Elyot - Twilight Song

Kevin Elyot TWILIGHT SONG NICK HERN BOOKS London www.nickhernbooks.co.uk ContentsTwilight Song was produced by Cahoots Theatre Company and David Sloan in association with Park Theatre. It was first performed at Park Theatre, London, on 12 July 2017. The cast was as follows:

HARRY	Philip Bretherton
SKINNER/GARDENER	Adam Garcia
ISABELLA	Bryony Hannah
BARRY/BASIL	Paul Higgins
CHARLES	Hugh Ross
Director	Anthony Banks
Designer	James Cotterill
Lighting Designer	Tim Lutkin
Composers & Sound Designers	Ben and Max Ringham
Dialect Coach	Elspeth Morrison
Dramaturg	Sebastian Born
Production Manager	Nick May
Company Stage Manager	Cassie Gallagher
Assistant Stage Manager	Leanne James

Characters SKINNER BARRY BASIL ISABELLA CHARLES HARRY GARDENER Setting The play takes place in the same sitting room of a Victorian villa in North London during the early summers of 1961, 1967 and the present day. A door leads into the rest of the house. A double-doored French window leads into the garden. The furniture includes a sofa and a 1920s mahogany gramophone cabinet.

Theres a fireplace with a mirror above it. Doubling SKINNER and GARDENER are played by one actor. BARRY and BASIL are played by one actor. Scene OneA grey drizzly afternoon in May, unseasonably dark. A barely discernible veil of mist shrouds the untidy room which seems to have seeped in from outside. A Bose radio/CD player stands on a table next to the 1920s mahogany gramophone cabinet.

SKINNER (late forties), smartly suited, at the French window, looking out at the rain; BARRY (mid-fifties), watching him. SKINNER. Live alone, do you? BARRY. No. With my mother. SKINNER.

Wheres she then? BARRY. Dunstable. SKINNER. Just the day for Dunstable. He looks around. Been here long, have you? BARRY.

Getting on for fifty years or more. SKINNER. Fifty years, eh? BARRY. All my life, actually. SKINNER. Suffered any slippage? BARRY.

Well, Ive had a few problems but SKINNER. Subsidence? BARRY. Oh, I see. Yes, this whole area you cant move for cracks. SKINNER. Very nice though.

You couldnt be better located. BARRY. You think so? SKINNER. Almost recession-proof. BARRY. Well SKINNER.

Believe me. BARRY. Right. A gurgling of water pipes from upstairs. SKINNER. BARRY. BARRY.

Had it? SKINNER. Oh yes, Ive done my homework. A case of having to now were getting a bit more international. Americans love a little snippet like that: the Great Forest of Middlesex. BARRY. SKINNER. SKINNER.

Of course it hasnt existed for years. Chopped down by Henry the Third. BARRY. Henry the Third? SKINNER. In the thirteenth century. BARRY.

Why would he go and do a thing like that? SKINNER. Robbers, so they say. BARRY. Really? SKINNER. The place was swarming with them. BARRY.

Good heavens. SKINNER. Ah well, plus a change. BARRY. Yes, quite. SKINNER.

Thats the trouble with royalty: think they own the bloody place. A sudden grating, cranking sound. BARRY. Thatll be the fridge. Weve been meaning to get a new one but SKINNER. The sound continues. BARRY. BARRY.

Itll stop soon. They wait. It stops. Thats better. SKINNER. Not that Ive got anything against the present incumbent, God bless her.

Shes a diamond: solid, reliable, just like my Audi. I just wish shed chill out a bit, know what I mean? Always looks like shes got a knob of ginger stuck up her arse. BARRY. Can I get you anything? SKINNER. Not while Im on the job. BARRY.

No, of course. SKINNER. Whats she doing in Dunstable then? BARRY. My mother? SKINNER. Yes. BARRY.

She has an appointment. SKINNER. An appointment in Dunstable, eh? BARRY. She has one every Thursday. SKINNER. Hospital, is it? BARRY.

Not exactly. In fact, shes doing pretty well, considering. I think Ill conk out before her what with this and that, and my hearts not too clever thats what did for my dad. Have you got a mother, Mr Skinner? SKINNER. Skinner, please. SKINNER. SKINNER.

No, I havent. She died when I was a baby. BARRY. Oh dear. SKINNER. Didnt know anything about it, did I? Then my dad upped sticks and we went down under.

Hed got a bit of money, see Im not sure how and went through it like a tit in a trance. Ended up in Wagga Wagga. BARRY. Ive not heard of that. SKINNER. BARRY. BARRY.

I thought you had a little twang. SKINNER. Eh? BARRY. Your accent, just a hint of whatever. SKINNER. Yeah.

Clings like crabs. BARRY. Were you there for long? SKINNER. I was back here like a shot once they let me out of youth offenders. Dad had drunk himself to death, see, and I went a bit off the rails. BARRY.

What had you done? SKINNER. This and that, but Im well-reformed now. I learnt all sorts in there: plastering, life skills, and a few positions even the Christian Brothers never got round to. BARRY. You were taught by the Christian Brothers? SKINNER. Id swing for those cunts, pardon my French.

Let your hair down, do you, Mr Gough? BARRY. Im sorry? SKINNER. On a Thursday, when your mums in Dunstable? BARRY. Not exactly. Im not the hair-letting-down type although I used to let it down. SKINNER. SKINNER.

Youve got to live for the here-and-now, havent you? No use putting it off. BARRY. Thats what Mother says. Youre letting it slip away, Barry. One simply has to get on, get a grip. SKINNER. SKINNER.

Sensible woman, your mother. Yeah, I can imagine youre a bit of a goer on the quiet. BARRY. Well, I wouldnt quite say that SKINNER. Always the quiet ones. BARRY.

And I wouldnt say Im that quiet. SKINNER. So what do you do, if you dont mind my asking? Or are you one of the idle rich? BARRY. No Im not. I was given early retirement. SKINNER.

Happens a lot now, doesnt it? BARRY. Yes. I worked in a pharmacy, the same one nearly all my life. The years I gave to that place Mother wanted me to be a doctor but I never quite cut the mustard. I thought Id made a fair enough compromise but she of course didnt, and all the time what I secretly wanted was to be a dancer. SKINNER.

Oh yeah? BARRY. Then it transpired I had Policemans Foot. SKINNER. Nasty. BARRY. It is.

Intermittent, but very painful. SKINNER. I once had a mate who wanted to be a bouncer. BARRY. Really? SKINNER. BARRY. BARRY.

Its hard, isnt it? Thwarted ambition. The water pipes gurgle again. I sometimes think about getting a little job but its not that easy, and the older you get, well Thats why Im curious about the value in case we have to downsize. SKINNER. So what do you do with yourself all day? BARRY. Oh, I keep myself busy.

Go out stay in. I do see the odd exhibition or friend, although its strange now wandering around London. Its full of memories: a restaurant, a park, a corner. Thats where I did such-and-such with so-an-so all those years ago, and of course theyre not there any more. All dead or moved on. SKINNER. SKINNER.

Funny old place, isnt it? The other day I saw a bloke on one side of town, then the next day I saw him on the other. Imagine! BARRY. But I wouldnt live anywhere else. I couldnt, not now, because of Mother. SKINNER. BARRY. BARRY.

I dont think it was ever meant to be. SKINNER. Certainly not round my gaff, I tell you. BARRY. Do you have a family Skinner? SKINNER. Just the wife, and her bloody mother whos always sniffing around.