(Other works by this author in the same series ig Shing i Bigham Tp Tan Mad Poet The Star ‘yee (alte Soon Senees) This br « ir Buus Hoot Far dany 4 ante Sirs ovit Ni Dat Not Ne Ne Eng Ogee ‘Scherr Neo The Hilo te The jugs Wie The de Di de re Sip gh CARYL CHURCHILL Far Away NICK HERN BOOKS London snenicembooks.co.kA.Nick Hera Book Fa Ay fre pute in 2000 a = paperback vigil tp Nick Hem Books, If Larden Road, London WS 7ST aocation with te Royal Cour Theatre Reprinted 2008 ar Aa copyight © 2000 by Cary Chureil Lat Caryl Chur has aserted er ight tbe ented ts the aor of he work Cover: Ned Host, 2H “Typeset by County Sting, Kingedowa, Kent, CTI¢ BES Prive and bound in Great Briain by Bids of Gord ISBN 1-5459.744.2 A CIP catalogue record for thi book is avalable fom the Bsteh Library ‘Amateur Perforasing Righes Applian: for pesformaais ia except orn fl by nonprofesonal i English throughout the worl! shouldbe addrened to Samuel Prench Lid, 52 Fiooy Stet, London WIP QR (poe 020-787-9975, foc 020-7387 2161) or tex overseas ages. ‘Pobtcaon ofthis play doesnot neces india is saab for amateur performance, Professional Performing Rights Aplications for pevormance by pessoal ia any metiam and in any Tingange doughowe the word should be adrexed to (Canute Remaey Lu, National Hoe, 605 Wardour Sam, Tendon WIV SHP No performace of any ind may be given ules ence fas berm obtained. Apletion shoud be made before share beg Fe Auay was fst performed at dhe Royal Court ‘Theatre Upstairs, London, on 24 November 2000, before transferring to the Albery Theatre inthe West End om 18 January 2001, The cast was as follows YOUNG JOAN Annabelle Seymoursulen HARPER Linda Bassett ToD Kevin McKidd OLDER JOAN Katherine Tozer incor Stephen Daléry Design Yan MacNeil Lighting Desir Rick Fisher ‘Scand Desig Paul ActsCharacters JOAN, e git HARPER, he aut ‘TODD, a yuang man “The Parade Scene 2.5} five is too few and twenty beter than ten. A hundred? HARPER‘: hue Nip. JOAN HARPER, JOAN HARPER JOAN HARPER, JOAN HARPER, JOAN HARPER JOAN HARPER ean’ deep, 1s the range bed, No, I like diferent place, Are you eal? Do you want drink? 1 think Tam col ‘That eary enough then. There's extra blanket in the cupboard Is ic ate? Two, Are you going to bed? Do you want «hot drink?lo FARAWAY JOAN No thank you HARPER I should goto bed then | JOAN Yes | HARPER Its always odd ina new place, When ‘youtve been here a week you'l lok back at tonight and it wont seem the same a al JOAN ive been toa lot of places. ve stayed with fiends at thei houses. don't iss ys think that ry parents Do you miss your dog? JOAN 1s che cat I think. HARPER Doss it sleep on your bed? JOAN No because I chase it of. But it ges in if te doors not propery shut. You think you've shut the door but it hasnt ‘aught and she pushes it open in the ight HARPER Come ere a minute. You're shivering ‘Are you hot? No, Pan all ight. You're oversired, Go t bed. Tm going to bed melt. HARPER JOAN HARPER JOAN: HARPER, JOAN HARPER JOAN HARPER JOAN HARPER, JOAN HARPER JOAN HARPER 1 went out When? just now? Jost now No wonder you're col. Its hot nthe daytime here but ifs cold at night, ‘The stars are brighter here than at home. es becanse there no street lights T couldn't see much, 1 don’t expect you could. How did you set out? I didat hear the door went out the window Tm not sue I tke that, No its quite safe, there's a oof and a ‘When people go t bed they should stay in bed. Do you climb out of the ‘window at home? can't at home because - No T don'. Tm responsible for you12 FARAWAY JOAN Yes, Pn sory HARPER Wel that's enough adventares for one ight, You'l seep now. OF you go. Look at you, you'te asleep on your feet. JOAN There was a reason. HARPER For going out? JOAN heard noise. HARPER An oul? JOAN Ashrck ‘sn owl then, There ae all sors of birds here, you might see golden covole. People come here specially t0 swatch binds and we sometimes make tea or coffee or sell hotles of water ‘because there's no cafe and people n't expect hat and they get thirty ‘Youll seein the morning what a Deaf place itis