Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again.

Alice Birch

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781350266070
• eBook ISBN: 9781783197644
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

You are expected to behave…
Use the right words
Act appropriately
Don't break the rules
Just behave.

This play is not well behaved.

Alice Birch examines the language, behaviour and forces that shape women in the 21st century and asks what's stopping us from doing something truly radical to change them.

Winner of the George Devine Award for Most Promising New Playwright 2014.

Act One

REVOLUTIONIZE THE LANGUAGE. (INVERT IT.)

–	I don’t understand.
	.
	I don’t understand how you do what you do to me.
–	I don’t Do anything to you.
	I Don’t.
	I do
	Whatever I do
	And whatever You think or feel or
	Whatever
	Is all you – is All you.
–	I want to make love to you.
	You are a Brilliant Bright Bright thing – do you have any idea what your shoulders, bare like that, do to me, do to my structure, to my insides – I want to make a brooch out of your hair and your pupils and your ribs – and I know that sounds fucking – but I want to pin that to my heart and let my blood drain I’m done it’s You let’s Everybody Out Now World I Am Gone.
	.
	I bought you bluebells.
	I made him wrap them – I had the little man wrap them in brown paper for you – I want – and I have been thinking – All Day Long
	That I want to make love to you – don’t move, don’t move, just for a second just could you stay exactly where you are?
–	I
–	You look completely perfect
–	Can I
–	You look completely and utterly perfect – stay exactly as you are
	.
–	Can I just
	put this down?
–	No
–	Are you – ?
–	It’s your body – it’s the line of your body
–	Yeah, but can I
–	It’s the line your neck makes
–	Makes?
–	Your hip, there like that
–	It’s just my / hip
–	/ Is perfection
–	I’m just.
	I’m going to move now
	Because there’s all this [mess] to clear up and.
–	You’re perfection.
–	What’s that [noise] – is that a
–	Perfection
–	Nightingale or a
–	Complete Perfection
–	Wine? Do you want wine?
–	All through dinner, all I could think about was getting you home and making love to you – the only thought in my head, the whole way through that fucking cheese course was That mole on your jaw and how I wanted to lick it.
–	You ate loads of cheese
–	I was thinking about licking your mole
–	You ate an Enormous amount of cheese – I was beginning to feel Worried, I was considering Expressing Concern – you physically Put me off cheese, I could barely finish my watermelon – d’you want a drink or
–	I can barely hear what you’re saying – I’m obsessed – I barely heard a word Anyone said – all I could think about was fucking you
–	They were talking about North Korea
–	Your lips. That lip.
–	Over cheese. I thought you were really into it, I thought you were really Absorbed – you looked – they were talking about prison camps and Genocide – about Mass Genocide – you looked. You Looked Moved.
–	All I could think about was coming home, laying you down upon that bed
–	That bit about that family who’d had all their fingers cut off, I thought
–	Thinking about you and
–	I thought you were were Welling Up
–	Laying you down upon that bed And making love to you.
–	.
–	And making love to you
–	.
–	Laying you down. And making love to you.
–	Or
–	No or
–	Or
–	There Is no Or – there is no other option
–	Yes but
–	I want to make Love to you
–	Or
	With?
–	.
	With.
	With.
	.
	With you – make love – I want to make love With you
–	Yeah?
–	Yeah
–	Yeah
–	Yes
–	Aaaaand?
–	And, yes, and and kissing you, I want to kiss you – With you, I want to kiss With / you
–	/ Kissing you is fine
–	Kissing you and and holding you and putting my hand at the bottom of your back and and What?
–	It’s the Putting, the Putting sounds
–	Putting
–	Something about it sounds
–	Putting? putting? putting. putting. putt ting. put ting I
–	No no no no, okay, no you’re right, you’re right, putting is fine, putting is Good, putting is – you’re putting – putting – putting your hand at the bottom of my back
–	And and I’m kissing you
–	Yeah
–	I’m kissing you and and pressing you to me – can I say pressing?
–	If I feel like I want to be pressed – which, now I think of it, yes, I do – then yes
–	Good
–	Really good
–	Pressing you to me so Fucking Hard – is that
–	Keep going
–	That when you fall back into your own space the marks of me are all over you
–	And me on you
–	Like a a a a an imprint and a
–	And me on you
–	And I’m kissing your neck
–	Marks of me are on you though
–	I’m kissing, I’m kissing hard and I’m running my hands up and down your sides again and...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Cast
• Creative Team
• Act One
• Act Two
• Act Three
• Act Four