A play for voices
by Michael Rosen
Written exclusively for Write to Ignite to be performed and developed by the Drama Students of Brooke College.
[note from Michael Rosen]
This is a working script to be developed and adapted in rehearsal. I have suggested for example that the words and/or beat box accompaniment of DJ Dextrous - a local DJ - could be used in other places than the one I have already put him.
In addition, the use of the Chorus can be developed more, particularly in the second half.
I'm hoping to attend the rehearsals, to eg tell people the tunes of the songs, fill in details of some of the historic Hackney figures.
CHORUS ONE
Ladies and Gentlemen
Today you will see the
Past in the present
CHORIC WHISPERS
Past in the present
Past in the present
CHORUS TWO
And the present in the past.
CHORIC WHISPERS
Present in the past
Present in the past
CHORUS ONE
Today you will see
The World come to Hackney
CHORIC HEADLINE
World comes to Hackney!
CHORUS TWO
And Hackney come to the world.
CHORIC HEADLINE
Hackney comes to the world!
AUCTIONEER:
Ladies and gentlemen,
Welcome to this auction of properties.
CHORUS
Of properties. Of properties.
AUCTIONEER
Welcome to this auction of properties.
On sale today
CHORUS
On sale today
On sale today
AUCTIONEER
We have a total of
CHORUS
A total of
A total of
HUSSEIN
This is the moment my family have worked for
All our lives.
Yes.
My father came from Bangladesh
My mother came from Bangladesh
We took over a rundown shop.
It was a nothing.
And we made it into a Tandoori restaurant.
We did everything.
Laid the carpets
Fitted the lights
Fitted the kitchen
AUCTIONEER
Ladies and gentlemen,
Welcome to this auction of properties.
CHORUS
Of properties. Of properties.
AUCTIONEER
Welcome to this auction of properties.
On sale today
CHORUS
On sale today
On sale today
AUCTIONEER
We have a total of
CHORUS
A total of -
A total of -
HUSSEIN
We've been here 15 years
But in all that time
We were told we couldn't buy.
There was going to be a road coming through here
Or a railway.
But we spent money on the place
Even though we knew it wasn't ours.
But now the good news:
An auction
And we're going to bid for it.
The Council invited us
And we're going to bid for it.
I've got the letter right here.
AUCTIONEER
Ladies and gentlemen,
Welcome to this auction of properties.
CHORUS
Of properties. Of properties.
AUCTIONEER
Welcome to this auction of properties.
On sale today
CHORUS
On sale today
On sale today
AUCTIONEER
We have a total of
CHORUS
A total of
A total of
ANNA SEWELL
Black Beauty.
Black, black, black beauty.
CHORUS
Just a dream. Just a whisper
Just a thought.
ANNA SEWELL
Standing on the kerb
The clash of hooves on the cobbles
The footman on the step of the coach
The whip, always the whip
The reins so tight, so taut
The curve of the horse's neck
Driving on, driving on.
The Gentleman in a hurry
Must drive on, drive on.
And there on the cobbles
One evening, such a beauty
I wanted to reach out and touch
That deep, dark, black
But he was away, gone...
BOY
My old man's a dustman
He wears a dustman's hat
He bought two thousand tickets
To see a football match
Fatty passed to Skinny
Skinny passed it back
Fatty took a rotten shot
And knocked the goalie flat
Where was the goalie
When the ball was in the net?
Half way up the goal-post
With his trousers round his neck
Singing 'Umpah umpah
Stick it up your jumper
Rule Britannia,
Marmalade and Jam
We threw sausages at our old man
They put him on a stretcher
They put him on a bed
They rubbed his belly
With a five pound jelly
The poor old sod is dead.