HARPER, 1 was more like person screaming HARPER Icis like a penon screaming when you bear an ow JOAN Tt was a person sereaming HARPER JOAN HARPER Joan HARPER, Joan HARPER JOAN HARPER JOAN HARPER Joan HARPER FARAWAY 18 Poor gi, what a fight you must have hnad imagining you heard somebody screaming. You should have come straight down here to me I wanted tos. Te was dark Yes but I i se, Now what did you imagine you saw in the dark? 1 saw my uncle ‘Yes expect you did. He likes breath ofa. He went seeaming I hope? No, ‘That’ all sight dhen. Did you tall to him? 1 expect you were fightened he'd say what are you doing out of your bed 10 late I stayed inthe wee He did't see you? No, Hi'l be suprised won't he, hell laugh ‘when he hears you were up inthe tree Heel be eros but he doesnt mean itMo FARAWAY hel think ts good ake, isthe sort of thing he di when he was a boy. So bed now. TD go up too JOAN Hie was pushing someone. He was ‘bundling someone ato a shed. ‘He must have been puting big ste in the shed. He works to late Pm not sure iit was a woman. Te ould have been a young man. ‘Wall Ihave 9 tel you, when you've been married as log a Ihave, There are things people getup tits nara, ‘es nothing bad, that’s just fiends of his your uncle was having a litle parsy with HARPER JOAN Was ita pary? Jost lide pat ‘Yes because there wasn't just that one penn. HARPER No, there'd bea few of his fiends. JOAN There was Torry. HARPER Yes, Iexpoct there was JOAN HARPER JOAN HARPER JOAN HARPER JOAN HARPER JOAN HARPER JOAN HARPER JOAN FARAWAY 15 ‘When I put my ear against the side of the Jory I heard crying inside. How could you do that fom up in the 1 got down from the wee. T went to the lorry after [looked in the window of the shed There might be dings that are not your business when you're a visto in someone eie's house. Yes, Prather not have sen. Pm sry. Nobody saw you? They were thinking about themselves 1 think ts tacky nobody sw you Fis a party, why was there so much blood? ‘There ian’ any Blood, Yes Where? (On the ground16 FARAWAY HARPER In the dash? ow would you see hatin the dark? I lipped in it JOAN ‘She holds wp he br fe T mostly wiped it of "That's where the dog got rin over this sfternoon Wouldn't ¢ have dried up? JOAN HARPER Not i the ground was mud ‘What ror of dog? JOAN HARPER A big dog, a big mongrel That's awful, you mutt be very sad, had yo had him long? JOAN HARPER No, he was young, he an out, he was never very obedient, lonry was ‘ackng wp. JOAN What was his name? HARPER Flash JOAN What colour was he? HARPER Black with abit of white JOAN HARPER JOAN HARPER JOAN HARPER JOAN HARPER JOAN HARPER, JOAN HARPER JOAN Why were the children in the shed? What children? Don't you know what children? How could you see there were children? There wat light on. That's how I ‘You've found out something secret. You Jnow that don't you? Yes Something you shouldn't know Yes Tm som. Something you must never talk about. Because if you do you could put peoples lives in danger. Why? who from? from my uncle? Of course not kom your wale From you?18 FARAWAY HARPER Of course not from me, are you mad? Pron going to tell you whats going on ‘Your uncle i helping these people. He Delping them escape. He's giving them shelter. Some of them were sil inthe Jory, thats why they were eying. Your ‘uncle's going to take them all ino the shed and then they be allright JOAN They had blood on their fice HARPER That’ from before. That's Because they were attacked by the people your uncle's saving them from, ‘There wat blood on the ground, HARPER One of chem was injured very badly but your unle bandaged him up He's helping them. That’ right "There wasn't dog. There wasnt ary No, Pm rusting you with the eu nove. You must never talk about it oF youl put your wnele' ie in danger and mine and even your own, You won't even say anything to your paren JOAN HARPER, JOAN HARPER, JOAN HARPER JOAN HARPER, FARAWAY 19 Why did you have me to stay i you've sot thie secret going on? ‘The lomy should have come yesterday. Te won't happen again while