Thorne When You Cure Me

1. Auflage 2014
ISBN: 978-1-78001-242-1
Verlag: Nick Hern Books
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 96 Seiten

Reihe: NHB Modern Plays

A painful - and painfully funny - play about being very young and in love - and coping with serious illness at the same time. Rachel and Peter are seventeen. They have been going out for six months. It's love's young dream. Then Rachel gets ill - seriously ill. She doesn't want her mum to fuss; she doesn't want Alice to pretend she's her best friend; and she certainly doesn't want Alice's boyfriend telling bad jokes at her bedside. The only person she wants is Peter, but Peter doesn't know what it is that he wants. Jack Thorne's play When You Cure Me is a bittersweet and poignant tale of love and misunderstanding - and discovering that what you say and do can be very different from what you think and feel. When You Cure Me was first staged at the Bush Theatre, London, in 2005.

Jack Thorne is a playwright and BAFTA-winning screenwriter. His plays for the stage include: When Winston Went to War with the Wireless (Donmar Warehouse, 2023); The Motive and the Cue (National Theatre and West End, 2023; Evening Standard Award for Best Play; Critics' Circle Award for Best New Play); After Life, an adaptation of a film by  Hirokazu Kore-eda  (National Theatre, 2021); the end of history... (Royal Court, London, 2019); an adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol (Old Vic, London, 2017); an adaptation of Büchner's Woyzeck (Old Vic, London, 2017); Junkyard ( Headlong, Bristol Old Vic, Rose Theatre Kingston & Theatr Clwyd, 2017 ); Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Palace Theatre, London, 2016); The Solid Life of Sugar Water (Graeae and Theatre Royal Plymouth, 2015); Hope (Royal Court, London, 2015); adaptations of Let the Right One In (National Theatre of Scotland at Dundee Rep, the Royal Court and the Apollo Theatre, London, 2013/14) and Stuart: A Life Backwards (Underbelly, Edinburgh and tour, 2013); Mydidae (Soho, 2012; Trafalgar Studios, 2013); an adaptation of Friedrich Du?rrenmatt's The Physicists (Donmar Warehouse, 2012); Bunny (Underbelly, Edinburgh, 2010; Soho, 2011); 2nd May 1997 (Bush, 2009); When You Cure Me (Bush, 2005; Radio 3's Drama on Three, 2006); Fanny and Faggot (Pleasance, Edinburgh, 2004 and 2007; Finborough, 2007; English Theatre of Bruges, 2007; Trafalgar Studios, 2007); and Stacy (Tron, 2006; Arcola, 2007; Trafalgar Studios, 2007). His television work includes His Dark Materials, Then Barbara Met Alan (with Genevieve Barr), The Eddy, Help, The Accident, Kiri, National Treasure and This is England '86/'88/'90. His films include The Swimmers (with Sally El Hosaini), Enola Holmes, Radioactive, The Aeronauts and Wonder. He was the recipient of the Writers' Guild of Great Britain Award for Outstanding Contribution to Writing in 2022. Author photo by Antonio Olmos

Autoren/Hrsg.

Thorne, Jack

Leseproben

ACT ONE

1.1

17th January.

In the blackout.

PETER (soft, so soft). You awake . . .

The lights rise gently. She’s not awake, she’s just sort of stretching her mouth, so he sits back. This takes forever. She moves again.

Rach . . .

Pause.

Rach . . .

Pause.

(Louder.) Rachel . . .

Pause. The lights are at full brightness.

Rachel, you awake . . .

RACHEL. Wha . . .

PETER (reaching out and touching her arm again, his hand rests on the side of the bed). Hi.

Pause.

Rachel?

RACHEL. Uh . . . Di’ you?

She retches like she’s about to throw up, but stops herself.

Pause.

PETER. Bad dream, or . . .

RACHEL (she takes his hand in hers). No.

Pause. He tries to take his hand away, but he doesn’t know how.

I need to pee . . .

PETER. OK.