VOICE(S)
Evening falls between the trees
The drumming for Ghana fills the leaves
All along the cycle path
The racers, the white dreads
The market shoppers
The tandem parents
The drumming for Ghana fills the leaves
Evening falls between the trees
And here a Plane tree
higher than a warehouse
Thicker than a rubbish bin
Stronger than a promise
Older than a town hall
Evening falls between the trees
The drumming for Ghana fills the leaves
The train for Liverpool street
Groans over the bridge
Children climb the spider's web
If you don't come home
You'll have no sweets for a week
Evening falls between the trees
The drumming for Ghana fills the leaves
Here a Plane tree
Higher than a warehouse
Thicker than a rubbish bin
Stronger than a promise
Older than a Town hall.
JEAN-PIERRE
He doesn't speak English miss.
He comes from the Congo, miss.
I translate for you, miss.
He says that the bad men take his grandfather, miss.
He says that the bad men take his grandmother, miss.
He says that the bad men take his dad, miss.
He says that the bad men take his mum, miss.
He doesn't say how he got here, miss.
He can't say how he got here, miss.
CHORUS ONE
A demographic change.
A demographic change
A demographic change
CHORUS TWO
Studios
Loft-style apartments
Manhattan live-in work units
CHORUS ONE
Regeneration
Regeneration
Regeneration
CHORUS TWO
Buy to rent
Professional people
City workers
CHORUS ONE
Down the Dalston corridor
CHORUS TWO
We are looking for a chain of investors
CHORUS ONE
They are looking for a chain of investors
VOICE:
They dream of childless towers
Of one-bed, two-bed apartments
No need for swings or slides
No need for the visiting nurse
They dream of weekday workers
Heading home at weekends
They dream of childless towers.
ANNA SEWELL (sings)
Over the garden wall
I let my baby fall
My mother came out
She gave me a clout
Over the garden wall.
Over the garden wall
I let my baby fall
My mother came out
She gave me a clout
She gave me another
To match the other
Over the garden wall.
PARKES
Prize Medal
International Exhibition 1862, Class four.
Official Catalogue number 1112
Parkesine
CHORUS
Parkesine, Parkesine, Parkesine
PARKES
A new material and manufacture now exhibited
For the first time.
CHORUS:
For the first time?
CHORUS
For the very first time.
PARKES:
It has from its valuable properties induced the inventor
to patent the discovery in England and France
and to devote his attention for the last ten years
to the development of the capabilities of
this beautiful substance to the Arts.
CHORUS:
Oh, the arts...mmm
PARKES:
In the case are shown a few illustrations of the numerous
purposes for which it may be applied
Such as:
[RHYTHMICALLY:]
Medallions, salvers, hollow ware
Tubes, buttons, combs,
knife handles, pierced and fret work,
inlaid work, Bookbinding,
card cases, boxes, pens, penholders.
CHORUS:
...card cases, boxes, pens, penholders
oh!....mmmmm
PARKES
It can be made hard as ivory, transparent or opaque,
CHORUS
Hard as ivory, transparent or opaque.
PARKES:
Of any degree of flexibility and is also...
...waterproof,
CHORUS:
Waterproof!
PARKES
It may be of the most brilliant colours,
can be used in the solid, plastic or fluid state,
may be worked in dies and pressure as metals,
may be cast or used as a coating to a great variety of substances
can be spread or worked in a similar manner to India Rubber
and has stood exposure to the atmosphere for years
without Change or decomposition.
CHORUS:
Without change or decomposition.
PARKES
And by the system of ornamentation, patented by, me,
Henry Parkes
in 1861, the most perfect imitation of tortoise-shell, woods
and an endless variety of effects can be produced.
CHORUS:
Specimens of which may be seen in the case.
PARKES
Exactly.
The Parkesine Company Limited
is formed for the purpose of acquiring the Patent rights of a new substance
known as Parkesine.
And carrying on the manufacture of the same at the New Parkesine Works
Hackney Wick, near the Victoria Park Station, London, N.E.
CHORUS
This, ladies and gentlemen,
is the world's first plastic.
HEADLEY
One time when me work on de site
in Victoria.
Was in Victoria
and fella com fe juke me.
Big man. Big big man.
He tell me dat dere no place in Englan'
For de coloured man.