you're here. I can now because I now: You don't have to stop for me. I could help uncle in the shed and lok after thes, No, he has to do it himelf But thank you for offering, that’s very kind. So after ll dat excitement do you think ‘you could go back to bed? Why wa uncle iting dhem? Hing who? “was hitting a man with a stick. I think the stick was meta. He hit one of the children, (One of the people in the lorry was & triton, He wasn't really one of them, he was pretending, he wat going t betray them, they found out and told your uncle, Then he attacked your ‘unele, he atacked che other people, your nee had to fight him.JOAN HARPER, JOAN HARPER JOAN HARPER JOAN HARPER JOAN HARPER ‘That's why there was so much blood ‘Yer it had to be done to save the others He hit one ofthe chien “That would have been the child of the traitor. Or sometimes you get bad children who even betray their parent. What's going to happen? They'l go of inthe lorry very eacly in the morning Where to? ‘Where theyre escaping to. You don't want to have to keep any more secret: He only hit the traitor. OF coure. Pm not suprised you can't sleep, what an upset thing to see But now you undertan, isnot s0 bad. You're part of a big movement row to make things beter. You can be proud of that, You ca Took atthe stars and think here we are in our Lite bit ‘of space, and I'm on the side ofthe people who are puting things right, JOAN HARPER JOAN HARPER FARAWAY 21 and your soul will expand right into the shy Can't I help? ‘You can help me clean up in the morning, Will you do that? Yes, So you'd beter gee same sep.2 ‘Sera ers ier A hat makes 1 JOAN and TODD ave siting ato wuld. Thy hare ech ‘it lard aking ht TODD There's plenty of bine. JOAN 1 think Pm starting with black ropD Colour always wins Joan 1 will have colour, Pm starting with blac to set the colour off TODD —_T did one last week that was an abstract picture of the sret, blue for the buses, yellow for the flats, red for the leaves, trey forthe hy, Nobody got it but I knew what i¢ was, Thee’ litle sateuetions to be had. JOAN Don't you enjoy i? You're new aren't you? JOAN ‘opp JOAN TODD JOAN ‘Topp JOAN ‘Topp JOAN Topp JOAN ‘Topp JOAN “This my frst hat, My first profesional hat Did you do hat a college? My degree hat was a gira six fet tal, ‘You won't have time to do something Tike that inthe week, Tinow We used to get two weeks before a parade and then they toa it down to fone and now they've talking about cating a day, So weld get an extra day of? We'd get a day's less money. We ‘woulda't make auch good has Gan they do that? ‘You'd oppose it would you? ve only just stared ‘Youll find there's alot wrong with this place 1 thought it was one of the best jobs2 FARAWAY TODD ——_ Iki Do you know where o go for Janch? JOAN chink there's canteen in there? ‘Topp Yee but we don’t go ther. I show you where to go 2 Net diy. They ee working othe ht, ich oe by now for rere Brgy dalle Be one hy mee working on hace oer mplaced by ont ner complain, JOAN Your tum. ‘Topp 1 go fora svim in the river before work JOAN Ian it dangerous? TODD Your tum, JOAN ve gota plot's cence, TODD —_I nay up il our every morning ‘watching the ial JOAN ‘Topp JOAN ‘Topp JOAN ‘roo JOAN ToD JOAN ‘Topp JOAN ToD JOAN Topp Tm geting room in a subway. Te got my owm place Have you? Do you want to see i? Tha’ coming [don't understand youre but I like the feather rm not aying. Pve been here to0 long. ‘Will you leave? (My tum. There's something wrong with how we get the contacts ‘But we want the contract ‘What if we don't deserve them? What ‘Tour work is’ really the bes? So what's going on? TT just sy a certain peron's brother indaw, Where does he work do you think? Where does he work? Tm not aking about it in here. Tel sme something ese.26 FARAWAY JOAN 1 dont like saying in in the evenings and watching tris, TODD —_I watch them at night after T come back JOAN Back from wire? TODD —— Where do you like? 3 Nest dy. Taye working on the hats, eich geting vy ig (end ecranegan. TODD ——_1 dont enjoy animal hats myst. JOAN