Can You Hear Me Mother. (1)
CAN YOU HEAR ME MOTHER? A PLAY BY T.J. COLLETT. CHARACTERS. GEORGE: GRANDFATHER. LATE 60s. NELLIE: GRANDMOTHER. LATE 60s LUCY. GRANDDAUGHTER. 15 YRS. ENID. AUNT TO LUCY. MID-30s SCENE: SITTING ROOM AND GARDEN. Time 1963. Act One. Scene One. Early morning. Small London back garden. Brick walls around right and upper stage garden. A three seated green garden bench. A striped deckchair by small garden bed on right. A small greenhouse lower stage left. Small garden bed on left with flowers of the season with a door leading to the house lower stage. George is sitting on the green bench with Lucy. He is dressed in grey flannel trousers and white shirt. Lucy has a knee-length grey dress with no sleeves. Her hair is short and mousey. George: Feel that sun on your face, Lucy. Lucy: Nice. George: The best part of the year this is. Garden at its most beautiful. The birds singing away cheerfully. Lucy: Nice. George: And to know you�ve got a few years to look forward to and be able lap all this up without fear of work next day. Lucy: Nice. George: Those flowers (Gestures with a nod of hid head.) have been a labour of love. Raised them from seed, I did. Lucy: Seed? George: Packets of seed. Grew them in the greenhouse first. Looking over them like a mother hen, I was. (Pause.)Don�t they look a treat? Lucy: Nice. (Looks at the greenhouse.) Tommy and I used to play in there when we were little. George: How is Tommy, now? Lucy: Wants to join the Marines. George: Marines? He�s not tall enough for the marines. Lucy: He�s doing exercises. George: That won�t make him taller. (Pause.) You need to be nearly six foot. Giant blokes they are. Lucy: He�s been eating all his vegetables. George: Listen. (Pause. Looks about him.)Blackbird that was. Lucy: Was it? George: I can tell lots of birds by their singing. Lucy: Even doing arm-stretching exercises. George: Just a note sometimes. (Whistles imitating a blackbird.) Not many can do that. Lucy: Reckons he�ll make it. George: Had a song thrush here the other day. Lucy: He�ll be miserable if he doesn�t get in. Been looking forward to it since he was thirteen. George: Where's your grandmother got to? Won�t be long she says. Just popping in for a moment. (Looks towards the door.) Don�t grow up to be like your Gran. Talk about keep a bloke waiting. It took her months to decide if she wanted to go out with me. I told her, way back in 1917, I couldn�t wait forever. Might be killed by the Germans next time I go back to the front. (Stands up and walks a few paces towards the greenhouse.)My mate, Billy Black bought it back in 1917. Lucy: Bought what, Grandad? George: Got killed, Lucy. Met his Maker. Lucy: You mean God? George: What about God? Lucy: This Billy bloke he met God? George: How�d I know who he met. God or Satan I don�t know. Most likely Satan if I know Billy Black. Lucy: It�s whom, Grandad. George: Who what? Lucy: It�s whom he met. George: Who met who? Lucy: No, who met whom. George: Now you�ve lost me, Lucy. (Pause.) Where the hell has she got to. Won�t be long. I could have had a shave and bathed in the time it�s taken her to pop indoors for whatever it was she popped in for. Lucy: Shall I go look for her? George: No. Wait here with me. Wait with your old Grandad. Have a chat. Lucy: Maybe she�s upstairs. She�s not to up doing the stairs as she used to be. Her legs are bad. George: They weren�t up to much when I first met her. Lucy: I thought she was a dancer? George: So she was, Lucy, so she was. I was having you on. Having you on. Just for a laugh. Lucy: She showed me old photographs of her in a line up kicking her legs in the air. George: Yes, she was always having her legs in the air. Lucy: And that short skirt they had on then. Showed more than it ought, Mum says. You�d not wear such a dress, Mum says to me. (Tries to pull her skirt over her knees.) �It�s the fashion,� I say to her. George: Your mother has her ways of seeing things. She always was a bit prim and proper. Where�s your Gran got to? (Silence. George sits down on the bench again. Both sit and look at the door.) End of Scene One. Act One. Scene Two. Half an hour later. Same scene in the garden. Nellie sits on the garden bench next to Lucy. Nellie is grey-haired and quite squat. She is wearing a green dress and slippers. Enid is sitting in the deckchair. She has dark hair tied in a bunch at the back with a red ribbon and is wearing a black skirt and pink blouse. A tea tray is on the ground with four cups and saucers. Nellie: And I said to Mrs Clerk next door, �Don�t let them in or you�ll never get rid of them.