An him standin over me in de hut
Where we have we tea.
Me jus calm an quiet
An me tell him dat me haf a knife.
An him tek no notice, you hear me?
Him tek nah notice.
An him standin over me dere den
So me jus reach into me sock
An him see de handle of de knife
Jus peepin out.
Jus peepin out.
RIDLEY ROAD
Five pound jean dahlin
Five pound jean dahlin
Seed-lessss
Seed- lessss
Five pound jean dahlin
Five pound jean dahlin
Seed-lesss
Seed-lesss
Come on!
Two strawbs
One-fifty
Come on!
Two strawbs
One-fifty.
All new crop
All new crop
Top Congo Store
Kin-Malebo
Kin-Malebo
Kin-Malebo
Kashmir Kebabish
Kashmir Kebabish
The Wilton School for Cake Decorating
The Wilton School for Cake Decorating
Party-party
Party-party
Yoko Herbal Extracts
And
Organic Root Stimulator
Yoko Herbal Extracts
And
Organic Root Stimulator
LORD MAYOR OF LONDON
December 6, 1574
Whereas heretofore...
CHORUS:
"Whereas heretofore"...ooooohh...
Shhhhhhhh - it's the Lord Mayor
LORD MAYOR:
...sundry great disorders and inconveniences
have been found to ensue to this city
by the inordinate haunting of great multitudes of people,
- specially youths -
to plays, interludes, and shows:
CHORUS
Plays, interludes and shows...
LORD MAYOR
namely, occasion of frays and quarrels;
evil practises of incontinency in great inns
having chambers and secret places
adjoining to their open stages and galleries;
inveigling and alluring of maids,
CHORUS
Inveigling and alluring of maids...
LORD MAYOR
the publishing of unchaste, uncomely,
and unshamefaced speeches and doings;
withdrawing of the Queen's Majesty's subjects
from divine service on Sundays and holy days,
at which times such plays were chiefly used;
unthrifty waste of the money of the poor and fond persons;
sundry robberies by picking and cutting of purses;
uttering of popular, busy, and seditious matters;
They are a special cause of corrupting youth
containing nothing but unchaste matter
CHORUS:
Unchaste matter?
LORD MAYOR
Lascivious devices
CHORUS
Lascivious devices?
LORD MAYOR
...and other lewd and ungodly practices.
CHORUS
Other lewd and ungodly practices
Tut tut tut
LORD MAYOR
...besides that,
also sundry slaughters and maimings of the Queen's subjects
have happened by ruins of scaffolds, frames, and stages,
and by engines, weapons, and powder
used in plays.
And whereas in time of God's visitation by the plague
such assemblies of the people in throng and press
have been very dangerous for spreading of infection....
CHORUS:
The ssssspreading of inffffectionnnnnnnnnn.
LORD MAYOR
And for that,
the Lord Mayor and his brethren the Aldermen,
ordain that:
CHORUS:
One...
LORD MAYOR:
Only such plays shall be acted as are free from
all unchastity, seditiousness, and uncomely matter.
CHORUS:
Two...
LORD MAYOR:
Before being acted all plays shall be first perused
by such persons as the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen
CHORUS:
Three...
LORD MAYOR:
Inns or other buildings used for acting,
and their proprietors, shall be licensed by
the Lord Mayor and the Aldermen.
CHORUS:
Four...
LORD MAYOR
No plays shall be given during the time of sickness,
or during any inhibition ordered at any time by the city authorities.
CHORUS:
Five...
LORD MAYOR
No plays shall be given during
any usual time of divine service,
and no persons shall be admitted into playing places
until after divine services are over.
CHORUS:
Six...
LORD MAYOR:
The proprietors of such places shall pay towards
the support of the poor
a sum to be agreed upon
by the city authorities.
