Stenham That Face

Main
ISBN: 978-0-571-31908-4
Verlag: Faber & Faber
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 96 Seiten

I can't take care of you anymore. I can't take it. It's like an endless boxing match. Mia is at boarding school. She has access to drugs. They are Martha's. Henry is preparing for art college. He has access to alcohol. From Martha. Martha controls their lives. Martha is their mother. That Face premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in April 2007, and won the TMA Award 2007 for Best New Play. Polly Stenham received both the Charles Wintour Award 2007 and the Critics' Circle Award 2008 for Most Promising Playwright.

Polly Stenham's plays include That Face (Royal Court and the Duke of York's), for which she was awarded the 2008 Critics' Circle Award for Most Promising Playwright, the Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright 2007 and TMA Best New Play 2007. Also at the Royal Court: Tusk Tusk and No Quarter. Hotel premiered at the National Theatre, London, in 2014.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Stenham, Polly

Leseproben

SCENE ONE

Mia Can she breathe?

Izzy Wait …

Just to be sure.

Mia Stick your tongue out.

Wiggle it around.

Roll it.

I can’t do that, you know. Look.

Izzy Mia …

Mia You know, only some people can. It’s like half. It’s meant to be a sign of intelligence. Or something. Or maybe gayness. I can’t remember. But look. No matter how hard I try …

Izzy MIA!

Mia Sorry. On the ball. I know.

Izzy Alice. Honey. Tonight is the night. You are to be … awakened.

Mia Like that. ‘Awakened’. Nice.

Izzy It’s a euphemism.

Mia I know.

Izzy As I was saying. Alice. Honey. Sweetie. Darling. Tonight is the night. Let’s run through this again. Are you allowed to talk?

Are you allowed to complain?

Good girl. Isn’t she a good girl, Mia?

Mia Wonderful.

Izzy Now. I would like as best as possible to keep this … clean, impersonal, professional, etcetera. But before we start the simulation, I would like to ask our … charge … a few mandatory questions. Which in this special instance she may answer.

Stay with me, Alice.

Alice. In my short time as your head of dorm. I and Mia, your esteemed house sister.

Have noticed a small pendant hanging around your neck. Am I correct in believing this to be a religious symbol?

A symbol of devout Christianity?

A cross, to be specific. Yes?

Yeeess. Our suspicions were correct, esteemed house sister, deputy head of dorm and all things marvellous.

Mia Deputy. I’ve been promoted –

Izzy We’re short-staffed. Alice. Honey. Sweetie. Darling. You have been observed over this first week and it has been concluded that you do, indeed, wear the aforementioned symbol all the time. Or should we say …

Religiously.

Answer please.

That is sufficient. Did you note the response, Mia?

Mia Yes, sir.

Izzy There are no ‘sirs’ in this room. Mia – do you observe a single pair, or indeed a single testicle in this dorm?

Mia No.

Izzy Correct. So none of this ‘sir’ business. You may refer to me as esteemed head of dorm, high priestess or, if you prefer, more simply, God. Because. Need I remind you, Alice? Honey. Sweetie. I am your God.

For tonight.

So we had better take that thing off.

Lazy fuck. Hold her up.

Mia Heavy.

Izzy Fat.

Mia/Izzy Misshapen death bat.

Izzy You sleepy, baby? Have we tired you out? Aw. Is it bedtime?

Hold her up.

Mia I’m trying.

Izzy Alice? Stop pretending. You’re making this tricky. And you wouldn’t want to make this tricky now, would you? Would she, Mia? Would she be so silly as to pretend to be asleep? Silly things happen to silly girls now, Alice. Silly things …

Alice?

You wouldn’t want us to do it all over again tomorrow night now, would you?

Would you?

Jesus, Mia.

What’s wrong with her?

She’s out cold.

Mia I gave her some Valium.

Izzy You what?

Mia I. Gave. Her. Some. Valium.

Izzy I heard what you said.

Mia Well. Um. Sorry. I guess.

Izzy You gave her some Valium? You gave her a fucking tranquilliser … you … you … druggie.

How did you give it to her? Pop it in her tea? Slip it up her bottom while she was absorbed in ? Tell her it was a vitamin, a Smartie, an ecstasy pill? How did you give it to her, Mia?

Mia Well, I –

Izzy She had better be all right. If she’s not we – correction, you – are in big trouble. Actually, correction, I am in big trouble, because I am head of dorm and you slipped our little house sister prescription drugs. She is basically my responsibility. Shit. Shit. Shit.

Mia Don’t ‘shit, shit, shit’ me. Your responsibility is tied to a chair looking like a torture victim. I’d be more worried about that if I were you.

Izzy You know full well that that is different. This initiation. It’s tradition. The teachers don’t care. The sixth form don’t care. It’s practically goddamn allowed. Besides. It’s meant to be fun.

For us. Shit.

Mia Calm down.

Izzy Don’t you dare tell me to calm down. We’re screwed. Look at her. How many?

Mia What?

Izzy Pills? How many pills?

Mia In milligrams, I guess, forty. Maybe fifty. It was five tablets at ten each, so –

Izzy You are taking the piss. you are taking the piss. Even I know that’s tons.

Mia Well, she’s a big girl.

Izzy I hate you. I absolutely hate you. Look at her. She’s un-fucking-conscious. We’re screwed. They’ll tell my parents. Shit shit shit.

Are you laughing at me?

Mia No.

Izzy You’re laughing at me, aren’t you? You fucking dare …

Mia Calm down. She’ll be fine. I just, well … I thought it would help.

Izzy How, Mia, how did you think poisoning a thirteen-year-old girl would help? How? I’m dying to know.

Mia It’s not poison. It’s a mild tranquilliser … stops panic. Takes the edge off things. You can be nasty, when you get … you know, excited, and I wanted the initiation thing to go smoothly. I thought she’d be quieter. I thought you’d like that. You could do more to her.

Izzy Gee. What a gesture. How fucking considerate of you.

Look at her.

She’s un-fucking-conscious.

Mia She’s not unconscious, just super relaxed.

Izzy () This is it. We’re screwed. I won’t be a prefect, which...