� All their talk about Jehovah and his Kingdom. Fair makes me see red. Lucy: Is that those Witness people? Enid: Yes. Knocking on your door all hours. (Picks up a teacup and saucer and hands it to Nellie.)Here�s your tea, Mum. Nellie: Don�t let them in, I told her. (Takes the cup and saucer from Nellie.)Thanks, Enid. Enid: She at number 16 says she has them knocking at her door all hours. (Hands Lucy a cup and saucer. Lucy takes it and holds it awkwardly.) Nellie: She has men coming in her house all hours of the day and night. She isn�t any better than she ought to be. I�ve seen them. All shapes and sizes. Enid: She�s got a boarding house. That�s why there are men in and out all the time. Nellie: Boarding house. Knocking shop, more like. Lucy: What�s a knocking shop? Enid: Place they sell doorknockers. Nellie: And knobs. Doorknobs. Lucy: I didn�t notice any shop there as I passed by. Nellie: It isn�t, love. It�s a boarding house according to our Enid here. (Pause.) Her husband must be blind. All those men in and out. Must be up to something in my opinion. Boarding house indeed. (Sips her tea.) Lucy: We went to a boarding house in Ramsgate. Do you remember, Nan? Me, Tommy, you and Grandad? Nellie: Of course, I remember. We stayed there most years. Nice couple had it. Husband and wife. Mind you, he was a bit soft. She was on the ball. She was the business brain behind it all. Enid: Didn�t I go with you, too? Nellie: No. You�d gone off on that weekend thing with Charlie Flick. Enid: Charlie Flick. (Pause as she thinks about him.) The country air did things to him. Gave him all sorts of ideas. Nellie: Hope you didn�t let him get too many ideas. Lucy: That was a nice boarding house. The man often gave me sweets. Enid: Tried it on in our tent. Soon showed him what was what and what wasn�t. Cheeky bloke he was. Nellie: All the same these men. Give them an inch. Lucy: He was very friendly. Spoke all soft. Enid: Where�s Dad got too? (Sips her tea.) Nellie: Gone to see a man about a horse. Lucy: Said what a pretty girl I was. Said he liked my dress. Nellie: Won�t be long he says. He said that during the Great War. Four years he was away. (Sips her tea. Silence while they all sip their tea.) Enid: What a time to see a man about a horse. Nellie: Always the same on a Saturday. Soon as he can, he�s off seeing a man about a horse. Lucy: Is Grandad buying a horse? Where�d he keep it? Nellie: Might as well as bought it the amount of money he�s laid down over the years. Enid: Could have bought half a dozen horses. Nellie: And the jockeys, too. Lucy: Nice man, as I remember. Didn�t like it when he touched me though. But he didn�t do it much. Being friendly, I suppose. Enid: He was a bit soft in the head. Nellie: Who? Enid: That bloke who helped run the boarding house in Ramsgate. The one with the funny moustache. Nellie: Oh. Him. Reckon he was a Nancy boy, except he was married to her. She�d soon give him the elbow if he�d not been up to it in bed, I reckon. Enid: Mum�We�ve got company. (Makes gesture towards Lucy.) Mind what you say when we�ve young girls about. Poor old Lucy. Lucy: Didn�t tell Mum or Dad. They�d not understand. Nellie: Don�t mind me, Lucy, dear. My mouth and me. Dad always used to say my mouth would get me hung. �You�ll get yourself hung, Nellie,� he�d say. �You and that north and south of yours.