Adamson Mrs Affleck

from Ibsen's Little Eyolf
Main
ISBN: 978-0-571-31918-3
Verlag: Faber & Faber
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 112 Seiten

I know. No country matters. Not in the kitchen. Not on a Sunday. Not in England. After six lonely weeks with nobody but her disabled boy for company, Rita Affleck, wealthy, beautiful and consumed by jealous love, welcomes home her husband Alfred. But, far from the passionate reunion she so craves, there is only torment as Alfred's possessive half-sister arrives, and he announces his great revelation. I want things how they were ... My perfect poet ... 1945, one afternoon in London - on the floor, every last undiluted drop of you. Taking Ibsen's Little Eyolf as the inspiration for a passionate and tragic tale of obsessive love, set in 1950s England, Samuel Adamson's Mrs Affleck opened at the National Theatre, London, in January 2009.

Samuel Adamson's plays include: The Ballad of Hattie and James, Wife (both Kiln Theatre), Some Kind of Bliss (Trafalgar Studios), All About My Mother (from Almodóvar; Old Vic), Gabriel (Shakespeare's Globe), Fish and Company (Soho Theatre/National Youth Theatre), Southwark Fair (National Theatre), Drink, Dance, Laugh and Lie (Bush Theatre/Channel 4), Grace Note (Peter Hall Company/Old Vic), Clocks and Whistles (Bush Theatre), Frank & Ferdinand (National Theatre Connections); as well as contributions to the 24 Hour Plays (Old Vic), Hoard (New Vic, Stoke), A Chain Play (Almeida Theatre), Decade (Headlong Theatre) and Urban Scrawl (TheatreVoice/Theatre 503). Adaptations include: Jack Maggs, from Peter Carey's novel (State Theatre Company of South Australia); Ibsen's Pillars of the Community and Mrs Affleck, from Ibsen's Little Eyolf, (both at the National Theatre) A Doll's House (Southwark Playhouse); Chekhov's Uncle Vanya (Leeds Playhouse), The Cherry Orchard (Oxford Stage Company/Riverside Studios) and Three Sisters (OSC/Whitehall Theatre); Running Wild, based on the novel by Michael Morpurgo (Chichester Festival Theatre/Regent's Park Open Air Theatre); Schnitzler's Professor Bernhardi (Dumbfounded Theatre/Arcola Theatre/Radio 3); Bernhard Studlar's Vienna Dreaming (National Theatre Studio); a musical based on George MacDonald's The Light Princess, with Tori Amos (National Theatre); Ostrovsky's Larisa and the Merchants (Arcola Theatre). Radio includes: Tomorrow Week (Radio 3). Film includes Running for River (Directional Studios/Krug). He was Pearson Writer in Residence at the Bush in 1997-8.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Adamson, Samuel

Weitere Mitwirkende

Ibsen, Henrik

Leseproben

One

Lucky Jim

Rita George.

I’ve seen you, George. Come in if you want.

Put one foot in front of the other, you can do it … It’s a portal to a whole new world. (.)

Suit yourself.

There you are. Run away again?

You want to see Olly?

You can’t, he’s up to his neck in Yes, I know it’s Sunday, but his father’s back. Back from the lochs.

So what are we going to do, hmn? If you don’t smoke?

My sister-in-law will be here soon … with a bit of luck she’ll bring a cake.

It’s not really an equitable arrangement, is it – me doing all the talking? I’ll tell you about my whole life, but you have to return the favour.

Has your mother found work?

You have to go back to London, you know. Why did you leave? There’s nothing here. Tell her that, George.

I don’t know how long he’ll be, I’ve got no cake, so if you’re not going to talk …

George Tell Olly I see Flea.

Rita Who’s ‘Flea’?

George Him doing all the houses … rat-killer.

Rita And how does he manage that? () With a gun?

George () Fire.

Rita Fire? Really?

Tell him yourself.

And this, young man – () is mine.

Audrey Alfred …?

