Munro The Astronaut's Chair

1. Auflage 2016
ISBN: 978-1-78001-701-3
Verlag: Nick Hern Books
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 88 Seiten

Reihe: NHB Modern Plays

A thrilling play about the race to be the first woman in space. Renee Coburg is a gritty, glamorous aviator, the fastest, highest, bravest woman in the world. Jo Green is a determined, brilliant and much younger pilot with her eye on all Renee's records. They both want to be the first woman in space but there's only one chair at the top of the rocket. Rona Munro's play The Astronaut's Chair was first performed at the Drum Theatre, Plymouth, in 2012. It followed her earlier play, Little Eagles, about the space race in Russia.

Rona Munro is a writer who has written extensively for stage, radio, film and television. Her plays include: James V: Katherine (Raw Material and Capital Theatres tour, 2024); Mary (Hampstead Theatre, 2022); James IV: Queen of the Fight (National Theatre of Scotland, 2022); a stage adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (UK tour, 2019); a stage adaptation of Louis de Bernières' novel Captain Corelli's Mandolin (UK tour & West End, 2019); Scuttlers (Royal Exchange, Manchester, 2015); The James Plays trilogy (National Theatre of Scotland, the Edinburgh International Festival and the National Theatre of Great Britain, 2014); Donny's Brain (Hampstead Theatre, 2012); Pandas (Traverse, 2011); Little Eagles (Royal Shakespeare Company, 2011); The Last Witch (Traverse Theatre & Edinburgh International Festival, 2009); Long Time Dead (Paines Plough & Drum Theatre Plymouth, 2006); The Indian Boy (RSC, 2006); Iron (Traverse Theatre, 2002; Royal Court, London, 2003); The Maiden Stone (Hampstead Theatre, 1995); and Bold Girls (7:84 and Hampstead Theatre, 1990). She is the co-founder, with actress Fiona Knowles, of Scotland's oldest continuously performing, small-scale touring theatre company, The Msfits. Their one-woman shows have toured every year since 1986. Film and television work includes the Ken Loach film Ladybird Ladybird, Aimee and Jaguar and television dramas Rehab (directed by Antonia Bird) and BAFTA-nominated Bumping the Odds for the BBC. She has also written many other single plays for television and contributed to series including Casualty and Dr Who. Most recently, she wrote the screenplay for Oranges and Sunshine, directed by Jim Loach and starring Emily Watson and Hugo Weaving. She has contributed several radio plays to the Stanley Baxter Playhouse series on BBC Radio 4.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Munro, Rona

Leseproben

ACT ONE

Desert, 1957.

RENEE and STEVE are camping out in the desert. It’s a clear starry night. RENEE is looking at the sky.

STEVE is fiddling with a shortwave radio, trying to tune something in.

RENEE (her eyes still on the sky). Have you got it?

STEVE tunes it in.

The sound of the Sputnik satellite.

STEVE. That’s it.

They both listen, both looking up.

Want to try the binoculars?

RENEE. No, I know it’s up there.

STEVE. The sound…

RENEE. What about it?

STEVE. It sounds like it… shimmers… a shining sound.

RENEE. It’s kind of scary though, isn’t it?

STEVE. What?

RENEE. That’s the Russians, right? The Russians are up there, right now, above our heads.

STEVE. It’s a silver ball. Just a silver ball.

I’ll tell you what’s scary. There’s a place up there, only a mile or so above your head, where the air stops, and the gentle warmth of Earth stops, and there’s nothing between you and all of eternity but dark. You’d choke in seconds. The rage of the unshielded Sun would boil your blood. The bottomless cold of space would freeze your eyes open, as you died, looking at the whole, empty universe that presses in on this tiny speck of dust we call home. And there’s guys like me who dream of nothing but getting out there…

RENEE. Wow.

Poetry.

And I thought you were just a medical man from Illinois, Dr Finnegan.

STEVE. Colonel Finnegan.

RENEE. A doctor who had himself a little war.

STEVE. Decorated officer, ma’am. US Air Force.

RENEE. So you can fly yourself up to the edge of space, Dr Steve.

STEVE. No, ma’am. They won’t let me do that.

RENEE. Why not?

STEVE. Leg full of shrapnel.

RENEE. That’s too bad.

Want me to take you up?

STEVE. What?

RENEE. I’ve got my bird here. I could take you up tomorrow.

STEVE. Your bird?

RENEE. I’ve got a F-68 Sabre waiting over at the base but I reckon I could talk us in to a two-seater if you like.

STEVE. Who are you?

RENEE. Steve, you know who I am. I’m a pretty girl you met in a bar and sweet-talked into coming out here to see the stars.

STEVE. And you’ve got a jet?

RENEE. Sure do. And tomorrow I’ll take you up to look at Sputnik. If you want.

