Shining City (NHB Modern Plays)

Conor McPherson

• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781780012827
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Drama
• Index: Literature

A brilliant, haunting play from the multi-award winning author of The Weir.

Ian has left the priesthood to become a therapist. John is one of his first clients. John's wife has been killed in a car accident, and he keeps receiving visits from her ghost. John, with Ian's help, starts to recover. But what begins as an unusual encounter becomes a desperate struggle between the living and the dead - a struggle which will shape and define both of them for the rest of their lives.

Shining City premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in June 2004.

'moving, compassionate, ingenious and absolutely gripping... scenes that provoke great, generous gales of laughter, others that send a shiver of fear down the spine... riveting' Telegraph

'quiet, haunting and absolutely glorious... as close to perfection as contemporary playwriting gets' New York Times

'compulsively gripping... McPherson brilliantly reconciles the mundane and the metaphysical' Guardian

Scene One

As the lights come up there is no one onstage. It is daytime. We hear distant church bells. Music is playing softly on the stereo. We hear the toilet flush, and IAN, a man in his forties, comes out of the bathroom. He takes a tissue from the box and goes to the window, blowing his nose. He is a man who has struggled with many personal fears in his life and has had some victories, some defeats. The resulting struggle has made him very sharp. He is essentially a gentle man, but sometimes his desire to get to the lifeboats, to feel safe, drives him in ways that even he himself doesn’t fully understand. A loud ugly buzzer goes off. IAN turns off the stereo and goes to the intercom, picking up the handset.

IAN. Hello? (Pushing a button on the intercom.) Okay, come in.

Pause.

Are you in? Okay. (Pushing the button.) Push the door. Are you in?

Pause.

Hello? No? Okay, okay, hold on.

He hangs up the handset and goes out, leaving the door open. He goes down the stairs.

(Off.) Now.

JOHN (off). Sorry.

IAN (off). No, I’m sorry. Come on up. Yeah. It was fixed. I don’t know if all this rain… We’re all the way up, I’m afraid.

JOHN (off). Straight on?

IAN (off). Eh, the next one. Yeah. And that’s it there. The door is open.

JOHN comes in. He is in his fifties and dressed quite respectably. He has an air of confusion when we first see him, not just because of his recent experiences but also because he has yet to accept that the world is not as orderly and predictable as he thought. He has always found problems to arise from what he regards as other people’s ignorance. He almost regards himself as a benchmark for normality. He carries an anorak. He seems very tired. IAN follows him in and indicates for him to have a seat on the sofa.

Now, right.

JOHN (sits). Thanks.

IAN (sits). I’m sorry about that.

JOHN. No, sure I wasn’t sure I had the right… I was in a bit of a flap, God, the parking around here is horrendous, isn’t it?

IAN. I know.

JOHN. I left myself a bit of time but I was almost like a kerbcrawler out there looking for a spot.

IAN. I know. I tell you I’m only here, I’ve only been here two weeks, and I’m not sure… between ourselves… that I’m going to… (Nods.) because there’s… many disadvantages…

JOHN. Ah, no, I parked up in the hospital in the end, which is what I should have done in the first place. I’ll know the next time. It’s my own fault.

IAN. No, I know, I should have probably… But like I say, I’m still sort of only getting myself sorted out here but I should have…

JOHN. Ah sure no, it’s grand, sure I’m here now.

IAN. Yes! Well, good.

JOHN. Yeah, well, that’s the main thing… Can I eh… (Indicates water.)

IAN (indicates affirmatively). Please.

JOHN pours himself some water and drinks a few mouthfuls. IAN reaches around behind him and takes a letter from his desk.

So… (Glancing at letter.) John… (Pause.) How are you?

JOHN. Not too bad. A bit… Eh… heh… eh… I’ve never… ehm… been to see… someone before…

IAN. Alright. Well, that’s okay.

JOHN. Em… (Doesn’t seem to know where to begin.)

IAN. I got a, I have a letter…

JOHN. Right.

IAN. From Dr Casey…

JOHN. That’s right. Yeah, he was… there was some guy he wanted me to see and… we couldn’t get an appointment, for four months or something!

IAN. Okay.

JOHN. Yeah, so…

IAN. And you haven’t been sleeping so well. Is that right?

JOHN. Well, yeah…

Pause.

IAN. Which can be very debilitating, I know.

JOHN. Yeah… and ehm… (Holds his hand up to the bridge of his nose as though he is about to sneeze and there is silence. He is silently crying.) Can I…? (Indicates tissues.)

IAN. Of course. Please.

