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    Bird (NHB Modern Plays)
    Bird (NHB Modern Plays)
    Bird (NHB Modern Plays)
    Ebook115 pages41 minutes

    Bird (NHB Modern Plays)

    By Katherine Chandler

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Ava and Tash are up on a cliff, looking out at the flocking birds – and at their future. On the cusp of adulthood and about to leave the care home they've shared, the two friends road-test their impending freedom and living in the outside world.
    Ava must confront the mother she left behind. Tash will have to look for a new home. And both girls will go on living dangerously with the men who surround them.
    Raw, delicate and bold, Bird is a story of growing up outside a family but inside the fiercest of friendships. It was the winner of a Judges' Award in the 2013 Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting, and premiered at Sherman Cymru in 2016 before transferring to the Royal Exchange, Manchester.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNick Hern Books
    Release dateMay 12, 2016
    ISBN9781780017648
    Bird (NHB Modern Plays)
    Author

    Katherine Chandler

    Katherine Chandler is an award-winning writer working in theatre, film and television. Her plays include: Thick as Thieves (Clean Break & Theatr Clwyd, 2018); Bird (Sherman Cymru, Cardiff, and Royal Exchange, Manchester, 2016); and Before It Rains (Bristol Old Vic, 2012). She was awarded the inaugural Wales Drama Award by the BBC and National Theatre Wales and won the Judges' Award in the 2013 Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting with Bird. She also won the Writers Guild Playwright Award at the 2013 Theatre Critics of Wales Awards.

    Read more from Katherine Chandler

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      Book preview

      Bird (NHB Modern Plays) - Katherine Chandler

      Katherine Chandler

      BIRD

      NICK HERN BOOKS

      London

      www.nickhernbooks.co.uk

      Contents

      Title Page

      Original Production

      Director’s Note

      Rehearsal Photographs

      Thanks

      Dedication

      Characters

      Bird

      About the Author

      Copyright and Performing Rights Information

      Bird was co-produced by Sherman Cymru and Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, and first performed at the Sherman Theatre, Cardiff, on 17 May 2016 with the following cast:

      The production then transferred to the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, on 8 June 2016.

      Director’s Note

      Katherine Chandler, the Sherman’s Playwright-in-Residence, received the Judges Award in the 2013 Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting for Bird, so I am delighted that the Sherman is now presenting this production with the Royal Exchange Theatre.

      Bird is a play that achieves something vital. It puts the voices of vulnerable young women at the centre of the narrative. It makes us, as the audience, acknowledge that we allow the disadvantaged young to be ignored, marginalised and disregarded. Bird makes us listen. Bird asks us to think. I am proud to be producing this play with the Royal Exchange Theatre as we try to keep the stories of those who live on the margins of a safe society, front and centre.

      Rachel O’Riordan

      May 2016

      Thanks to:

      The young people of Yellow, Bridgend.

      Rachel O’Riordan, Suzanne Bell and Sarah Frankcom.

      Georgia Henshaw, Siwan Morris, Guy Rhys, Connor Allen, Rosie Sheehy, Keiron Self, Lowri Palfrey, Claire Cage, Rehanna MacDonald, Oliver Morgan Thomas, Laura Elsworthy, Beatrice Scirocchi, Harry Attwell, Owen Whitelaw, Leah Walker.

      Róisín McBrinn, Imogen Knight and the National Theatre Studio.

      Guy O’Donnell, Mali O’Donnell and Mathonwy O’Donnell – always for you.

      My Grampy, for whistling deaf aids and pipes that are dummies and donkey beach, and hard-boiled eggs that put hairs on your chest and sausage, beans and chips in Rabiotti’s.

      K.C.

      For my family

      Characters

      AVA, fifteen

      TASH, thirteen

      CLAIRE, thirty-three

      DAN, seventeen

      LEE, forty

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

      AVA and TASH.

      A cliff.

      A large stretch of water.

      AVA stands at the tip of the cliff, the end of the earth, breathing it in.

      Arms outstretched like wings.

      Breathing.

      Closes her eyes.

      Breathes.

      A rumble of noise begins.

      Look up.

      The sky.

      Noise and movement through the sky.

      Wonder.

      Giggling behind her.

      Noise and movement through the sky.

      Giggling increases.

      TASH grabs AVA.

      The swell of noise increases.

      Movements in the sky, shadows. Birds.

      Fly over randomly.

      Increasing in numbers.

      TASH and AVA look at each other.

      Hold each other’s gaze.

      TASH grabs AVA’s hands.

      They giggle.

      Hold hands spinning together.

      Looking at each other, laughing with each other.

      Spinning together, they watch the birds with delight, still holding hands.

      Birds.

      AVA What do you think they are?

      Watches the sky.

      Watches.

      TASH Free.

      They let go of each other and fall to the floor.

      CLAIRE in a café.

      AVA I sent you letters.

      I didn’t have your number.

      No response.

      I would have texted.

      It felt weird.

      Posh like.

      Sending you letters. I put ‘Dear Mam’.

      I thought if it was

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