The Voices Project 2014: Bite Me

Australian Theatre for Young People

ATYP

• Publisher: Currency Press
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9781925004724
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Drama
• Index: Literature

The Voices Project 2014: Bite Me is a collection of seven-minute monologues tailored for young adult actors.Thirteen delicious tales by some of the country's best emerging playwrights, Bite Me is the latest instalment of the Voices Project-the overwhelmingly successful annual program of monologues developed by ATYP, written by young people, performed by young actors around the country, and seen by over a million people globally online. This collection of thirteen monologues serves a mouth-watering banquet of work exploring our relationship with food. Funny, warm, irreverent and cheeky, this is a celebration of the complexity and contradictions of young lives. Bite Me is a feast for the senses.Featuring: Pip Nat Georgie by Jory Anast; Tell Me by Jake Brain; Sweet Sour by Sophie Hardcastle; The Language of Love by Kim Ho; Sweet in the Savoury by Tasnim Hossain; Something I Prepared Earlier by Julian Larnach; Dig in Dean by Zac Linford; Facon by Felicity Pickering; Hunger by Brooke Robinson; Eating Sunshine by Emily Sheehan; That Daniel by Joel Tan; Food Baby by Kyle Walmsley and George by Kier Wilkins.

Hunger

Brooke Robinson

Sam, 17

A restaurant kitchen.

SAM:

Gas flames

dishes stacked

added to

more orders!

In my uniform so bleached I could disappear

I’m still chopping the red stuff

TABLE 5 COMING

concentrate

vertical strokes

(just like you)

my knife slips

shit

splats on the floor

I’LL CLEAN IT UP

I bend down

sop up the red

no room to move

in single file

my shoes touching with those of the next kitchen hand

I level back up to the stove

my head catches a saucepan handle as I rise

oh god

not again

tossed over

the pan soars

liquids slop

the whole kitchen quakes with fear

NEXT ORDER

IT’S COMING

spoon to lips

taste

tongue around

latch onto that layer of

nothing

I… can’t

nothing left

keep stirring

IT’S COMING

you grunt

spittle in the air

no time

stir

what

what’s that

a red drop crawls along the inside of the saucepan

IT’S COMING I SAID

the red inches down

before I can act

hits the surface of the liquid

and spreads

blood

oh shit!

flip over my hands

burns

scabs

thick skin

the usual

eyes off the stove

you hit me across the back of the head

My neck snaps

a cut

there

a hole in my left arm

you grab the saucepan handle

rip it off the heat

dip the spoon in

push it to your ruddy face

no

no

no

what are you doing

you can’t

I NEED FIVE MORE MINUTES

you shake your head

please

you’re not listening

no

you can’t take that out

IT’S NOT READY

I…

you turn to face me

YOU WHAT

I suck in some air

nothing

It’s fine

get it out there

shit

food lapped onto two plates

I hold my breath

look up through the skylight in the kitchen ceiling

just for a second

We’re not supposed to do this but you’re not looking so I stick my head round into the dining room

shoulders hunched my four fingers grip the wall

I’d forgotten how white the room is all walls, clean tablecloths and crockery

the smell of pale roses

I watch the waiter glide over to two women at the corner table

I look down at the cut in my arm and a new droplet of blood pauses between skin and floor

the j...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Introduction
• About Food
• The Year of Love
• Interview with Stephen McCallum
• Pip Nat Georgie
• Tell Me
• Sweet Sour
• Sweet in the Savoury
• Something I Prepared Earlier
• Dig In Dean
• Facon
• Eating Sunshine
• That Daniel
• Food, Baby
• George
• The Language of Love
• Hunger
• Author Biographies
• Copyright Page