Hare Amy's View

Main
ISBN: 978-0-571-31831-5
Verlag: Faber & Faber
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 96 Seiten

It is 1979. Esme Allen is a well-known West End actress at just the moment when the West End is ceasing to offer actors a regular way of life. The visit of her young daughter, Amy, with a new boyfriend sets in train a series of events which only find their shape eighteen years later. A generational play about the long term struggle between a strong mother and her loving daughter, Amy's View mixes love, death and the theatre in a way which is both heady and original.

David Hare has written over thirty stage plays and thirty screenplays for film and television. The plays include Plenty, Pravda (with Howard Brenton), The Secret Rapture, Racing Demon, Skylight, Amy's View, The Blue Room, Via Dolorosa, Stuff Happens, The Absence of War, The Judas Kiss, The Red Barn, The Moderate Soprano, I'm Not Running and Beat the Devil. For cinema, he has written The Hours, The Reader, Damage, Denial, Wetherby and The White Crow among others, while his television films include Licking Hitler, the Worricker Trilogy, Collateral and Roadkill. In a millennial poll of the greatest plays of the twentieth century, five of the top hundred were his.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Hare, David

Leseproben

Act One

objets trouvés.

Dominic I think it’s this next.

Amy Do you want me to help you?

Dominic Can you remember?

Amy What do you do with the water? I do know you need it.

Dominic I know you need it. But I don’t think I really know why.

Evelyn I wanted to show him this album. Pictures of your mother when she was young.

Amy It is past midnight. Are you sure you shouldn’t be going to bed?

Evelyn I wait every night.

Amy What time does she get here?

Dominic The talcum powder. The glue. The little rubber patch.

Evelyn It varies.

Dominic But in which order?

Amy The pub has already closed.

Evelyn Thank God your father never found this. Esme at RADA, some young man with his arm round her waist.

Amy Even if you manage to mend it, it’s now too late for the beer.

Evelyn She comes in a taxi.

Amy What, from the station?

Evelyn Oh no. From London.

Amy My God!

Dominic It’s no longer the beer. It’s the challenge.

Evelyn Esme, with another young actress. Looking quite peaky.

Amy A taxi from London!

Dominic It’s the sense of achievement I want.

Evelyn You did tell her you were coming?

Amy I left a message. Some woman at the theatre. She sounded sort of ginny. Three packs a day.

Evelyn Yes. That’s her dresser. Tweed skirts. A voice like Alvar Lidell.

Amy That was her.

Evelyn Did you mention your friend?

Amy Not by name. But I did say I was two.

Evelyn She’ll be pleased to see you. She never sees anyone. Of course, she pretends that she does. I suppose she does see the neighbours. But I wouldn’t count them.

Amy Nor would I.

Evelyn Horses and hip operations, otherwise you’re wasting your time. () Here she is again, looking sluttish.

Amy This little rubber sticker, it goes there … no, first it goes in the liquid.

Dominic Do you think it’s just been in the garage too long?

Evelyn That’s Bernard’s bicycle.

Amy We thought it must be Dad’s.

Evelyn For a start, he’s been dead fifteen years. And he didn’t cycle for another fifteen before that.

Dominic Oh then, I must say, no wonder.

Evelyn Overall, you may be looking back to the war.

Dominic Yes, well, whoever, they lost the instructions.

Evelyn Are you sure you have the right one? I could never tell the difference between the John Bull bicycle repair kit and that little printing set they do as well.

Amy Oh yes, of course …

Dominic There’s a man in a Union Jack waistcoat …

Amy … the printing set!

Evelyn That’s not conclusive.

Amy The time I spent getting my fingers bright blue … with those little rubber ants …

Evelyn Ah yes. Your paper.

Amy You remember? I did it for years. You can’t have forgotten. How could you? Surely. It was called .

Evelyn So it was.

Amy You see. Infant journalist. Crosswords. Cartoons. Interviews. Mostly with my mother, I’m afraid. I used to hawk it round the widows of Pangbourne. I made a small fortune.

Dominic And what have you done with the money?

Amy Oh, sure. Spent. All spent.

Dominic Well, we could do with it now.

Evelyn Esme, smiling at the seaside. Wearing an unfortunate jumper.

Dominic () Do you think people used these things to get high? ()

Amy Dominic was spared all the pleasures of family. He was brought up by nuns.

Dominic Well, not exactly.

Evelyn What’s she saying?

Dominic () I’m an orphan.

Evelyn I’m sorry.

Dominic There’s really no need.

Evelyn Does he know who his parents are?

Amy No.

Dominic I always thought they’d turn out to be frightful. And not to be interested in the same things as me. I’m not sure we’d know what to say to one another.

Evelyn Wouldn’t...