Tas siden TODD ——Abetract hats are back in a big way JOAN ve always Hed abstract hats TODD You must have not noticed when everyone hated them. JOAN Te was probably before my dime Simee. Thy 59 on working JOAN Topp JOAN TODD JOAN Topp ‘Top JOAN Tes jus if you're going on about i all the time T don't know why you don't do something about it "This i your thind day. The managements comupt ~ you've told me. We'te too low paid ~ you've told me Sie, Th gon erg Too much green, Tes meant to be too muc Sie. Thy go working 1 noticed you looking at that fir boy's hat. I hope you told him it wat derivative Size Thy goon woking Ym the only person in this place wis sot any principles, don’t tll me 1 should do something, T spend my days wondering what to do. So you'l probably come up with something Sie. They 2 on werkirg4 Nex dy. They ae wring om te has, wich oe me enormous and prs TODD That's beau JOAN ‘You tke i? Topp Ta JOAN ike yours too. TODD You don't have w aay that. Ie not one of my best JOAN No ts got = done know, a confident hat TODD have been doing parades for six years So Pim a valued old hand. So when I {g0 and speak to a cerain person he right pay attention. JOAN You're going to speak to him? TODD —_Tve an appointment after work JOAN Topp JOAN TODD JOAN Topp JOAN ToD JOAN ‘Topp JOAN ‘Topp JOAN FARAWAY 29 You might lve you job, T might Tim impressed "That was the ide, ‘Will you mention the brotherindaw? Fine Tl tlk about the money. Then Fl just touch inthe brother-in-law, Tye a fiend who's a journal Will you toveh in the journalist? might imply something without giving ‘he journalist away. Ie might be beter if he can't trace the journalist ack to me ‘Though he wil suspect However much he suspects, One thing if Tose ny job What's that? 1rd mis you Already?oo FARAWAY iat dos A prceson of rages btn, chained prisons, ack ering oat om thir cy to eatin The fied Bats xe en mare eras and fraps than i the Pais sane 6 A nav watk JOAN and TODD ex starting ark ot nae ats. JOAN il can’ belive it TODD No one's ever won in their fit week Defoe. JOAN all going w be downhil from now TODD —_You east win every week JOAN ‘That's wha I mean Topp JOAN Topp JOAN ‘opp Joan ‘Topp JOAN ropD JOAN Topp FARAWAY SL No but youll do a fantastic body of work while you're here. Sometimes I think its pity that more arent kept, ‘There'd be too many, what would they do with them? They could reuse thes, Exactly and then we'd be out of work. 1 seems go sad to barn them with the bodies No I think that’s the jy of it, The hats ace ephemeral Ie tike a metaphor for something or other Well, i Wall, ie, these you are. Out of nearly three hundred hats Tve made here Pve ‘only had three win and go inthe ‘mzeum, But chats never bothered me. ‘You make beauty and it disappear, I love that. You're 0 waaJOAN ‘Topp JOAN ‘Topp JOAN Topp JOAN ‘Top JOAN Topp JOAN YYou make me think in diferent ways Like Td never have thought about how {his place i run and now I se how important itis T think i i impress a certain person that I was speaking fom the high ‘moral ground So tell me again exacy what he sid at the end “These ings must be dhought about” 1 think thar encouraging Tt could mean hel think how to get rid of me Thats a fantastic shape wo start from, We a new one for me, Tm geting inspiced by you, ‘There sll the journalist. Ihe looks ito ita bit more we could expose the corrupt financial basis of how the whole hat industry is un, not jst this place, Tet the whole industry is dodgy. Do you think 90? 