Mermaid (NHB Modern Plays)

Polly Teale

• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781780015798
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Drama
• Index: Literature

A bold reimagining of Hans Christian Andersen's tale of love, loss and desire, transported to a contemporary setting.

Beneath the ocean's waves there is no death or pain or separation. Above, the modern world is beset with war, poverty and desire.

On her sixteenth birthday, a mermaid rises up to the surface, leaving her childhood behind for ever when she falls in love with a mortal prince. She knows that she can no longer live at the bottom of the ocean - but must she destroy herself in order to be loved?

Polly Teale's Mermaid was first performed by Shared Experience and Nottingham Playhouse on a UK tour in 2015.

'wonderfully atmospheric' Whatsonstage.com

'an enchanting fairy story brought splashing into present-day, superbly woven around a highly descriptive text' The Public Reviews

ACT ONE

A room in a house in a run-down seaside town in a remote part of England. Thirteen-year-old BLUE and her family have an alternative, new-age/grunge look to them. BLUE’s bedroom is decorated with a collage of pictures of mermaids and mythical sea creatures.

The sound of gulls outside.

BLUE sits on the floor surrounded by dropped clothes. She has her phone open and is scanning Facebook and Instagram. She continues to stare at the screen throughout the conversation. Her MOTHER stands in the door carrying the washing basket in her arms. During the scene she picks up clothes from the bedroom floor.

MOTHER. Have you finished that homework?

Silence.

I like that idea, a new version of a fairy story. You let me read it when you’re done? I can guess which one it’ll be.

Silence.

Did you hear what I said? When you’ve done we can watch Bake Off. I’ve made some flapjacks.

BLUE. I’m busy.

MOTHER. What you doing?

BLUE. What’s it look like?

Pause.

MOTHER. You going to see Jade at the weekend?

BLUE. Don’t think so.

MOTHER. Or Ella?

BLUE. No.

MOTHER. Haven’t seen her in ages. Why don’t you invite them over? Have a sleepover. You can have a fire on the beach. Sausages.

BLUE. No thanks.

MOTHER. I’ll get that ice cream you like.

BLUE. I said no thanks.

MOTHER. Camp out in the back like you used to.

BLUE. Are you deaf?

Beat.

MOTHER. There was no need for that.

BLUE. Or just stupid.

MOTHER. That’s enough.

BLUE. Is it?

MOTHER. Your father’ll be home in a minute.

BLUE. And what’s he gonna do about it?

MOTHER. Take away that phone, that’s what.

BLUE (under her breath). Loser.

Beat.

MOTHER. What did you say?

BLUE. Nothing.

MOTHER. Don’t you talk about your father like that. All that he’s done for you.

BLUE. It’s his fault.

MOTHER. What is?

BLUE. Everyone else is invited.

MOTHER. What you talking about?

BLUE. If he had a job.

MOTHER. Invited where?

BLUE. Nowhere. Forget it.

MOTHER. What’s going on?

BLUE. Nothing. Just leave me alone.

MOTHER. Is he to blame for them building a Tesco down the road? Who’s going to buy fresh fish from the back of his boat when they can get frozen for half the price.

BLUE. If he had a job I wouldn’t be wearing trainers you bought from the charity shop –

MOTHER. They’re perfectly fine. Nearly new. They were still in the box –

BLUE. That it turns out used to belong to Katie Baxter who’s having a ‘celebrity party’ for her fourteenth birthday, whose dad’s paid for a make-up artist and professional photographer and a limousine –

MOTHER. You never told me they were hers.

BLUE. Cancer Research they call me. Oxfam. Barnardo’s.

MOTHER. You’ve nothing to be ashamed of. She should be, throwing away a brand-new pair of shoes. Poking fun at someone who hasn’t had her advantages. I’ve a mind to ring her parents –

BLUE. NO!

MOTHER. Or her. Looking down her nose.

BLUE. Don’t you dare.

MOTHER. You don’t need Katie Baxter and her limousine party. You stick with Ella and Jade and tell her to learn some manners.

BLUE. Just shut up about it.

MOTHER. I don’t suppose they’re impressed by her nonsense.

BLUE. What do you know about anything?

MOTHER. I was just saying I don’t suppose they think much of her / behaviour…

BLUE (suddenly). They’re there. Everybody’s there. Singing ‘Happy Birthday’. (Shows her MOTHER a photo on her phone.) Jade, Ella, Cheryl, Emily.

