Shining City (NHB Modern Plays) E-Book

Conor McPherson

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

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

A brilliant, haunting play from the multi-award winning author of The Weir. Ian has left the priesthood to become a therapist. John is one of his first clients. John's wife has been killed in a car accident, and he keeps receiving visits from her ghost. John, with Ian's help, starts to recover. But what begins as an unusual encounter becomes a desperate struggle between the living and the dead - a struggle which will shape and define both of them for the rest of their lives. Shining City premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in June 2004. 'moving, compassionate, ingenious and absolutely gripping ... scenes that provoke great, generous gales of laughter, others that send a shiver of fear down the spine ... riveting' Telegraph 'quiet, haunting and absolutely glorious... as close to perfection as contemporary playwriting gets' New York Times 'compulsively gripping... McPherson brilliantly reconciles the mundane and the metaphysical' Guardian

Leseprobe

Conor McPherson

SHINING CITY

NICK HERN BOOKS

London

www.nickhernbooks.co.uk

Contents

Title Page

Dedication

Original Production

Setting

Characters

Shining City

About the Author

Copyright and Performing Rights Information

For my wifeFionnuala

Shining City was first performed at the Royal Court Theatre, London, on 4 June 2004, with the following cast:

NEASA

Kathy Kiera Clarke

IAN

Michael McElhatton

LAURENCE

Tom Jordan Murphy

JOHN

Stanley Townsend

Director

Conor McPherson

Designer

Rae Smith

Lighting Designer

Mark Henderson

Sound Designer

Ian Dickinson

The play received its American premiere at the Biltmore Theater, New York, in a production by the Manhattan Theater Club, in May 2006, with the following cast:

IAN

Brían F. O’Byrne

JOHN

Oliver Platt

NEASA

Martha Plimpton

LAURENCE

Peter Scanavino

Director

Robert Falls

Designer

Santo Loquasto

Costume Designer

Kaye Voyce

Lighting Designer

Christopher Akerlind

Sound Designer

Obadiah Eaves

Setting

The play is set in Ian’s office in Dublin, around Phibsboro maybe, or Berkeley Road, an old part of the city which, while it retains a sense of history, is not a salubrious area. It has a Victorian feel, lots of redbrick terraced houses dominated by the Mater hospital, Mountjoy Prison, and the church spires of Phibsboro Church and the church at Berkeley Road. It doesn’t feel like a suburb, if anything it feels like a less commercial part of the city centre, which is only a short walk away.

Ian’s office is perhaps in an older, larger building than most in the area, up on the second floor. From his elevated position, at the back of the building, one or two church spires loom outside.

There is a big sash window at the back. There are some shelves with books on them. A stereo and some CDs. There are more books on the floor, as though they have been unpacked but have yet to be put away. Ian has a desk, stage left-ish, with a chair behind it. There is also a chair in front of the desk which Ian uses for sitting with clients. Clients sit on a little two-seater sofa near the middle of the room, a little more stage right. There’s a coffee table near the sofa with a box of tissues and a jug of water.

At the back, stage right, is a door to a little toilet. Stage right is a cabinet of some kind, a filing cabinet maybe, or a bookcase.

The door is stage right, and when it is open we can see out to the banister and the top of the stairs. Beside the door is a handset for an intercom to the main door to the street on the ground floor.

The play has five scenes and about two months elapse between each scene.

The time is the present.

Characters

IAN, forties

JOHN, fifties

NEASA, thirties

LAURENCE, twenties

Dialogue in square brackets [ ] is unspoken.

Scene One

As the lights come up there is no one onstage. It is daytime. We hear distant church bells. Music is playing softly on the stereo. We hear the toilet flush, and IAN, . IAN .