Backstroke (NHB Modern Plays) E-Book

Anna Mackmin

• Herausgeber: Nick Hern Books
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 103

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

'Just let go. Let your body float. You'll still be here but it'll feel like flying in a dream.' Bo is busy – balancing the pressures of work and the needs of her struggling daughter. When her mother, the irrepressible force-of-nature Beth, is admitted to hospital following a stroke, the practical realities of the present collide with the complexities of their past. Backstroke is a kaleidoscopic and compassionate play, first performed at the Donmar Warehouse, London, in 2025. It was written and directed by Anna Mackmin, with Celia Imrie and Tamsin Greig playing mother and daughter.

Leseprobe

Anna Mackmin

BACKSTROKE

NICK HERN BOOKS

London

www.nickhernbooks.co.uk

Contents

Original Production Details

Acknowledgements

Dedication

Characters

Backstroke

A Note for Future Productions

About the Author

Copyright and Performing Rights Information

Backstroke was first performed at the Donmar Warehouse, London, on 15 February 2025, with the following cast:

BO

Tamsin Greig

BETH

Celia Imrie

CAROL

Lucy Briers

JILL

Anita Reynolds

PAULINA

Georgina Rich

SKYLAR (film and stage)

Chloe Hart

SKYLAR (stage)

Tamilore Lawson

TED

Rhashan Stone

Writer and Director

Anna Mackmin

Designer

Lez Brotherston

Lighting Designer

Paule Constable

Sound Designer

Christopher Shutt

Video Designer

Gino Ricardo Green

Casting Director

Anna Cooper CDG

Associate Director

Fiona Dunn

Choreographer

Scarlett Mackmin

Film Producer

Richard Holmes

Cinematographer

Damian Paul Daniel

Film Line Producer

Sarah Boyks

Production Manager (Stage)

David Pritchard

Company Stage Manager

Caoimhe Regan

Deputy Stage Manager

Caitlin Shay

Assistant Stage Manager

Jamie Craker

Stage Management Intern

Tashi Dema

Costume Supervisor

Hattie Barsby

Props Supervisor

Laura Flowers

Video Programmer

Daberechi Ukoha-Kalu

Production Photographer

Johan Persson

SHORT FILM CREW

1st Assistant Director

Gareth Tandy

2nd Assistant Director

Chloe Andrews

Film Production Manager

Stephanie Faucher

Underwater Choreography

Scarlett Mackmin

Stunt Coordinator

Maisie Carter

Hair & Make-Up Artist

Rosemary Williams

Art Department

Laura Flowers

Art Department Assistant

Hannah Rawson

Art Department Assistant

Lucie Brooks Butler

Film Costume Assistant

Lucy Griffiths

Location Manager

Tom Clarke

Location Marshall

Fin Graham

Production Runner/Driver

Emily Roberts

Assistant Director Runner

Ollie Pitman

1st Assistant Camera

Arie Priebe

2nd Assistant Camera

Jonathan Boyd

Gaffer

Kevin Gardner

Underwater Gaffer

Kevan Noble

Sound Recordist

Pierluigi Papaiz

Boom Operator

George Blake

Celia Double/ Underwater Swimmer

Kate Giles

Tamsin Double/ Underwater Swimmer

Hillary Liesching

Underwater Camera Tech

Ross Birnie

Water Safety/Camera Assistant

Marti Guiver

Additional Underwater Photography

Rosie Taylor

Acknowledgements

Anna Mackmin would like to thank Stephen Russell, Scarlett Mackmin, Grant Parsons, Timothy Sheader, Lez Brotherston and Imogen Brodie. There’d be no Backstroke without you.

Sincere gratitude to the company: Tamsin Greig, Celia Imrie, Georgina Rich, Lucy Briers, Anita Reynolds, Chloe Hart and Rhashan Stone. Thanks to the creative team: Paule Constable, Gino Ricardo Green, Christopher Shutt, Fiona Dunn, Damian Paul Daniel, Richard Holmes, Laura Flowers and Hattie Barsby. Never forgetting the incomparable stage management of: Caoimhe Regan, Caitlin Shay and Jamie Craker. Thanks too, to Backstroke’s first readers: Amelia Bullmore, Niamh Cusack, Giselle Glasman, Deena Gornick, Rebecca Lyon, Lisa Makin and Kate Reich. Thank you to Nicola Walker and Sheila Hancock for setting us on our way. Thanks to the film team and to everyone at the Donmar involved in the making of Backstroke – your relentless graft has been hugely appreciated. And, to the mothers of all these people, living and dead, thank you, you raised some exceptional humans.

