Not Good People...

I'm setting up a new theatre company to do my own small-scale plays and large-scale projects and I'm on something of a roll.

I've packed my cue away, and I'm starting to focus on my writing, and trying to sell work, as well as get an agent, and kickstart the new company... and it's exciting stuff. I've realised I can do all of this again and I'm going for it. 

This enthusiasm has also seen a very fertile period of writing with three new plays under way and the research for a large-scale project next year. 

So below is an early extract from an idea called Not Good People. It's about a group of dispossessed and disenfranchised people who kidnap a low-ranking Tory MP. His Tory MP wife is determined to get him back - but then has second thoughts when her star starts to rise on the back of public sympathy for him...

The following scene is early on in the play and features two of the kidnappers with the kidnapped MP tied to a chair.

*****************************************************

SCENE

An abandoned warehouse. Rabies is sharpening a knife. Fletcher is tied to a chair. He is also blindfolded.

RABIES

This was my grandad’s knife. Took it when he used to go hunting… I say hunting. It was poaching if I’m talking right. Loved his little ‘hunting’ trips. Started taking me when I was a teenager and I loved them, too. I was his lookout, then when me little brother joined us, he was lookout and I was promoted to… don’t know what you’d call it… assistant poacher. Is that a proper title? But we were a good team and we used to catch plenty of rabbits. In tough times we’d sometimes pay a local farmer a sneak visit and have a few of his chickens. Once we even caught a baby deer. I say we caught it… in truth it was caught in somebody else’s trap and in a lot of pain. Me and my brother wanted to free it, but Grandad said it’d be kinder to kill it outright than free it and let it die slowly. Deer knew what was coming but it must’ve realised it was better than what it was suffering. It just lay there and let Grandad kill it. And he did. He took this knife and slit its throat. Quickly and silently. Legs kicked for a bit but then it just went limp. And that was that. Every time I see a deer now, I always think of that. How something so beautiful and full of life and grace, I suppose, ended up messy and bloody and in pain. Just because some greedy fucker wanted something bigger and better than rabbits or chickens for themselves…

Enter Blake.

BLAKE

What are you doing?

RABIES

I’m gonna slice and dice this fuck animal.

BLAKE

Are you really?

RABIES

No. Just fucking with him…

BLAKE

Why?

RABIES

Well he’s a cunt, innit?

BLAKE

‘A cunt, innit?’

RABIES

Yeah.

BLAKE

And do you know what a cunt is?

RABIES

It’s… well… it’s… lady parts.

BLAKE

And is that the best description you can come up with? ‘Lady parts’?

RABIES

I’m not good with words…

BLAKE

Shall I help?

RABIES

You pissed?

BLAKE

In your extensive experience are ‘lady parts’ horrible things?

RABIES

Fuck… No!

BLAKE

Yet you use the term as an insult? 

RABIES

I’m riffing. It’s just a fucking word.

BLAKE

There’s no such thing as ‘just a fucking word’. Words have power. The reason he got where he got and you got where you got is because he understands and commands the words and you don’t. Do you get that? Do you see it? So think of all the things that ‘lady parts’ mean. Go on…

RABIES

Fucking…

BLAKE

Yes.

RABIES

Babies…

BLAKE

Very good…

RABIES

More fucking…

BLAKE

And those are good things?

RABIES

Yeah… They’re brilliant.

BLAKE

Is he brilliant?

RABIES

No…

BLAKE

So what should you never ever call people like him?

RABIES

A cunt?

BLAKE

Because?

RABIES

They’re brilliant and he’s not.

BLAKE

So come on… What can we call him? Be more accurate… Give me an alternative…

Pause. Rabies thinks.

RABIES

He’s a non-cunt.

BLAKE

Just apologise to our guest…

Rabies approaches Fletcher.

RABIES

I’m sorry. You non-cunt.

BLAKE

On your way. I’m on watch now.

Rabies exits. Blake approaches Fletcher.

BLAKE

My apologies, Mr Fletcher. I don’t think he would kill you. Unless he was provoked. He’s actually quite soft-hearted. Don’t make that mistake about me, though. I’ll stick a bullet through your skull at a second’s notice if I think you’re planning any form of escape or if you become any form of threat or annoyance to me or mine. You understand that?

Fletcher nods.

BLAKE

Good. It’s important we understand one another. Clarity in communication and understanding the reasons behind that communication is one of the key areas I believe we need to address in the new Albion. No more of this double-speak and deliberate obfuscation. Words will mean what they are meant to mean and not bent out of shape. (Laughs) ‘Non-cunt’! It’s the most accurate term I’ve come across. I may adopt it…

CUT TO