The Prize

Richard Stockwell, Steve Gilroy

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9781849434393
• eBook ISBN: 9781849435277
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

For some making it to London 2012 has been literally a matter of life and death and the struggle is not over yet. Get the inside track into the true stories behind Olympic success from the team that presented the multi-award-winning show Motherland, the hit of the 2008 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The Prize draws on interviews with past Olympic medal winners and aspiring first-time competitors. Full of sacrifice, tragedy and touching humour, these stories are brought to life with dynamic physicality taking the audience on a journey – the inside experience of being an elite athlete striving for the ultimate prize.

SCENE 1

Charmian is raised above the stage, as though on a high diving board. An image of black water is projected.

CHARMIAN: Ooooh yes. On the ten metre board, you could look south and see Redcar, you could look north and see, Sunderland. I’ve dived from the ten metre in a howling gale, rain, snow all sorts of weather I’ve done. Dawdon Pit Pond, yes. It was, water was always warm, always lovely and warm because it was the, the, it was the pit cooling pond so. Er, I understand that the water went round the engines, for the mining machinery, to cool them down and came in back all warm, there was a big pipe at the far end where the water tumbled out, lovely and warm, used to go and sit under the water there.

But er, ma, ma and I, we lived in Thornley and we used to take the bus down to Seaham. Then take the bus down into Dawdon and walk the last half mile or so to the pit. One thing that er, I, used to worry me a little, er is, when it was really windy and going off into a dive from ten metres, er would it make me go over or shah…or flat, would I hurt myself? But the wind never did, it made me turn but it never made me change my angle.

It was concrete on the bottom of the pool but then there was the kind of sludge, er which if it [was] undisturbed would probably be about this deep, you could go down there and bring up er, fistfuls of stuff and it was black, black, black you know but er…

And it’s a sense, it’s a sense of balance. It’s a sense of balance but it’s also being very aware of where you are in space. I used to do two and a half somersaults inward from ten metres. Now in Dawdon the water was dark and the sky was light, when I went to Blackpool for a, it was a, it was a, it was in Blackpool, can’t remember it, championship? No, I don’t think it was a championship, I think it was a…a trial again, erm, the ceiling was dark and the water was light, and I lost my sense of position and I crashed. I, I landed, I did three somersaults and landed on the water curled up and I had two black eyes, the water came up into my eyes. I, I, I’d got the light and the dark mixed up. I dived again and this time I spun too slowly and I ended up with two long bruises down each thigh and actually the skin broken on my hip bone (Claps hands.). And there were times years later even now when I begin to sweat, my hands begin to sweat when I think about it because I still remember.

Fear. Fear of crashing again, it’s not fun, water’s awful hard yeah.

SCENE 2

ROGER BLACK enters and addresses the audience as a motivational speaker. A Powerpoint presentation in the background.

ROGER: Well, my opening gambit is, you make people laugh but I mean it’s to get people…no, the opening gambit is to get people to buy in so y’know, my opening thing is, well I do a few gags to begin with but, that ultimately I’m here to share with you things that I learned throughout my career… Oh you’d like it from a theatre point of view, ’cause it’s theatre. Yeah, ’cause what we do is, is, we open up the people’s minds… I’m here to share with you things that I learned throughout my career that allowed me to not only run fast but to have my greatest day at the end of my career at the ’96 Olympic games in Atlanta, where I won the Olympic medal, silver medal in the 400m. And then I say, the reason it’s my greatest day is because it took place on the greatest stage of them all.

SLIDE PROJECTED.

Slide text ‘Roger Black. 400m Runner. Silver medallist, Atlanta 1996.’

I’ll give you a brochure so you can have an idea of it and then you’re more than welcome to come and watch us because it, as you know, it’s not what you talk about and what you do on paper, it’s what you do in front of…the skill is, the, is the, is the, is the…is the delivery of it, and believing it, which I do.

Doesn’t matter to you how fast I ran. It means nothing to you how fast I ran. If I told you I ran 44.1 or 44.6 it would make no difference to you at all. The medal is the medal. It’s not defined by a time and that’s it. So my overriding emotion was relief and then completion. This should never…this could easily not have happened because of all the injury and setbacks and they can nev –, this can never be taken away from me and that’s it, y’know, and I will be defined by this moment for most of my life – which is true.

Let’s dig deeper. So what does finding your passion mean? How we gunna do that? What does, y’know, belief, what does that mean to you? I mean, come on you’re not going to run 44 seconds is it, it’s not…but what does it mean to you?

SCENE 3

SLIDE PROJECTED.

Slide text ‘Jessica Eddie. Rowing eight. Beijing 2008, fifth place. Selected for London 2012.’

JESS: I think I always wanted to. I knew from a very young age that I wanted to go to the Olympics. I really think. I think this year, and I’ve seen it so much more as it’s turned into 2012, that the nation is taking pride in itself, and it is, it is getting more excited about, people, the world are going to be looking at us. This is the moment. And I think people are taking, and maybe it’s the Jubilee as well, people are taking massive pride in Great Britain… I know it’s costing a lot of money… I’m sorry about that…but… (Laughing.) that’s the, that’s the nature of the beast. It’s…it’s not the greatest show on earth for free.

