Lucy Prebble Plays 1

The Sugar Syndrome; Enron; The Effect; A Very Expensive Poison

Lucy Prebble

• Publisher: Methuen Drama
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781350175112
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Littérature
• Subtopic: Théâtre britannique

Lucy Prebble is one of Britain's foremost writers for the stage and screen. This eagerly anticipated play collection brings together her landmark plays for the first time, showcasing her work from 2003 to 2019. Beginning with her George Devine Award-winning play The Sugar Syndrome it continues through her explosive look at the biggest financial scandal in history, concluding with her pointed dramatization of the one of the most shocking news stories of the 2010s. The Sugar Syndrome (2003) Dani is on a mission. She's just 17, hates her parents, skives college and prefers life in the chatrooms. What she's looking for is someone honest and direct. Instead she finds Tim, a man twice her age, who thinks she is 11 and a boy. What seems at first to be a case of crossed wires, ends up as an unlikely, and unsettling friendship between the two, which culminates in a shocking, and morally challenging revelation. Enron (2009) One of the most infamous scandals in financial history became a theatrical epic in Enron, a dazzling exposition of the shadowy mechanisms of economic deceit. Mixing classical tragedy with savage comedy and surreal metaphor, Enron follows a group of flawed men and women in a narrative of greed and loss which reviews the tumultuous 1990s, and the financial chaos which has spilled over into the new century. The Effect (2012) a clinical romance. Two young volunteers, Tristan and Connie, agree to take part in a clinical drug trial. Succumbing to the gravitational pull of attraction and love, however, Tristan and Connie manage to throw the trial off course, much to the frustration of the clinicians involved. A Very Expensive Poison (2019) A shocking assassination in the heart of London. In a bizarre mix of high-stakes global politics and radioactive villainy, a man pays with his life. At this time of global crises and a looming new Cold War, A Very Expensive Poison sends us careering through the shadowy world of international espionage from Moscow to Mayfair.

A Very Expensive Poison

For Marina

Act One

A massive clap of thunder shuts us up.

Scene One

London. 2013. Coffee-shop

It’s raining. Really raining. We’re in London. A winter 5pm.

Marina Litvinenko (40s, Russian, proper, alert, striking) sits one side of a small square table in a Pret-type place waiting for someone.

An utterly drenched Ben Emmerson (50, Brit, charismatic, learned) enters. Raincoat soaked, glasses steamed.

Emmerson Marina, huge apologies.

He puts his broken umbrella in the umbrella stand-type thing by the door.

Emmerson This bloody thing’s broken.

Marina Come, come. Don’t worry, I’m early.

Double kisses. Emmerson sits with her.

Emmerson So what’s going on? How are you getting on?

Marina I’m OK. I’m tired.

Emmerson I’ll say you don’t look tired.

Marina Well I am! Do you want any/thing?

Emmerson / No I’m perfectly alright if they’re alright with that, let’s see. Yes. I wish I was bringing you better news.

Marina Oh.

Emmerson There won’t be an inquest. At least not a meaningful one. The foreign secretary, in his infinite wisdom, has submitted something called a PII. Public interest immunity. It’s to limit the scope. It means that the inquest could not consider at all whether the Russian state was involved.

Marina O . . . K?

Emmerson Yah, which kind of renders the whole thing meaningless.

Marina But why? Why would they forbid us from discovering if the Russian state is involved?

Emmerson Well it’s what we’ve been seeing for the last few years. It’s inconvenient. Um, they don’t want to annoy the Russians or be seen to provoke in any way.

Marina They think we will be seen to provoke?

Emmerson Yes, quite. And I’m afraid in an additionally miserly gesture, Chris Grayling is . . . withdrawing any legal aid from you, going forward.

Marina Oh God.

Emmerson He really is a colossal tit. I don’t want you to worry about that on my account –

Marina No, of course I do!

Emmerson It’s all part of the same strategy really which is to try and get you to shut up about it! Which I suggest you don’t.

Marina You have to be paid.

Emmerson I don’t really. Apart from that bloody umbrella, everything I own is quite nice already.

Marina No, I won’t accept you working for me for free. I’m sorry / I don’t have any –

Emmerson / It isn’t chivalry, Marina. It’s the law. And for better or worse I find it rather galling when it’s ignored.

Marina But there’s nothing now to do?

Emmerson Mm. Except . . .

Marina Ah!

Emmerson Ah indeed. What might get you something approaching justice . . . I suggest forgetting the inquest –

Marina Which is what they want us to do.

Emmerson Yes, but what I suspect they very much don’t want us to do is suggest a public inquiry.

Marina And this is different?

Emmerson Yes, a public inquiry, as it sounds, is out in the open, very public. How they did it, why they did it, and who is responsible.

Marina In public? In the news?

Emmerson Yes.

Marina But we know what happened!

Emmerson We do. But to turn the truth into justice – which I’m sorry to say are not the same thing – one has to tell the story. Not just to a lawyer, not just to a judge. To the country.

Marina And it will stop it happening again, yes?

Emmerson Ha, I think the government view this as a rather unique occurrence. I can see you might not want to relive it all. Things might get hairy.

Marina I know what could happen.

But I have no money to pay you.

Emmerson I’ll tell you what I’m going to do. I’m going to take someone else’s umbrella. It’s very naughty. But consider it a down payment. Alright? Why don’t you take one and come?

Marina I’m waiting for the rain to stop.

Emmerson You shame me, Mrs Litvinenko.

Marina I have no intention to shame anyone.

Emmerson Come on, room for two. I’ll walk you to the Tube.

She relents,...