Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $9.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Consent (NHB Modern Plays)
    Consent (NHB Modern Plays)
    Consent (NHB Modern Plays)
    Ebook164 pages1 hour

    Consent (NHB Modern Plays)

    By Nina Raine

    5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Why is Justice blind? Is she impartial? Or is she blinkered?
    Friends Ed and Tim take opposing briefs in a rape case. The key witness is a woman whose life seems a world away from theirs. At home, their own lives begin to unravel as every version of the truth is challenged.
    Consent, Nina Raine's powerful, painful, funny play, sifts the evidence from every side and puts Justice herself in the dock. It premiered as a co-production between the National Theatre and Out of Joint, directed by Roger Michell at the National Theatre in 2017.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNick Hern Books
    Release dateMar 30, 2017
    ISBN9781780018812
    Consent (NHB Modern Plays)
    Author

    Nina Raine

    Nina Raine is a director and playwright. Her plays include Consent (National Theatre, 2017); Tiger Country (Hampstead Theatre, London, 2011); Tribes (Royal Court, London, 2010, and Barrow Street Theatre, New York; winner of the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award and Drama Desk Award) and Rabbit (Old Red Lion and West End, 2006; winner of the Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright).

    Read more from Nina Raine

    Related to Consent (NHB Modern Plays)

    Related ebooks

    Performing Arts For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Qui Nguyen Finds a Home in Orange County

      Apr 2, 2019

      As a playwright, I’m a little bit ADD artistically,” says Qui Nguyen. “I get bored really quickly. I put things in there that are kind of wild, just to keep myself entertained.” Nguyen’s breakthrough play, Vietgone, illustrates exactly what he’s talk

      5 min read

    • Article

      Sarah Brightman My Amazing Life

      Mar 21, 2024

      Sarah Brightman My Amazing Life
      8 min read

    • Article

      “Where Did You Laugh?”

      Dec 14, 2019

      “Where Did You Laugh?”
      4 min read

    • Article

      Broadway’s Dirty Secret

      Nov 6, 2019

      Broadway’s Dirty Secret
      5 min read

    • Article

      Suzan-Lori Parks

      Apr 15, 2019

      The Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright on adapting classics, the black avant-garde and how much of the world is a stage

      2 min read

    • Article

      We Laughed–until We Cried

      Feb 5, 2020

      We Laughed–until We Cried
      4 min read

    • Article

      Samuel D. Hunter The High Tragedy Place

      Apr 27, 2020

      In Samuel D. Hunter’s Greater Clements, Maggie and Joe, a mother and son who run an Idaho mining museum, face its imminent closure as their small town goes through the process of unincorporating. When an old flame of Maggie’s turns up, her chance for

      8 min read

    • Article

      Greater Clements

      Apr 27, 2020

      Greater Clements
      88 min read

    • Article

      Jasmine Lee-Jones Interview: I Want People To Come To The Theatre Like They Watch Netflix

      Jun 24, 2021

      Back in 2019, you either saw seven methods of killing kylie jenner or you were trying to get a ticket for it. Jasmine Lee-Jones’s debut play, exploring female friendship, cultural appropriation and the internet, became one of the most talked-about pl

      5 min read

    • Article

      Pain And Love In The Backyard

      Feb 25, 2020

      In Will Arbery’s new play, five conservative Catholics in Wyoming gather late at night by a fire pit to argue, commiserate, and face the uncertain future of their faith and their country. Danya Taymor, who directed the play’s premiere at New York Cit

      8 min read

    • Article

      A Female RAGE manifesto

      Mar 10, 2020

      The camera loves women. It loves watching us move, it loves watching us get dressed, get undressed, smile, cry, fall in love, get hurt, get drunk, have sex, be assaulted, be wronged, be distressed… But there’s one thing it does not like us to do: it

      4 min read

    • Article

      Broadway’s Golden New Age?

