TANK

Breach Theatre

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781786821539
• eBook ISBN: 9781786821546
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

"Come right out with the English, Peter. Don't even think in your own language. English, all the time!" In 1965, a researcher lived with a dolphin for ten weeks to try and teach him to speak English – part of a NASA-funded research project into human-animal communication. Condemned by the wider scientific community as an elaborate circus trick, the experiment remains a controversial episode in the space race between the two Cold War superpowers. Inspired by Margaret's time with Peter in the Dolphin House, TANK will explore the politics of language, the power of culture – and what happens when you inject a cetacean with LSD.

TWO

The cast assemble into a line in front of the audience. This is broken occasionally as moments of the action are fleshed out.

CRAIG: April, 1963. And if it were a movie, it would look like this:

JOE: A car, driving along a winding coastal road.

ELLICE: It’s red, vintage.

VICTORIA: No, it’s turquoise and chrome. Like Greased Lightnin’.

CRAIG: It’s battered. The windows are down and –

JOE: And well, it doesn’t have a roof –

CRAIG: Yeah.

JOE: So it’s roofless and we can see the woman, Margaret, driving.

ELLICE: Silk scarf blowing in the wind behind her.

JOE: And blazing out of the car radio –

VICTORIA: The Beach Boys.

CRAIG: It’s Lenny Kravitz, Are You Gonna Go My Way.

JOE: It’s 1963. It’s that Japanese song from Inherent Vice.

[Sukiyaki – Kyu Sakamato]

CRAIG: And the engine roars as the car, and it’s a red Corvette obviously, swerves around the corner.

ELLICE: She’s a college dropout so we’re looking at a Volkswagen beetle.

JOE: Margaret: young, obviously. Attractive, sure. She’s feminine –

VICTORIA: But rugged.

JOE: Ruggedly feminine. Intrepid.

ELLICE: She’s fresh-faced. Sunglasses and long dark hair and she’s humming along with the words.

VICTORIA hums along.

JOE: A white building comes into view. Straight white lines, cut into the cliff. Waves actually lapping at the edges.

VICTORIA: James Bond would be proud.

ELLICE: Because it is stunning. Breath-taking. Like instantly knocks-you-off-your-feet stuff.

CRAIG: And then the car would pull into this long gravel drive.

ELLICE: It would crunch underneath the wheels.

VICTORIA: And there’s like palm trees and they’re like, wafting in the breeze. Hot. Bright. Sunny. Blue skies.

CRAIG: The car door opens and these two long slender legs just, like, swing out.

ELLICE: Right. But we don’t excessively linger on these legs.

VICTORIA: Definitely not. Or pan up them.

ELLICE: Yeah, nobody’s panning up anything.

CRAIG: I know that, but we notice them.

JOE: Of course, we notice them. Who wouldn’t?

–

VICTORIA: And Margaret, she’s full of expectation.

ELLICE: Right, anticipation, because –

VICTORIA: Because she’s at the start of this new adventure at a New Frontier. And she’s… a pioneer.

ELLICE: A pioneer!

JOE: Yes.

ELLICE: I love that.

CRAIG: That’s perfect. The car door slams shut –

[Sukiyaki cuts out]

VICTORIA: And Margaret, she takes long swinging strides up the drive. Her heels sinking into the gravel.

ELLICE: Not heels, impractical, she’s wearing sturdy flats.

JOE: Boots. Made for walking.

ELLICE: Okay, and that’s just what they do – and she pushes through a set of doors. There’s a secretary at a desk, who’s talking on the phone. She looks up like –

JOE: Margaret shouldn’t be here. But she smiles.

CRAIG: A pioneer, remember. And the secretary would have said something like “One moment please ma’am – yes? Can I help you?”

JOE: And now Margaret would say this one killer line that sums up her whole devil-may-care, no guts no glory, gun-slinger –

ELLICE: Take-life-by-the-balls.

CRAIG: Right, schtick. She says –

VICTORIA: “I heard you have dolphins.”

–

CRAIG: And the secretary would nod, repeat: “Yes ma’am. Can I help you?”

ELLICE: But Margaret’s undeterred.

VICTORIA: She wants what she came for.

ELLICE: Because she’s hungry for it.

JOHN: 66th limited language experiment on the 8th April 1963. The time is 13:41 hours. First session with polyethylene line attached to objects.

ELLICE: John Lilly. In the middle of a language lesson with two dolphins.

JOHN: Pam – attach me the line. Sissy, give me the brush… Thank you! Pam – give me the pipe. Thank you!

JOE: His secretary calls to him over the tannoy. Somebody’s here to see him.

JOHN: 14:00 hours – end of session. Bye bye!

VICTORIA: His white lab coat swings out behind him...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• One
• Two
• Three
• Four
• Five
• Six
• Seven
• Eight
• Nine
• Ten
• Eleven
• Twelve