Love and Information Read online

  Contents

  Title Page

  Original Production

  Note on Text

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  RANDOM

  About the Author

  Copyright and Performing Rights Information

  Love and Information was first performed at the Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Downstairs, Sloane Square, on 6 September 2012. The cast was as follows:

  Nikki Amuka-Bird

  Linda Bassett

  Scarlett Brookes

  Amanda Drew

  Susan Engel

  Laura Elphinstone

  John Heffernan

  Joshua James

  Paul Jesson

  Billy Matthews

  Justin Salinger

  Amit Shah

  Rhashan Stone

  Nell Williams

  Josh Williams

  Sarah Woodward

  Director

  James Macdonald

  Set Designer

  Miriam Buether

  Costume Designer

  Laura Hopkins

  Lighting Designer

  Peter Mumford

  Sound Designer

  Christopher Shutt

  Caryl Churchill gratefully acknowledges that the LAB scene is based on material from The Making of Memory by Steven Rose, published by Bantam in 1992, revised edition published by Viking in 2003.

  Note on Text

  The sections should be played in the order given but the scenes can be played in any order within each section.

  There are random scenes, see at the end, which can happen any time.

  The characters are different in every scene. The only possible exception to this are the random Depression scenes, which could be the same two people, or the same depressed person with different others.

  This text went to press before the end of rehearsals and so may differ slightly from the play as performed.

  1

  SECRET

  Please please tell me

  no

  please because I’ll never

  don’t ask don’t ask

  I’ll never tell

  no

  no matter what

  it’s not

  I’d die before I told

  it’s not you telling, even if you didn’t

  I wouldn’t

  it’s you knowing it’s too awful I can’t

  but tell me

  no

  because if you don’t there’s this secret between us

  stop it

  if there’s this secret we’re not

  please

  we’re not close any more we can’t ever

  but nobody knows everything about

  yes but a big secret like this

  it’s not such a big

  then tell me

  will you stop

  it’s big because you won’t tell me

  no I won’t.

  Is it something you’ve

  don’t start guessing

  or something you want to

  please

  or you’ve seen or heard or know or

  please

  and if it’s something you’ve done is it a crime or a sin or just embarrassing because whichever

  no I don’t want you to know.

  All right.

  All right I’ll tell you

  you don’t have to

  I’ll tell you

  yes tell me because I’ll never

  it’s not that

  tell me because I’ll always

  all right I’m telling you.

  Tells in a whisper.

  No

  yes

  no

  I warned you

  but that’s

  yes

  oh no that’s

  yes

  how could you

  I did.

  Now what? now what? now what?

  CENSUS

  Why do they need to know all this stuff ?

  They’re doing research. It guides their policy. They use it to help people.

  They use it to sell us things we don’t want.

  No that’s the people who phone up. I don’t answer any of their questions, I just say No thank you, there’s no need to swear at them.

  I’ve made a mess of it now anyway.

  You’ll get into trouble if you don’t do it.

  They won’t know.

  They know you exist.

  FAN

  Love him so much

  love him more than you

  I’d jump out of the window

  eat fire

  cut off my hand

  eat dogshit

  kill my mother

  eat catfood

  yeuch

  just to touch him

  just to tell him

  just to see him

  just to have him see me.

  He was born at ten past two in the morning and I was born at two past ten

  how do you know?

  Mum says

  two past ten

  she said just after ten so that’s two

  that isn’t two

  it is two

  anyway he was born on Tuesday and I was born on Wednesday and you were only born on Friday

  that’s stupid.

  His favourite colour’s blue

  favourite food’s chilli

  favourite animal’s snakes

  favourite holiday was in Bermuda

  what’s his favourite smell?

  Roses

  you’re making that up

  well what?

  I’m asking you

  you don’t know

  I’m asking you

  you don’t know do you go on tell me

  you tell me

  I don’t know you tell me

  all right I don’t know so we’ve got to find out

  you mean neither of us know?

  It’s all right we’ll find out

  I can’t believe neither of us

  it’s in here somewhere

  I know I used to know

  wait

  is it chicken?

  wait

  you can’t find it

  I can’t

  you’re not looking properly

  I can’t find it

  here let me

  you can’t find it

  wait

  it’s not there

  wait

  see you can’t.

  What are we going to do?

  we’ve got to know

  I won’t be able to sleep

  what are we going to do?

