Norris The Low Road

1. Auflage 2015
ISBN: 978-1-78001-397-8
Verlag: Nick Hern Books
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 176 Seiten

Reihe: NHB Modern Plays

A young entrepreneur sets out on a quest for wealth with priceless ambition and a purse of gold. Bruce Norris's play The Low Road is a startling fable of free-market economics and cut-throat capitalism. It was premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in March 2013.

Bruce Norris is an American actor and playwright associated with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company of Chicago. His plays include: Downstate (Steppenwolf, 2018; National Theatre, 2019); The Low Road (Royal Court Theatre, 2013); Clybourne Park (New York, 2010; Royal Court Theatre, 2010); The Pain and the Itch (Steppenwolf, 2005; Royal Court Theatre, 2007) and Purple Heart (Steppenwolf, 2002). His play Clybourne Park won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Norris, Bruce

Leseproben

ACT TWO

A trumpet fanfare – perhaps a trio of alphorns. As lights rise we face a row of conference chairs with low tables between. We are now in the present. The general look is glossy and technologically sophisticated. Seven panelists are seated, left to right: BELINDA, DICK, NTOMBI, PANDIT, IVAN, MARTIN, and finally ED. In front of each is a microphone and a placard displaying last names. The men are dressed in dark suits – though some forgo ties – and business attire for the women as well.

BELINDA (to us, posh, English). Lovely. And welcome back to all. And I hope we’re all suitably refreshed. But: as I see from the clock it is just gone five past so I’d like to get underway as quickly as we can – And just to be clear: this is not the plenary session. Plenary session is at three-thirty in the Zermatt Room, and that’s now been corrected online, so do be sure to check the website because that information will always be the most up to date. (To the rear of the auditorium.) And I trust we can all hear in the back, yes? Brilliant. And I know there may be latecomers what with the ice and snow and the security and that’s why I always recommend, whenever possible, do try to take your lunch here in the conference centre, that way you’ll be sure to arrive back in plenty of time – (To the panel.) Speaking of, did anyone have the halibut?

ED (English, aristocratic). I did, yes.

BELINDA. Nice, wasn’t it?

ED. Very nice.

DICK. I had the beef.

PANDIT (Indian accent). I am vegetarian.

BELINDA. So kudos to the chef. And: for those not here this morning, I’ll just quickly reintroduce – not that they need introduction – going left to right, Sir Edward Branch, former Chairman, BCHS Financial, London.

ED. Ed, please.

BELINDA. Martin Joosten, Executive Director, AmTek Energy Systems, Rotterdam.

MARTIN nods politely.

Ivan Peyankov, Distinguished Chair of the Lack Institute for Economic Research at the University of Chicago.

IVAN nods.

Pandit Pancholy, Chairman of UniPro Pacific, and a first-timer to this panel, I believe?

PANDIT. Hopefully not the last.

BELINDA. Ntombi Nkosi, Director of the Southern Africa Growth Alliance, or SAGA – and I know Ntombi has a flight at five-thirty so I’ve promised her we shan’t run over.

NTOMBI smiles.

And as always, Richard Trumpett of TrumpettBank Global, LLC.

DICK (bumptious, American – think Mitt Romney). Good to be back.

BELINDA. And I’m Belinda Tate, of the Tate Foundation – oh, and do please turn off your phones if you haven’t done so already. Or at least on silent. So: without further ado, I’d like to open it up as promised before lunch for a quick Q&A and hopefully we’ll have Ntombi out no later than half-past.

NTOMBI (joking, to BELINDA, English-African accent). I need my frequent-flyer miles!

BELINDA (with a sly laugh). Of course you do. And I see some of us have already found our way to the microphones, so if we could keep it to one question apiece and then do try and step away so the next can have their turn, all right? And let’s start right here in the back, shall we? Hello.

She indicates the back of the house, somewhere behind us we can’t see. We hear a disembodied male voice, amplified.

MALE 1. Hello.

BELINDA. Hello.

MALE 1. And thank you for taking my question. Um. First, I wonder if the members of the panel would agree that the immediate crisis is now past for the Eurozone in the short term, and secondly, if so, whether we might expect markets to respond with greater confidence in the upcoming quarter?