� Enid: He sat on my bed one night. Came in he did and asked me if I was comfortable. I must have been about nine, then. He was ever so friendly. Tucked me in. Asked me if I wanted anything. (Pause. Gives her cup and saucer to Enid who puts it on the tray.) Enid: Dad�s tea is cold now. Silly bugger. Nellie: He likes cold tea. Says it cools him down in this weather. (Hands her cup and saucer to Enid who puts it on the tray. All three sit a look at the door. Birdsong. Silence.) End of Scene Two. Act One. Scene Three. An hour later in the garden. George, Lucy and Nellie are sitting on the green garden bench with Lucy in between the other two. Enid is in the deckchair with a book. George: Those roses are my pride, Mother. Taken me years to get them as I want them. Nellie: You spend more time with your roses than you do with me. (Looks at Lucy.) �Just going outside to see my roses,� he says. �See my Rose�s what?� I say. Enid: Roses are red, Violets are blue� George: Those roses have my time and effort loaded in them. They�re a sight for sore eyes they are. Especially first thing in the morning when I�m out here, the birds are singing, and the sun�s just getting up. Nellie: Hark at him. You�d think he was St. Francis. Enid: St.Francis of Peckham. Nellie: St.George of Peckham, more like, Edna. Except he hasn�t killed no dragon to my knowledge. Enid: Don�t know what he get up to in his spare time when he�s out somewhere. George: See what I have to put up with, Lucy. Dragons surround me, but I haven�t killed any. Lucy: Do you remember that boarding house in Ramsgate. Grandad? George: Been there enough times to remember it. That couple ran it. Her with the bust and him with the moustache. Had some good times there, you came with us once didn�t you. Some years ago now. Nice place, Ramsgate. We took the girls when they were young. Freda, Elsie, Sally and young Enid here. They thought I was a poor soul surrounded by females. Nag, nag, and nag it was. Back in those days, it was a different couple had it first. That Mr and Mrs Gentry. Him with the one eye and her with the figure of a hippo. (Pause.) Good old days. Before the last War that was. Nellie: Then that Serf couple took over. He was a bit soft in the head, but she was all right. She knew what was what and who was who. Enid: Do you remember that time Freda got lost on the beach? Spent hours looking for her. Nellie: Yes, silly mare. I didn�t half give her what for. Lucy: He gave me nice sweets. Wrapped up they were in pretty paper. George: Never went anywhere during the War. Then after the War it was that Serf couple. The Gentry�s sold up I was told. Nellie: War did many businesses out of customers. That Mr. Broughtham who had the fish shop for instance. George: He was bombed out. Blew his shop up. Not a brick standing. Fish everywhere. No Mr. Broughtham, though. Never did find the poor blighter's body. Lucy: Showed me his back garden. Took me into his greenhouse and showed me his� George: Happened a lot in the Blitz. Lucy: I can�t remember the name of the plants now. Pretty flowers they were. Nellie: He knew his fish did Mr. Broughtham. Wasn�t much he didn�t know about fish. Enid: And then Sally went and wet herself in the dining room that time. Do you remember that, Mum? Nellie: Yes I do. Talk about not knowing where to put your face. She was a one for that she was. Trust Sally to wee herself you could. Lucy: I wet myself there once. My bed it was. Mrs Serf weren�t none too pleased about it, but he was ever so nice about it. Said not to worry. Said it happened. Helped me clean up he did. George: How about a cup of tea, young Enid. I�m parched. My stomach�s asking my mouth if my throat�s cut. Enid: Your last one got cold. You and that horse. Hope it comes in after all that. Nellie: There�s some biscuits in the tin now. Bring them out, Enid, there�s a love. (Enid gets up and wanders off indoors. Nellie picks up the book.) Book of verse. What�s she doing with a book of verse. Getting all into books and such things since she has been at that office. (Looks through a few pages at random.) Can�t see this small print without my glasses. Verse. What�s she want with poetry? George: Well, Lucy, what are you doing? What�s this job you�ve got? Lucy: I�ve got a job in a jewellers. Mr. Warner runs it. George: All right for a bit of cheap jewellery, then. Nellie: Never was much for verse. Lucy: Don�t like it there much. He�s a right old moaner. George: Bought your gran her ring up the West End. Wasn�t nothing too much to