East End Tales

Script sample

Note: The play is written in free verse and designed for a direct address ensemble playing style, without character names in the naturalistic sense, and with as many narrators as participants. As such, the lines can be divided up as required.

Saturday evening, and we’re about to close
I’m standing behind the counter
Facing the rusty old till
Straight ahead there’s the aisle filled with food
My brother stacking the shelves

Bored
So bored
Wanna go home
Get changed
Go out
But Dad’s got different ideas
We’re staying open late
An experiment
Capturing the pisshead market
Apparently
And what a lovely bunch they are

Kerr-ching
Four ninety-nine please
Snuffles
Grunts
Hands over a fiver it looks like he’s chewed

Kerr-ching
Three ninety-eight mate
Coughs
Sprays the counter with phlegm
Chucks some change down on top

The lady from the community centre
In for a late night pack of Regals
Catches their eye

"What you lookin at Grandma?"
Looks away
The fear in her eyes all the more extreme
From recognition
A flicker of something
Panic
Horror
Something from her past
She knows their type
I give her a wink, and a discount on the fags

Next please

Kerr-ching
Seven forty-one
He looks at me
"How much?"
Seven forty-one please
"Fuck’s sake"
The prices are all on the front mate, I say
YOU picked em up

He gives me that look again
Clenches one fist
Curls up his lip, like a dog that’s pissed
I am SO not in the mood for this

When he speaks
It’s quiet, in a threatening way
From the back of the throat
Goes "What did you say?"

I’m not having this, so I take him to task
"If you need help adding up mate, you only need ask"

That doesn’t seem to go down too well
My brother’s looking over now, senses something brewing
While pissed-up dog goes red with rage
And tries to think of something to say

But he’s none too clever at this time of night
All he can come up with is "You little – "
And he stops
Cos I make him
With one of those looks
And without knowing where the courage comes from
Maybe tiredness
Maybe no longer caring
Maybe just years of biting my tongue
Of suddenly feeling cocky and young
I hear myself saying
Saying
Saying

"If you use the word PAKI
I will slam your pissed head
In this till
Do you understand?"

VOOM!

I have never seen my Dad move so fast in his entire life
Or my brother
Or my Mum
They’re suddenly there, behind me at the till
A picture of family happiness
Domestic bliss
Cos we’re smiling
Smiling
Smiling away
Smiling at pissed bulldog man
Happy families
Hooray

That’s seven forty-one please
And without another word
He pays

I got to go home early that night
Dad showed me the door
And I don’t work much in the shop any more

Copyright © Fin Kennedy 2006 - Not to be reproduced or performed without permission