The Seed

Kate Mulvany

• Éditeur: Currency Press
• Année: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781921429378
• Sujet: Literatura
• Sous-sujet: Arte dramático

Meet Rose Maloney. Her dad Danny went to Vietnam. Her grandfather Brian is ex-IRA. Today is their collective birthday. From this intimate reunion, The Seed opens itself up over and over again until a silent family battle becomes a national story about finding new life amongst the rubble of old wars. This play has a very special kind of honesty and humour to it which sorts the great lies we buy into from the reality we live through.%##CHAR13##%%##CHAR13##%A compelling, tightly woven and thrilling exploration of a very real family and the repercussions of war.

ACT ONE

SCENE ONE

The soundscape suggests a boy running for his life, leaping over fences, in front of cars, over rubbish bins. All the time, the panting getting harder and faster and more frightened…

The clatter of a metal fence…

DANNY’s young English voice calls out…

DANNY: Fuck off, pig!

ROSE, lit, speaks to the audience.

ROSE: Nottingham. November. 1957.

Another clatter.

DANNY: Fuck!

Heavier footsteps continue running, slowing down steadily.

ROSE: Danny is hanging.

Lights up on DANNY, hanging in agony from the barbed wire, his hand entangled in the mesh.

The wire has weaved a violent gash through his hand and around his fingers, that had’ve just pinched some cigarettes from the store on Smith Street.

The running feet of his accoster slow to a heavy stop. A cop. The footsteps stop.

DANNY: Let me down, you fat bastard.

ROSE: Perhaps not the best choice of words…

DANNY: Come on! I’m fuckin’ hangin’ here!

ROSE: The blood trickles from Danny’s ripped palm and down his arm. The gravel below his dangling feet is getting more speckled every time he wriggles.

DANNY wretches, terrified.

DANNY: Oh, Jesus…

ROSE: The cop treads his heavy way to Danny and places his hands on the boy’s waist.

DANNY: Took your fuckin’ time, you bastard.

ROSE: But the cop just puts his hand in Danny’s pocket and fishes out the stolen cigarettes. He lights one, and indulges in long, luxurious inhalations as Danny twists to see the policeman behind him.

ANNY: You bastard… you fuckin’ piece of shite pig… Those were for me mam and da! Get me down, fuck you, get me the fuck down!

ROSE: Danny catches sight of the silvery prongs noosed around and through his mangled hand. Waves of nausea weaken him and he begins to act more like the little boy he is…

DANNY: [sobbing] Please, sir, let me down. I’m sorry. I’m tru-truly sorry, I won’t do it again. They were for me mam, sir, me da, not me. Please, sir, it hurts. The wire, sir, it’s… it’s clear through me hand…

ROSE: The policeman slowly moves to the hanging Danny. Once again he puts his hands on Danny’s waist, but this time suddenly twists him around, the boy now face to face with the leering policeman. The cop exhales the last of his cigarette into Danny’s face and smiles with English eyes.

A man’s voice speaks. It is BRIAN, entering his Nottingham apartment.

BRIAN: ‘Time to come home, hey, Danny Boy?’

DANNY screams.

ROSE: And he tears the boy from the fence.

SCENE TWO

A young woman, ROSE, and her father, DANNY, stand side by side in an airport.

DANNY: Where are they?

ROSE: Dad, we only landed half an hour ago.

DANNY: I could do it faster. [Beat.] Jesus, where are they?

ROSE: Go and sit down. I’ll get the baggage.

DANNY: They’re too heavy for you. [Beat.] Fuck me dead. Where the fuck are they? Fuck.

ROSE: Go and call Mum. Tell her we’ve arrived safe and sound. She’ll be worried.

DANNY: All right.

Beat. She hands him a phone card.

What’s this?

ROSE: It’s an international phone card.

DANNY: When did they invent them?

ROSE: Same week as the wheel.

Beat.

DANNY: We’ll call her when we get to your grandda’s. [Beat.] Where are they?

ROSE: Go and get yourself a sandwich. You didn’t eat on the plane.

DANNY: Fuckin’ spaghetti.

ROSE: Noodles, actually.

DANNY: Wasn’t hungry.

ROSE: Are you hungry now?

DANNY: Maybe a bucket of chips.

ROSE: Here.

She gives him some Australian money.

You’ll have to go and get it exchanged. Thirty-eight p to the dollar. Don’t let them trick you.

Beat.

DANNY: I’m not hungry.

Beat. ROSE takes the money back.

Where are they? We’re going to miss the train to Notts.

ROSE: We’ll be fine, Dad. I checked all the schedules. Plenty of time.

DANNY: Takes two hours to get there, you know.

ROSE: I know.

DANNY: On the train.

ROSE: Yes.

DANNY: To Nottingham. [Beat.] Where are they?! [Beat.] Never too...