RACHEL. I, uh . . .

PETER. Shall I call your mum or . . .

RACHEL. No. Don’t call her.

PETER. OK. Are you . . .

RACHEL. Can you do it?

PETER. Really? Sure.

RACHEL. There’s a pan under the bed.

PETER. OK.

He grasps under the bed, which is pretty cluttered, for the bedpan.

(Desperately casual.) What does it look like?

RACHEL. Blue.

PETER. Yeah.

He re-emerges with it.

RACHEL. There should be a, there’s a insert under there too – just cardboard – there’s a stack of them – they just slot in – the insert should . . .

He finds the cardboard insert.

PETER. Is this . . .

RACHEL. Yeah. Pass it here, it sort of clips in.

PETER. No. I can do it . . .

He inserts it clumsily and then he goes to the end of the bed and lifts her legs, quite roughly. He’s improvising and being slightly rough with it, so that when he attempts to slide the bedpan underneath, she immediately falls off.

RACHEL (warning). Peter . . .

PETER. Am I . . . What?

RACHEL. You’re being rough . . . a bit . . .

PETER. Oh . . .

Beat.

RACHEL. Um. My knickers . . .

PETER. Yeah.

He does so gently, and blindly, sliding them off her by the knicker straps, and being careful not to look. Then he holds the knickers, unsure of what to do with them.

RACHEL. Do you want to . . . get Mum . . .

PETER (he puts the knickers in his pocket with confidence). It’s OK.

He hesitates and then gently lifts her legs and slides the bedpan on.

RACHEL. You have to keep hold of me, so I don’t – Sorry, I don’t want to slip off.

PETER. No. No. It’s fine.

RACHEL. I just don’t want Mum sniffing . . .

PETER. It’s fine. I’m pleased.

He holds her by the hips, trying to keep this as non-sexual as possible. From the floor below we faintly hear the sound of The Archers theme music kicking off.

Pause. She hasn’t started peeing yet, she’s sweating slightly, this is very difficult.

OK?

RACHEL. Yeah.

Pause.

I’m slipping, grip tighter . . .

PETER. Like this.

RACHEL. Yeah.

PETER tightens and doesn’t know which way to look, so he just looks at her, and she stares at him and they’re stuck like this and it’s perfect and horrible. Then, finally, she starts to pee. It’s hard for her to pee, and she only gives up a pathetic amount, but it seems to make a huge clattering noise as it dribbles into the cardboard bedpan. PETER doesn’t breathe until she finishes.

You need to get me the toilet tissue.

PETER. Is that . . . ? Are you balanced?

RACHEL (she moves her own hands in order to steady herself). Yeah.

He gently lets go, leaving her balancing on the bedpan whilst he finds the toilet paper. He finds it.

PETER. Do you . . .

RACHEL. Yeah. Give it here.

He hands her the toilet roll, she wipes herself whilst looking precariously balanced. He moves as if to help at one point, but holds back. She deposits the tissue in the bedpan.

You empty it in the toilet – and there’s a bin in there – for the, uh, insert.

PETER. OK . . .

He reaches in again, helps her balance herself, and then slides her off the bedpan.

RACHEL. Don’t look at it – there’ll be blood . . .

PETER. OK.

He takes the bedpan out of the room, carefully averting his eyes. We’re left with just her. She shifts on the bed and winces. She touches the scar on her cheek, she traces it with her fingers. She tries to shift up on the bed, but she winces again and gags, this really hurts.

(Re-entering.) OK . . .

RACHEL. Yeah.

PETER sits by her bed. They sit in silence, then she takes his hand.

PETER. There wasn’t much blood.

RACHEL. Wasn’t there?

PETER. I thought you’d want to know – there wasn’t . . .

Beat. She watches him.

RACHEL. You need to give me my knickers back . . .

PETER (he laughs through his nose). Yeah. Um . . .

