Troubles That Bind (or, Poison): A Ten-Minute Play — John Patrick Bray
Characters:
Platform Actors (4 actors, any age, any ethnicity; their lines are not given out individually; rather, it is up to the director/choreographer to work with the performers to figure out which lines go best with which performer; at times there will be the name ALL in the dialogue, which means all of the Platform Actors, unless we see ALL ON STAGE which means everyone).
Watson, a British Man
Erin, an Irish Woman
Notes:
See character descriptions for Platform Actors
The Platform Actors will all create tableaus with their bodies using the limited space. At times, I have given some instruction. At other times, it is up to the performers and director/choreographer to create the stage pictures.
Other Notes:
With love to my great grandparents who left Ireland in the hope of a better life.
The only prop in this play is a canister (of some sort) of clearly marked Rat Poison. Everything else is mimed.
(LIGHTS UP. Four actors stand center stage, possibly on a small platform, together, as a machine. They begin digging. ERIN enters on stage left. WATSON on stage right. They look out at the audience.)
PLATFORM
This story has something to do with…poison, doesn’t it?
PLATFORM
Yes. And somewhat about the troubles.
PLATFORM
Trouble with the poison?
PLATFORM
No, the troubles.
PLATFORM
Before the troubles.
PLATFORM
No, after.
PLATFORM
During.
ALL
There were the troubles.
PLATFORM
He came over during the process of re-naming.
PLATFORM
New names for land.
PLATFORM
Home.
PLATFORM
People.
PLATFORM
What’s in a name.
PLATFORM
A clever use of flags, Eddie Izzard called it.
PLATFORM
That’s how they took over.
PLATFORM
Find a land, plant a flago.
(They plant a flag.)
PLATFORM
Done.
(They freeze.)
PLATFORM
But…
(They move again.)
PLATFORM
In the troubles…
WATSON
Erin.
PLATFORM
He met her.
ERIN
(in brogue)
Watson.
WATSON
There are….I mean to say…why…hello.
ERIN
Tá áthas orm bualadh leat.
WATSON
I, um…that is to say…
ERIN
Is fear beag greannmhar tú.
(She smiles.)
WATSON
And so. We should walk in this…um…park…
(PLATFORM ACTORS become trees. They are listening trees. WATSON and ERIN move among them.)
PLATFORM
And so they would meet in secret.
PLATFORM
Among the trees.
PLATFORM
Behind the barns.
PLATFORM
And they would discuss…nothing.
WATSON
That is to say…I…oh…there are things I wish to say.
ERIN
Is fear beag greannmhar tú.
WATSON
That’s something…I want to know what it is…
PLATFORM
They find a kiss.
(PLATFORM ACTORS wait.)
ALL
THEY FIND A KISS.
WATSON
I say…oh.
ERIN
Oh…
(They gently lean in and kiss.)
WATSON
Good.
ERIN
Good.
PLATFORM
But, the kiss meant…
WATSON
I, um…what should I call you? Um…(gestures to self) Watson.
ERIN
(Mocking a bit)
Watson.
WATSON
Right.
ERIN
Erin.
PLATFORM
Her name was Ireland.
WATSON
Lovely.
(PLATFORM ACTORS come between them.)
PLATFORM
Now, this was definitely the start of the troubles. Remember the troubles?
PLATFORM
This may have been the start.
PLATFORM
Memory is fuzzy.
PLATFORM
Her parents found her.
(PLATFORM ACTORS grab her, pull her in. Keeps WATSON out.)
PLATFORM
And that was that.
(They form a cell.)
PLATFORM
That was that.
WATSON
No…
(He fades…exits.)
PLATFORM
Her parents learned she might be in the family way.
PLATFORM
Was she?
PLATFORM
That’s the way I remember it. She was in the “family way.”
PLATFORM
I thought they only kissed.
PLATFORM
We told you that when you were younger. You can’t talk about the family way to kids, can you?
PLATFORM
I guess not.
PLATFORM
Disney cartoons say, “they lived happily ever after.” Imagine if they just came out and said “and so they finally shagged.”
PLATFORM
Oh.
PLATFORM
And it was good.
