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    Medicine & The Same: two plays (NHB Modern Plays)
    Medicine & The Same: two plays (NHB Modern Plays)
    Medicine & The Same: two plays (NHB Modern Plays)
    Ebook119 pages1 hour

    Medicine & The Same: two plays (NHB Modern Plays)

    By Enda Walsh

    ()

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    About this ebook

    How long have you been here, John?– I don't know.And what brought you here?– That's difficult to answer.
    John Kane is sitting on a hospital gurney, and very shortly a jazz percussionist, two women called Mary, a very old man and a giant lobster will arrive. Then everything will start.
    Enda Walsh's new play Medicine is a dark and frequently absurdist work that shatters the boundary between cast and audience. It is a devastatingly funny and moving meditation on how, for decades, we have treated those we call mentally ill.
    It was premiered by Landmark Productions and Galway International Arts Festival at the Edinburgh International Festival in August 2021 prior to its opening at the Galway International Arts Festival in September.
    Medicine is published here alongside Enda Walsh's 2017 play The Same.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNick Hern Books
    Release dateAug 5, 2021
    ISBN9781788504058
    Medicine & The Same: two plays (NHB Modern Plays)
    Author

    Enda Walsh

    Enda Walsh is a multi-award-winning Irish playwright. He lives in London. His work has been translated into over twenty languages and has been performed internationally since 1998. His recent plays include: Medicine at the 2021 Edinburgh International Festival and Galway International Arts Festival; Arlington at the 2016 Galway International Festival; an adaptation of Roald Dahl's The Twits for the Royal Court (2015); Ballyturk and Room 303 at the 2014 Galway International Arts Festival; Misterman, presented by Landmark Productions and Galway International Arts Festival in Ireland, London and New York (2011–2012); and several plays for Druid Theatre Company, including Penelope, which has been presented in Ireland, America and London, from 2010–2011, The New Electric Ballroom, which played Ireland, Australia, Edinburgh, London, New York and LA from 2008–2009, and The Walworth Farce, which played Ireland, Edinburgh, London and New York, as well as an American and Australian tour, from 2007–2010. He collaborated with David Bowie on the musical Lazarus (New York Theatre Workshop, 2015, and West End, 2016), and won a Tony Award in 2012 for writing the book for the musical Once, seen on Broadway, in the West End and on a US tour. His other plays include Delirium (Theatre O/Barbican), which played Dublin and a British tour in 2008; Chatroom (National Theatre), which played at the National Theatre and on tour in Britain and Asia (2006–2007); and The Small Things (Paines Plough), which played London and Ireland (2005). His early plays include Bedbound (Dublin Theatre Festival) and Disco Pigs (Corcadorca). His film work includes Disco Pigs (Temple Films/Renaissance) and Hunger (Blast/FILM4), winner of the Camera d'Or at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival.

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      Book preview

      Medicine & The Same - Enda Walsh

      Enda Walsh

      MEDICINE &

      THE SAME

      NICK HERN BOOKS

      London

      www.nickhernbooks.co.uk

      Contents

      Medicine

      Original Production Details

      The Same

      Original Production Details

      About the Author

      Copyright and Performing Rights Information

      MEDICINE

      Medicine received its world premiere at the Traverse Theatre as part of Edinburgh International Festival on 7 August 2021, prior to its opening at Galway International Arts Festival on 4 September, 2021. It was developed with the support of the National Theatre, London. The cast and creative team was as follows:

      Landmark Productions and Galway International Arts Festival would like to acknowledge the support of the Arts Council of Ireland and NUI Galway for making the performances in Galway possible, and to Culture Ireland for supporting the performances in Edinburgh.

      Characters

      JOHN KANE

      OLD MAN/MARY

      LOBSTER/MARY 2

      Also a DRUMMER, and recorded voices

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

      A curtain opens as fluorescent lights flicker on – and JOHN KANE is walking into this room – and away from a door that’s closing on the back wall.

      Outside the room – we can hear clearly the sound of the institution – in the distance people shouting and calling – doors banging, a faraway television…

      The room looks like it’s used for various activities like table tennis and bingo and badminton.

      There’s a banner overhead reading ‘Congratulations’ – and some tired balloons and a trestle table with the remains of some party food and soft drinks.

      There’s a table and chair, with a microphone and desk lamp on the table. Also on the table there’s a battery-powered pencil sharpener, two pencils and two scripts.

      Near this table – there’s a full drum kit.

      Just above the fluorescent lights – there’s a busy lighting rig.

      Visible also is a metal trolley with electronic sound equipment on it.

      At the back of the room is a large booth with a glass window – were it not for the closed curtain we’d be able to see into this booth.

      Stage-right – there’s a much smaller booth – a cubicle, really.

      JOHN is standing in blue pyjamas and wearing beaten-up runners.

      He’s holding other clothes – neatly folded.

      He stares up at the ‘Congratulations’ banner.

      He walks quickly to a bench in the far stage-left – places down his clothes and shoes – grabs a chair – and positions the chair beneath the banner and stands up to take it down –

      The fluorescent lights immediately go out – but for the light in the ‘cubicle’.

      It’s calling him. A little red light has come on – on the side of the cubicle.

      JOHN gets off the chair – walks towards the cubicle and steps inside – closes the curtain behind him – sits down at a tiny desk – putting on a pair of headphones.

      Immediately the sounds of the institution cut.

      JOHN leaning into the microphone –

      JOHN. Hello, can you hear me?

      A long pause in which we (and JOHN) can hear a breath.

      I can hear you breathing…

      INTERVIEWER (voice-over). How are you today…?

      JOHN. Good. I wanted to ask what the room was used for last night. It’s messy and I don’t want to use up any of my time having to clean it. It smells and there’s a banner hanging –

      INTERVIEWER (voice-over). How are you today, John?

      JOHN. Well, nervous! – which you can hear… I realise that the staff have to let loose now and again – but only once a year I get the opportunity to come to this room…

      INTERVIEWER (voice-over). How are you today, John?

      JOHN. I’m fine, thank you. I’m…

      INTERVIEWER (voice-over). How long have you been in here?

      JOHN is then heard in voiceover.

      JOHN (voice-over). I don’t know.

      INTERVIEWER (voice-over). And what brought you here?

      JOHN (voice-over). That’s difficult to answer.

      JOHN sits listening to the interview.

      INTERVIEWER (voice-over). And whose idea was it that you’d come here, John?

      JOHN (voice-over). My parents and a doctor in my town.

      INTERVIEWER (voice-over). And what happened that ended up with you being here?

      Suddenly the door in the back wall crashes open – an OLD MAN is seen entering the room fast, carrying a sports bag – the door closing behind him.

      JOHN carries on talking to the interviewer – a conversation we can’t hear.

      A phone starts ringing – its ringtone is the ‘By The Seaside’ ringtone on the iPhone – the OLD MAN fumbling in his jacket.

      Answering his phone –

      OLD MAN. I’m late – I’m sorry – it was the bus! (Slight pause.) I’m not late? (Slight pause.) Well it seems to be the right place. (Slight pause.) Okay.

      The call finishes.

      The curtain on the large booth swiftly opens.

      Through its window – in a strange green light – we and the OLD MAN can see an enormous LOBSTER pouring themselves some soup from a flask.

      That’s difficult to do with claws.

      The OLD MAN looks over to the cubicle

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