Julia Pascal: Political Plays

Honeypot; Broken English; Nineveh; Woman on the Bridge

Julia Pascal

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781783195374
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

Sex, political violence in Stockholm, Tel Aviv and Paris.
Political murder in suburban London.
Death, love and homicide in New York.
War in the belly of a whale. These are the themes in Julia Pascal's latest collection which takes place in London in 1946, Europe in 1982, Manhattan today and in a whale at anytime. Honeypot: Ten years after the massacres at the Munich Olympics, Susanne joins Mossad as a secret agent. This beautiful Swedish woman is at the heart of a struggle between desire and destruction, between love and infidelity, between motherhood and freedom. Between Arab and Jew. Broken English: An exploration of a secret history that happened in London just after the end of the war. Why was there a plot to assassinate Ernest Bevin, the Foreign Secretary by right-wing Jewish activists? When does loyalty to nation state conflict with loyalty to nation? Nineveh: What happens when four former soldiers are trapped in a whale? How can they live with the atrocities they have committed and escape from this hell which imprisons them? Based on research in Kashmir, Israel, Rwanda and Lebanon, this Beckettian play fuses absurd humour, the horror of war and the possibility of redemption in a ninety-minute drama. Woman on the Bridge: Judith, a London journalist, goes to the Brooklyn Bridge. Does she want to jump off? On her disturbing journey she spends a night with a very young man, she meets Anna, her hundred-and-ten-year old great aunt and Gloria, a homicide cop. Her encounters with these New Yorkers forces her to change her life.

BROKEN ENGLISH

Broken English is dedicated to the memory of my father, Cecil Fridjohn.

Broken English by Julia Pascal, reading at The Drill Hall on 5 October 2009

Cast:

SOL	Timothy Block
JOSEPH	Jonathan Hansler
HARRY	Paul Herzberg
IRENE	Fiz Marcus
MAX	Marc Pickering

Directed by Julia Pascal

Characters

HARRY BLOOM

44

ISAAC JACOBS known as MAX

22

IRENE GOLD

44

JOSEPH ADLER

30

SOLOMON MONTAGUE

(known as THE PROFESSOR)

55-60

The action happens on 15 January l947 in a room in a rented flat in London’s East End. It is based on a true incident.

Between l946 and l948, cells of Jewish activists were raising money for guns to fight the British in Palestine. This was an act of resistance against Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin’s White Paper which limited Jewish entry into Palestine. These British Jews were sympathetic to the violent methods practised by Stern and Irgun Zwai Leumi whose leader was Menachim Begin.

ACT ONE

SCENE ONE

January 15 l947

A large room with a table and several chairs. It’s a cluttered bed-sit with old newspapers, clothes and rags all over the place. HARRY is typing a letter and listening to the radio.

RADIO V/O: ‘Here is the nine o’clock news from the BBC Home Service.

(He moves the tuner to try and get a better sound and loses it to Mozart.)

Mr. Bevin denounced what he called the murderous terrorists (Strains from Don Giovanni.) the British Mandate in Palestine (Mozart intercuts) blew up the King David Hotel in Jerusalem last year (Back to Mozart.) raided banks in Jaffa and sabotaged police compounds…’

(HARRY sings the Mozart with the radio as he searches among the clutter. He finds his army uniform, puts it on. For a few moments he marks time on the spot. The door opens. MAX enters with a black leather bag. He passes it to HARRY who takes it gingerly and opens it. HARRY takes out a revolver and whistles. He returns it to the bag which he hides under the table)

HARRY: How many?

MAX: Three Stens. Two Enfields.

HARRY: Anyone see you?

MAX: What you take me for? (HARRY takes off his uniform and gets back into his own clothes.)

HARRY: You’re late. I was anxious.

MAX: No buses. I had to walk

HARRY: (Beat.) Did you shave this morning?

MAX: Yeh.

HARRY: Not ‘yeh’. ‘Yes’

MAX: The fog’s so thick, conductor walks in front of his bus with a torch. I get off and I can’t even see my own hand in front of me. And it’s brass monkey out there. Can’t you light that fire?

HARRY: (He picks up solitary lump of coal and shrugs.)

MAX: Any tea going?

HARRY: What am I? A nippy in Lyon’s Corner?¹ How is she?

MAX: Mrs Gold?

HARRY: Yes.

MAX: Fine.

HARRY: That’s all?

MAX: Bit nervous.

HARRY: Nervous. We’re all bloody nervous. Was she alone?

MAX: Yeh.

HARRY: Good. (Silence.) What’s up?

MAX: What?

HARRY: I can smell it. There’s something.

MAX: Nothing.

HARRY: Was she careful?

MAX: She’s done it before hasn’t she?

HARRY: What?

MAX: Hiding stuff.

HARRY: Don’t ask questions.

MAX: She asked plenty.

HARRY: Oh?

MAX: About you.

HARRY: And what did you say?

MAX: Schtum.

HARRY: Was her kid there? What’s h...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• Honeypot
• Broken English
• Nineveh
• Woman on the Bridge