Speaking in Tongues (NHB Modern Plays)

Andrew Bovell

• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781780013350
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Drama
• Index: Literature

A powerful study of infidelity and interwoven lives, filmed as the award-winning Lantana.

A woman disappears. Four marriages become entangled in a web of love, deceit, sex and death. Who will survive?

Nine parallel lives – interlocked by four infidelities, one missing person and a mysterious stiletto – are woven through a fragmented series of confessionals and interrogations that gradually reveal a darker side of human nature.

'Bovell explores love, marriage, strangeness, intimacy, trust, betrayal, obsession, self-punishment and detachment with generous emotional intelligence' - Observer

'Clever, provocative, elliptically resonant' - New York Times

PART ONE

Meet PETE and JANE and LEON and SONJA. PETE is married to JANE. SONJA is married to LEON. PETE meets SONJA in a bar and they go back to a cheap hotel room. LEON meets JANE in a bar and they go back to a cheap hotel room. A double infidelity. Except PETE and SONJA don’t go through with it. While LEON and JANE do. SONJA leaves LEON. PETE leaves JANE. PETE meets LEON in a bar. They talk. JANE meets SONJA in a bar. They talk. When PETE goes back home, JANE tells him a story about a neighbour who throws a woman’s shoe into a vacant block. When SONJA goes back home, LEON tells her a story about a man who wears brown brogues.

* * *

Two bars. The city.

Music rises… a little sexy. Latin. Two couples are dancing. PETE and SONJA are in one bar. LEON and JANE are in the other. The dancing is close… and it’s good, more than a simple shuffle. The dancing is identical. Both couples are like mirrors of the other. The lights fade on the couples dancing.

Two rooms. Cheap. Spartan. Faded.

SONJA and JANE enter. They look around the room. PETE and LEON follow. They look around the room. Each couple holds a stillness for a moment.

PETE/LEON. It’s not much.

SONJA. It’s what / I expected.

JANE. I expected – I don’t know what I expected. It makes me feel / cheap.

SONJA. Cheap. Sordid.

PETE/LEON. Do you want to leave?

SONJA/JANE. No.

SONJA. I like it. / Do you?

JANE. Do you?

LEON. We could go somewhere else.

PETE. I’m not sure.

JANE. We’re here now.

PETE. I’m sorry.

SONJA. Why?

PETE. It’s just that / I haven’t done this sort of thing before.

LEON. I haven’t done this sort of thing before.

SONJA/JANE. Nor have I.

LEON looks at JANE. PETE looks at SONJA. They both look away. LEON and PETE each touch their heart.

LEON. I’ve got this pain in / my chest.

PETE. My chest is pounding.

SONJA/JANE. Are you all right?

PETE/LEON. Yes.

SONJA/JANE. Are you sure?

PETE. I said / I’m all right.

LEON. I’m all right.

PETE. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap.

JANE. You’re not having / a heart attack?

SONJA. A heart attack is something I couldn’t cope with / right now.

LEON. Right now I could do with / a drink.

PETE. A drink would go down well.

JANE. Do / you want to go back?

SONJA. You want to go / back?

LEON. Back to the bar?

PETE. No.

JANE. Yes.

LEON. No.

PETE. We’re here now.

JANE. Good.

PETE. What would you do?

JANE. Because nor do I.

PETE. If I was having a heart attack?

SONJA. What?

LEON. Good.

PETE. If I was having a heart attack, what would you do?

SONJA. I’d get help.

PETE. It’s just that / we hardly know each other.

JANE. We hardly know each other.

SONJA. I’d help a stranger.

PETE. Yes. But it would mean being found out. There would be an ambulance, perhaps police. I’m not sure, but you would have to explain.

SONJA. But if it was a matter of life and death.

JANE. I feel a little awkward.

PETE. Yes. I wasn’t sure. For a moment I wasn’t sure. / I’m sorry.

LEON. I’m sorry.

SONJA/JANE. Don’t be.

PETE. It was a stupid thing to ask.

An awkward silence passes between them.

SONJA/JANE. Have you really never done this before?

PETE/LEON. No.

JANE. That’s reassuring.

LEON. Why?

JANE. I don’t know.

SONJA. I wish you had. I wish

JANE. I suppose

SONJA. You were an expert. Then at least one of us would know where to start.

JANE. It’s reassuring to know that I’m not one of many.

LEON. That you’re special?

JANE. Yes.

LEON. You are.

JANE. Thank you.

LEON. It’s all right. / What we’re doing is all right.

PETE. What we’re doing is all right. / Isn’t it?

JANE. Isn’t it hot?

SONJA/LEON. Do...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Introduction
• Original Production
• Characters
• Part One
• Part Two
• Part Three
• About the Author
• Copyright and Performing Rights Information