JAMES BURBAGE
And so at the Priory of Holywell,
Holywell Lane
a place outside the city
where the Lord Mayor and the Aldermen cannot enforce municipal ordinances,
I, James Burbage, joiner by trade,
take out a lease on some land.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
In 1575
just near to Holywell Lane and the common sewer
that will become Curtain Road,
there be five paltry tenements,
old, decayed, and ruinated for want of reparation,
the best of them is but of two stories high,
and a long barn, very ruinous and decayed
and ready to fall down,
one half of which is used as a storage-room,
the other half as a slaughter-house.
Just north of the barn is "void ground,".
It is on this "void ground" that James Burbage,
he, like me, coming from Stratford upon Avon,
builds a playhouse, called The Theatre.
This is the first theatre that I, William Shakespeare, work in
as an actor and as a writer.
COMMENTATOR
But the builder's wife said they weren't paid their fair share
and along with some men come to Burbage's house asking for her money.
They are met by James Burbage's wife,
MRS BURBAGE: [LOUD, FURIOUS]
Go out of my grounds,
or else my son will break your knaves' heads.
COMMENTATOR
James Burbage looks out of a window upon them.
BURBAGE:
You are a murdering whore,
and your companions: villains, rascals, and knaves."
BUILDER'S WIFE
I have an order from the court
BURBAGE:
Go, go. A cart, a cart for you!
I will obey no such order,
nor I care not for any such orders,
and therefore it were best for you and your companions
to be packing betimes,
for if my son come he will thump you hence!
COMMENTATOR
After many such visits
the builder's wife and her attendants
goes to the Theatre upon a play-day
to stand at the door that goeth up to the galleries of the said Theatre
to take and receive half of the money
that should be given to come up into the said gallery.
In the Theatre they are met by Burbage's other son,
Richard, then about nineteen years old,
and his mother,
who fall upon one of the men and beat him with a broom staff.
MRS BURBAGE
Murdering knave!
BURBAGE:
Tush!
Our sons, if they will be ruled by me,
shall at their next coming
provide charged pistols,
with powder and hempseed,
to shoot them in the legs.
RIDLEY ROAD
Five pound jean dahlin
Five pound jean dahlin
Seed-lessss
Seed- lessss
Five pound jean dahlin
Five pound jean dahlin
Seed-lesss
Seed-lesss
Come on!
Two strawbs
One-fifty
Come on!
Two strawbs
One-fifty.
All new crop
All new crop
Chinese Herbal Medical Centre
Chinese Herbal Medical Centre
Acne, Eczema, Psoriasis
All kinds pain (neck, back)
Asthma, Hay Fever,
Indigestion, constipation,
Poor blood circulation
Infertility, miscarriage
Male and female sexual problems
Weight loss or control
Giving up smoking and drinking
Hair loss, stress, depression
Lower energyyyyyyyyy.
HEADLEY
Him never bother me no more
Me no have to touch him.
Rastaman never do me no harm.
Dem tell me in Jamaica dat de Rastaman
Him robbah and teef
But me see rastaman by side o de road
An him never do me no harm.
MRS HEADLEY
Tell dem bout de time you lift one hundred an fifty pound bag.
HEADLEY
We work and we work and we work
Me on de site
And me wife at de hospital
But now we go back down there.
We goin to Jamaica.
Me daddy is ill
Dis house here which I buy
when it have no toilet, no bathroom
an it was all dirt an it was nothing
me gwaan sell.
Me haafi sell nah
.....
[PAUSE]
He never give me no more trouble
De fella on de site.
VOICE:
You see where I'm standing now?
I was coming this way,
He was walking that way.
I told him that the warning had gone out,
There was going to be an air-raid
He said, he was just going down to the end of the road
To see the widow what lived there
And I said I was going back indoors
And we was all going to go out to the shelter
I said goodbye to him right here
And he said goodbye to me
And that was the last I saw of him
The raid come over, V2
And flattened the end of the road down there
Where the flats are
Just there, where them flats are now
And he went with it
And I'm standing here telling you this
And he's gone.
Up in Stoke Newington,
There was over a hundred gone in one night.
Just like that.
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