CHORUS OF VOICES OVERLAPPING – Individual names appear

and dissolve on the screen.

ROGER: I needed it. Because I didn’t want to look back over my career and know that I’ll have been given the chance and I didn’t take it. I didn’t want / to say if only.

JOHN: I’ve trained for fifteen years to get to the Olympic Games since I was ten, eleven years old… I’ve got one / chance. This might be my only chance.

JESS: Well, we, we qualified our boat last year at the world championships, so uhm, we came in the top five in the World Championships, earned a place, a berth, at the Olympics. Uhm…so we qualified. It was great.

VIV: Oh, the Olympics is everything. Before? My ambition was to learn to walk again.

JESS: So uhm…I pretty much, almost sealed my fate with, in that race in getting in. But I mean I’ve had to perform since then, and I’ve shown through my training that I’m still one of the top girls to be in the boat, so. / Yeah…

KIRA: …it was always a goal to make an Olympics it doesn’t have to be 2012, people are like all the time ‘are you going to 2012, isn’t your aim 2012?’

JESS: When it goes right, that’s what makes it amazing. That you can get nine people on one day, for six minutes, thinking the same thing at the same time. Every stroke… Ahh.

Laughs.

JOHN: I had a few signals for me mum. I’d wink to me mum and I’ve kept that going / ever since.

KIRA: [The] hysteria with 2012 has been insane there are

so many people who beforehand, had no Olympic / ambition…

JOHN: Erm, where I said to me mum and dad that on the start

line I’d stroke me hair and also give them a wink to say hi, and also I’d give a wave / as well.

KIRA: …and they all believe they can make it if they pour enough money into it and stuff, and I’m sure that’s the case with a lot of sports to be honest. There’s so much pressure from the / government…

BETH: Anyone wants to be an elite athlete you’ve got this 10,000 hours before you become an elite / performer…

JESS: I can. I’ve got a bit of a fiery temper. And, I know times that I’ve shouted in the boat when I shouldn’t / have.

NICK: I had this burning, y’know, desire, this hunger for success, I hungered to achieve. Um ah, y’know it was deep inside of me… I don’t settle for second best.

JESS: And then we started rowing like idiots. So we finished and I was… I was, I was trying my best not to like, let the frustration out. But uhm. We were looking at some pictures yesterday and I didn’t look, happy. On the podium. I had a face like… I literally looked like I was sucking on a wasp.

Laughs.

JESS: Nothing has really lasted a terribly long time. And so, and to be honest it doesn’t ree…it’s, it’s not something that I’m, that massively bothers me right now. Maybe the Olympics is, is my relationship.

JOHN: …training twice a day, every day, giving up so much of your life when all your mates have been going to the pub and girlfriends and nightclubs and you’ve done none of that, you know?

KAT: It does worry me, what like, because, like what I’m going to do how I’m going to get a normal job how, I’m going to get a normal job when I finish.

JESS: I guess we’ve got really high expectations, every boat

class. And I’d be gutted if we didn’t win a medal. I think I’d be absolutely gu…yeah.

KIRA: 2012, can in no way live up to the expectations that

everybody’s putting on to it…

ALI: It was, for the last seven years it’s been everything and unfortunately, you know, it hasn’t gone my way but errr I have to be there somehow.

KIRA: I mean I’m sure you’ve heard all this stuff about how rubbish the logo is and like how like if you look at it then it looks like Lisa Simpson giving a blowjob…

KAT: I don’t know exactly, there is like a motto isn’t there, I mean I don’t know what that is / but…

KIRA: …and like how like the opening ceremony is going to be in no way amazing as China’s – all this stupid, stupid hype.

JESS: The thing is, I was in Beijing, and London is not gonna be Beijing. We’re not gonna be like Beijing. London is not going to be like Beijing. They had endless, do you think, do you think the Chinese people were given a chance to look at the budgets for Beijing? I don’t think so. So, yes, it’s costing us nine billion pounds but I bet Beijing probably cost double that. I think there’ll be a lot of cheery British people there and waving their Union Jacks and, joining in, and…and that’s what we’ve got to offer you know. I don’t need to see ten thousand drummers drumming in time ’cause I’m gonna see a morris dancer having a jig.

SCENE 4

ANNE and NORMAN are situated away from each other on either side of the stage.

ANNE: Yeh, where I grew up. I, I was born in Kenya, west erm part of Kenya, in a small town called erm Webuye and erm…

This erm, I mean in this very, very small village called Mihuu. It was that, very small. I was born as a normal, healthy child and when I was about two-and-a-half years I was struck down by polio. This was a surprise to the villagers because they knew of children who are born with a disability but they just did not ...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half-title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Characters
• SCENE 1
• SCENE 2