Alpha Beta

Ted Whitehead

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN:
  9781783199471
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781783199488
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

'You know… when a structure has lost its essence but retained its shape, the geologists call it: a Pseudomorph. A false shape. That's our marriage.'

Mr and Mrs Elliot have imprisoned themselves within a domestic incarceration of marriage, family and society's twitching curtains. Battling through their self-made entrapment for the sake of the kids, they soon begin to destroy each other through an ugly routine of rows, affairs and suicidal blackmail.

Written with a controlled irony and an underlying compassion for its tormented characters, Ted Whitehead's bold and unflinching play asks questions about the choices we make to fit in with social conventions – questions that are just as relevant now as they were in 1972.

ACT THREE

Alpha Beta

Summer, 1971. The lounge. Very untidy, poorly decorated, and the furnishing is worn. On a table is a stainless steel tray with three tumblers full of water.

The French window opens on to an overgrown garden. A child’s bicycle lies on its side on the grass. It is raining. The time is about 9:00 in the evening and the light is beginning to fade.

MRS ELLIOT sits motionless in an armchair. She wears a shapeless cotton dress.

MR ELLIOT lets himself in the front door and enters. He wears a shiny brown suit and coat, soaked with rain. He looks tired, old and tense.

MR ELLIOT: Hi.

(MRS ELLIOT doesn’t answer or look at him.)

What’s the matter?

(He sits on the arm of a couch on her left. There is complete silence.)

What’s the matter?

(Silence. He stares at her. She stares ahead.)

Where are the kids? (Pause.) In bed?

(He gets up. Looks at MRS ELLIOT. Then he goes out and upstairs. She remains staring. Re-enters, quietly. Looks relieved.)

I didn’t wake them.

(He stands looking at MRS ELLIOT. She ignores him.)

Is your head bad?

(Her foot jerks. She ignores it. He stares at her foot. After a long pause her foot jerks again. He looks at her face but she is still staring straight ahead.)

Fancy a cup of coffee?

(He goes into the kitchen to make the coffee. He looks round the kitchen. It is in a mess.)

I came as soon as I could. There was a bit of a crisis in the office. You know…the announcement. Did you hear the announcement? Seems like the strike’s off…for a day or two, anyway. So for three weeks I’m sitting there waiting for the phone to ring and today it never stops. Mind you, I half expected it. As soon as the Government said they would use troops to lift perishable cargo — that was a couple of days ago — I knew they’d have to do something. (Pause.) The dockers said they’d handle perishable cargo for medical supplies, or anything urgent like that…

(MR ELLIOT comes back in. Takes the glasses off the tray. Looks at them for a moment. Leaves them on the table and takes the tray. Speaks from the kitchen.)

Some of the calls I’ve had…they’re crazy! They think because the strike’s off they’ll have supplies in the shops tonight! That all I have to do is telephone a few drivers and the job’s done. Deliveries under way! Perishable cargo… they don’t know what the word means.

(MR ELLIOT comes back with the tray, carrying two coffees and a plate of biscuits.)

They wouldn’t thank you for fifty thousand bad bananas! (He puts the tray down on the floor between the couch and the armchair. Offers MRS ELLIOT a cup of coffee. She ignores it. He puts it on the floor. He sits on the couch.)

Some biscuits there. (Pause.) How’s your head been?

MRS ELLIOT: My head’s been all right.

(Silence.)

MR ELLIOT: Oh…good.

(MRS ELLIOT gets up and goes out, upstairs. MR ELLIOT sips his coffee. He puts down the coffee and looks critically round the room. He looks toward the garden and sees the bike in the rain. Stands by the window and studies the state of the garden. Then looks again round the room. MRS ELLIOT comes back and sits in the same place.)

All right?

MRS ELLIOT: (Sitting.) What?

MR ELLIOT: (Sitting.) The…the kids?

MRS ELLIOT: I didn’t look.

(Silence. MR ELLIOT studies the stainless steel tray.)

MR ELLIOT: (Making conversation.) You’ve started using the tray.

MRS ELLIOT: (Staring ahead.) Mmmm.

MR ELLIOT: It’s a nice tray. Handsome.

MRS ELLIOT: (Looking at it.) We might as well use it.

MR ELLIOT: (Embarrassed.) Oh yeah…you might as well. It’s only going…

MRS ELLIOT: It was going rusty.

MR ELLIOT: Rusty? Really? (Picks it up and examines it.) It was supposed to be stainless steel.

MRS ELLIOT: They still rust.

MR ELLIOT: Oh…yeah…I suppose so.

MRS ELLIOT: (Bitterly.) And it was bought two years ago.

MR ELLIOT: (Scrutinizing it.) I know.

MRS ELLIOT: It’s underneath.

MR ELLIOT: What?

MRS ELLIOT: (Snaps.) The rust.

MR ELLIOT: Oh…yeah…I see.

MRS ELLIOT: That was why we decided to use it.

MR ELLIOT: You’ve cleaned it up…

MRS ELLIOT: You’d look silly giving it to your father now.

MR ELLIOT: Now?

MRS ELLIOT: It was supposed to be a birthday present.

(Bitterly.) Don’t you remember?

MR ELLIOT: (Guilty.) Yes.

MRS ELLIOT: He was asking about the job. How it was going.

MR ELLIOT: (Embarrassed.) Was he?

MRS ELLIOT: On Saturday.

MR ELLIOT: What did you say?

MRS E...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Act One: 1000 Women – Winter 1962
• Act Two: Pseudomorph 1966
• Act Three: Alpha Beta — Summer, 1971