Butterworth The Hills of California

new Auflage
ISBN: 978-1-78850-888-9
Verlag: Nick Hern Books
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 120 Seiten

Reihe: NHB Modern Plays

'This house. It's called 'Sea View'. It's just I've looked out of every window, and you can't. You can't see the sea.' Blackpool, 1976. The driest summer in two hundred years. The beaches are packed. The hotels are heaving. In the sweltering backstreets, far from the choc ices and donkey rides, the Webb Sisters are returning to their mother's run-down guest house, as she lies dying upstairs. When memories from their youth come flooding back, the sisters must confront their past and untangle a web of secrets, betrayals and profound emotional bonds. Jez Butterworth's play The Hills of California was first performed at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London's West End in 2024, directed by Sam Mendes, and produced by Sonia Friedman Productions and Neal Street. This edition features the revised and definitive version of the play performed during its acclaimed Broadway transfer later that year.

Jez Butterworth is one of the UK's leading playwrights. His plays include: Mojo (Royal Court Theatre, London, 1995; West End, 2013); The Night Heron (Royal Court, 2002); The Winterling (Royal Court, 2006); Parlour Song (Atlantic Theater, New York, 2008; Almeida Theatre, London, 2009); Jerusalem (Royal Court, 2009; West End, 2010; New York, 2011); The River (Royal Court, 2012); The Ferryman (Royal Court and West End, 2017) and The Hills of California (West End, 2024). Mojo won the George Devine Award, the Olivier Award for Best Comedy and the Writers' Guild, Critics' Circle and Evening Standard Awards for Most Promising Playwright. Jerusalem won the Best Play Award at the Critics' Circle, Evening Standard and WhatsOnStage.com Awards, and was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play. The Ferryman won the Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Play, and the Critics' Circle, Olivier and WhatsOnStage Awards for Best New Play, as well as the 2019 Tony Award for Best Play. His screenwriting credits include Fair Game (2010), Get On Up (2014), Edge of Tomorrow (2014), Black Mass (2015), Spectre (2015), Ford v Ferrari (2019), and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023). For TV, he created and wrote the comedy series Mammals for Amazon Studios, and created the historical fantasy drama Britannia for Sky and Amazon Prime. In 2007, he won the E.M. Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2019 he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Author photo by Steve Schofield

Autoren/Hrsg.

Butterworth, Jez

Leseproben

ACT ONE

()

JILLIAN

JILLIAN. Mother?

PENNY

PENNY. She’s sleeping.

JILLIAN. Is she on her left or her right side?

PENNY. Her back.

JILLIAN. Her feet are purple.

PENNY. It’s normal.

JILLIAN. Normal?

PENNY. When they haven’t been up and about.

JILLIAN. I’m Jill by the way.

PENNY. Penny.

JILLIAN. Where’s Alice?

PENNY. Scarborough. For the weekend. Her anniversary.

JILLIAN. Right. Well, I’ll show you around.

PENNY. There’s no need.

JILLIAN. Nonsense.

PENNY. Honest. I’ve got my bearings.

JILLIAN. Nonsense.

PENNY. Really it’s fine.

JILLIAN. Let me show you.

PENNY. You showed me yesterday.

Sit down.

JILLIAN. I’m fine.

PENNY

PENNY. I’m just going to check your blood pressure. You pop it on your arm. Like so.

PENNY JILLIAN

Now just relax.

JILLIAN

This house. It’s called ‘Seaview’.

JILLIAN (). Hmm?

PENNY. The Seaview Hotel.

JILLIAN. Aye.

PENNY. It’s just… I’ve looked out of every window, and you can’t.

.

You can’t see the sea. Even on the top floor. You can see the car park. The bingo. If you lean right out you can see the Tower –

JILLIAN. I believe they call it poetic licence.

Anyway, it’s not the Seaview Hotel. It the Seaview Guest House. Then the Seaview Luxury Guest House. Then the Seaview Luxury Guest House and Spa. Then the Seaview Luxury Guest House. The Seaview Guest House… Now it’s just Seaview.

PENNY. Sounds like this house has been on quite a journey.

JILLIAN. May I ask a question? My sister Joan. The one in America.

PENNY. California.

JILLIAN. Exactly. () Wait. How –

PENNY. You told me. Yesterday.

JILLIAN. Right. Well. She’s stuck. In California. Her aeroplane was cancelled. Or postponed. Anyroad, she won’t arrive till tomorrow at the earliest.

PENNY. Oh yes…

JILLIAN. Joan’s Mum’s favourite. Not favourite.

Mum always used to say, ‘Gloria’s Gran… You’re your dad, Ruby’s Ruby. But Joan is me.’ I just need advice. Not advice. Your opinion. You’ve been here before.

PENNY. If you’re asking me what I think you’re asking me, the answer is I don’t know.