  TORTURE

  He’s wearing me out.

  Take a break.

  Do you want to go in?

  I’ll give him a cigarette.

  He’s not ready to talk.

  I thought we’d got there yesterday.

  I thought we’d got there yesterday but he’s past that.

  He’ll get to where he’ll say anything.

  We’re not paid extra for it to be true.

  I’ll give him a cigarette while you have a cigarette and I’ll tell him you’ll be back.

  LAB

  So we hatch a batch of eggs in the lab

  and where do you get the

  from the poultry breeders who supply them to the battery

  oh the intensive

  yes or some of them might go to farms but either way

  so either way they’re going to be

  yes by twelve weeks they’ll be plucked and lying on their backs

  in a supermarket

  on your table

  so you’re not taking the life

&nbs
p; I am taking the life

  but even if you didn’t they’d be

  they wouldn’t live to be old chickens, no.

  So you’ve got the chickens and

  about a day old, fluffy yellow like little Easter

  and you do some experiment on them?

  what we do is we get them to peck

  because chicks do peck a lot

  they peck at everything and what we do is we get them to peck beads that have been dipped either in water or some stuff that tastes bitter

  not poison

  no it makes them wipe their beaks on the floor then they’re fine again and of course we’re writing all this down which chick which bead and how many pecks and then my colleague injects this tiny amount of very slightly radioactive liquid into each side of the chick’s brain so

  oh no stop

  I know but they don’t seem at all

  it doesn’t hurt

  they don’t show any

  ok so what’s it for? it’s going to show up something in their brains

  because what we’ve injected has a sugar in it that gets used by the nerve cells and the more sugar is taken up the more brain activity and the radioactivity acts as a tracer like in a scanner so you can measure that and see exactly where in the brain the sugar

  and the idea is it’s different in the different

  what we hope to see you see is that it’s different

  depending on what they’ve learned about the

  yes because we give them the beads again and they have learned because the ones who had the beads with water come back and peck it again and the ones

  they won’t peck it

  the ones that had the bitter bead have learned not to peck it

  that’s terrific.

  But that’s not what we’re finding out, what we’re finding out

  changes in the brain

  exactly, what changes in the brain correspond to that memory

  so to do that you have to

  yes I hold the bird in my left hand and quickly cut off its head

  with a big pair of scissors

  aah

  and I drop the body in a bucket and take the head and peel back the skin and cut round the skull and there’s the brain

  there’s the brain

  so I put it in a dish of ice and my colleague cuts it into slabs with a razor blade and then he dissects out tiny samples that he puts into test tubes and they’re immediately frozen while meanwhile I’m taking the brain out of the next chick

  yes

  and that’s what I do.

  And then you analyse

  yes and there is a substantial increase

  so you can measure

  and not just the increase but exactly where because if you slice

  slice the brain

  slice the frozen brain into thin sections and put them on slides you get pictures

  you can see

  you can see exactly depending on how dark and you can convert it into false colour which of course looks

  prettier

  prettier yes and easier to read though the information is the

  same

  which is

  that the learning takes place on the left side of the brain

  and you can see

  and there’s another version where you stain the sample with silver salts and then you can count the new spines on the dendrites which are

  yes the little tiny

  because at that degree of magnification a thumbnail would be two hundred and fifty metres wide

  so you can see the memory

  yes you can see the actual changes

  see what the chick learnt about the bead.

  SLEEP

  I can’t sleep.

  Hot milk.

  I hate it now.

  Book?

  I haven’t got one I like.

  Just lie there and breathe.

  My head’s too full of stuff. Are you asleep?

  No no, what, it’s fine. You can’t sleep?

  I think I’ll get up and go on Facebook.

  REMOTE

  You don’t seem to have a tv.

  There used to be one but it stopped working. The reception’s no good anyhow.

  I brought my laptop.

  You might have a reception problem there.

  It’s not that I need it. There’s no phone signal is there?

  You’d have to go to town. Or I think someone said there’s a spot about two miles up the road if you go down towards the cliff and stand on a rock, you’d have to know it.

  We can listen to the radio. Does it work?

  I did warn you.

  I know.

  It’s quiet here.

  I like it quiet.

  You can always cycle down and get a newspaper.

  It’s all right.

  I don’t have time you see.