STEVE. And the day after?

RENEE. I’m flying home to my husband.

A beat.

Okay, Dr Finnegan?

STEVE. Colonel Finnegan.

RENEE. Excuse me, airman. Okay, Steve?

STEVE. Yeah… yeah, that sounds good.

They kiss. It becomes more passionate.

STEVE breaks away.

He exits.

An instant shift in time and place, we are now in –

Hospital garden, 1964.

RENEE is close to collapse. LARISSA enters.

She checks RENEE’s pulse. RENEE barely reacts. She’s looking up at the sky.

RENEE. There’s a woman up there, can you see her?

LARISSA (matter-of-fact). I think you’re going to die tonight.

RENEE. Excuse me?

LARISSA. I think you’re going to die tonight if you don’t make an effort.

RENEE. Are you my nurse?

LARISSA. I’m your doctor.

RENEE. Well, what kind of a bedside manner is that?

LARISSA. It’s up to you.

RENEE. You can’t talk to me like that.

LARISSA. Maybe you’re tired. Maybe you’re ready.

RENEE. I’m not ready to die. I’m on my way home, missy. My bag is packed. I’m out of here. Watch me.

LARISSA shrugs.

LARISSA. Your pulse is weak.

RENEE. I’m going home.

LARISSA. I don’t think so.

RENEE. Help me get up.

LARISSA. If you can’t do it yourself it’s time to lie down.

RENEE. What kind of nurse are you!?

LARISSA. I’m your doctor.

RENEE. You’re not my doctor, Steve’s my doctor.

LARISSA. He’s out.

RENEE. Out where?

LARISSA. At a party.

RENEE. Well, get him back here.

LARISSA. We’re only supposed to contact him in emergencies.

RENEE. You said I was dying!

LARISSA. That’s not an emergency, not if it’s your time.

RENEE. What do you mean, my time! I’m only… I’m not old.

LARISSA. You look old.

RENEE. I’m not old!

LARISSA. You look very old.

RENEE. Get me my make-up bag!

LARISSA is just looking at her. RENEE is furious.

Will you please bring me my bag. (As LARISSA hesitates.)
I can see it! It’s right there!

She’s pointing at it. LARISSA brings over what’s basically a large vanity case.

RENEE struggles to open it.

(Looking through make-up, selecting.) All right… all right… let’s see now… dying? What does she mean… dying… nurses these days…

LARISSA. I am a doctor…

RENEE. You’re too young to be a doctor.

LARISSA. I’m not young. It’s just you are old.

RENEE. Why you…?! I’m not…

RENEE breaks off abruptly as she sees her reflection in the mirror in the box’s lid.

Oh my Lord, I look about one hundred and two.

LARISSA. You see?

RENEE. I really do. Okay, give me a minute here.

She starts fixing her face. Her energy is coming back, her movements getting more confident as she works.

All right… all right, I can have this fixed in a beat of a gnat’s wing… here we go… Come on, Renee, I know you’re hiding in there…

Honey, can you get me a drink?

LARISSA. You want some water?

RENEE. Hell no, I want a martini.

LARISSA. You are in hospital.

RENEE. Yes.

LARISSA. You want a martini? In a hospital?

RENEE. I thought you said I was dying? Don’t I get whatever I want when I’m dying? I’ve got the fixings in my bag there. Mix me up one, there’s a dear.

LARISSA finds the martini ingredients.

Why would you say a thing like that? Why would you tell a person they were dying?

LARISSA. Don’t you want to know?

RENEE. No!

LARISSA. I’d want to know.

RENEE. Well, guess what. As soon as I get a gun or a blunt implement in my hand, you’re dying.

Do you know what you’re doing there?

LARISSA. I know how to make a martini.

RENEE. Good. Fix yourself one if you want it. You see anything in my make-up bag you like? Help yourself. I’ve plenty more. I bet you nurses work hard for a stripe of lipstick.

LARISSA. I’m your doctor.

RENEE. So you say. (Looking in mirror.) Oh, now I can see myself.

All right.

Help me up here.

LARISSA just looks at her.

You’re really starting to annoy me, you know that?

All right.

Just to make the point. Just to show you how far I am from the grave, I’ll stand myself up.

Laboriously RENEE does this.

LARISSA. You will be sick.

RENEE. I’m not sick.

LARISSA. You will… (Searches for word.) throw up. When you stand up it makes you throw up.

JACK enters and stops, startled to see LARISSA.

RENEE. I never throw up.

Where are my shoes?

Moving with increasing strength, RENEE rummages in her bag and finds her heels and slips her feet into them.

LARISSA is glaring at JACK.

LARISSA. Did she pay you? To bring her bag here?

JACK (defensive). The lady...