Wesker's Love Plays

Arnold Wesker

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN:
  9781840027914
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781786822062
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

Includes the plays The Four Seasons, Love Letters on Blue Paper and Lady Othello

Spanning three decades of impassioned and inspiring work, the three plays in this volume show in cross-section Arnold Wesker's development as one of the key figures of late-twentieth-century drama.

Each play grapples with the timeless problems accompanying two people in love. The most intimate and personal of relationships are placed under uncompromising scrutiny. Bold, elemental and structurally satisfying, The Four Seasons (1964) depicts the ebb and flow of a couple's relationship, its power games and its politics, over the course of its year-long life. In Love Letters on Blue Paper (1977) we witness the late-blooming love of a woman for her dying husband in a drama of memory and companionship. Playful, witty and continualy surprising, Lady Othello (1987) gets right to the heart of an urgent, all-consuming, passionate affair.

LADY OTHELLO

Characters

STANTON MYERS

44, professor of American literature, British, Jewish

ROSIE SWANSON

30, about to become a student, New York, Catholic, black

STELLA-BELLA

30 to 35, New York Jewish, bony, not beautiful but not plain; a dropped-out J.A.P. working as a waitress

FRANCESCA

40, restaurant owner

JUDITH’S VOICE

English

DAUGHTER’S VOICE

English

DELI SHOP ASSISTANT

MAN

Stella-Bella’s fella for the night

WOMAN

‘Miss Minnelli’, outside Sardi’s, a customer and

VOICES

Time

New York. 1976.

Note

This is a play for three actors. The actress playing STELLA-BELLA can also play FRANCESCA, DELI SHOP ASSISTANT, DAUGHTER’S VOICE and WOMAN, thus commanding the talent of a first-rate actress. STELLA-BELLA’s fella makes a brief, fifteen-second appearance and can be played by a stage manager. All the VOICES off except one can be played by stage managers or can be recorded. One VOICE off is a central role and must be recorded by, preferably, a well-known actress. This is the voice of STANTON’s wife, JUDITH.

Act One

INTRODUCTION

	House lights fade. Sound of a Boeing jumbo jet in flight fades up and retreats.
	In the darkness:
JUDITH (VO)	By the way, did your father tell you he was going to New York to give a lecture?
DAUGHTER (VO)	(Cheerfully.) No, he’s not. He’s going to see his girlfriend. Stop him.
JUDITH (VO)	Will you not suggest crazy things like that. They upset me.
DAUGHTER (VO)	How long’s he going for?
JUDITH (VO)	Twelve days.
DAUGHTER (VO)	Twelve days to give a lecture? Mother!

SCENE 1

	Aeroplane toilet.
	STANTON finishing shaving with old-fashioned cut-throat. Dangerous! Probably belonged to his father. He’s a professor of American literature; handsome, wry, gentle, confident by nature. When finished he puts on a black rollneck sweater. Till then –
STANTON	Repeat after me: this relationship can’t possibly work because, one: when I’m sixty she will be forty-six. Two: New Yorkers, bless them, are afflicted with democracy and feel it a duty to have opinions about everything! Three: she has to be right. Four: she doesn’t converse, she lectures, too ardently, too often, too loudly and in public places. Five: seems unable to distinguish between disagreement and hostility, rational exchange difficult therefore. Six: she’s never on time, imagines punctuality is a sign of servility. Seven: she’s combative, competitive, possessive and contrary. Eight: she has a therapist. And nine: I love my family. (Pause....

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• The Four Seasons
• Love Letters on Blue Paper
• Lady Othello