  Don’t you sometimes want a weather forecast?

  I want you to be happy here.

  I am happy here.

  You’ll find you can feel if it’s raining.

  2

  IRRATIONAL

  Is an irrational number real?

  It’s real to me.

  But can you have an irrational number of oranges?

  Not as things stand, no.

  I’m not comfortable with the whole idea.

  There was someone called Hippasus in Greek times who found out about the diagonal of a square and they drowned him because no one wanted to know about things like that.

  Like what?

  Numbers that make you uncomfortable and don’t relate to oranges.

  I can see how they might want to do that.

  Drown him?

  Maybe he should have kept quiet about it if he knew they couldn’t stand it.

  Is that what you do?

  AFFAIR

  I don’t know if I should tell you.

  What?

  But you’re my friend more than she is.

  What is it?

  What do you think yourself ? is it better to know things or not to know things? Is it better just to let things be the way you think they are, the way they are really because if someone tells you something that might change everything and do you want that? Do you think it’s interfering or is it what a friend ought to do?

  You’re going to have to tell me now, you know that.

  But some people might say you shouldn’t say anything because you might not want to hear anything against your best friend but I do keep seeing them together and last night I was having a drink with her after work and he just sort of turned up and after a bit they left together, they hardly bothered to come up with a story, I just wondered. I’m probably imagining things and I shouldn’t put ideas into your head because it may all be perfectly all right, I’m sorry maybe I should have kept quiet, oh dear, I’ve told you now.

  They’re having an affair.

  They are? you know that? you knew that?

  I’ve known that quite a while.

  How long?

  Three years.

  And you’re ok with it?

  Yes it’s all ok. Thanks though.

  MOTHER

  While Mum’s out

  what?

  I’ve something to tell you

  ok

  so you need to look at me

  I’m listening

  I need to feel you’re really paying attention

  I can pay attention and do other things at the same time, I’m not brain-dead, I can see and hear and everything

  will you listen?

  I’m listening, fuck off. Is this going to take long?

  Don’t pay attention then, I’m just telling you, you might like to know Mum’s not your mother, I’m your mother, Mum’s your nan, ok? Did you listen to that?

  Does Mum know you’re telling me?

  I just decided.

  Are we going to tell her you told me?

  I don’t know. Do you think?

  Why didn’t she s
ay before, she doesn’t want me to know, she’s going to go crazy

  it’ll be ok

  it’s not my fault, she can’t blame me for knowing

  it’ll be ok, I’ll tell her I told you, it’s my fault.

  How old were you, wait, thirteen. You were thirteen? Thirteen.

  Yes, that’s why.

  It’s probably better than not being born.

  That’s what I thought, I thought you’d like to be born.

  Who’s my dad then?

  I didn’t see him any more, he went to a different school. He was twelve.

  I don’t think I feel like you’re my mum though. I don’t have a sister, I don’t like that. Do you want me to feel different about you?

  I just didn’t want it to be something I could never say.

  I’d like it if everything could go on like it was.

  You mean not tell Mum?

  Do we have to?

  But then you’d have something you could never say.

  I’ve got a stomach ache.

  I don’t care if she goes crazy.

  So long as it’s you she goes crazy with.

  I can tell her to leave you alone because I’m your mum.

  I don’t think that works.

  FIRED

  You shouldn’t fire people by email.

  You can’t come bursting in here and shouting.

  I’m just saying it needs to be face to face.

  I’m sorry, I do appreciate, but I’m busy at the moment, if you could

  I need to be looked in the eye and you say you’re firing me

  redundancy isn’t

  just say it to my face, you’re fired, just say it, you’re a coward you can’t say it

  why don’t you speak to my p.a. and make an appointment

  just say it, you’re fired, just say it

  MESSAGE

  It’s a message

  killing people

  yes because then they understand

  killing yourself

  they understand what you’re telling them

  but they don’t do they, they just

  because the deaths show how important it is

  no they just say you’re a terrorist or

  and the terror is a message

  but they don’t get it do they, they just pass laws and lock people up and

  if enough people did it because they don’t really feel terror do they, they don’t live in terror, if they lived in terror they’d be getting the message.

  Would you do it yourself ?

  I don’t think I would, no.

  Because you’re scared?

  I don’t think that message is what I want to say.

  GRASS

  What did you do that for?