Craig Higginson: Three Plays

Dream of the Dog; The Girl in the Yellow Dress; The Imagined Land

Craig Higginson

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781783197354
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Letteratura
• Subtopic: Teatro britannico

The first collection of plays from the acclaimed author and playwright. Includes Dream of the Dog, The Girl in the Yellow Dress, The Imagined Land and The Red Door.

THE GIRL IN THE YELLOW DRESS

Production History

The Girl in the Yellow Dress was a co-production between the Market Theatre (Johannesburg), Live Theatre (Newcastle) and the Citizens Theatre (Glasgow).

It was first performed at the Grahamstown Festival on 21 June 2010. It then transferred to the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town, the Traverse in Edinburgh, Live Theatre in Newcastle, the Citizens in Glasgow, the Stadsteater in Stockholm and the Market Theatre in Johannesburg.

A new UK production opened at the Salberg Studio at Salisbury Playhouse on 3 October 2011. The production transferred to Theatre503 in London, opening on 20 March 2012 with the same cast. Several minor text changes, inspired by the Salisbury production, have been made to this edition of The Girl in the Yellow Dress.

Since then, there have been other productions of the play in the United States and Britain.

For the Market Theatre production:

Cast

CELIA	Marianne Oldham
PIERRE	Nat Ramabulana

Production Team

Director	Malcolm Purkey
Designer	Gary McCann
Lighting	Nomvula Molepo
Producer	Tshiamo Mokgadi
Production Manager	Drummond Orr
Stage Manager	Emelda Khola

For the Salisbury Theatre production:

Cast

CELIA	Fiona Button
RICHARD	Clifford Samuel

Production Team

Director	Tim Roseman
Designer	James Perkins
Lighting Designer	Dave Marsh
Sound & Projection	Alex Twiselton

Characters

CELIA

PIERRE

The action takes place in contemporary Paris.

There is no interval.

Part One

THE PASSIVE

CELIA’s apartment. Her sitting-room is modern and impeccable, giving a suggestion of wealth. The bookshelves are filled with books. On a mantelpiece, there’s a vase filled with daffodils. A half-visible kitchen adjoins the sitting-room. There are also entrances from the front door and CELIA’s bedroom.

CELIA’s mobile phone is on a glass table. It buzzes like an angry bee.

CELIA emerges from the bedroom. She has just had a shower and is still getting ready. Perhaps she is brushing her hair. She is in her late twenties, pale and beautiful.

She ignores the phone and moves through to the kitchen area to prepare a coffee tray. The phone stops buzzing. Then it beeps.

The doorbell rings. CELIA goes to the door.

CELIA: Hello?

PIERRE: Hello.

CELIA: Are you Pierre?

PIERRE: I am him.

CELIA: Then you’d better come in.

PIERRE enters. He is French-speaking. Of African heritage. About twenty. He has dreadlocks and wears a dark blue polar neck jumper. While CELIA closes the door behind him, he regards the books.

CELIA: Would you like to take off your coat?

PIERRE: Thank you.

He removes his coat and hands it to her. She hangs it up by the door.

CELIA: I hope you drink coffee.

PIERRE: Yes.

She moves through to fetch the coffee tray.

PIERRE: It’s generous of you to see me.

CELIA: It’s what I do.

PIERRE is gazing around surreptitiously. He sees CELIA’s row of notebooks on the shelf.

PIERRE: What’s the name of this yellow flower, la jonquille – en anglais (the daffodil – in English)?

CELIA: Daffodils.

He smells them, but they have no smell.

PIERRE: Daffodils –

CELIA enters with the tray – on which is a cloth, two small, glazed mugs, a bowl of sugar and the coffee. Each object is beautiful, selected with care. She sets the tray down.

CELIA: Please make yourself at home.

PIERRE: At home?

CELIA: Take a seat.

PIERRE: Make myself at home. This is a way of saying please sit?

CELIA: It’s a way of saying please relax.

He sits in an armchair at a right angle to the couch.

CELIA: So you’re Pierre....