Di and Viv and Rose

Amelia Bullmore

• Publisher: Methuen Drama
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781350146150
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literatur
• Subtopic: Drama

"It connects emotionally with the audience, and is wittily written … Bullmore makes you like, and believe in, her three characters … The play also has a careering energy … impossible not to like." The Guardian Aged 18, three women join forces. Life is fun. Living is intense. Together they feel unassailable. Di and Viv and Rose charts the steady but sometimes chaotic progression of these three women's lives, from the highs to the lows, the problems that force them apart and their ultimately enduring bonds. A humorous and thoughtful exploration of friendship's impact on life and life's impact on friendship, this bittersweet comedy premiered at the Hampstead Theatre, London, in 2013. This new Modern Classics edition features an introduction by Professor Elizabeth Kuti.

Act One

Scene One

October 1983. Lights up on Rose, raggy bow in her hair, on a payphone.

Rose Hello, Charlie, it’s Rose! Guess where I am? I’m in my hall of residence! – No, there’s a phone in the corridor. All the flats share it.

Viv appears, wearing 1940s clothes. She waits, unseen, for Rose to finish with the phone. She turns a ten-pence piece in her hand.

Rose Mum’s just set off and she said to say to you she expects to be home by about ten. – I know, well it’s a long way from our little village. – I Have Travelled To The North ! – No, not too bad. – We stopped halfway so she could have a nap but she seemed pretty alert. – No, it’s a tiny room but it’s my room! At university! – The only thing is the flat’s really ugly. The walls are painted breeze blocks! – I know. And there’s no window in the kitchen! There’s a big poster about chip-pan fires and a blanket to put yourself out with if needs be. And a telly! I know! Why would you want a telly in the kitchen?

Viv It’s a microwave.

Rose turns and sees Viv, waiting.

Rose Sorry?

Viv It’s not a telly. It’s a microwave. An electronic oven.

Rose Oh. (Back to Charlie. ) Apparently it’s a microwave. – An electronic oven.

Viv Are you going to be long?

Rose No. Oh. You haven’t got a spare ten p, have you?

Viv No.

Blackout.

Lights up on Di, cap perched far back on her head. Rose appears.

Rose Hello! We live in the same flat. I’m Rose.

Di I’m Di. Hello.

Rose I’ve just been to the shop. It’s useless. The carrots are bendy, the potatoes are green. I said to the shopkeeper, ‘Have you got any proper vegetables?’ It’s the student shop! They should sell proper things!

Di It’s expensive as well.

Rose I know. But it’s full of boys. Have you ever seen as many? Honestly, it’s like – you know the first time you go to France or Spain on holiday and you see a whole field of just sunflowers and you can’t believe it?

Di I’ve never been abroad.

Rose Well, when you do, honestly, it’s absolutely amazing. And that’s what this is like except boys. Fields of boys. Don’t you love it?

Di I’m gay.

Rose Oh, that’s great!

Blackout.

Lights up on Viv and Di. Viv pushes a bike. They chat as they cross.

Viv I can’t live with these people.

Di It’s only for a year.

Viv Did you hear about the heroic stand against apartheid?

Di No.

Viv There’s a lad down the corridor. Last night, he went and threw a can of white paint over Barclays Bank – by the crappy student shop. Ten minutes later, police are on his doorstep. He’s flabbergasted.

Di Security camera?

Viv White footprints all the way back to his front door.

Blackout.

Lights up on Rose, pushing her bike. Di appears.

Rose Di! Look!

She takes a bunch of coriander from her bike basket.

Di What is it?

Rose Smell it.

She squeezes a leaf and holds her fingers under Di’s nose.

Di Weird. What is it?

Rose Coriander.

Di What is it?

Rose A herb.

Di You eat it?

Rose Yes. I found the Indian market. It’s amazing. Can I cook you supper tonight?

Di Will that be in it?

Rose On it.

Blackout.

Lights up on Rose, on the payphone.

Rose Hello Charlie! – Fine, thank you. – How’s Mum? – Oh well, give her a kiss when she wakes up. – The course is fine. We’ve had to buy tons of books. They’re so expensive. – Art history books especially are because of the pictures.

Viv appears, with a ten-pence piece in her hand, as before. She watches Rose, as before.

Rose Oh. Well. Not so good. Honestly Charlie, they’re all peculiar. There’s one girl. A dentist student. Dental student. Once a week, she goes to Asda, which is a supermarket, and she buys a pack of cheese, and she cuts it into seven pieces, and she wraps them up in cling film and she writes Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday on them! There’s one girl in the flat who’s nice. Di. I tell you something amazing. There’s a girl in the flat next door who dresses like it’s the war.

Viv Are you going to be long?

Rose turns and sees Viv.

Rose Oh. Hello. I think it looks brilliant, by the way. (Back to Charlie. ) Guess what? The girl who dresses like it’s the war’s standing right beside me. Waiting for the phone. – Quite, mustn’t hog it, better let Mrs Miniver have a go. Bye, Charlie. Bye.

She puts the phone down.

All yours.

Blackout.

Lights up on Di, on the payphone.

Di Thanks for the parcel, Mu...