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eBook - ePub
Kid Stakes
Ray Lawler
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- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
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eBook - ePub
Kid Stakes
Ray Lawler
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About This Book
A joyful portrait of the summer of the first doll, in which a chance encounter brings Olive and Emma, Roo and Barney, into the shabby Carlton terrace to begin a seventeen-year journey of seasonal love and argument. Kid Stakes introduces the fun-loving Nancy, who has left the scene by the seventeenth summer, adding a new poignancy to the story.
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Yes, you can access Kid Stakes by Ray Lawler in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Literature & Drama. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
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ACT ONE
SCENE ONE
A Sunday afternoon in January, 1937.
DICKIE POUNCETT, in his best summer suit, is sitting carefully on the chaise longue, nursing a small, wrapped package. He is in his mid-twenties, city born and bred, with a conscious awareness of grooming and manners. The artistic streak that may have freed him from a too-conventional upbringing has never found true expression, and something of this inner stress of circumstances is indicated by a slight stammer. Physically he is personable enough, and a girl with a more conformist taste than OLIVE would welcome his attentions.
The French windows are open, and after a moment a childâs voice wafts drowsily in from the afternoon mid-distance.
BUBBA: OâoâlâlâyâŚ! I got a bee-ee. I gotta bee, OllyâŚ
EMMAâs voice is heard from the direction of the kitchen.
EMMA: That kid at it again? Iâll murder her. Tell her to get down off the fence, will you?
DICKIE: [a glance towards the French windows] Donât think sheâs on the fence anymore. Sheâs in her own yard now, I think.
EMMA: Little tinker.
BUBBA: Got a bee, Olly!
EMMA: What she sayinâ?
DICKIE: I donât know. I think she might want to go down the b-b-back.
EMMA: The where?
DICKIE: Theâtoilet.
EMMA: Oh, thatâs nice. If sheâs goinâ to start that. Askinâ people to hold her handâ
EMMA comes into view from the direction of the kitchen, carrying some freshly ironed clothes. EMMA is in her early fifties, a determined little figure tackling life on her own terms, and still expecting to get a stranglehold at some time or other. She proceeds to lay the ironed clothes over the banister rail, and calls up the stairs:
Oliveâthat kid next door. Sheâs makinâ a nuisance of herself.
OLIVE: [a voice from above] Tell her Iâll be down in a little while.
EMMA: A little while might be too late. [Adjusting garments] Iâve ironed your dress, and them things of Nancyâs. Theyâre at the bottom of the stairs.
OLIVE: Righto. Weâll get âem.
EMMA: [suspiciously] Youâre not smokinâ up there, are you?
OLIVE: Oh, Mumâ
NANCY: [another voice from upstairs] Oliveâs helpinâ me to clean my room.
EMMA: Emptyinâ the ashtrays out the window. I can tell, yâknow.
She comes into the living room and DICKIE rises awkwardly.
They spray a bit of scent around, and come down suckinâ a couple of peppermintsâ
She waves DICKIE back to his seat, and starts to tidy a sprawl of books on the table, one of them left open and face downwards, the title of which she inspects.
Canât do nothinâ âbout Nance, of course. Law to herself. Only got to look at the books she readsâTender is the Nightâ
She slams the open book shut, and places it with the others to one side.
Olive knows the way I feel, that sort of thing. Long as sheâs my daughter, livinâ under my roof, she behaves herself. [Projecting her voice towards the upper regions] And that doesnât mean keepinâ visitors waitinâ, while she puffs her head off upstairs.
DICKIE: [apologetically] Maybe she didnât understand that I was dropping in.
EMMA: She knew. âLeast, she didnât say âsugarâ when I said you was hereâwhich is the usual thing when fellers drop in unexpected.
DICKIE: It wasnât any definite arrangement. I just mentioned at the store, if it was a nice afternoonâ
BUBBAâs voice is heard again from the mid-distance.
BUBBA: Oâoâlâlâyâ!
EMMA: Oh, that kid. Never stops.
She moves to the French windows.
Itâs them silly two sheâs livinâ with, of course. [Calling] Bubba, you go in and tell your Auntie Dee or Auntie Maureenâyou hear me?!
BUBBA: Want Olive.
EMMA: Olive isnât cominâ out. So you nick off now. Or Iâll be down there with me big copper stick. [She turns back into the room.] Never shouldâve took that kid. Real old maids. Always shovinâ her outside to play, while they pull down the blinds and have a snooze. No consideration in the world for anybody else.
OLIVE speaks from the...
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Playwrightâs Biography
- First Production
- Characters / Setting
- Kid Stakes
- Copyright Details