      Mar 25, 2019

      Broadway’s Golden New Age?
      9 min read

    • Article

      V (formerly Eve Ensler) On Biden, Feminism And Why She Was Wrong To Cancel Her Father

      Mar 9, 2021

      You don’t just hook up with Eve Ensler," said Glenn Close, who performed in the play that made Enlser’s name and changed the lives of women around the world, The Vagina Monologues. "You become part of her crusade". Talking to Ensler, who is now known

      6 min read

    • Article

      Mark Rylance

      Jun 26, 2020

      Mark Rylance
      13 min read

    • Article

      Onstage March 19

      Feb 25, 2019

      Onstage March 19
      26 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Consent (NHB Modern Plays)

    5/5

    1 rating0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Consent (NHB Modern Plays) - Nina Raine

      Consent was first performed as a co-production with Out of Joint in the Dorfman auditorium of the National Theatre, London, on 4 April 2017 (previews from 28 March). The cast, in order of speaking, was as follows:

      Acknowledgements

      This play would not have been possible without the help of

      Kathy, Guy, Moses Raine, Craig Raine, Ann Pasternak-Slater, Lydia Fox, Tamara Oppenheimer, Alex McBride, Tim Owen, Ramin Gray, Jonathan Levy, Laura Rosefield, Robin Bienenstock, Jeremy Posnansky, Anthony Morris, Maximilian Hardy,

      Will Eaglestone, Ian McEwan, Annalena McAfee, Roger Michell and Max Stafford-Clark.

      Many thanks also to the wonderful actors who performed readings of the play: Adam James, Pip Carter, Susannah Wise, Susan Vidler, Tobias Menzies, Mariah Gale, Katherine Tozer, Michelle Terry, Kate Dickie, Leo Bill, Nikki Amuka-Bird and Kate Fleetwood.

      N.R.

      To Kathy and Guy

      Characters

      JAKE , mid to late thirties

      KITTY , mid to late thirties

      EDWARD, mid to late thirties

      RACHEL, mid to late thirties

      TIM, mid to late thirties

      GAYLE , thirties/forties

      ZARA, mid to late thirties

      LAURA, thirties/forties

      Gayle and Laura should be doubled.

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

      ACT ONE

      Scene One

      A sitting room in a house – high ceilings. A slightly deserted feeling. Some cardboard boxes stand half-opened, an abandoned sofa.

      The figure of GAYLE materialises, dressed in black, at the back of the space. She surveys the room dispassionately.

      Then, she melts away.

      And suddenly we are in the midst of a brightly lit, ad-libbed noisy housewarming, among the boxes and sofa. KITTY is holding a baby. JAKE and EDWARD stand on either side of her, looking down at the newborn. RACHEL stands nearby, drinking wine and watching. KITTY offers the baby to JAKE.

      NB Throughout the scene, KITTY and EDWARD touch each other affectionately.

      JAKE raises his voice above the others.

      JAKE. Oh, yes, please!

      The baby is gingerly passed over.

      Aaahh. They’re lovely when they’re this size. They’ve got a sort of spicy smell, haven’t they? What a lot of hair! And – (Inspecting baby more closely. Sudden respect.)

      Wow.

      He’s got a massive head, hasn’t he?

      KITTY. Yes. When the GP saw him, he said – (Tones of awe.) ‘Was he vaginal?’

      JAKE. God. – And was he?

      KITTY. Yes!

      JAKE. Respect.

      EDWARD. How’s yours?

      JAKE. Oh, fantastic. He did a brilliant picture of an apple the other day. I said, Jimmy, that is the most fantastic apple, and he said, it’s not an apple, Dad, it’s a bird, pretending to be an apple.

      KITTY. Aah…

      RACHEL. He wants a remote-controlled tree for Christmas.

      KITTY. Sweet. And the little one?

      JAKE. Oh, brilliant.

      RACHEL. He’s crawling.

      KITTY (worried). Crawling? Really? Already?

      RACHEL (airily). Oh yes, been crawling for weeks now.

      EDWARD. God.

