Tanika Gupta: Political Plays

Gladiator Games; White Boy; Sanctuary; Sugar Mummies

Tanika Gupta

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9781849432474
• eBook ISBN: 9781849435215
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

The first collection of plays by acclaimed British dramatist Tanika Gupta includes Sugar Mummies, White Boy, Sanctuary and Gladiator Games. Refusing to be pigeonholed as an 'Asian playwright', Gupta has a fresh perspective on race relations, generational divide and sexual politics. A National Youth Theatre production, White Boy attempts to make sense of school-age stabbings and the nature of inner city white identity, in an increasingly complex racial landscape. In Sugar Mummies, the gender politics of the sex trade are inverted as wealthy white women flock to the Carribean to take advantage of the native toy-boys. But who is exploiting who? On the eve of his release from Feltham Young Offenders Institution, Zahib Mubarek was attacked and killed by his racist cellmate. Gladiator Games is a verbatim drama that documents the Mubarek family's pursuit of the truth and the incompetence of the official response. In Sanctuary a London churchyard becomes a haven for the gardener Kabir. When a photo of an African church appears in this little Eden, a complex drama of morality and conscience unfolds.

SUGAR MUMMIES

Sugar Mummies was first performed on 5 August 2006 at Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Downstairs. Sugar Mummies continued at the Octagon Theatre, Bolton 12 September 2006 and the Birmingham Repertory Theatre 20 September 2006, with the following cast:

REEFIE, Victor Romero Evans

ANGEL, Lorna Gayle

SLY, Javone Prince

NAOMI, Vinette Robinson

ANDRE, Marcel McCalla

ANTONIO, Jason Frederick

MAGGIE, Lynda Bellingham

KITTY, Heather Craney

YOLANDA, Adjoa Andoh

Production credits:

Director, Indhu Rubasingham

Design, Lez Brotherston

Lighting, Rick Fisher

Sound, Paul Groothuis

Video, Mesmer

Characters

ANGEL
48-year-old Jamaican woman,
masseuse and hair braider on the beach

REEFIE
50-year-old Rastafarian, experienced gigolo,
Yolanda’s lover

KITTY
38-year-old white school teacher

SLY
streetwise gigolo, 22 years old

ANDRE
grill chef at the hotel, 24 years old, Angel’s son

ANTONIO
17-year-old hotel staff who puts out sunbeds

NAOMI
mixed-race woman, in her late twenties

YOLANDA
American woman in her early fifties

MAGGIE
white woman in her fifties

Act One

SCENE 1

We hear the sound of the waves lapping gently in a calm bay. The sun rises on a tropical beach in Jamaica with white sands and palm trees – the perfect beach.

A white woman, KITTY (thirty-eight), is lying flat out on a sunbed sunbathing.

REEFIE enters. He is a Rasta man in his early fifties, good looking, slim built and lithe. He is busy building a boat in the background, going to and fro, fetching wood etc. He carries a machete with him.

ANGEL, a middle-aged Jamaican woman, enters carrying a large heavy bag. She turns and waves at REEFIE.

ANGEL unlocks a small beach hut and rakes the sand out front. She puts up a sign: ‘ALOE VERA MASSAGES AND HAIR BRAIDING’.

She stands and looks out to sea. She looks tired. REEFIE approaches her with a flask and pours her a hot drink from it. She takes it wordlessly and drinks.

REEFIE: Look tired.

ANGEL: Early start.

REEFIE: Long journey from de mountains.

ANGEL: Yeah mon.

REEFIE: Tiny doin’ okay?

ANGEL: Fifteen an’ him want to pack in school. Him wan earn him living like him big brother.

REEFIE: Him earn better livin’ wid some school behind him.

ANGEL: Me tell him. Andre tell him. Cyan tell de buoy nuttin’.

A plane flies overhead.

ANGEL: Boat comin’ on?

REEFIE: Comin’ on good.

ANGEL: (Laughs.) Den what? You sail off into de sunset?

REEFIE: (Teases.) You come wid me. We be like Adam and Eve in Paradise.

ANGEL: Adam and Eve dem fall from grace.

REEFIE: We can change de story.

ANGEL: (Laughs.) What about all your women? Dey come after me and try drown me.

REEFIE: Me jus’ wan’ me a nice island girl.

ANGEL pushes REEFIE playfully. They laugh.

ANGEL: You hear about my man?

REEFIE: Me hear.

ANGEL: Him a walking duppy. Him die soon.

REEFIE looks at ANGEL with sympathy. She looks sad. ANGEL hands back her cup to REEFIE. He pads away through the sand back to his boat. ANGEL sits and waits for custom.

NAOMI enters. She is a mixed-race woman in her late twenties, in a swimsuit. She stands for a moment and stares out to sea in wonder.

We hear the distant call of hawkers calling out their wares.

‘Coconut, pineapple, mangoes, bananas Cigarettes, Marlboro light, cigarettes. Coconut, pineapple, mangoes, bananas.’

NAOMI pulls out a camera and takes a picture of the sea.

SLY walks by.

SLY: Pssst.

NAOMI ignores him.

Pssst. Hey. Pretty lady.

SLY beckons NAOMI to him.

NAOMI looks away. SLY looks around surreptitiously and approaches NAOMI.

What’s your name?

NAOMI: (Resigned.) Naomi.

SLY crouches next to NAOMI.

SLY: Sly.

He puts out his hand. NAOMI shakes hands. SLY holds on to her hand a little too long.

Wanna go jet-ski?

NAOMI: No…thank you.

SLY: Parasailing?

NAOMI: No…

SLY: How ’bout a glass bottom boat? I tek you out to the coral reef. We can go snorkel?

NAOMI: No…maybe another time.

SLY: You interested in a lickle weed? Ready-made, Bob Marley cones…only five dollars. Look.

SLY reaches into his pocket.

NAOMI: No…

SLY: Ten dollar bags. Island weed. De best.

NAOMI looks away.

What else I ...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half-title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Dedication
• Introduction
• Gladiator Games
• White Boy
• Sanctuary
• Sugar Mummies