Sadie

David Ireland

• Publisher: Methuen Drama
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781350256590
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Letteratura
• Subtopic: Teatro britannico

Sadie has a one-night stand with the new office temp, Joao, but it develops into something much more serious when Joao reveals he's in love with her. Sadie is flattered but she has a long history of terrible relationships. She wonders if it's even possible for her to be happy in love? To answer that question, she calls upon her long dead uncle Red and her abusive ex-husband Clark, as well as her new therapist Mairead. Together they help her face some horrifying truths she's kept hidden for too long. Lyric Theatre Belfast, in association with Stephen Rea's Field Day Theatre Company, bring this powerful new play to the stage, to be broadcast on BBC Four as part of BBC Arts 'Lights up' for the new Culture in Quarantine Season – a celebration of British theatre, bringing newly-recorded staged productions from UK theatres to audiences across television, radio, iPlayer and BBC Sounds. Directed by Conleth Hill (Lord Varys, Game of Thrones ) it stars award-winning actress Abigail McGibbon.

Sadie

For Elijah

Characters

Sadie, fifties

Red, Sadie’s uncle, sixties

Clark, Sadie’s ex-husband, forties

Joao, Sadie’s boyfriend, twenties

Mairead, Sadie’s therapist, fifties

Scene One

Sadie stands alone on stage.

Sadie Where to begin . . .

We could start with my uncle, I suppose.

Red appears.

Red Hello!

Sadie Oh, you’re here?

Red I’m here!

Sadie His name was Red.

Red Not my real name.

Sadie Why did they call you Red?

Red I was a communist. A big union man. Forever fighting on behalf of the little fella.

Sadie I don’t know why I remember you like this. This isn’t how you really were.

Red What do you mean?

Sadie You were never this avuncular.

Red Am I not normally avuncular? I feel very avuncular.

Sadie But you’re not here.

Red I’m not what?

Sadie Well, you’re not really here now. You’re in my imagination.

Red How do you mean?

Sadie You exist only in my imagination. You’re not real.

Red I’m not real?

Sadie No. You’re dead. You died about thirty years ago.

Red Fuck off.

Sadie It’s true.

Red What year is this?

Sadie 2020.

Red 2020?!

Sadie That’s what I said.

Red But that’s the future!

Sadie It’s the present now.

Red What’s it like in 2020? Is there robots?

Sadie No. Well, actually there are robots. But they’re not very advanced. Everything’s done on computers now. Computers have taken over our lives. And mobile phones. That’s probably the thing you’d notice first if you were really here. Everybody looking at their tiny wee phones.

Red Aye I could see that coming. With the ‘yuppies’ and that.

Sadie You’d hate it.

Red So what else is new?

Sadie What else can I tell you . . .

Red I take it Ireland is finally united?

Sadie No way. And it never will be. But there’s peace.

Red There’s peace?

Sadie That’s right.

Red The boys put down their guns, did they?

Sadie They did.

Red And your lot too?

Sadie Indeed.

Red And what of that terrible man Paisley?

Sadie He’s dead now.

Red Good! I mean not good. You should never wish a man dead but . . . no fuck it, I’m glad he’s dead. I hated that aul’ bastard

Sadie Before that he was first minister.

Red What does that mean?

Sadie He was, the . . . ‘prime minister’. Of Northern Ireland.

Red I don’t believe you.

Sadie He was.

Red But how could the good Catholic people of this country sleep in peace with that monster at the helm? Who could hope to keep such a tyrant in check?

Sadie Martin McGuinness.

Red Sorry, what?

Sadie Martin McGuinness was joint first minister alongside him.

Red What the hell are you talking about?

Sadie They sat in government together sharing power. And they became best of pals. People called them the Chuckle Brothers because they laughed at each other’s jokes so much.

Red This sounds made up.

Sadie I swear on your grave.

Red Well, I take back everything I said about him. If he was pals with Martin he couldn’t have been all bad.

But does this mean Ireland is still under the brutal yoke of John Bull?

Sadie Still part of the UK, yes.

Red The Brits are still there?

Sadie The army is gone. There’s a devolved assembly where we all share power. At least, that’s the theory.

Red How can that keep both sides happy?

Sadie Nationalists think i...