      RACHEL (comfortingly). – But, he is bald. (To KITTY.) Oh don’t look so worried! This is your first! When you have your second, you’ll be thinking, ‘Please don’t start crawling yet! Be a late bloomer, for God’s sake!’

      – Oh Kitty –

      She has noticed that KITTY is suddenly tearful.

      KITTY. … Sorry… Just… every little thing… you know… is a worry… I think it’s the lack of sleep, you lose all sense of perspective…

      RACHEL. Oh Kitty… of course you do… (Hugs her.)

      Meanwhile.

      JAKE. All right Ed. I’ve got to ask it. Why didn’t you ask me to be godfather?

      RACHEL. Jake…

      JAKE. I am offended. Who else is it going to be? Did you think I wasn’t up to it? Is my vagina not big enough?

      EDWARD. No. It’s not that.

      JAKE. So why?

      RACHEL. I don’t know why you care. (To the others.) He said he wouldn’t do this.

      JAKE. ‘It’s not a difficult question.’

      EDWARD. Listen…

      JAKE. ‘Yes or no will suffice.’

      EDWARD. We just decided we weren’t going to have godparents.

      JAKE. Really? Why not?

      EDWARD. Too many people to offend.

      KITTY. And we don’t believe in God.

      RACHEL. God? It’s all about the presents, isn’t it?

      EDWARD. Come on, Jake.

      JAKE. No, I am just a little bit offended, actually, and…

      EDWARD. You are an egotist, the loveliest egotist I know, but this is a perfectly understandable feeling, Jake, and it’s called –

      JAKE. Friendship.

      EDWARD. Solipsism. We love you. You know that.

      JAKE (good-naturedly). Oh, fuck off.

      EDWARD. I’m sorry.

      JAKE. I forgive you.

      EDWARD. Thank you.

      RACHEL raises her glass.

      RACHEL. To Leo.

      They all clink glasses, repeat the toast, drink, etc.

      JAKE. And to Kitty, for delivering him vaginally.

      They all gravely toast again – ‘To Kitty’ and ‘Vaginally’.

      KITTY. Ed wants another one.

      RACHEL. What, already?

      KITTY. I say never again. – Mind you, Ed cried more than I did at the birth.

      EDWARD. I found it very upsetting… I still do…

      KITTY. You weren’t the one in stirrups…

      EDWARD. … Just seeing this person you love and you can’t help her… there’s absolutely nothing you can do…

      Suddenly he can’t speak.

      JAKE. Oh Ed!

      RACHEL. Both of you…!

      EDWARD is tearful.

      EDWARD. Sorry, keeps happening to me… like I’m going through the menopause… these hot flushes of emotion…

      JAKE hugs EDWARD with one arm, awkwardly, the baby in his other arm.

      KITTY. Yes… Both of us… it was so strange, when the baby came out, when I saw him, it was this weird recognition,

      ‘Oh – it’s you…’

      RACHEL. God, when our little man came out, I was like ‘Oh. It’s my mother-in-law.’

      KITTY. Well of course, I’ve had Ed’s mother trying to teach me to breastfeed, yanking my nipples, otherwise we’ve kind of barricaded ourselves in…

      EDWARD. The tyranny of people with their champagne, knocking on the door… not you, of course…

      KITTY. So we’re a mess… And it’s a mess… I’m so sorry…

      RACHEL. No, no, it’s cool.

      JAKE. I love the smell of paint.

      EDWARD. We haven’t really unpacked yet… fucking estate agent…

      KITTY. And we keep arguing about how to arrange everything. The sofas. Facing each other or facing the fireplace –

      EDWARD. Well, you want the flow through the room, don’t you.

      KITTY. So for the moment we’ve dumped everything where it is.

      RACHEL. Great. (Looking at a lamp in an opened box.) Amazing lamp.

      KITTY. Look, I found this on eBay –

      She goes and gets an old counterweight and pulley from a cardboard box.

      We’re going to fill it with sand so it balances the weight

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1