Gail Louw: Plays Three

The Ice Cream Boys; Being Brahms; A Life Twice Given; Killing Faith

Gail Louw

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9781786829597
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781786829603
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

A third collection of plays by South African writer, Gail Louw.

Includes the plays The Ice Cream Boys, Being Brahms, A Life Twice Given, and Killing Faith.

KILLING FAITH

Based on an Original Idea

By Bryan Robinson

KILLING FAITH was first performed Devonshire Park Theatre, Eastbourne 20 May 2008 with the following cast:

AUNT GERTRUDE	Frances Cuka
BILLY	Oliver Gilbert
RACHEL	Julie Rogers
ALFRED	Christopher Saul

Director	Tony Milner
Production Manager	Paul Debreczeny
Producer	New Vic Productions

Characters

GERTRUDE GREEN	60
BILLY	17
RACHEL	17
ALFRED	53

Setting:

The play is set in Kiryat Shemona, the most northern town of Israel, near the border with Lebanon.

Kiryat Shemona is a frontier town, used to being surprised suddenly by bombs from across the border. In October 1973, when this play is set, the situation was different from today, and there was still a relative naivity in some aspects of regional politics.

The play takes place in Gertrude’s flat. The vast majority of the stage is her living room. In one corner of the room is the kitchen, with a door that cuts it off from the rest of the room. There are doors to the bedroom and bathroom from the room as well as to the outside. The flat has a pre-war Germanic appearance with heavy furniture and a large Persian rug taking up much of the floorspace. There is a large heavy table in the room, a huge sofa that can be used as a bed, an armchair and a little table. One wall of the flat is taken up with shelves, mostly full of books. On other shelves there is a radio, an old fashioned record player and a telephone. There are pictures on the walls as well as family photos clustered in one space near the kitchen.

SCENE 1

Blackness. A telephone rings. We hear GERTRUDE answering the phone

GERTRUDE: Mit wem habe ich die Ehre? Mit wem sprich ich? Wer is den dort? Wer? Who? WHO? Billy! Billy who? Billy Green? From London? You’re at Tel Aviv airport? Now? But… Kiryat Shemona’s a long way, it’s the other end of Israel! Oh mein Gott, Billy! What have you done?

Silence. Light begins to emerge. There is a knock on the door, then a second, more urgent one. GERTRUDE comes into the room, goes straight to the door and opens it.

BILLY walks in, slightly cowed. He is seventeen years old. He has had a tumultuous twenty-four hours and his bearing is evidence of that. He is wearing a crumpled British secondary school uniform. He walks in rather sheepishly. GERTRUDE goes to him, holds him at arms length for several seconds, peers at him short-sightedly, then seems to relent and gives him a hug. BILLY holds back somewhat from the hug and is obviously uncomfortable with this close physical contact.

GERTRUDE: Well, you can’t stay here.

BILLY: Oh! C..can’t I?

GERTRUDE: No. You can’t.

BILLY: But, why not?

GERTRUDE: Because you can’t.

BILLY: But you said…

GERTRUDE: What did I say?

BILLY: You said I should c..come and visit you.

GERTRUDE: But that was .. a while ago. And anyway, I didn’t mean now. I meant in a few years. When you are older, a grown up.

BILLY: I am older. I’m seventeen.

GERTRUDE: My God. You look so much like Faith.

No, you must leave. You have to go.

BILLY: But…. I’ve just got here.

GERTRUDE: Well, you’ll have something to eat first. Are you hungry?

BILLY: I haven’t eaten anything since the plane.

GERTRUDE: Young boys eat so much.

BILLY: I won’t eat that much, I promise, Aunt Gertrude.

GERTRUDE points BILLY to the table which is laid with a place setting and food. He eats ravenously. GERTRUDE watches him bemused. As BILLY eats he takes in the room, and the pictures on the wall.

BILLY: There’s Uncle Jimmy and you before he died. You look young there. There’s my father with Uncle Jimmy when they were young. Oh look, there’s me with mum. It must have been just after her …. Why did you go so suddenly?

That’s when you said I should c.come and visit you.

GERTRUDE: I didn’t mean now.

BILLY: I know. But, but, but..

GERTRUDE: But, but, goats butt. Eat.

GERTRUDE: What would your uncle Jimmy say if he saw you now.

BILLY: What would he say?

GERTRUDE: Who knows?

BILLY: He used to laugh a lot. I only remember him. laughing.

GERTRUDE: Yes. My Jimmy. He laughed a lot. I never really appreciated his laughter. I should’ve, when I had the chance. It’s the laughers that get taken young. Don’t laugh, Billy. I never laugh.

BILLY: My dad doesn’t laugh.

GERTRUDE: (Pause.) He didn’t.

BILLY: What do you mean?

GERTRUDE: I mean he didn’t laugh when I spoke to him on the phone.

BILLY: You… you ph…phoned him?

GERTRUDE: Well what do you think? Of course. You didn’t even leave a note.

BILLY: No.

GERTRUDE: He w...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• The Ice Cream Boys
• Being Brahms
• A Life Twice Given
• Killing Faith