Musgrave - Crushed Shells and Mud

Ben Musgrave

CRUSHED SHELLS
AND MUD

NICK HERN BOOKS

London

www.nickhernbooks.co.uk

Contents

Crushed Shells and Mud was first performed at the Southwark Playhouse, London, on 1 October 2015. The cast was as follows:

Acknowledgements

The idea for this play began on a trip to Uganda to talk to people whose lives had been transformed by antiretroviral drugs. Many thanks to Annie Katuregye and all who took the time to tell me about their experiences. Thanks also to Theatrescience, Rebecca Gould, and Caroline Grundy for developing the idea and for getting me out there in the first place.

I wrote the first draft of the play on attachment at the National Theatre Studio and I am enormously grateful to all at the Studio who enabled this in particular Brian Walters, Matthew Poxon, and Rebecca Frecknall (who directed two excellent workshop readings of the play, the first featuring Nick Blakeley, Robin Pearce and Jess Murphy, the second Sin Thomas, Ted Reilly, Tom Hughes and Lou Broadbent).

I am always indebted to the Dog House Group Matt Morrison, Robin Booth, Samantha Ellis, and Nick Harrop. And also to Rachel Taylor, Robert Holman, and Lucy Morrison for useful thoughts. Thank you to Kirsten Forster. Thank you also to all at Nick Hern Books and the Southwark Playhouse.

Huge thank you to Joe Strickland, Simon Lenegan, and especially to Russell Bolam who believed in the play and had the cheek and sheer bloody-mindedness to get it on.

To my parents for supporting this play and my strange career, and of course to Selene Burn, for everything.

B.M.

Characters

DEREK, seventeen

LYDIA, seventeen

VINCENT, seventeen

SARAH, forty-eight

PETER, forty

OLD LADY, seventy-five

Notes

The play can be performed with a cast of five actors, doubling Sarah and the Old Lady.

A forward slash (/) marks an interruption by the next speaker.

The absence of a full stop at the end of a line marks a trailing off or an interruption of thought.

This ebook was created before the end of rehearsals and so may differ slightly from the play as performed.

ACT ONE

Scene One

She Crawled Out of the Sea

The east coast of England.

A field. High brambles, nettles, tall grasses obscure a view of the sea. The memory of a path down.

In the other direction, a track leading to the village.

Within the field a holiday caravan, weathered, battered, seagullspattered.

A changeable day in summer. At this moment it is grey.

DEREK emerges from the caravan, carrying a plain brown notebook. He goes to the side of the caravan, and climbs up the side-ladder.

From the top, he looks at the sea for a moment, then sits down, dangling his legs from the roof.

He takes the notebook, and makes a slight adjustment to what is written within.

He starts to read what he has out loud.

Scene Two

Lydia

By the caravan.

A brighter day.

DEREK is showing LYDIA around.

He is not in her league.