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    Chamber Piece
    Chamber Piece
    Chamber Piece
    Ebook105 pages1 hour

    Chamber Piece

    By Caroline Bird

    ()

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    About this ebook

    In this pitch-black comedy, fatal chemicals combine with ruthless ambition, biscuits, bureaucracy and moral ambiguity. Set in the near future, Britain has reinstated the death penalty. Relatives are weeping in the witness gallery, the journalist clicks her pen and the prison governor gives the thumbs up. Rapist murderer Richard Sanger is strapped to the gurney. Chamber Piece depicts a modern, British execution. How would it look? How would we feel? And what could possibly go wrong?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOberon Books
    Release dateOct 25, 2013
    ISBN9781783190706
    Chamber Piece
    Author

    Caroline Bird

    Caroline Bird's selected poems, Rookie (2022), and The Air Year (2020) are two of Carcanet's most popular books of the present decade. She won the Forward Prize for Best Collection in 2020, and has been shortlisted for a number of prizes including the T.S. Eliot Prize, the Costa Book Awards, the Ted Hughes Award, the Polari Prize and the Dylan Thomas Prize. A two-time winner of the Foyle Young Poets Award, her first collection Looking Through Letterboxes was published in 2002 when she was fifteen. She won a Cholmondeley Award in 2023.

    Read more from Caroline Bird

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      Book preview

      Chamber Piece - Caroline Bird

      CHAMBER PIECE

      Caroline Bird

      CHAMBER

      PIECE

      A pitch-black comedy

      OBERON BOOKS

      LONDON

      WWW.OBERONBOOKS.COM

      First published in 2013 by Oberon Books Ltd

      521 Caledonian Road, London N7 9RH

      Tel: +44 (0) 20 7607 3637 / Fax: +44 (0) 20 7607 3629

      e-mail: [email protected]

      www.oberonbooks.com

      Copyright © Caroline Bird, 2013

      Caroline Bird is hereby identified as author of this play in accordance with section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. The author has asserted her moral rights.

      All rights whatsoever in this play are strictly reserved and application for performance etc. should be made before commencement of rehearsal to The Agency (London) Ltd, 24 Pottery Lane, Holland Park, London W11 4LZ ([email protected]). No performance may be given unless a licence has been obtained, and no alterations may be made in the title or the text of the play without the author’s prior written consent.

      You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or binding or by any means (print, electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

      A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

      PB ISBN: 978-1-78319-070-6

      EPUB ISBN: 978-1-78319-070-6

      Cover design by Clement Graphics

      Printed, bound and converted

      by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY.

      Visit www.oberonbooks.com to read more about all our books and to buy them. You will also find features, author interviews and news of any author events, and you can sign up for e-newsletters so that you’re always first to hear about our new releases.

      Content

      Characters

      Chamber Piece

      Dedication

      Act One

      Act Two

      Scene One

      Scene Two

      CHARACTERS

      GOVERNOR

      Female. Early thirties.

      PHYSICIAN

      Male. Early thirties.

      RICHARD SANGER

      Condemned inmate. Late twenties.

      JOHN SANGER

      Inmate’s brother. Twenties.

      AMY WATKINS

      Identical twin sister of the murder victim, Tara

      Watkins. Late teens.

      WARDEN SUNSHINE

      Female. New to the job.

      WARDEN HEATHER

      Female. Ex-prisoner.

      WARDEN ALEX

      Male. Ex-Community Support Officer.

      JOURNALIST

      Female.

      SPIRITUAL ADVISOR

      Male.

      Chamber Piece by Caroline Bird was originally produced by the Lyric Hammersmith and first performed on 22 October 2013 as Show 3 of Secret Theatre.

      The cast was as follows:

      WARDEN SUNSHINE: Nadia Albina

      WARDEN ALEX: Hammed Animashaun

      RICHARD SANGER: Leo Bill

      GOVERNOR: Cara Horgan

      WARDEN HEATHER: Charlotte Josephine

      JOURNALIST: Adelle Leonce

      AMY WATKINS: Katherine Pearce

      JOHN SANGER: Billy Seymour

      SPIRITUAL ADVISOR: Sergo Vares

      PHYSICIAN: Steven Webb

      Director: Sean Holmes

      Designer: Paul Wills

      Lighting Designer: Lizzie Powell

      Sound Designer: Nick Manning

      Assistant Director: Ilinca Radulia

      Secret Theatre Company: Nadia Albina, Hammed

      Animashaun, Leo Bill, Caroline Bird, Sean Holmes, Cara

      Horgan, Joel Horwood, Charlotte Josephine, Arinze

      Kene, Adelle Leonce, Nick Manning, Ellen McDougall,

      Katherine Pearce, Lizzie Powell, Billy Seymour, Hyemi

      Shin, Hayley Squires, Simon Stephens, Sergo Vares and

      Steven Webb.

      SETTING FOR ACT ONE

      The stage is divided into two rooms: the Execution Room (stage left) and the Witness Area (stage right). There is a small window on the adjoining wall – to allow the witnesses to watch the execution. On the far side of each room is a corridor area, so the characters can stand in the doorways, or huddle outside.

      THE EXECUTION ROOM:

      A white leather gurney with straps.

      A heart monitor (screen facing away from the audience).

      Two wheeled ‘stands’ clearly labelled ‘A’ and ‘B’ (each designed to hold eight syringes in separate slots). Stand A and B both contain 8 syringes clearly labelled from 1-8.

      A drip chamber.

      At the back is a door marked ‘Chemical Room.’

      THE WITNESS AREA:

      Two rows of red plastic chairs facing the window.

      Boxes of tissues strategically placed.

      Note:

      The gurney in the execution room should be tilted upwards towards the audience – so the inmate is strapped into a crucifixion-type pose. Even when the execution chamber is blacked out, the gurney should still be lit by a dim spotlight.

      This play is set in a version of modern Britain, sometime in the near future.

      ACT ONE

      WITNESS ROOM

      JOURNALIST and GOVERNOR are in the middle of an informal interview. JOURNALIST has her notepad open on her lap. SPIRITUAL ADVISOR is observing quietly.

      JOURNALIST: Are you pioneering a legal voyage towards a safer Britain?

      GOVERNOR: That’s a question for the politicians – but last year was an experiment and now we’re a hop and a jump away from a permanent wing with a chapel and two lounge areas.

      JOURNALIST: Once funding is finalised.

      GOVERNOR: Which it will be.

      JOURNALIST: Next stop, world domination?

      GOVERNOR: (At speed.) Oh Grace, I can’t leap straight from Governing Governor of here to CEO of the National Offenders Management Service!

      JOURNALIST: I was being flip…

      GOVERNOR: (Interrupting.) Perhaps in a map-cap dream I could move into Area Management next year, become Director of Operation within two years, Deputy Director General in four, then land the top job – still pert – at the age of thirty-six. (Little laugh.) I don’t know, I haven’t thought about it much to be honest.

      JOURNALIST: You sound like you’ve given it some thought.

      Enter AMY.

      GOVERNOR: (To JOURNALIST.) I’m so glad you’re here to witness our process. I say to my staff: ‘be prepared, calm and quick. In this work, efficiency is kindness.’

      A dim light illuminates the gurney in the adjoining Execution Room. Audience suddenly realises where they are.

      GOVERNOR waits for JOURNALIST to write in her

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