Nothing

Lulu Raczka

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781783196920
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Sciences sociales
• Subtopic: Violence dans la société

In Nothing eight young people - including a Vandal, a Stalker and a Porn Girl - recount their experiences, capturing the apathy rampant in today's youth. Yet Nothing is much more than a series of monologues. It is about - among other things - cupcakes, action films, crap television, shitting, sex, buses and stalking. It is about alienation and being young. Initially written as eight monologues by Lulu Raczka (winner of the Sunday Times Young Playwriting Award), Nothing asks questions about the nature of theatre itself. In its original production by Barrel Organ Theatre the performers improvised a new cut with every performance, each starting the show without knowing which particular monologue they would be performing on that occasion. Nothing is thus a game for both performer and audience, but it is also a serious interrogation of the structures within which we live.

BFF: You know Berlin doesn’t have any CCTV?

I just heard that –

I don’t even know if it’s true –

Some guy told me.

He’s probably talking shit.

But –

I mean –

If it’s true –

I just don’t get why?

I mean –

CCTV is there to protect people –

It’s there –

You know –

So that people know they’re being watched –

That they can’t just do what they want –

It’s important.

I get that it doesn’t always work.

I mean –

Look at what happ –

But still –

It’s –

I told her to text me when she got home.

I mean –

We always do that –

You know –

It’s what they tell you to do at school –

And on TV and whatever –

I just went to sleep

She never text me –

But I was asleep anyway –

So I guess –

She doesn’t really talk about it –

Well –

Sometimes –

I dunno –

Once in a while I get a phone call and she’s on the other end in tears and I just –

I dunno –

Freeze up –

Cause what can I actually say to her?

I don’t understand what she’s going through –

How can I?

I can give her fuck all –

I –

She used to be so fun –

I know I would say that –

Cause –

Obviously –

She’s my friend –

Why would I be friends with her if she wasn’t fun?

But actually –

To be honest –

I have loads of fucking boring friends –

She was so funny too –

But also –

She was really hot –

Cause usually girls –

They’re either hot or they’re funny –

Like –

You know –

They’re not both –

Cause if you’re always hot –

Why do you need to be funny?

Everyone is always gonna like you –

I tried to call her in the morning –

But there was no answer –

I didn’t even think anything of it –

I just waited for her to call me back –

We decided that she was the only one of our friends who could pull off a click –

You know what I mean?

Like a sassy girl click?

Obviously she wouldn’t –

But if she did it wouldn’t be lame –

OK –

Well –

It would still be lame –

But she could have done it way better than any of us –

Not that I would –

You know –

This guy dumped her really harshly –

And seriously –

I don’t know why cause he was fucking hideous –

A week later he turned up to a party with some other girl –

And I mean –

She wasn’t even hot –

Like not at all –

And we were all like –

Do a sassy girl click!

Do a sassy girl click!

Do a sassy girl click in her face!

And she wouldn’t

Cause –

Obviously –

That would be weird

I keep thinking though –

What if this happened to me?

Cause it happens all the time

And now –

Every time I walk home –

I just think –

Is this gonna be my moment?

Is it gonna happen tonight?

Like –

As if like –

It’s definitely going to happen –

And I think –

What am I wearing now?

And sometimes I think that I’m fucking crazy –

And then I think that I’m just being sensible –

Cause –

You know –

It does happen a lot –

And then I think that crazy people think they’re just being sensible –

So yeah –

But it does happen all the time –

He cut off all her hair.

Her mum didn’t say that on the phone –

So when I went to see her I didn’t ...