Roy Smiles: Ten Plays

Roy Smiles

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2018
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781786825261
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: British Drama

Ten plays by comedic playwright Roy Smiles, available digitally as an anthology or as single editions.

Contains the plays Schmucks, Baghdad Boogie, Bombing People, Reno, The Lad Himself, Working for Mammon, Waugh in Winter, Reading Gaol, The VIP, and The Weight of Days.

Waugh in Winter

by

Roy Smiles

‘Order lies in art; sanity in isolation…’ - Evelyn Waugh

Waugh in Winter

A play for a cast of three.

Description

Waugh in Winter is a piece about Evelyn Waugh, the acerbic right wing author of Brideshead Revisited. A supposed BBC interviewer from Woman’s Hour has come to interview ‘the cultural dinosaur’. What begins as a useful ploy by Waugh to taunt and sneer at a woman of a lower class becomes an examination of his frightful snobbery and hatred of womankind. This stems from the love and rejection of his first wife ‘She Evelyn’ who haunts his memory whilst reminding him of the decent and loving man he once was.

Cast

EVELEYN WAUGH - in his early-sixties.

SUSAN BROWN - in her late-twenties.

EVELYN GARDNER - in her mid-twenties.

Set

The study of a large Victorian country house.

Music

‘Poor Little Rich Girl’ - Noel Coward.

‘Mad Dogs and Englishmen’ - Noel Coward.

Dedicated to

Michael Codron; greater faith hath no man.

Act One

Darkness.

In the darkness piano music: Noel Coward’s: ‘Poor Little Rich Girl’.

The lights rise on:

A first floor study in a large Victorian country house; the shelves are filled with the books and papers of a successful author; newspapers lay strewn about, a tray with a bottle of Gordon’s gin, a soda siphon and several glasses stand on a cabinet left.

There are amongst other things, a deep leather armchair, an ornate writing desk, an upright chair and Persian rug on the floor; there is also an ear trumpet placed prominently on a shelf.

It is the middle 1960’s we presume.

EVELYN WAUGH, a novelist in his early-sixties, stares out of a large bay window that overlooks a garden below.

He wears a loud checked Edwardian gentleman’s suit, ridiculously out of time for the period.

EVELYN GARDNER, Waugh’s first wife, in her mid-twenties, dressed in the fashion of the 1920’s - very much the ‘flapper’ - enters from the shadows as if summoned; an imaginary memory.

The music fades.

WAUGH. It was warm then -

GARDNER. Golden -

WAUGH. An Indian summer -

GARDNER. We drank the 20’s away -

WAUGH. The 50-50 -

GARDNER. The Blue Lantern -

WAUGH. Rectors -

GARDNER. The 1917 -

WAUGH. The Embassy -

GARDNER. Quaglino’s -

WAUGH. Every night another party -

GARDNER. Parties with a theme -

WAUGH. Roman parties -

GARDNER. Pirate parties -

WAUGH. Cowboy parties -

GARDNER. Toga parties -

WAUGH. Russian parties -

GARDNER. Circus parties -

WAUGH. Baby parties -

GARDNER. Parties without end -

WAUGH. Or so it seemed -

GARDNER. We danced forever -

WAUGH. Dancing with Olivia -

GARDNER. Half saint, half whore -

WAUGH. Anyone’s willy welcome, save mine -

GARDNER. She couldn’t see you -

WAUGH. I was just a school teacher -

GARDNER. Penniless -

WAUGH. Up Queer Street -

GARDNER. Without a farthing -

WAUGH. No promise -

GARDNER. No hope -

WAUGH. No future -

GARDNER. You changed all that -

WAUGH. I stormed the battlements -

GARDNER. The commanding heights -

WAUGH. With a pen for a sword -

GARDNER. Spitting words like arrows -

WAUGH. A satirical Prince Hal -

GARDNER. The talk of his generation -

WAUGH. The Brightest Young Thing -

GARDNER. Lord of all he quipped -

WAUGH. Where is the p...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Dedication
• Schmucks
• Baghdad Boogie
• Bombing People
• Reno
• The Lad Himself
• Working for Mammon
• Waugh in Winter
• Reading Gaol
• The VIP
• The Weight of Days