Ronnie. This play isn’t about you but it is for you.

Characters

BETH, early twenties to mid-seventies

BO, five to fifty-one

JILL, fifties

CAROL, fifties

PAULINA, forties

LENGTHS SWIMMER, fifties, on film only

PARAMEDIC ONE, fifties

PARAMEDIC TWO, fifties

PARAMEDIC THREE, fifties

KELLY GREEN, funeral director, fifties

TED, fifties, on film only

SKYLAR, eight

Note on Text

Forward slashes (/) at the end, and start, of a line indicate speech should be interrupted.

Bold text indicates a filmed sequence, to be projected above Bo’s head. They reveal her, mostly, immediate memories.

The action runs seamlessly from scene to scene.

This ebook was created before the end of rehearsals and so may differ slightly from the play as performed.

ACT ONE

Scene One

The set’s part-kitchen, part-hospital. The back wall’s used to project film on. The action runs seamlessly.

A hospital emergency, underscored by music, distorted as if underwater.On film: a car hurtling down a country lane. We hear Bo: ‘I have to get there so I can get back.’ Film out.

Lights up on a hospital bed, containing a vacant and still BETH (seventies). BETH has filthy hair and nightwear. BO (fifty-one) enters.

BO. Beth?

BO studies her dying mother, sniffs her, contemplates touching her mother’s face. Can’t. Sits.

Above BO,film flicks into life, it shows a memory of last night.

Bo’s bedroom. Night.

Bo at home in bed with Ted, her sleeping husband. Bo’s awake. Skylar (Bo and Ted’s child )calls, terrified, from a different room.

SKYLAR. Come, come, come!

Bo shoots upright.

On stage, BO stands.

Sound and film out.

BO fires into action, removing disintegrating clothes from a bag.

I’m not tidying you up. I’m going to wash these, they…

The dress BO’s holding is so decayed it looks like lace. BO’s halted.

Christ!

She shoves it in the bag. It’s horrible and BO is scared.

Your clothes are made of holes. Your clothes, Beth. They’re useless.

PAULINA (consultant), CAROL (nurse) enter.

PAULINA. Good morning. How’re we getting on in here? I’m Paulina Markham, consultant.

BO jumps, semi-hides her bag.

BO. Yes, hello, hi, I remember, hello…

PAULINA. And, this is…

BO. Yes. Hi…

PAULINA. Carol.

BO. Yes, come in, bit cosy but obviously thank you for the room, it’s…

PAULINA. Space, we have a little more of that than a London hospital.

BO. Yes.

PAULINA. Well. We’d like to do some tests, then Carol here would like to give, what’s that, Carol?

CAROL. Yogurt. You love your yogurt, don’t you, Beth?

PAULINA. How are you doing, Bethan? I see here you are seventy-six, is that correct, Bethan? You are seventy-six years of age? Are you making sure she’s getting all the liquids you can /

BO. / I don’t want to be rude but, sorry, she doesn’t like yogurt.

CAROL. She likes her cherry.

PAULINA. Thank you, Carol. What about liquids?

BO. Sorry but she doesn’t.

PAULINA. And what about liquids?

CAROL. She had a nice little go of cherry in the night, gave me such a lovely thank-you smile for it too.

BO. She doesn’t like yogurt, sorry. She hates cherry, and, sorry, I’m not sure how much she wants liquids.

PAULINA. It’s important she gets them.

BO. Okay. But.

PAULINA. Bethan? Hello? Bethan?

BO. Beth.

PAULINA. Thank you. Beth? I’m Paulina Markham, I’m a consultant here at the Community Hospital, we met briefly when you were admitted. Beth? I’d like you to tell me who this is?

Indicates BO. Nothing from BETH.

Who is this? Can you say her name? What’s her name?

Nothing.

Tell me who this is?

Nothing.

BO. She has no idea who I am.

PAULINA. This is your daughter, Beth. What’s her name?

BETH. Bh, Bh.

PAULINA. Good.

BO. What?!

