Haunted Child

Joe Penhall

• Publisher: Methuen Drama
• Year: 2011
• ISBN:
  9781408159668
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literatura
• Subtopic: Arte dramático

We have the tools to enlighten and yet our world is darkening. We live in an era of pessimism and worry; we are hollowed out, lurching from crisis to crisis, with no faith that anything will improve, and no great hopes to sustain us. So what's the answer? A small boy is driving his mother to distraction - waking at night, hearing phantom noises and fixating on his absent father. Douglas attends an innocuous motivational course involving esoteric philosophy and mysteriously abandons his wife and child to "live in a specific, pre-ordained way according to the tenets of a spiritual leader." Is it a predatory cult or the solution to all their problems? And how can a small child be expected to understand adult thinking at its most complex and self-destructive? His first dramatic work since 2007, Haunted Child marks the return to the stage of multi-award winning playwright and screenwriter Joe Penhall. With his trademark dark humour and sly observation, he poignantly explores the gulf between childhood and adulthood and asks disturbing questions about the lure of spiritual release in increasingly difficult times.

Act One

Scene One

Night.

A chair, a sofa, record player, stairs, kitchen and bathroom off to the side.

Wind and rain on the roof.

Water drips from the ceiling into a metal bucket at the top of the stairs.

Julie stands holding a child’s painting on a large sheet of card.

She examines it from various angles, turning it around, baffled.

She takes it to the kitchen and sticks it on the fridge with a magnet – there are other child’s paintings visible on the fridge.

The house makes various creaking and clicking noises as it gets colder overnight and the wind picks up.

Floorboards creak next door.

Julie comes out of the kitchen and listens for some moments.

Then:

Thomas (off) Mummy!

Mum-my!

(Shrieking.) Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!

Julie goes to the stairs and looks up them calmly.

Thomas (off) Help! Help me!

He appears at the top of the stairs.

He runs down the stairs in his pyjamas.

He points upstairs wordlessly, his mouth moving but no words coming out.

Julie What is it? What’s wrong?

Thomas I saw… I heard… I heard something… on… in… on upstairs…

Julie What did you hear?

Thomas I heard… I don’t know…

Julie What did you see?

Thomas The the door. The door opened.

Julie It was the wind.

Thomas There’s somebody upstairs.

Julie There’s nobody upstairs…

Thomas There is! I I I I –

Julie Just calm down – pull yourself together. Where’s your dressing gown?

Thomas looks around, blinking.

Julie Is it in your room?

Thomas nods.

Julie Hang on a minute.

She goes upstairs to get it.

Thomas stands there looking around suspiciously, his thumb in his mouth.

Eventually he walks a few steps, eyeing the corners of the room anxiously.

He calms down a bit, picking his nose with his finger while his thumb stays in his mouth.

He slips his other hand into his pyjama pants for extra security.

Julie returns with the dressing gown and a little blue blanket.

I brought your blue blanket.

Thomas mutters something, takes the blanket.

Julie Take your thumb out of your mouth. You’re a big boy now. Far too old to be sucking your thumb. People will think there’s something wrong with you. They’ll think I’m neglecting you.

He takes his thumb out of his mouth.

Julie helps him into his dressing gown and ties the cord around his waist.

She holds out the blanket.

Thomas takes the blanket and starts cuddling it and sucking his thumb.

Julie Come and sit on my knee.

She sits on the sofa and Thomas sits on her lap.

Julie takes the boy’s thumb from his mouth. She makes to put the boy’s whole hand in her own mouth and makes ‘munching’ noises.

I’ll eat you.

Thomas No!

Julie It’s time for my midnight snack. Eh?

He lunges at her playfully.

Thomas I’ll eat your nose!

Julie Ow ow ow! You’ve got such sharp teeth!

Thomas ‘All the better to eat you with!’

She holds him close, pauses.

Julie Oh, you’re wet. Did you wet the bed? Let me get you some clean jammies.

Thomas nods.

Julie (leading him away) Poor little fellow. You must’ve been frightened.

He shakes his head.

Well why did you wet the bed? That’s not like you. You don’t do things like that anymore.

She changes him in the kitchen.

Thomas I heard a noise on the stairs.

Julie It’s just the house expanding and contracting at night. The stairs. The floorboards. The old boards, you see, they’re very old.

Thomas I hear voices.

Julie It’s the neighbours. You can hear everything from next door.

Thomas I hear people talking.

Julie (returning with Thomas) It’s the neighbours talking. On the stairs. At night. It’s perfectly safe. Nobody can get in.

Thomas I think I saw daddy.

I think I saw him in the house.

I think I heard him.

Maybe it’s him I heard on the stairs.

Julie It wasn’t your father.

Thomas Who was it?

Julie It wasn’t anybody.

Thomas No but I saw somebody.

Julie When?

Thomas Going down the stairs. Last night. You were asleep.

Julie Oh, I was asleep was I? What was he doing on the stairs?

Thomas He was just standing there.

Julie Okay. Come on. Back to bed now.

Thomas Where did he go?

Julie Where did he go?

Thomas I don’t understand where he went.

Julie He’s working that’s all. He’s away working… and he can’t come home until he’s finished.

Thomas looks unconvinced.

Julie Go to bed now. I’ll tuck you in.

She gets up, gets Thomas up.

Thomas I want him to tuck me in.

Julie Well he isn’t going to.

Thomas But I’ve seen him.

Julie Stop it. Just… calm down. Look, come here…

She sits him on her knee.

Listen. Sometimes you have funny dreams that’s all. When somebody goes away and you miss them that’s what happens. You can’t stop thinking about them. You start to see them. In the street. In crowds. You think you see them and you get excited… and you become a little bit haunted.

Pause.

Thomas Why were you crying last night?

Julie Because it was my anniversary and I was on my own.

Thomas What does that mean?

Julie It means the anniversary of the day I married your father. And what you do is you remember the same day every year and you celebrate it. Because it’s such a happy occasion.

Thomas Did you go in a church?

Julie No. We were married at the registry office, which is like a church for normal people – in the town hall.

Thomas Why?

Julie Because we felt it was more important to be married in the eyes of our friends than in the eyes of the church. And I wore a spotty dress and high heels and I had my hair put up at the ha...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Cast List
• Characters
• Contents
• Act One
• Act Two
• Author Biography
• Imprint