Rita …? Alfred …?

Hello?

Rita Audrey, thank God.

Audrey Rita, that little …

Rita () Coloured boy, yes, George …

Audrey I’ve –

Rita Never seen anything like it, I know; I’ve been under attack.

Audrey What?

Rita I commandeered his gun.

Audrey () Honestly …

Where’s he come from?

Rita London, with his mother. They’ve run away from something. He’s taken a shine to Olly.

Audrey But where does he live?

Rita I don’t know. Come in, come in.

Audrey How are you, Rita?

Rita How do you think with all the excitement? It’s go go go. Today I read this book, from Jonathan: terrific … I painted Princess Margaret on a hard-boiled egg … and yesterday I bought some more things … and … thank God you’re here.

I suppose you’re dying to see him?

Audrey () Where is he?

Rita Busy: Olly: .

Audrey Oh, no … not today? You should do something, Rita …

Rita Why haven’t you been to see me the whole time?

Audrey Olly should be outdoors; what’s Alfred thinking?

Rita What’s he going to do, run the miracle mile? It’s none of my business.

Audrey Rita.

Rita It’s not.

Audrey Then I’ll say something.

Rita If you think it’s broken, you fix it. You’re the teacher. Fine.

(.) What is the actual … rationale …?

Did you catch the bus?

Audrey Yes.

Rita You weren’t expecting lunch?

Audrey I only want to see Olly and Alfred – and you. The strangest thing, Rita … I knew Alfred was back before we spoke. I heard his voice last night … there’s a chapter in / Rochester hears …

Rita You mean telepathy, Audrey?

Audrey Stupid.

Rita No, no …

If you heard him across the moors, you heard him. How are things in Margate?

Audrey No call, nothing, but somehow / I knew

Rita He sent me a wire. ‘HOME SATURDAY EVE STOP HAVE HAD REVELATION STOP’. What do you make of that?

Audrey What does it mean?

Rita No idea. A riddle, in a wire; I’m not fond of riddles, it’s put me on edge.

Audrey He didn’t explain when he got home?

Rita He was exhausted and Olly had a bellyache and the television set died – the whole town’s prostrate with grief about it … and …

… here I am.

Audrey Let me make you a cup of tea.

Rita No, thank you.

Where have you been?

Audrey At home. School.

Rita I’d have killed for company.

Alfred’s obviously the sole attraction. You don’t care about me, do you?

Audrey Of course I do. I’ve been a little busy, / that’s all.

Rita So have I, climbing the walls. George has been twice.

Jonathan comes almost every day.

Audrey I think Alfred should go away every year to work.

He hasn’t since the war …

Rita Why would you say that?

He needs a sabbatical from the fishwife?

Audrey Rita, you know what I mean. Sometimes he has to clear his head … doctor’s orders, / yes?

Rita Yes, it’s why we live ; and not doctor – psychoanalyst, not doctor; and when he goes, what about me?

Audrey He wasn’t away for that long!

Rita You know nothing,

Audrey No. How could I? No one to miss.

Rita I didn’t / mean –

Audrey It’s all right.

Rita I’m sorry; I know you’d let Alfred decamp for a bit every spring; if you were married you’d do it because you’re modern and practical, and have there’d be some schoolmistressy need to visit Brontë country or Hiroshima or wherever …

Audrey Rita …

Rita I could do that, there are plenty of places I could go …

But I’m not the same as you.

I’m sorry.

Something’s happened.

He’s different.

Audrey Not ill?

Rita No! He’s got colour … he’s the new model Alfred, on the outside at least … if I didn’t know better I’d say he’d been sleeping / with someone –

Audrey For once, please …

Rita There’s something in the Highlands water, let me tell you: I think it might be , Audrey, I really do.

Audrey Has he finished his book?

Rita His notebook’s empty.

Audrey Is it? How do you know?

So this … revelation?

Rita Thank God you’re here, now at last we’ll find out what it is.

Yes.