He finds the knickers in his pocket and starts putting them on her legs. He’s rough again, like he was with the first attempt at the bedpan. She waits until he finishes and then moves her own hands down to straighten up his attempts.

They sit in silence for a moment.

I could get you some of those baby wipes. For your hands, so that when you go to the loo, you can clean them too. Because you don’t want them dirty – I thought –

RACHEL. OK.

PETER. I’ll get them tonight. When I leave . . . or . . .

RACHEL. Yeah. OK.

PETER. Just say when you’ve had enough basically . . .

Pause.

RACHEL. I’m really pleased . . . you’re here.

PETER. Yeah? I spoke to James last night . . .

RACHEL. OK.

PETER. He asked after you. He sounded worried.

RACHEL (non-committal). OK.

PETER. They’ve got back together, him and Alice. He sounded really pleased about it, she said some really nice stuff to him too, about it all . . .

RACHEL. OK.

They sit in silence again. PETER takes a Ventolin asthma inhaler from his trousers and takes a squirt.

PETER. Everyone’s being really nice about it . . . you. I mean, everyone’s saying nice things . . .

RACHEL (soft). There’s no reason, for the legs – it’s just me –

PETER. Yeah?

RACHEL. It’ll go away –

PETER. OK.

RACHEL. They think it’ll go away soon – sometimes it just does – they basically promised. Will you help me sit up . . .

PETER. Yeah. You just want another cushion behind you or. . .

RACHEL. No. Just sitting up . . .

PETER. OK.

He leans over her, and holds her by her armpits. He starts to haul her up the bed, so she’s higher on the headboard. But then she screams and he stops. He doesn’t speak, he just makes a noise.

Pause.

RACHEL (getting her breath back). It’s fine.

Pause.

PETER. I didn’t –

RACHEL. It’s fine.

Pause. They both get their breath back.

Pull me up a bit higher, would you?

PETER. What? No! It hurts you.

RACHEL. I want to be up higher.

PETER. No, I . . .

RACHEL. Please, Peter.

PETER. Why?

RACHEL. Can you help me, please?

He gingerly fingers his arms around her armpits and attempts to pull her higher on the headboard. He starts carefully, but he has to tug her up, so he can’t be gentle. She gags slightly at the effort, but manages to stop herself from screaming.

(Again waiting a moment for breath.) Thank you.

They sit a moment longer. PETER is white-faced. He pulls out and takes another tug from his inhaler.

PETER. Are you OK?

RACHEL. I feel older, do you know that?

PETER. Yeah? I don’t particularly. Is that –

Beat.

RACHEL. Will you get in with me?

PETER. Yeah?

RACHEL. Will you . . .

PETER. It won’t hurt?

RACHEL. No.

Beat.

PETER. That wasn’t what that was about, was it? Getting up higher.

RACHEL. No.

PETER. You weren’t making it so I could get in. Moving up, so . . .

RACHEL. Will you get in?

PETER. Yeah.

He squeezes himself onto the bed, so that his hips are just on the side of the bed. She pulls him in closer, and partly curls what parts of the body she can around him.

Can you, uh –

RACHEL. This is nice.

PETER. Yeah.

RACHEL. I can feel your heartbeat, it’s going quick actually . . .

PETER. Is it?

RACHEL. Yeah. (She takes his hand and puts it on his heart.)

PETER. Yeah.

RACHEL. You’re nervous, that’s all –

Beat.

(Soft.) Do you mind the scar?

PETER. No.

RACHEL. It’ll fade. I mean, I’ll look the same . . .

PETER. You’re really pretty. You still are.

Beat.

RACHEL. This is nice. I like it like this.

She feels her hand around and sort of pats him.

PETER (giggle). Oh. Um. Mr Norris asked if you wanted work set, by the way. (She giggles.) And Mr Edwards, though he was weird about it, he said I had to talk to him, well, if I wanted to, and that I had to call him Geoff . . .

RACHEL (giggle). Geoff!

PETER (giggle). Yeah.

Pause. She tries to snuggle...