic: Arts du spectacle

Dennis Kelly is one of the UK's finest contemporary dramatists. This second volume of his work collects together: Our Teacher's a Troll, Orphans, Taking Care of Baby, DNA and The Gods Weep. Also features a foreword by journalist, author and critic, Aleks Sierz. "Without doubt, Kelly is one of the most multi-talented British playwrights to emerge in the last decade" - Aleks Sierz (from the foreword)

THE GODS WEEP

Characters

COLM

CASTILE

JIMMY

IAN

GAVIN

NADINE

RICHARD

CATHERINE

MARTIN

THE ASTROLOGER

SECURITY GUARD

BETH

HUSBAND

BARBARA

OLD SOLDIER

Also: Waiter, Big Soldier, Officer,
Woman, Man and Soldiers

This production of The Gods Weep was first performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company at Hampstead Theatre, London, on 12 March 2010. The cast was as follows:

BETH, Nikki Amuka-Bird
ASTROLOGER, Karen Archer
IAN/MAN, Neal Barry
GAVIN, Babou Ceesay
THE SOLDIER/HUSBAND, Sam Hazeldine
BARBARA, Joanna Horton
COLM, Jeremy Irons
JIMMY, Luke Norris
NADINE/WOMAN, Sally Orrock
CATHERINE, Helen Schlesinger
RICHARD, Jonathan Slinger
MARTIN/WAITER, Laurence Spellman
CASTILE, John Stahl
SECURITY GUARD/BIG SOLDIER, Matthew Wilson

All other parts played by members of the company.

Directed by Maria Aberg

Designed by Naomi Dawson

Lighting designed by David Holmes

Sound designed by Carolyn Downing

Video and Projection designed by Ian William Galloway and Finn Ross for Mesmer

Movement by Ayse Tashkiran

Company Dramaturg by Jeanie O’Hare

Fights by Malcolm Ranson

Company text and voice work by Charlotte Hughes D’Aeth and Stephen Kemble

Additional company movement by Struan Leslie

Assistant Director, Lu Kemp

Casting by Hannah Miller CDG

Production Manager, Rebecca Watts

Costume Supervisor, Chris Cahill

Company Manager, KT Vine

Stage Manager, Heidi Lennard

Deputy Stage Manager, Caroline Meer

Assistant Stage Manager, Nicola Morris

Act One

Board meeting. COLM, CATHERINE, RICHARD, CASTILE, NADINE, GAVIN, MARTIN, JIMMY, and IAN, COLM at the head of the table.

COLM: …absolute panic, terror, sweating, drenched, I was drenched in my own sweat, all over my brow, my armpits, my chest covered, my groin, the backs of my knees and my upper lip, and I was screaming, although I wasn’t screaming. I was screaming without screaming, my mouth was open and screaming but my throat was incapable of unclenching long enough for the air to sufficiently pass through my vocal chords and produce the required sound to scream, and so I was screaming without making a scream.

And I knew instantly that I was no longer dreaming. The dream was over, I knew that, the horror was gone but the fear still gripped my heart like a fist and I thought ‘I’m going to die.’ I knew I wasn’t going to die, I was safe, I knew that, but I thought ‘I’m going to die.’ And here’s the thing, the thing is, here’s the thing, the thing was that I welcomed that thought. But I was horrified of it at the same time because I thought if I die, if I die, you see, who am I? Who have I been? Who have I been and what have I done?

Beat.

And I went down stairs. And I went into the study and I poured a whisky into a cut crystal glass, a good whisky, a very good whisky. And I took it into the downstairs bathroom, and I sat on the toilet, in my pyjamas, like it was a dining room chair, the smell of whisky engulfing me, surrounding me.

And I stared at myself in the mirror. I stared at this face and I thought ‘who’s that?’ I mean it was me, I knew it was me, I wasn’t insane or panicking I knew who it was, but I just didn’t have a clue who it was.

Pause.

CASTILE: And… And what was the dream?

COLM: I dreamt that I was on a beach collecting shells.

CASTILE: Shells?

COLM: The most beautiful shells. Incredible. Beautiful. Iridescent. And there were hundreds of them, all different, all beautiful. And it gave me such joy. It gave me such a… joy, and peace, to collect these incredible shells. And it was just before dawn. And there was this thing on my belly, like, like a spot, a blackhead but large, and I squeezed it, like you would squeeze a blackhead and it squeezed out, but it was huge and it just kept coming, meters and meters of this, thick as your finger, it just kept on coming until there was a huge pile of it there on the floor. And it stank. And I looked at all my beautiful shells. And they were shit. They were just shit. They were shit shells. They were rubbish, just… shells, dirty, shit, dead things, just shit shells, just shit.

Silence.

CASTILE: Colm?

COLM: Richard. Catherine.

They step forward.

I have, in my life, done many bad things. But I have had to do bad things to make good things happen. When I took control of this company, thirty years ago, it was a third rate utilities provider. So I took it and I shaped it and I broke things to make things. I made you. All of you. I made you into beasts.

Thirty years on we now own subsidiaries across a vast range of fields; manufacturing, transport, security, petrochemical research. And it occurs to me now that perhaps we have fought enough. That perhaps growth has its limits.

Pause. They wait, not knowing if he’s finished.

There has been disagreement between you two, and I have fanned those flames like a father forcing children to fight. But do we make things that can only destroy, ravenous engines of wealth that can only move in one direction? I believe it i...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• Taking Care of Baby
• Orphans
• DNA
• The Gods Weep
• Our Teacher is a Troll