Odeke Princess Essex

1. Auflage 2024
ISBN: 978-1-78850-831-5
Verlag: Nick Hern Books
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 128 Seiten

Reihe: NHB Modern Plays

'Shall I tell you a secret? Anyone can be a queen, but a real queen wears the crown, she doesn't let the crown wear her.' It's 1908. Southend-on-Sea, Essex. Princess Dinubolu of Senegal is about to enter the beauty contest at the iconic Kursaal, Europe's largest entertainment complex. Meet Princess Essex. But how exactly did she get here? And is she all that she seems? Anne Odeke's play Princess Essex is a riotous, satirical comedy based on the amazing true story of the first woman of colour to enter a beauty pageant in the UK. An inspiring account of bravery, beauty and belonging, it was first performed at Shakespeare's Globe, London, in 2024, directed by Robin Belfield and starring the playwright as the Princess.

Anne Odeke is a writer, actor, and qualified secondary school drama teacher. Her plays include Princess Essex (Shakespeare's Globe, London, 2024). Other plays have been performed at Queen's Theatre Hornchurch, Storyhouse Chester, and the Bush Theatre, London.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Odeke, Anne

Leseproben

ACT ONE

Scene One

BAND

JOANNA

JOANNA JOANNA

ENSEMBLE JOANNA

JOANNA ENSEMBLE

JOANNA ENSEMBLE

JOANNA ENSEMBLE BAND ENSEMBLE JOANNA JOANNA ENSEMBLE

ENSEMBLE.
Oh! I do like to be beside the seaside!
I do like to be beside the sea!
Oh I do like to stroll along the prom, prom, prom!
Where the brass bands play, ‘Tiddely-om-pom-pom!’

So just let me be beside the seaside!
I’ll be beside myself with glee
And there’s lots of girls beside
I should like to be beside, beside the seaside
Beside the sea!

JOANNA

JOANNA

JOANNA

JOANNA (). Ahh, Southend-on-Sea!

ENSEMBLE PUNCH AND JUDY ENTERTAINER FISHERMAN

PUNCH AND JUDY ENTERTAINER () Morning Joanna!

JOANNA. There ain’t no greater place in the entire world, coz ’ere you see, we have it all: the beach, the cliffs, a statue of Queen Victoria –

FISHERMAN () Morning Joanna!

JOANNA. – the world’s longest pier, gulls, the front, the side – which is nuffing less than ironic because as every local will tell ya –

ENSEMBLE

ALL (…) ain’t a sea at all, is an estuary, is the River Thames.

ENSEMBLE MR LONDON MRS LONDON

JOANNA. So it’s mad to fink, yeah, that Londoners, of ’em, each year, flock to – ( MR MRS LONDON.) and well, yer can always tell a London-a because –

( MRS LONDON MR LONDON.) Morning!

MR LONDON MRS LONDON JOANNA JOANNA

Across the water and staring back at us, sits a county so dull, so void of any excitement, that no Southender dare ever swim across to it for fear of neva coming back – a county so boring that the only title they could come up for it was ‘’, and that place, is Kent.

IRRATIONALLY ANGRY WOMAN. Burn in ’ell, Kent! I ’ate ya!

JOANNA. This rivalry between us, yeah, is only seven years young, and it all started in 1901, son, because they woz jealous of us. () They are jealous of the fact that ’ere, in Southend-on-Sea, we ’av what is (and undeniably) the largest and greatest entertainment building in the whole of Europe, a building so big, so beautiful, it puts the Taj Mahal to shame, and that building is… () the Kursaal!!!

ENSEMBLE

MRS BUGLE (). Joanna! – Joanna!

MRS BUGLE ENSEMBLE

JOANNA. The Kursaal, meaning ‘cure hall’, is a place where entertainment can cure you all of your woes. Behind its doors lies everyfing you could ever dream of: a circus ring, concert ’all, dining ’all, a billiard saloon, shops; nigh on forty of ’em – a menagerie – complete with lions, tigers and polar bears –

MRS BUGLE (). Joanna! – Joanna!

JOANNA. – a football pitch, athletics ground, a trotting track, hoopla stands, a hippodrome, and that’s just to name a few.

For Southenders, the Kursaal, it’s us – perhaps somehow even, it us? It’s ’ard to remember nah what life woz like wivaat it –

MRS BUGLE () Joanna!

JOANNA. – and at centre of it all, lies a ballroom with a stage that ain’t just the envy of Essex, of England even, but of the entire Empire!

MRS BUGLE JOANNA

MRS BUGLE. Joanna! Joanna!!

JOANNA MRS BUGLE JOANNA

Joanna! What are you doing up here in the attic? () Are you talking to yourself?

MRS BUGLE JOANNA JOANNA

JOANNA. Nuffin, Mrs Bugle, I was just –

MRS BUGLE. Were you hiding?

JOANNA () No.

MRS BUGLE () I think you were, Joanna. Anyone would think you don’t enjoy dusting / the –

JOANNA. / I didn’t / say –

MRS BUGLE () Look, I get it. Really I do. Life’s hard. I know. It’s hard for us all. () Sometimes, I can’t keep up with the latest Parisian trends, or what cake one should now bring to a bake sale. But we mustn’t let our feelings show, and well… if that means one needs to creep up into the attic for a little cry now and again, one likes to think that their employer would understand.

JOANNA. That’s very kind of you Mrs Bugle / but –

MRS BUGLE. / Have you heard the latest gossip from Folkestone?

JOANNA () Er, ‘Folkestone’?? Er, sorry, Folkestone? Er… er, no I ain’t – what they done, nah?

MRS BUGLE. Heavens, just when you think those Kentish cretins couldn’t stoop any lower, is there really nothing they won’t try?

JOANNA. Why, wot they done?

MRS BUGLE. They’re planning on holding an event, and a one at that.

JOANNA () Like, wot?

MRS BUGLE. I’ll tell you like what – they’re planning on holding / a beauty pageant –

MAYOR PEPPER TOWN COUNCILLORS PERRY THOMAS BERTIE

MAYOR PEPPER. ‘’

PERRY (). A what?

MAYOR PEPPER. ‘’

THOMAS. What in God’s name, Pepper, is –

MAYOR PEPPER. Was chatting about it to an American chum of mine. Apparently they’re all the rage over there. Women put on their best frocks, do their hair, that sort of thing, and then the best looking gal gets… (