Kenny's Coming Home

Ned Manning

• Publisher: Currency Press
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781760620141
• Topic: Letteratura
• Subtopic: Teatro

Kenny's Coming Home is a play with music that celebrates life in Sydney's Western suburbs.%##CHAR13##%%##CHAR13##%The Green family escape inner-city Sydney in the early 1990s for a better life out west. Dad grows zucchinis and involves himself in local politics. Aunt Dorothy and Mum find the community they have been missing in the big smoke. Son Kenny leads the Panthers to rugby league glory and is ordained a local legend as a result. Daughter Kim is caught between a rock and a hard place as she tries to make sense of her teenage years.%##CHAR13##%All hell breaks loose when the local MP drops dead playing squash. Dad decides to seek pre-selection for the Labor Party and tries to co-opt Kenny for support. The family are opposed to his plans. Then they start actively campaigning against him…

ACT ONE

SCENE ONE

During the opening song montages are established of KIM with a schoolbag, MUM doing domestics, DAD watering the garden and A.D. having a drink.

SONG: ‘MONDAY TO SUNDAY’

KIM: Jesus, what a bloody day it’s so hot

Garden looks as though it’s going to rot

God I wish I was still in Balmain

Diving into the swimming pool again

Or take a bus down to the beach

Living in the west it seems out of reach

A.D.: Jesus, bugger of a day it’s so hot

Garden looks as though it’s going to rot

God I wish I was still in Balmain

Chatting with Flo across the lane

Taking a train into the city

Compared to here it was bloody pretty

ALL: [Chorus] Monday seems to be a lot like Friday

Sunday mustn’t be confused with Tuesday

Wednesday just hangs about

Thursday I’ve got my doubts

Saturday well it’s not too bad

And there you go that’s the week I’ve had

ALL: What are we gonna do?

The choices here are few

What’s to do, what’s to do?

KIM: When

ALL: [Chorus] Monday seems to be a lot like Friday

Sunday mustn’t be confused with Tuesday

Wednesday just hangs about

Thursday I’ve got my doubts

Saturday well it’s not too bad

And there you go that’s the week I’ve had

MUM & KIM: [Chorus] Monday seems to be a lot like Friday

Sunday mustn’t be confused with Tuesday

Wednesday just hangs about

Thursday I’ve got my doubts

Saturday well it’s not too bad

And there you go that’s the week I’ve had

DAD & A.D.: [sung simultaneously with above chorus]

Every day’s the same

Every day’s the same

Every day’s the same.

They disappear as the song ends.

Lighting change. Late afternoon.

A schoolbag flies through the window, followed by KIM. She is a confident teenager with a worldly wisdom that belies her years. She addresses the audience, lighting a cigarette as she does so.

KIM: Hi! Pretty hot, eh? I tell ya, the winds out here are a killer. Mind you, they’re nothing here compared to Mount Druitt, they really sort you out. My name’s Kim.

Kim Green. Year Twelve Penrith High, school vice-captain, hockey rep, average student, so Mr Gould says, but what would he know? He only says that because he’s the football coach. The only reason he pays me any attention at all is because I’m Kenny’s sister and as everyone with half a brain knows, Kenny was one of the best footballers the Panthers ever had.

My brother Kenny is what you call a legend. You don’t have to be dead to be a legend, as long as you’ve played for the mighty Penrith Panthers. Kenny won more trophies than most of you have had hot dinners. He was there as the club began its rise from the ashes, leading from the front, never taking a backward step and all those other clichés.

He led the side into the play-off with Balmain in eighty-eight, where we were robbed, and promptly retired.

‘Work commitments’. Oh yeah, piss-weak excuse. I reckon Irene put the pressure on him.

I tell ya, woudda brought a tear to his eyes to see the boys’ fantastic win this year, ’specially with his old mate Roycie scoring a couple of meat pies.

Anyway, eventually he pissed off, to Ad...