Bean - The English Game

THE ENGLISH GAME First published in 2008 by Oberon Books Ltd This electronic edition published in 2011 by Oberon Books Ltd
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www.oberonbooks.com Copyright Richard Bean, 2008 Richard Bean is hereby identified as author of this play in accordance with section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. The author has asserted his moral rights. All rights whatsoever in this play are strictly reserved and application for performance etc. should be made before commencement of rehearsal to United Agents, 12-26 Lexington Street, London, W1F 0LE (info@unitedagents.co.uk). No performance may be given unless a licence has been obtained, and no alterations may be made in the title or the text of the play without the authors prior written consent. You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: 978-1-84943-156-9 Visit www.oberonbooks.com to read more about all our books and to buy them. You will also find features, author interviews and news of any author events, and you can sign up for e-newsletters so that youre always first to hear about our new releases. Characters

SET DESIGN A London park cricket pitch. The action takes place in and around a section of the boundary where The Nightwatchmen cricket team congregate.

The wicket is not visible. There is no boundary line. Upstage is a wire or metal fence, with holes in it, and beyond that a small copse. The grass of the pitch is not well cut and lines of cut grass remain on the pitch. A fresh pile of dog dirt is set centre stage. Down stage right is the remains of a burnt out cricket pavilion.

All that can be seen is the concrete foundations, and some charred wooden floorboards. The actors always take the field down the pavilion steps, it is a club tradition, and so a batsman going out to bat exits stage right and is heard to click with his boot studs on the concrete steps. SOUND DESIGN The audience in the stalls should feel that they are on the pitch, and that the game is going on around them. A character fielding at Deep Long On who shouts or says anything should sound as if he is diametrically opposite a character fielding at Deep Third Man. I guess the term is surround sound. TIME The Present.

The first two acts take place in real time. Leaps of time in the third act can be indicated by an accelerated scoreboard. All three acts take place on the same very hot August Sunday. The English Game was first performed at Guildfords Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in a Headlong Theatre production on 7 May 2008, with the following cast: SEAN Tony Bell BERNARD Peter Bourke NICK Rudi Dharmalingam WILL Robert East ALAN Andrew Frame CLIVE John Lightbody LEN Trevor Martin PAUL Ifan Meredith THIZ Sean Murray OLLY Marcus Onilude REG Fred Ridgeway RUBEN Jamie Samuel THEO Howard Ward Director Sean Holmes Designer Anthony Lamble Lighting Designer Charles Balfour Sound Designer Gregory Clarke Assistant Director Jamie Harper Act One (The sound of traffic mixed with bird song, then a cuckoo. A VW camper van pulls up off. The vans stereo plays And the Healing has Begun by Van Morrison.

This is turned off after a few bars, and WILL is heard humming/singing to himself the same song. He enters. He is a fifty-nine year old grey haired man. He is wearing shorts, leather sandals and has elasticated bandages on both knees. He wears a beaten up straw hat on his head, no sunglasses. He is carrying his own kit bag and a deck chair.

Wills cricket bag, a Slazenger, contrasts with his persona in the sense that it is newish, sleek, in a loud red. He puts the kitbag down upstage centre at the point where the slope begins. He looks out to the pitch and up at the clear sky. He breathes. He then walks down stage left and in setting up the deckchair shows an awareness of the position of the sun. He turns to go back to the camper van and sees the dog dirt which he marks with a seagull feather.

He exits back to the camper van. He re-enters this time carrying his father, LEN . LEN is eighty-nine and very frail. He is dressed in a white linen suit with a white bowling cap. WILL puts him in the deckchair and makes sure that the sun is not in his eyes.) WILL: I brought both sunglasses. ( WILL reaches into his pocket and puts a pair of black Ray-bans on LEN s nose.) WILL: Have you got your water? ( WILL finds the water bottle in his dads jacket pocket.) LEN: (Barely audible.) Cup. ( WILL exits to the camper van, walking deftly round the dog dirt. ( WILL exits to the camper van, walking deftly round the dog dirt.

WILL returns with all the tea things. Folding table, ice box, and in his mouth is a polythene tube bag of paper cups. He puts the tea things down near his kitbag, extracts a cup and comes over to LEN with it. WILL pours some water into the cup and puts it into LEN s hand.) LEN: (Hardly audible.) Rains forecast. WILL: Its not raining now. Its very very hot.

Put this sun block on. ( WILL starts to apply sun block to LEN s hands and ears, nose. LEN weakly pushes him away. WILL manages to dab some block on his nose. WILL turns and walks back to the camper van. Mid walk he breaks into a warm up jog, which doesnt go too well, so he goes back to walking.

LEN , with a supreme effort, wipes the sun block off with his sleeve. WILL returns this time carrying the scoreboard which is a plain piece of black wood. Its a bit tatty, worn and past its best. The number plates are in their own home made box. WILL positions the scoreboard stage right. He turns to walk back to the camper van and stands in the dog dirt.) Bugger! (He slips his shoe off and walks up to the hedge and wipes it in the grass at the top of the bank.

He exits to the van. LEN begins to unwrap a mint. WILL returns from the van carrying three bags of sandwiches all contained in the original bread bags, and his own chair which is a fishing style chair. There are also boxes of cakes from Tescos, enough for twenty-two but no more. The food he puts on the table. He then erects his own fishing chair.

It looks as if hes going to sit in it and take a breather, but he changes his mind and exits back to the van.) LEN: (Looking at the sky.) There int no rain in that sky. (Enter THIZ . His hair is thinning dyed blond. He wears sunglasses and hippy style cotton trousers and leather sandals. He is carrying his cricket gear in a quality leather holdall, not a cricket bag, and he has his bat which is brand new still in its polythene cover. He sits in the fishermans chair.

And lets out a sigh.) THIZ: Alright Len?! LEN: I said itll never rain today. THIZ: Dont want it to rain do we. ( THIZ rolls his trousers up and takes his shirt off. He has a new tattoo of a bass guitar on his left shoulder. He looks at it. ( WILL re-enters carrying the kit bag. ( WILL re-enters carrying the kit bag.

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