1 think we should find ont. Topp JOAN ropp JOAN Topp JOAN TODD JOAN Topp You've changed my li, do you know hat? I you lose your job I resign, ‘We might not gt jobs in hats again ‘There's other parades. Bur I think you're hat genius ‘Unless all the parades are comupe Tove thie beads. Use these heads No, you have them. No, you,3. Scryers late, HARVER’s hose, dine HARPER You were right to poiton the wasp TODD ——_ Yes, think all he wasps have got to &. HARPER I was outside yesterday on the edge of the wood when a shadow came over and it was a cloud of buterfe, and ‘hey came doven just beyond me and the trees and bushes were sed with ‘hem. Two of them clung to my arm, Twas tered, one of them got in my Ini, T managed o squash them. TODD I haven't had problern with tenis HARPER They can cover your face. The Romans ‘used to commit suicide with gold lea, ust ip it down their throat and it covered their windpipe, I think ofthat with busters, ‘Topp HARPER ‘roo HARPER Topp HARPER ‘Topp HARPER ToD HARPER, Topp FARAWAY 35 1 was passing an orchard, there were hones sanding under the trees, and suddenly wasps atacked them out of| the plums. There wee the horses talloping by screaming with their heads made of wasp. I with she'd wake up. We don't inow how long she'd been walking ‘She was right to come. ‘You don't go walking off in the middle of a wat You do if you'te escaping We don't know that she was escaping ‘She was geting to a place of safety to regroup, Ts this a place of ster? Relatively, yes of course it is. Everyone inks ies just house, The cats have come in on the side of the French 1 never liked cats, they mel, they seratch, they only lke you because you feed them, they bite, Tused to have aHARPER TODD HARPER Topp HARPER ‘opp HARPER ‘Topp HARPER, TODD HARPER Topp cat that would suddenly jus ake some Bit of you in its mouth Did you know they've been king babies? Where's that? Tn China, They jump in the cot when nobody’ looking. Bu some eat ae sill ok. 1 don’ think 20 Tinow a cat up the road, No, you must be careful of that. But we've not exactly on the other side fiom the French, Ie’ not ae if they’ee the Moroccans and the ants Ws not a if they're the Canadians, the Venezuelans and the mosquitoes. Ws not a if they're the engineers, the che, dhe children under five, the ‘The car salesmen, Portuguese car salesmen HARPER Topp HARPER TODD HARPER TODD HARPER ‘ron HARPER ‘Topp FARAWAY 37 Russian svimmes ‘Thai butcher, Latvian denis NNo, the Latvian dentists have been ing good work in Cuba. They've & houte outide Havana ‘But Latvia has been sending pigs to ‘Sweden. The dentists ae linked t9 intemational dentistry and that’ where heir loyalty les, with dentists in Dar- ceSalaam, We don't argue about Dar-es-Salaam. ‘You would attempt to justi dhe massacre in Dar-es-Salaam? She's come here because you're here on leave and if anyone finds out FU be held responsible 1s only sl tomorrow, 1 wake her up. TM give her a few more minutes. Did you tee the programme about crocodile? Yes but crocodiles, the way they look alter the baby crocodiles and cattysa FARAWAY HARPER TODD HARPER, TODD HARPER, them down t the water in their mouths Don't you think everyone elpe their wn children? Tm just saying I wouldn't be srry if the crocodiles were on one ofthe sides we have alliances with, Thee unstoppable, come on, Crocodiles are evi and itis always right to be opposed to crocodiles. Their skin their eth, the foul smell oftheir ‘mouth from the dead meat. Crocs wait acbras are crossing the river and bite dhe weak ones with those Jaws and pall them dovm, Crocodiles ‘invade vag at night and take idzen out of their beds. A erocodile will carry a dozen heads back to the ver tendeny ike ie caries its young, and put them in the water where they bob about as tophies il they rt Tm just saying we could we tha, ‘And the fay ie daling waterbirds, the smallest one left behind squeaking wait for me, wait for me. And their mother who would give her if to save ‘hem. Top ‘Topp HARPER Topp HARPER TODD HARPER ‘roo HARPER Topp HARPER ‘Do we inchde mallards in thi? Mallard are not a good waterbird “They commit rape, and they're on the Side ofthe elephants and the Koreans But crocodiles are always in the song. Do you think I should wake her up oF let her sleep? We won't get any time together You agree with me about the crocodiles? ‘What's che mate whose side Tm on? you don't know 1 don’t know what you think 1 think what we all hink “Take deer You mean sweet line bambi? YYou mean that ironically? 