BELINDA. Mm. Complex. Martin:

MARTIN (Dutch-inflected perfect English). Well, you know, it is a complex question and we should first acknowledge that we are still confronting dangerous levels of sovereign debt, primarily in Greece and Spain, and the effect of those risks, combined with the rise in commodity prices continues to create a great deal of market volatility –

BELINDA. Worrisome, yes.

MARTIN. – that being said, I do think that, on balance, the immediate outlook is actually surprisingly positive –

BELINDA (pleasantly surprised). Do you?

MARTIN (with a laugh). – I mean, if you’d said to me five years ago, if you’d said, come 2013 we’d be looking at revenues comparable to where they were pre-Lehman Brothers, I think most of us would’ve laughed in your face, but here we are in precisely that situation, so in point of fact, I think we should be feeling rather confident –

DICK. Absolutely.

MARTIN. – because among other things, there’s been enormous opportunities for positive restructuring – (Continues.)

During MARTIN’s last line his microphone has begun to make an unpleasant noise.

BELINDA (overlapping). Martin?

MARTIN. – and what I’ve seen in the aftermath has been streamlining and greater efficiency – (Continues.)

BELINDA (overlapping). Martin?

MARTIN. – which have contributed to a much more rapid recovery than any of us – (Continues.)

BELINDA (overlapping). Sorry –

MARTIN. – initially – is there some sort of – ?

BELINDA. I think we might be getting a bit of feedback from –

MARTIN. Is it me?

BELINDA (to an ATTENDANT). – Could we possibly get someone to – ?

DICK (taking over, to MALE 1). See, the beauty of the market is – it’s a self-correcting system –

BELINDA. Dick:

An ATTENDANT in slacks and pseudo-Tyrolean costume enters to adjust MARTIN’s microphone.

DICK. – left to its own devices. And the real threat to recovery, frankly, is not from deficits, per se, but from fear and overcorrection.

BELINDA (to another unseen questioner). Just here, then? To the other side?

A second MALE voice, amplified.

MALE 2. Um – yes –

BELINDA. Hello.

MALE 2. – um, I wonder if the panel could address the continuing loss of Western jobs to developing nations and also the labour conditions workers face in some of those places, and how those factors might be addressed as we move through the coming decade?

BELINDA. Mmm. Worrisome. Ivan?

IVAN. Yes. Well, you know, the problem with the question is, it presupposes that geographical boundaries present an obstacle to growth, which, strictly speaking, has not been the case for more than twenty years –

The ATTENDANT, having finished, exits again.

BELINDA (quietly, to MARTIN). Sorted out?

IVAN. – as historical nation-states are replaced by interdependent economies –

DICK. – In a global market –

IVAN. – in which regional dislocations are offset by broader market performance.

DICK. Put it this way: let’s say a company in Cleveland decides it’s in their interest to relocate production to Kowloon –

NTOMBI. Or Cameroon.

PANDIT. Or Chennai.

DICK. Now, is that bad?

PANDIT. Bad for whom?

DICK. Cuz when people say to me don’tcha care about American workers I say hey, ya know what? I care about people all over the world.

BELINDA. Pandit:

PANDIT. And of course the situation is the opposite from our point of view because the problem we face is not unemployment but rather underemployment and how to best educate and integrate individuals into an expanding workforce.

BELINDA. Despite persistent poverty –

PANDIT (dismissive). Yes yes.

BELINDA. Median incomes some of the lowest in the world – ?

PANDIT. But this is not outsourcing, from our perspective, you see? It is in-sourcing. It is allowing innovation and competition to function exactly as Adam Smith intended.

DICK (to BELINDA). If I can jump in here?

BELINDA. I see Ntombi’s hand –

DICK. I will defer –

BELINDA. Ntombi:

DICK. – to the lovely lady.

NTOMBI. Firstly, I would caution the questioner not to impose his own system of values, because when jobs like these come to emerging markets such as China, West Africa –

PANDIT. – Southern Asia.

NTOMBI. – where previously there were none, we are seeing tangible difference in the lives of poor people who now find access to a better way of life.

DICK. No question.

NTOMBI. And if the nature of these jobs – in mining, for example, or manufacturing – if they are distasteful to sensibilities in the West –

DICK. Sensitivities.

NTOMBI. Or if they are paid wages that might appear insufficient by Western standards, is that exploitation?

PANDIT. Or opportunity?

NTOMBI. Is it slave labour?

DICK. No one’s forcing people to work.

NTOMBI. Or is it a matter that...