PAULINA. Thank you, Beth, we’re now going to take a small amount of blood. We will do our best to make it as painless as possible. Carol?

CAROL takes blood, it causes BETH discomfort and worry.

BO. Just a sec, what’s it for? Sorry, can you tell me?

PAULINA. Beth’s been showing some surprising shifts. It appeared, on admission, she quite possibly only had a few /

BO. / Do you mind if? (Gesturing to the doorway.) I know she probably can’t hear, or isn’t registering but, could we?

BO and PAULINA clump in the doorway. CAROL stays.

PAULINA. The results of the scan have come back, Beth’s stroke was surprisingly, impressively, small.

BO. Impressively?

PAULINA. It can happen, this temporary paralysis of what you might think of as personality, even in dementia patients, the brain readjusts to /

BO. / She’s not dying?

PAULINA. With the right care she could live for /

BO. / But? Right. So not a few weeks?

PAULINA. We all do this differently, she might fall for a further stroke tomorrow.

BO. Fall? What about the drip?

PAULINA. She’s getting everything she needs from it? And, possibly more critically, we can administer pain relief via it. Her notes say she suffers from sciatica.

BO. Not for years. Where did that come from? Do her notes say anything about her agoraphobia? Her hypochondria?

PAULINA. She has had a stroke. Do we have notes about these other conditions?

BO. I don’t know. All her illness is real but I don’t know if the causes are.

PAULINA. What we’re looking at is her current condition, looking into causes might not /

BO. / When my perimenopausal symptoms started, Beth began pouring with sweat. She was seventy. I am aware I might sound cruel and she doesn’t have an advance directive, or anything useful but, I am, I’m trying to…

PAULINA. Has she got an advance directive? She has had a stroke.

BO. No, I said, nothing, not even a will, but, I do know. She doesn’t want feeding. Or anything. Okay? Please can we take it out?

PAULINA. If we take it out she might not get enough liquid, that can be painful and, as I said, the drip can also be the swiftest way to administer pain relief.

BO. If she’s not dying, and of course she mustn’t be in pain, I want her to be able to choose. Choose. Or, sorry, not.

PAULINA. Do we have notes about, forgive me, what name do you like to use?

BO. Bo’s fine. Sorry, they did say, everyone was clear, last night, on admission, that she was…

PAULINA. It would be enormously useful, Bo, if she had drawn up an advance directive. I think under the circumstances /

BO. / I did try. When will you know if she’s dying? Or can’t you? She hasn’t been like that with me, that name-sound.

PAULINA. Sometimes patients manifest more active behaviour around strangers.

BO. You don’t think she’s dying.

PAULINA. Do we understand correctly that independent care, or caring for her at home /

BO. / I live in London. The man my mother’s married to, Dominic, can’t do any more. I did try to set up help. But she wouldn’t, she gets, it’s fear.

PAULINA. Your father will have needed support.

BO. He’s not my father and I do understand that, I did try but, I can’t have her with me. I’m sorry, but I can’t.

PAULINA. The social work team can provide you with a list of appropriate residential homes. It can be a confusing time.

BO. Not a home. Sorry, but I can’t. Would you move her with the drip?

PAULINA. You must remember, it is early days. We’ll get someone to call you.

BO. Will you take it out first? Please? See how she is then? And, sorry but, I don’t want to be rude, but can you say she’s not to be force-fed?

PAULINA. No one working here would force-feed. You can say anything you need directly to the nursing team.

The medics are leaving. BO calls after them.

BO. I mean not put stuff in her mouth. Sorry. Can food and drink be placed for her to take if she wants? Or not. I know how I must sound, but she, I just can’t.

Film into life.

Bo’s bedroom. A different night.

Bo at home in bed with Ted, her sleeping husband. Bo’s awake. Skylar calls, terrified, from a different room.

SKYLAR. Come, come, come!!!

Bo shoots upright.

On stage, BO exits, fast.

Film out.

Scene Two

On stage. Hospital. Pre-dawn. Sound of distant hospital.

BETH (seventies) alone. JILL enters.

JILL. Morning, Beth.

Checks BETH, opens curtains, offers water, BETH’s unmoving.

I’ll pop back later, lovely.

JILL leaves.

BO enters, hovers. Sits.

BO. Sorry I can’t get here every day.

BO watches BETH. No connection. BO gets out her mobile, moves to the doorway. Dials.