Charman The Five Wives of Maurice Pinder

Main
ISBN: 978-0-571-31898-8
Verlag: Faber & Faber
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 144 Seiten

No family photograph can truly prepare Rowena for her first meeting with Maurice's three wives and teenage son. Young, nervous and extremely pregnant, she is warmly welcomed into the fold but her presence soon has the family questioning the nature of their delicate balance. Then Fay brings home a one-night stand, with far-reaching consequences for them all. Set in an ordinary house in a tree-lined street in Lewisham, Matt Charman's new play takes a provocative look at married life, and the alternatives.

Matt Charman's first play, A Night at the Dogs (Soho Theatre, London), won the prestigious Verity Bargate Award for new writers. Other productions include The Observer, directed by Sir Richard Eyre, and The Five Wives of Maurice Pinder, and Greenland (written with Jack Thorne, Moira Buffini and Penelope Skinner), all three ofwhich premiered at the National Theatre, London, where Charman was previously Pearson Writer in Residence. Regrets received its world premiere at the Manhattan Theatre Club in May 2012, while his next, The Machine, will premiere at the Manchester International Festival in May 2013, before being staged at the Armory in New York. He is a recipient of the Peggy Ramsay Award and the 2008 Catherine Johnson Award for Best Play for The Observer.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Charman, Matt

Leseproben

SCENE ONE

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Fay Relax, he isn’t home yet.

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Vincent I am relaxed. I’m fine.

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I’ll go then, shall I?

Fay Esther’ll go.

Vincent You could go for a change.

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When I have children of my own –

Fay () Normal boys your age don’t think about that, Vincent. They think about sex, not kids.

Vincent Men can get broody too. (.) When I have children of my own –

Fay () You’re seventeen years old with a book of baby names under your bed. You know how I feel about that. You really ought to have pornography under there.

Vincent () When I have children of my own … I’ll be doing things differently to this … that’s all.

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Fay Have you made a short list … of baby names? From your baby book. (.) I know you have, it’s written inside the front cover.

Vincent I started making a list and I stopped myself.

Fay Good.

Vincent I realised I wouldn’t want to force an identity onto my child. We’re going to wait until he’s old enough –

Fay Sorry, we?

Vincent My wife and I.

Fay Oh …

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Vincent We’re going to wait until he’s old enough … and then we’ll let him choose his own name.

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(.) … Mum?

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Esther What’s the matter?

Vincent Wine came out of her nose.

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Esther Don’t smoke drink. Choose one at a time.

Fay () Did you know about this?

Esther Don’t talk yet. (.) Where are your shoes? It’s dewy. Don’t take wet feet to bed. Where have you been?

Vincent It’s too hot to sleep. I’ve been walking around.

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Fay What will you call it till it’s picked a name? (.) You haven’t thought about that, have you?

Vincent () Reports suggest there’s no need to name a child in the first two years.

Fay Reports? I thought you read books?

Vincent I read both. We’ll talk to him face to face with eye-contact. Eye-contact does away with the need for names. Names are for sloppy parents with sloppy parenting skills.

Fay () Did you hear that?

Esther () Names come in handy, Vincent.

Vincent I don’t think so, not at the start of a child’s life. They’re restrictive. They tell a child what they’re going to be. What you expect of them.

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Esther Don’t you like your brother’s name?

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Fay How will you get the baby’s attention before it’s picked its own name?

Vincent I’ve said – it’s all about eye-contact.

Fay We couldn’t have done that with you. You were boss-eyed until you were three.

Vincent I wasn’t.

Fay Esther?

Esther A little bit boss-eyed.

Fay You’ll end up whistling or snapping your fingers to get the baby to turn round. It’s a horrible thing when a parent whistles at a child.

Vincent No whistling or stamping or shouting up the stairs to get a reaction. I won’t do that. If I have a question for them I’ll go upstairs, knock on his or her bedroom door and ask if I can come in.

Fay You’ll ask a two-year-old permission to come in?

Vincent () Why shouldn’t a two-year-old be entitled to the same privacy as you or I?

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Esther If we’d have left you alone when you were two, you’d have been dead within seconds.

Fay Of course he would.

Esther () You had a death wish. Jumping off the coffee table with things in your mouth. Like a Japanese pilot. (.) Never using a door if you could climb through a window or over a fence.

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Fay Wait …

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Esther () What’s wrong with the name Fergus?

Vincent It’s a bully’s name.

Esther No, it isn’t.

Vincent It’s the English version of the Gaelic, Fearghas. Derived from , which means ‘man’, and , which means ‘force’ or ‘strength’, I think. Anyway, ‘man of force’ is sort of what it means.

Fay () He’s got a book of baby names under his pillow.

Vincent Under my bed.

Esther Your father liked the sound of Fergus. (.) And we never shouted up the stairs at you.

Vincent I know.

Esther That felt a little bit like a personal attack.

Vincent It isn’t.

Esther Once or twice we called your name for ease, but we never bellowed.

Fay It isn’t a personal attack, Esther. He’s very grateful for the way we raised him, aren’t you, Vincent?

Vincent () Very.

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Fay Sorry, Lid.

Esther Did we wake you?

Lydia () No. Other idiots talking about baby names at the top of their voices sat outside a caravan made entirely of tin woke me.

Esther She’s being sarcastic. (.) They’re not wearing shoes.

Lydia Neither am I.

Esther There’s a dew.

Lydia () Stand up.