Gordon Mick - Pressure Drop

First published in 2010 by Oberon Books Ltd
Electronic edition published in 2012

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Copyright Mick Gordon 2010

Songs Copyright Billy Bragg 2010

Mick Gordon 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 (). 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 binding or by any means (print, 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.

PB ISBN: 978-1-84002-971-0
E ISBN: 978-1-8494-3894-0

Cover design by Marianne Dear

Photography by Rama Knight

eBook conversion by Replika Press PVT Ltd, India.

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PRESSURE DROP

First performance at the Wellcome Collection, London on the 19th April 2010

Cast in order of appearance:

Nana: June Watson

George: Shea Davis

Jack: Michael Gould

Jacqui: Susan Vidler

Tony: David Kennedy

Jon: Justin Salinger

Ron: Pip Donaghy

Gay Barney: Craig Dowding

Band:

Billy Bragg: Guitar and vocals

Ben Mandelson: Stringed instruments

Simon Edwards: Bass

Martyn Barker: Drums and percussion

Creative Team:

Director: Christopher Haydon

Designer: Tom Scutt

Pressure Drop was commissioned as part of the Wellcome Trusts Identity project nine months of live events, exhibitions, screenings and other activities exploring identity and identification in the realms of science, art and society. Staging the production in Wellcome Collections temporary exhibition space immediately following an exhibition called Identity: eight rooms, nine lives has effectively turned it into the ninth room in which the contributions of family and nation to an individuals sense of identity are examined.

If someone asked you Who are you?, how many words would you use in your answer? Five, ten, an essays worth? And what, would you say, were the most important factors influencing that sense of yourself? Advances in science and technology such as DNA fingerprinting and iris scanning enable us to identify individuals with incredible clarity, speed and accuracy. And yet our own sense of who we are is as complex and personal as ever.

The family at the centre of this drama is entirely fictional, but like all families it has its history and habits, its squabbles and secrets. They are in flux, change is upon them and they are struggling to cope, to hold onto their sense of who they are and how to live that out in the context of their very specific time and place. Who are these characters? We see boys trying to become men, a brother trying to be something he fundamentally doubts and a grandmother trying to carry on being herself. They are all imitating, copying, maintaining and deceiving themselves. And during the course of the drama they also toy with letting go of long held beliefs, values, dreams and secrets. Pressure Drop highlights how complicated, messy and treacherous notions of identity are and how we can both be defined by a single category (mother, brother, English), and yet also still understand ourselves to be so much more than that.

And how appropriate it is that this play about identity features deceiving themselves. And during the course of the drama they also toy with letting go of long held beliefs, values, dreams and secrets. Pressure Drop highlights how complicated, messy and treacherous notions of identity are and how we can both be defined by a single category (mother, brother, English), and yet also still understand ourselves to be so much more than that.

And how appropriate it is that this play about identity features music so prominently; because, arguably you can tell more about who somebody is by their itunes account or favourite radio station than by a database of their genetic profile. You can be identified through your DNA, but how much does it reveal about who you really are. Will it ever capture your soul? Like DNA, reggae music in Pressure Drop has been passed from father to son and is destined to be passed on to a grandson in turn. Musical rhythms and melodies vary, with certain types being selected to survive, inherited and imitated. In this way music is a meme, the cultural analogy of a gene, passing down ideas, symbols and practices from one generation to the next.

Pressure Drop has been a leap into the unknown for Wellcome Collection, a risky endeavour for a young-ish venue known for its exhibitions and live events rather than plays. The event fits our mould of investigative projects aimed at the incurably curious, teasing out an intriguing set of connections between medicine, life and art that encourage audiences to reflect on their own identity and to join the debate.

Lisa Jamieson (Events Manager, Wellcome Collection)

Time: the present

The action takes place in a working-class town on the periphery of London and in four locations: the living room of a terraced house, a church, a working class pub and a small stage for a band

The play is played straight through without an interval