1 mean it sareasticaly Because they burt out of patks and storm down fom mountains and terrorise shopping malls. Ifthe does run sway when you shoot they ron into40 FARAWAY TODD HARPER ‘Topp HARPER Topp HARPER Topp somebody ete and trample themn with their vicious lide shining hooves, the favs get under the feet of shoppers and send chem crashing down cscalators, the young bucks charge the plate glass windows ~ Tenow to hate der. snd the old ones, do you know how heavy thei antlers are or hove shanp the prongs are when they twist into teenagers running down the street? Yes do know that He BBs it and shows aan Was that a deer? Tn fact it was a bear T don't like being oubeed. Te was when the elephants went over 10 he Dutch, Pd aleays tasted elephans Te shot cate and eben in Ethiopia ve eased mixed toops of Spanish, computer prograumers and dog. Te torn starlings apart with my bare hands, And I Hike doing it with my bare hands. So don’t suggest Fn not reliable HARPER TODD HARPER ‘roo HARPER ‘Topp HARPER Topp HARPER ‘ron HARPER Fm not saying you can' il And T know its not all about excitement. T've dane boring jabs. Pve worked in abattoir sunning pigs and ‘musicians and by the end of the day your back aches and all you can see ‘when you shut your eyes is people hanging wpride down by thei feet. So you'd say dhe deer are vicious? ‘We've been over that. 1a hungry deer came into the yard you woulda feed i Of courte not 1 don't understand that because the eer are with us. They have been for fhe weeks 1 fia’ know. You ssid yourself ‘Theie natural goodness has come Unrough. You can see i in dheir soft Drown eyes ce fs good news YYou hate the deer. You admire the crocodiles‘Topp HARPER Topp HARPER HARPER Te lost touch because Im dre. ‘You mut esv. Tm your family Do you think I sleep? JOAN comes i end walls no TODD ‘You can't stay here, the'l be after yon, What are you going to say when you igo back, you ran of to spend a day with your husband? Everyone has people they lve they'd ike to see or snyway people they'd rather se than Be in a hollow waiting to be bitten by ants. Are you not going back at all because if you're not you might ae well shoot me now. Did anyone see you leave? which way did you come? were you followed? There are osprey here who will have seen you arrive, And. you're dking your He for you don't low what because he sys things that sren’t right, Don't you care? Maybe you don’ now right from wrong ‘yourself, what do I know about you after two year, Hike ro be glad to see you but how can 2? | JOAN FARAWAY 48 (Of course binds saw me, everyone saw sme walking along but nobody knew ‘hy, T could have een on a mission, ‘everyone's moving about and no one Snows why, and in fact I klled two cats And child under five so ie wasnt that ferent from a mission, and T don't see why T can't have one day and then go back, Ti go on to the end afer this Te wasn't so much the binde I was fightened of it was the weather, the ‘weather here's on the side ofthe Japanese. There were thunderstorms all through the mountains I went through tows T hadn't been before. The rats are bleeding out of their mouths and ‘ears whichis good, and so were the girls by the side ofthe road. It was tring there because everything’ been recruited, there were pies of bodies and it you topped to find out dhere was ene Killed by coffee or one kiled by pins, they were kled by heroin, petrol, ‘chainsaws, hairspray, bleach, fongloves, the smell of smoke was where we were During the grass that wouldn't serve. “The Boliviane are working with gavin, that a secret so as not to spread alarm. But we're geting further with noise and there's thowsands dead ofre was of, it might help Hight in Madagascar. Who's ging to mobilise darkness and silence? chat right drown me. In the middle the ccurent was running much faster, che water war brown, I didn't know sat meant anything. I stood on the bank a Tong time. But Thnew it was my oy | way of geting here so atlas I putone | foot in the vives. I was very cold Eu to far that wat all When you've jut stepped in you can’ tell what’ going ta happen, The water lps round your ankles in any cate