JILLIAN. Understood.

PENNY. It could be today. Could be tomorrow.

JILLIAN. Understood.

PENNY. How long’s a piece of string?

JILLIAN. It’s just Joan has to be here. It’s imperative.

PENNY. All I know –

JILLIAN. You don’t understand. I promised Mum. I promised her Joan would be here.

PENNY. All I can tell you… It’s in God’s hands now. But I’ll say this. I’ve seen miracles before.

Hello. We’re making progress…! Do you play?

JILLIAN. Me? No fear. Mother used to, but not for years.

PENNY. Then who plays?

JILLIAN. Joan. Joan plays.

PENNY

PENNY. Your blood pressure is high. Do you smoke?

JILLIAN. Me? No.

PENNY. Have you ever smoked?

JILLIAN. Never. Filthy habit. Mother won’t abide it.

PENNY. Are you on any medication?

JILLIAN. Ventolin for my asthma. Betnovate for my eczema. Pepto-Bismol.

PENNY. Personal question. Are you on the pill?

JILLIAN. No.

PENNY. Are you pregnant?

JILLIAN. No fear.

PENNY. Planning to get pregnant?

JILLIAN

I’m sorry.

JILLIAN

Here.

PENNY

JILLIAN. What’s this?

PENNY. It’s a leaflet.

JILLIAN (). ‘The Process of Bereavement.’

PENNY. Don’t read it now, but you might want to pop it somewhere safe.

JILLIAN PENNY

JILLIAN. I’ll pop it somewhere safe.

PENNY. I didn’t tell you this. Moreover, if anyone asks I will flat deny it.

JILLIAN. Sorry, what –

PENNY. You’re right. I have been here before. At this stage. And at this point. This juncture. There’s things they can do.

JILLIAN. Who?

PENNY. Dr Groves. Or failing that, Dr Onions.When the time comes. If you feel she has suffered enough. If you call him… Then Dr Groves, or failing that, Dr Onions… Dr Onions calls Dr Rose. And Dr Rose comes. Ups the morphine dose. And your mother drifts peacefully to heaven.

JILLIAN. I see.

Or… Dr Groves or Dr Onions calls Dr Rose, Dr Rose comes over. Ups the dose. And my mother drifts peacefully to hell.

I’m just saying. If you buy all that. If you do then it stands to reason some people go to – Not just Adolf Hitler and Evel Knievel. Normal folk. Folk from Blackpool who’ve raised four girls alone. If they didn’t find time to go to church and worship God, the same God what torpedoed their husband’s destroyer. Then – (.) My point is. Any minute now, Mum could be travelling from ninety-one Penny Avenue, Blackpool F-Y-five-one-D-U, from a life of misery and suffering, to hell. In which case –

PENNY

Wait. Where are you going?

PENNY. Home. My shift is finished.

JILLIAN. But –

PENNY. I’ll be back this evening to give her her salts.

PENNY

JILLIAN. What’s that?

PENNY. A telephone number. Dr Groves. Or failing that… (.) Dr Onions.

Discuss it with your sisters. And in the meantime. Get some rest.

I’m a mother too, Miss Webb. Six boys. And I’ll let you into a secret. Mothers don’t have favourites. We love you all the same.

PENNY

JILLIAN MR POTTS

POTTS (). Right. Done all I can.

MR POTTS

Well. It’s hopeless. If I’ve said it once, a piano must be played. Blackpool. Morecambe. Fleetwood. It’s the sea air. Wood is porous. Salt. Damp. Neglect. Plus time. And here we are. Noisy pedals. Sticky keys. Your Chappell can stand it. But your Broadwood piano, Challen, Stack and Walmer? Your Broadwood is like a horse. Neglect it, it gets jumpy. Take me. A hundred lunges per day. Physical jerks. Keeps the sap up. The cable tight. Turn your back for a couple of winters? What have you got? Squeaks. Buzzes. Rattles. Worn felt. Mouse droppings.

JILLIAN. Will it play?

POTTS. What? Oh it’ll play. If they’ve had a drink. But you left it too long. By the way, how’s your mother? The nurse says she’s dying.

JILLIAN (). Did she.

POTTS. Aye, so she said. Up there, at death’s door. Chances are she won’t last the night. If you ask me it’s the drought. Wireless says there’s twenty-one-point-nought-seven per cent more deaths than 1975. Up in town it’s all ‘Kiss-Me-Quick Mine’s a Choc-Ice’. Out here in the backstreets, carnage. Folk melting in their front rooms. There’s an old folk’s home over Kirkham, they’ve left one poor sod in a conservatory, his blood boiled. Honest to God, his face melted. Ambulance. Morgue. Cemetery. Do Not Pass Go Do Not Collect Two Hundred Pound. That said, the nurse told me your mother has stomach cancer. In that...