MOTHER. I wouldn’t let you out of the house dressed like that.

BLUE. Maybe that’s why I wasn’t invited.

MOTHER. Just because Ella and Jade are at the party doesn’t mean they like her.

BLUE. They haven’t spoken to me for a fortnight, unless you count Jade giving my swimsuit and snorkel back.

BLUE’s phone rings.

MOTHER. Who’s that?

BLUE (pleased). Ella.

MOTHER. There you go!

BLUE gestures for her MOTHER to leave the room. The MOTHER listens from the other side of the door straining to hear.

BLUE. Hello.

As she answers her phone we see the FaceTime sequence spring to life. A party with music and dancing and flashing lights. Gathered around the camera, a collection of GIRLS dressed up to the nines wearing high heels and make-up. ELLA speaks direct to the camera.

ELLA. Hey, Blue, that boy, the surfer you’ve been crazy about for months, he’s here at the party.

JADE (calling). Joe, come and meet Blue, she never stops talking about you.

JOE. Hiya, Blue.

KATIE BAXTER. Blue told Jade she saw a mermaid on the rocks off The Point. Told her she can hear her singing in a shell she keeps under her pillow.

ELLA (giggling). Shurrup.

KATIE BAXTER. Made up a spell to grow a fish tail, didn’t she, Jade?

ELLA. Katie says you can come to the party. Have your nails done. Look. We had a makeover. Eyelashes and everything.

KATIE BAXTER. Or is her mummy putting her to bed? Is she reading her a bedtime story? Tucking her up with a mermaid song. Hey, Joe, come and give Blue a goodnight cuddle.

JOE. Show us your tits. Sorry, forgot, you haven’t got any.

KATIE BAXTER. Ah, don’t be like that, Joe. Make love not war, that’s what you’re in to, isn’t it, Blue. All that weirdo hippy peace shit.

There’s a big laugh and Miley Cyrus’s ‘Wrecking Ball’ (or similar) is turned up so loud that she can no longer hear their voices. The GIRLS are dancing.

We become aware of BLUE’s MOTHER knocking on the door and calling. BLUE switches off her phone but the party continues in the darkness. BLUE puts on her headphones and finds ‘Wrecking Ball’. We hear it loud as though we are listening to it through the headphones.

MOTHER (trying the door handle). What did she say? She invite you to the party? I can walk you round there if you want to go. Open the door.

BLUE stands on her bed and starts to gyrate provocatively to Miley Cyrus. The party is still alive in BLUE’s imagination in slow motion. They are watching her dance, dancing along. In slow motion KATIE BAXTER starts to dance provocatively with BLUE as if they were best friends. She pulls BLUE down from the bed to the centre of the dance floor. She circles BLUE and they dance together. Throughout the sequence, KATIE BAXTER keeps looking back towards ELLA and JADE, who are watching her and smirking. KATIE BAXTER imitates BLUE, parodying her Miley Cyrus impersonation. The crowd start to laugh and jeer as KATIE BAXTER mimes vomiting behind BLUE’s back. She pushes BLUE backwards and BLUE realises that everyone is laughing at her.

BLUE goes to the wardrobe to see herself in the mirror and tries to flatten a strand of hair across her forehead, plastering it with spit or hair gel. She puts on lipstick. She looks at herself sideways in the mirror, pushing up her breasts and pulling in her stomach and adjusting her clothes. She stands on her toes, trying to imagine herself in high heels. She pouts and assesses her appearance, pulling at the flesh on her stomach. The GIRLS start to prod and poke at her stomach and pull at her clothes and hair. The taunting escalates until it becomes a physical struggle. Pushing them away, BLUE throws herself down on the floor. They follow. She opens a school exercise book.

She opens the book and starts to write. Lights change. The GIRLS from the party move in slow motion as if through deep water as they shed their human clothing, transforming into MERMAIDS.

BLUE. Far, far from land, where the waters are as black as the darkest night, where no anchor can reach the bottom, live the mermaids. It is so deep you would have to pile a thousand shipwrecks on top of one another before one of them stuck out above the surface. So deep that a drowned man might drift for ever and n...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Original Production
• Dedication
• Characters
• Author’s Note
• Mermaid
• An Interview with Polly Teale
• About the Author
• Copyright and Performing Rights Information