PLATFORM
Ah.
PLATFORM
Like “ever after” kind of good.
PLATFORM
Got it. (Beat.) I guess I never thought of it that way.
PLATFORM
And they kept her locked up, though.
PLATFORM
Yes.
PLATFORM
And the famers starting fighting the cartographers.
PLATFORM
That’s right. There was trouble.
PLATFORM
Between the Irish and English.
PLATFORM
Catholic verses Protestant.
PLATFORM
And after three weeks of not leaving the house –
PLATFORM
Barely leaving her room –
PLATFORM
She knew she had to leave.
PLATFORM
Because she learned from her Father.
PLATFORM
Watson had been attacked.
(WATSON hangs by the neck behind them.)
PLATFORM
He was hanged.
(WATSON, who has been still, comes back!)
PLATFORM
But did not die!
WATSON
Grk!
(He falls.)
PLATFORM
It was old rope. It broke.
PLATFORM
And it wasn’t on right. They pulled him up by the neck rather than dropping him.
PLATFORM
Strangulation rather than breaking bones.
PLATFORM
But he fell.
ALL
He fell.
PLATFORM
His comrades found him. He was taken to a make-shift English hospital.
PLATFORM
In my mind, it looks like a tent.
PLATFORM
Probably a doctor’s house. We’re talking about imperialists taking over everything!
PLATFORM
Tent. In my mind, it’s a tent.
(They make a tent around WATSON. ERIN escapes. She holds a prop – a container of Rat Poison.)
PLATFORM
That night, Erin knew…Watson would surely leave. Her life was surely over.
PLATFORM
She found the container of rat poison.
PLATFORM
I mean, she knew where the container was, anyway. But she knew…she knew how to use it. She knew how to make her escape.
PLATFORM
She opened it.
(She mimes opening poison.)
PLATFORM
And she made her escape.
(LIGHTS SHIFT.)
WATSON
I say…is someone there?
(He sits up.)
WATSON
Hello?
(ERIN enters.)
What are you doing here? You could be killed!
(ERIN holds out the Rat Poison.)
No, it…it can’t be quite bad as all that.
(ERIN opens the jar. She lets WATSON look inside.)
PLATFORM
Inside, she showed Watson her escape route. And he understood.
(LIGHTS shift. WATSON and ERIN fade.)
PLATFORM
And in the morning, a voice would cry out –
PLATFORM
Our daughter is gone!
PLATFORM
And later, another voice!
PLATFORM
The family jewels! They are gone, too!
PLATFORM
Because the one place someone never thinks to look for precious stones…is in the rat poison.
PLATFORM
That’s the first place I’d look, actually. Or the flour.
(PLATFORM becomes a boat. ERIN and WATSON stand side by side holding each other.)
PLATFORM
They used the gold to buy passage on a boat to America. They would settle in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he would work on the coal mine, sympathetic to the Irishman. He would even become a Catholic.
PLATFORM
He would lose half his left hand during the course of his work.
PLATFORM
They would marry. And have children. And their children would have children.
PLATFORM
And soon we can along.
PLATFORM
The great grandchildren of the Watsons, who changed their name legally to her maiden name.
WATSON
Haggerty.
PLATFORM
I like that story.
PLATFORM
Except the part about Great Grandma and Great Grandpa doing it.
PLATFORM
Murmur of agreement.
PLATFORM
Immigrants.
PLATFORM
Refugees.
ALL ON STAGE
Americans.
(A moment. BLACKOUT. End of play.)
***
John Patrick Bray has written plays under grants from The N.E.A. and Acadiana Center for the Arts, and has earned commissions from indie troupes in NYC and around the country. He has been a Semi-Finalist for the Princess Grace Foundation Award and Winner of the 2015 Appalachian Festival of Plays and Playwrights (both for Friendly’s Fire; produced at Barter Theatre, 2017). John has edited anthologies for Applause Theatre and Cinema Books, and co-wrote the screenplay to the indie feature Liner Notes. He is an Atlanta Region Ambassador for The Dramatists Guild of America, Inc.; a resident writer for Rising Sun Performance Co. in NYC; and an assistant professor at UGA.