write home about, but it served its purpose. A ring�s a ring at the end of the day. Nellie: Had a bloke on the stage when I was a dancer who did monologues. Funny verse things. Some were a bit near the bone. Claude Finnegan. One for the women he was. Hands everywhere if you weren�t careful. Lucy: The other girl there thinks he�s all right. She would though, seeing as she lets him give her a cuddle and things. (Pause.) I�d rather leave than do that. Plenty of other jobs. Nellie: I gave him monologues. Didn�t put his hands on me again. Don�t you let them, Lucy. Once you let them do it once, they�ll always try it on. George: Where�s Enid got to with that tea? Gone to China? Nellie: Give the girl a chance. Only been gone a few minutes. He�s an impatient sod, Lucy, he really is. He was like this when he first went out with me. When are we going to get married? When can we kiss? When can we do whatever it was he wanted to do? (Pause. All three sit in silence.) End of Scene Three. Act One. Scene Four. Later in the morning in the garden. Enid is sitting in the deckchair with her poetry book. Lucy is sitting on the green garden bench on her own. George is in his greenhouse. Enid: The sun�s nice and warm now. Lucy: Yes. Nice here. The flowers have a nice smell. Enid: Just right for a spot of poetry. Do you like poetry, Lucy? Lucy: Read some at school. (Looks towards the green house.)Bet it�s warm in the green house. Enid: Meant to be hot in the green house. That�s the point to it. (Pause. Opens her book. Selects a page at random.)Here we are. Sweetest love, I do not go for weariness of thee. (Pause.)Now that�s good that is. Imagine Dad reciting that to Mum. Not on your Nelly. More chance of him winning some money on the horses. Lucy: Our Miss Monne read us poems in class. Most of us got bored with it and mucked about. She�d go of the deep end she would. Make us do something else like write an essay on the joys of poetry or the beginning of spring. (Pause.)Never liked school much. I was glad when I left last year. Enid: Nor in hope, the world can show a fitter love for me. Lucy: This job isn�t the best, but I�ll stay until I find something better. Got to earn a crust of bread Mum says. Enid: Donne that was. (Pause.) Lucy: Done what? Enid: The poet. Lucy: Done what to the poet? Enid: Done what to who? Lucy: Done what to whom it is. Enid: Whom it is what? (Pause. Looks over book at Lucy.)What did Mum put in that tea? Lucy: It�s whom done what, not who done what. Enid: Lucy you�ve lost me. I think it best we listen and enjoy the poem. Lucy: Who wrote it? Enid: Wrote what? Lucy: The poem you�ve just read. Enid: Donne. John Donne. (Opens the book at a different page.)Here�s one. Brittle beauty that nature made so frail. (Pause.) What do you think of that? Lucy: Nice. Enid: Whereof the gift is small� (Pause.) George: What�s this about a small gift? (Stands outside the green house.) Enid: Poetry. I�m reciting a poem. George: A poem? Something you wrote yourself? Enid: No. From the book. Some poet called Howard. George: I knew a bloke called Howard. Sidney Howard. He was our sergeant on our section of the Front in the Great War. Upright as a ramrod he was. He could sniff a rat a mile off. Had a hooter like a rhino. (Pause.)He lost a finger, so they sent him back home for a while. He comes back, much to our delight as he was a good bloke, and gets his head blown off a week later. Enid: And the moral is, Dad? George: Keep your bloody head down in wartime. Lucy: Are you going to Ramsgate again, Grandad? Enid: Poor bloke. Bet his wife wasn�t happy about that. George: Don�t expect he was too pleased himself. Lucy: I�d like to go to Ramsgate again. Enid: Don�t see the point to all this war. The ordinary people come off worse. Look how we were bombed out twice. George: We survived unharmed. Lucy: I can pay my own way this time now I�m working. Enid: Plenty that didn�t though. Like that Mrs Putney three up from us. She went and two of her kids. (Pause.)She didn�t do anyone any harm, bought her kids up while her husband was fighting for King and Country, and got killed for her troubles.
Copyright © 2005 Terry Collett |