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    Trestle (NHB Modern Plays)
    Trestle (NHB Modern Plays)
    Trestle (NHB Modern Plays)
    Ebook85 pages41 minutes

    Trestle (NHB Modern Plays)

    By Stewart Pringle

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    About this ebook

    Harry feels like life is beginning to tick down, his autumn years spent quietly caring for the community he loves. Denise thinks life begins in retirement and she's dancing like she's still at high school.
    When their paths cross at the village hall, their understanding of the time they have left changes irrevocably. What do community, growing old, and falling in love really mean? And who gets to decide anyway?
    Stewart Pringle's play Trestle tenderly but truthfully explores love and ageing, asking how we choose to live in the face of soaring life expectancies. It won the 2017 Papatango New Writing Prize and premiered at Southwark Playhouse, London, in November 2017.
    'A tender and observant piece that's at once a tribute to the idea of community and a sensitive vision of the perils of isolation… a touching portrait of mature affection, quietly truthful about its rewards and difficulties' - Evening Standard
    'Brimming with gentle humour and bursting with heart… the restraint and social realism of Pringle's writing lifts it above saccharine glibness, towards something far more elegiac and far richer dramatically... a gently funny and genuinely adorable not-quite love story' - The Stage
    'Wittily and cleverly written… it is closely and lovingly observed, creating a sense of these people and their lives' - Whatsonstage.com
    'Offers a sympathetic view of a pair of senior citizens and suggests that age offers no immunity to passion… a gift to older actors' - Guardian
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNick Hern Books
    Release dateNov 18, 2017
    ISBN9781780019840
    Trestle (NHB Modern Plays)
    Author

    Stewart Pringle

    Stewart Pringle is Associate Dramaturg at the Bush Theatre, London. Prior to that he was Artistic Director of the Old Red Lion Theatre in Islington, for which he received the 2016 Off West End Award for Best Artistic Director. In 2011 he co-founded the London Horror Festival. Working as a theatre critic for several years, his writing has been published in The Stage, Time Out, New Scientist and Exeunt Magazine. As a playwright, his work includes Trestle (Southwark Playhouse, 2017; winner of the 2017 Papatango New Writing Prize), The Ghost Hunter and You Look Tasty!.

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      Book preview

      Trestle (NHB Modern Plays) - Stewart Pringle

      1.

      A Temperance Hall in a small Yorkshire village. It is the present day. There are blackboards, pinboards peppered with notices and a wheel for displaying the trump suit in whist.

      HARRY is a man in his mid- to late sixties. He sits at a trestle table covered in various heaps of paper, and a gavel. There are a number of stackable chairs in front of it.

      He’s laughing gently as he sorts the papers into his briefcase, and puts on his coat.

      DENISE enters, unseen. She is also in her sixties, and she carries a large wheelie bag.

      HARRY I do declare…

      Mumbles under breath.

      …are at an end.

      Mimes banging gavel.

      Mumbles.

      …are closed.

      Mimes banging gavel again.

      I do declare –

      DENISE Yes?

      HARRY Sorry. Oh, sorry. I was. Yes. Never mind.

      DENISE Oh, I don’t mind.

      HARRY No, of course.

      Just packing up.

      DENISE That’s fine.

      HARRY Hand with the?

      DENISE Sorry?

      HARRY Table.

      Shall I –

      DENISE Alright then.

      Thank you.

      They flip the table upside down and HARRY undoes the legs on his side. DENISE struggles with hers. He waits for her.

      HARRY Do you –

      DENISE Almost.

      More struggling. DENISE tugging at it now. More struggling.

      HARRY Let me.

      DENISE manages it.

      Where’s it going? Just against the wall?

      DENISE That’ll be fine, yes.

      They move the table against the wall.

      HARRY Bye then.

      Picks up suitcase to leave.

      DENISE Bye.

      You’re new then?

      HARRY No, but you are.

      DENISE I’m not new. And I’ve never seen you before.

      HARRY Well, you must be quite new, because I’ve never seen you before.

      DENISE I’ve been here six months.

      HARRY Six months is new.

      Six months is very new. I’ve been coming here ten years.

      I’ve been Chair for four.

      I’m not new. You’re new.

      DENISE I’ve just never seen you before. It’s usually empty Thursdays.

      HARRY Six months and you’re telling me what’s ‘usually’.

      DENISE That what the hammer’s for?

      HARRY The what? The. Oh, yes.

      Good –

      DENISE Did they buy it for you?

      HARRY Did who buy what? Yes, no they didn’t. Look, you are alright to do the chairs, aren’t you?

      The last.

      She did the chairs.

      Will you?

      DENISE Oh I don’t do chairs.

      HARRY Well. Ha. What do you do?

      It’s all chairs. All there is is chairs.

      Sorry, but if I’d known I’d have asked for some help.

      If I’d known, but

      DENISE Right.

      HARRY Don’t you do them?

      It’s just that it’s quite frustrating. First the kitchen

      DENISE The kitchen’s closed.

      HARRY Yes.

      DENISE The sink’s backed up.

      HARRY I know the kitchen’s closed, there’s a sign.

      So first the kitchen

      DENISE Been out all summer.

      HARRY And now the chairs. It’s not free.

      DENISE No

      HARRY It’s five pounds an hour.

      And I’m thinking.

      What I’m starting to think now.

      Is what

      What am I paying for?

      With my five pounds. Do you see?

      DENISE Yes, I can see that.

      Sorry about that.

      HARRY So can’t you just do the chairs?

      DENISE I don’t mind helping.

      HARRY Helping?

      DENISE There aren’t many.

      Starts stacking chairs.

      HARRY So you won’t do the chairs?

      DENISE I will, I’ll help.

      HARRY That’s not what I

      So what do you do if you don’t do chairs?

      DENISE Zumba.

      HARRY Oh God

      Oh God I’m so sorry!

      Runs to help.

      So so sorry.

      I thought.

      DENISE I know what you thought, it’s this coat, I don’t

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