Keep Smiling Through

Lisa Evans

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9781849430142
• eBook ISBN: 9781849435949
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

Keswick, 1940 – Britain is at war with Germany. Maggie's life is under invasion too: Gran knitting for England, evacuee lodgers, helping with the war effort – and now a fund-raising concert party! Husband Rob is due home on RAF leave and best friend Peg has just learnt that she's pregnant – but no such luck for Maggie and Rob… Nostalgia, romance, laughter and tears all feature in this comedy world première, full of live music, songs and dance from the war years.

Act Two

Song: “Be Like The Kettle And Sing”

SCENE ONE

Next day. Wednesday afternoon.

They are cleaning up the fire damage, and more importantly water damage, with mops and buckets, brushes and cloths. Lines are strung across the room with donated clothes drying on them. Present are PEG, HILDA, PERCE, MAGGIE – with a bruise on her face – ROB, ALEC, LEONORE, and GRAN. ROB helps LEONORE move the piano so he can mop behind it. She smiles at him. He has a knack of making people feel at ease. Four evacuees, all wearing sooty face decoration, are playing cowboys and indians.

ROB: Is here okay? Careful, don’t hurt your back. Let me do it. Ok?

LEONORE: Thank you.

ROB: It looks odd seeing it down here.

LEONORE: You don’t mind?

ROB: Pianos don’t mean anything if there’s nobody playing them.

LEONORE: Thank goodness it is not burned.

PEG: Oh yes, thank goodness for that. As long as the Swanky Rodents can have their piano lessons everything’s all right with the world.

ROB imitates her, sending her up. She grins.

Oh shut up.

Where do you want these putting Maggie?

MAGGIE: Are they wet?

PEG: Everything in the back room’s wet.

MAGGIE: Hang them up with the rest. I suppose they’ll dry out eventually.

GRAN, knitting, starts to sing “Hang Out The Washing On The Siegfried Line”.

PEG: The fire would have probably gone out in the snow but oh no, they had to hose fifty million gallons in here as well.

PERCE: (Up a stepladder fixing up drying lines.) Sorry.

PEG: Don’t even start with sorry.

MAGGIE: Cocktails, I ask you.

PEG: What were you thinking?

PERCE: I wanted to impress her.

PEG: Who?

PERCE: Jean.

PEG: Dear God.

PERCE: Thought she’d see me like a commando. You know...

He mimes Lighting the Molotov cocktail, throwing it and ducking.

Cover!

PEG: You idiot.

PERCE: I weren’t aiming at the hall. That were an accident.

PEG: You’re an accident.

PERCE: I’ve got a new idea now. For the concert party.

PEG: Is it flammable?

PERCE: I hope not.

PERCE checks his pockets. MAGGIE smiles, he’s told her about his magic tricks. There’s a crash off.

Peg: Oh my god. Sidney!

PEG exits to the back.

MAGGIE: (To the evacuees.) And you lot. Out of here. Come along, you’re not helping.

MAGGIE shoos the evacuees off. They run round her.

In the name of…where the hell is Lorna Pepper when there’s work to be done?

LEONORE: She said she’d be here.

ROB gets onto his mop and rounds them up and, firing an imaginary gun, chases them out. He smiles over at MAGGIE. She smiles back but there’s distance between them.

ALEC: I see war paint is in fashion for both cowboys and Indians.

ROB: Any excuse to get really filthy.

LEONORE: Mrs Pepper is putting on her boots when I leave the house.

MAGGIE: Well I won’t hold my breath. How does it sound? Has water got into it?

LEONORE: So you do care about it after all?

MAGGIE: It’s the only heirloom I’ve got. Apart from Gran of course. Must count for something I suppose.

LEONORE: Well, of course. It belonged to your mother who loved it.

MAGGIE: Oh yes, she loved that piano all right. OK everyone, we need to keep this end clear for the soup and sandwiches. There’s still a war on and stomachs’ll still rumble come dinnertime.

MAGGIE and LEONORE move tables together.

ALEC: She’s amazing, your Maggie, never stops.

ROB: Yeah I’d noticed. I’d quite like her to actually. It’s not long before I’m due back.

ALEC: I envy you.

ROB: What, me wife?

ALE...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Characters
• Act One
• Act Two