Simon Stephens - Stephens Plays: 2

Simon StephensPlays: 2One Minute, Country Music
Motortown, Pornography, Sea WallOne Minute: Set in London in the aftermath of the disappearance of an eleven-year-old girl, One Minute brings together the girls mother, an unreliable witness, a student/barmaid and two investigating officers... the writing cleverly suggests how much the characters would like to connect but never really can. GuardianCountry Music spotlights four fateful moments in the life of Jamie Carris, an engaging but violent south Londoner. The play unfolds in a series of tightly focused two-handers, set before, during and after the prison sentences he has served for glassing one man and for killing another. IndependentMotortown: Danny a squaddie who has served in Basra is bringing the war back home [to] an England where the war on terror has become a war waged using the tactics of the terrorists. It is also a place of dubious moralities, small-time arms dealers and middle-class swingers and anti-war protesters.

A searingly honest play written with a deadly coiled energy. GuardianPornography: Set in July 2005, between the announcement that London had been awarded the Olympics and the July 7 bombings, it tells seven entwining stories, including the imagined story of one of the bombers journeying towards London to commit an act of terrorism. GuardianSea Wall: A quietly gripping monologue about grief and belief... this play is like a deceptive calm blue sea beneath which lurks a ferocious riptide of sorrow. GuardianSimon Stephens is a British writer whose theatrical career began in the literary department of the Royal Court Theatre where he ran its Young Writers Programme. His plays for theatre include Bluebird (Royal Court Theatre, 1998); Herons (Royal Court, 2001); Port (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester 2002); One Minute (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, 2003, Bush Theatre, 2004); Christmas (Bush Theatre, 2004); Country Music (Royal Court, 2004); On the Shore of the WideWorld (Royal Exchange, Manchester, and National Theatre, 2005); Motortown (Royal Court, 2006); Pornography (Deutsches Schauspielhaus, Hanover, 2007, and Birmingham Repertory Theatre, 2008).

His radio plays include Five Letters Home toElizabeth (BBC Radio 4, 2001) and Digging (BBC Radio 4, 2003). Awards include the Pearson Award for Best Play, 2001, for Port; Olivier Award for Best New Play for On the Shore of the Wide World, 2005, and for Motortown German Critics in Theater Heutes annual poll voted him Best Foreign Playwright, 2007. His screenwriting includes Jackdaw and he is currently developing an original series for Channel 4. by the same author
Christmas
Harper Regan
Herons
On the Shore of the Wide World
Port STEPHENS PLAYS: I (Bluebird, Christmas, Herons, Port) SIMON STEPHENS Plays: 2One Minute
Country Music
Motortown
Pornography
Sea Wallwith an introduction by the authorMethuen DramaMETHUEN DRAMA CONTEMPORARY DRAMATISTS 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 This collection first published in Great Britain in 2009
by Methuen Drama Methuen Drama
A & C Black Publishers Limited
36 Soho Square
London W1D 3QY
www.methuendrama.com One Minute first published by Methuen Drama in 2003
Revised in this volume. Copyright 2003, 2009 Simon Stephens
Country Music first published by Methuen Publishing Limited in 2004
Revised in this volume. Copyright 2004, 2009 Simon Stephens
Motortown first published by Methuen Drama in 2006
Revised in this volume.

Copyright 2006, 2009 Simon Stephens
Pornography first published by Methuen Drama in 2008
Revised in this volume. Copyright 2008, 2009 Simon Stephens
Sea Wall first published by Methuen Drama in 2009
Copyright 2009 Simon Stephens Introduction 2009 Simon Stephens eISBN: 978-1-40811-478-0 A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Typeset by Country Setting, Kingsdown, Kent
Printed and bound in Great Britain
by Cox & Wyman Ltd, Reading, Berkshire Caution All rights in this collection are strictly reserved and application
for performance etc. should be made to Casarotto Ramsay,
Waverley House, 712 Noel Street, London W1F 8GQ.
No performance may be given unless a license has been obtained. No rights in incidental music or songs contained in the work
are hereby granted and performance rights for any performance/presentation
whatsoever must be obtained from the respective copyright owners. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form
or by any means graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
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This book is produced using paper that is made from wood grown
in managed, sustainable forests. It is natural, renewable and recyclable.
The logging and manufacturing processes conform to the environmental
regulations of the country of origin. ContentsSimon Stephens
Chronology

1997	Bring Me Sunshine (Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh, and Riverside Studio, London)
1998	Bluebird (Royal Court, London)
2001	Herons (Royal Court): nominated for the Olivier Award for Most Promising Playwright
Five Letters to Elizabeth (radio play, broadcast on BBC Radio 4)
2002	Port (Royal Exchange, Manchester): Pearson Award for Best New Play in 2001/2
2003	Digging (radio play, broadcast on BBC Radio 4)
One Minute (produced by the Actors Touring Company, Crucible Theatre, Sheffield)
2003/4	Christmas (Pavilion Theatre, Brighton, and Bush Theatre, London)
2004	Country Music (Royal Court)
2005	On the Shore of the Wide World (Royal Exchange Manchester, and National Theatre, London): Olivier Award for Best New Play in 2005
2006	Motortown (Royal Court)
2007	Pornography (Deutsches Schauspielhaus, Hanover)
2008	Harper Regan (National Theatre)
Pornography (Edinburgh Traverse Theatre, and Birmingham Repertory Theatre)
Sea Wall (Bush Theatre)

In the autumn of 2001 I worked at Wandsworth prison, in south London, teaching a course in playwriting. It was set up with the director Esther Baker whose theatre company Synergy specialises in working with prisoners. I taught with their creative-writing teacher, the playwright and political activist Anders Lustagarten. Before I started I was terrified at the prospect.

Id had, since childhood, a recurring dream of being sent to prison. I have no doubt this is quite a common dream. I cant identify its specific starting point for me, though. Maybe it was the clang of the gates on the opening credits of Porridge that I watched as a kid. Probably it was something slightly darker than that. But whatever started it, there was something about prisons, especially those huge urban Victorian prisons dotted around London, that chilled me.

The finality of the close of those doors and the size of those locks was horrifying. It was a horror that ran through me when I first arrived at Wandsworth. My terrified nervousness wasnt relaxed by the guards on the desk there, who were officious at best, unfriendly often and occasionally downright aggressive. Nor by the fact that our sessions were to be carried out, Esther informed me, in the basement near where the gallows used to be. It was a nervousness that was, in fact, only eased by the charm and cheeriness of the prisoners. I worked with a group of about twelve men in total.