JOHN (composes himself). Sorry.

IAN (reassuringly). That’s fine. That’s fine.

JOHN. You have the tissues ready and everything.

They smile.

I’m, em. I’m recently bereaved. I don’t know if Dr Casey…

IAN (affirmative). Mm-hm.

JOHN. My wife passed away a few months ago. And em…

Pause.

She… she, she died in em, horrible circumstances, really, you know?

IAN. Okay.

JOHN. She was in a taxi. And a… stolen car crashed into them. And she was… trapped, in, the car. It was a, a horrific crash, and she… didn’t, she couldn’t survive. And I was on my… I was too late getting to the hospital. And the eh… reality of… the reality of it. It’s been absolutely… It really, now… It’s… (Nods.) You know…

Pause.

IAN. I can, em… I can only imagine what…

JOHN. We have no children. And eh… (Pause.) And I’ve eh… been on my own an awful lot, you know? Like, I’ve really been on my own an awful lot of the time, really, you know?

IAN. Okay.

JOHN. And I don’t… I mean I don’t even know where she was that night, you know? Or where she was coming from. Do you know what I mean, you know? Like we weren’t even… communicating. At the time, do you understand me?

IAN. Okay.

JOHN. And no one else was injured. And I’ve no… idea… wh… (Long pause.) But, em, I’ve… em… I’ve seen her. (Short pause.) I’ve em…

IAN. Sorry. You’ve seen her?

JOHN. I’ve seen her in the house. She’s been in the house.

IAN. You’ve…

JOHN. Yeah.

IAN. This is…

JOHN. Yeah.

IAN. Since…

JOHN. Yeah, since…

IAN. Since she…

JOHN. Yeah since she…

IAN. Sorry, go on…

JOHN. Yeah, no, she em… about eh, about two months ago. I… met up with my brother, I have a brother, Jim, and we met one evening, for a pint in Clontarf Castle. We’re just, are we just going into this? You just…

IAN. Well, no, just whatever you want, you just tell me… in your own, we don’t have to, you can… You’re telling me so, I’d like to…

JOHN. No I just, I wasn’t sure if, but, you know, we… my brother, you know, we don’t, we haven’t… eh… I don’t see him. You know, to a certain degree, we’ve been out of contact. He only lives in Clontarf. But for… you know… he… but since the… funeral… He, you know, we’ve had contact again. And it’s fine, you know. But for a long time… he’s been very supportive, but you know we don’t get on, basically, you know? And I don’t… there’s no need for me… to infringe on his privacy and his family. And you know, so we’ve drifted again. But em, the… the last time that I saw him, this night that I’m talking about a couple of months ago. I mean, I could feel… that… it was a sympathy vote, like… we’d… very little to… to say to each other. And I mean, he’s very quiet anyway, you know? And I… didn’t feel… right, myself that evening, anyway and… And I mean, there was no… problem, as such. But I… just wanted to leave, you know? And I kind of just got a bit annoyed and I kind of… fucking… just went home, you know?

He checks with IAN, to see if this is all alright to continue with. IAN nods gently.

And eh…

And I didn’t really… when I got home, there was nothing untoward when I got in the door. Only that I remember now, because I heard it again, there was the sound, the tune of an ice-cream van. The music, you know? But there couldn’t have been because they don’t go round at night. But, I heard it when I got in the door. And I… didn’t think about it or… But eh… I was, I was just going into the living room and I put the lights on, and… when I turned around I could see that she was standing there behind the door looking at me.

Pause.

IAN. Your wife?

JOHN. Yeah. She… I could only see half of her, behind the door, looking out at me. Eh… but I could see that… her hair was soaking wet, and all plastered to her face. And I, I fucking jumped, you know? And I fucking just stood there, I froze, it was terrifying. And I mean she was as real as… you know if you’ve ever seen a dead body? How strange it is, but… it’s… real! That feeling…

IAN. And what happened then?

JOHN. I just, I don’t know how long we were standing there looking at each other. I mean it might have been only a few seconds. But it was like if you’re a kid and you get a fright, it’s only for a second, you know, if you have a bad dream or you think you see something, but then, you wake up or there’s nothing there or whatever, but this just didn’t stop, I mean she was just there, and it was real. The feeling is like… I mean, I mean it’s unbelievable, you know? It’s… it’s… I can’t describe it.

IAN. And did she… did you…

JOHN. Well, finally, I don’t know how, but I just got my legs going and I just had no choi...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Dedication
• Original Production
• Setting
• Characters
• Shining City
• About the Author
• Copyright and Performing Rights Information