RUTH KELNER – PLAY EXTRACT

James:

Before you leave

 

beat

 

James:

New year’s resolutions

 

beat

 

Cathy:

How many?

 

James:

All of em’

 

Cathy:

Might take some time

 

James:

Go ahead

 

Cathy:

Right
drink more water
stop watching reality tv
lose weight
go out less and more
exercise more, don’t know why I said more, exercise at all
eat healthier
get more organised
I’d like to move all the clothes and shit off the chair in the corner of my bedroom
dress better and worse
don’t be late so much, be early
have sex

beat

Cathy (continues) :

Read more
learn how to do a rubix cube
put myself out there
dance
find out what acai is
listen to full albums
get a tattoo
eat healthier
get to sleep at 9 o’clock
be sexier
don’t be so loud
laugh more and less
drink more water
change myself
get lips like Kylie Jenner
lose weight
fuck
think quicker and slower
think more and less
fuck
don’t believe everything you see in films
fall in love
once
no twice

(Cathy is almost out of breath now she is standing in front of the mirror like she is about to leave)

 

Cathy:

Change. I look in the mirror just like this straight forward and my face is like a page in a book and I recognise it, it looks sort of familiar, I know all the letters and all the shapes but it’s in a language I don’t know, something foreign so it might as well be empty pages or I could be an armillary sphere I know all the bits the sun and the earth and all the other little fucking planets but together they’re all spinning and I can’t see

 

(It’s quiet now. You could hear a pin drop)

 

Cathy:

Sorry, I’m an idiot

 

James:

No, not at all

 

Cathy:

I’ve gone mad

 

James:

No

 

Cathy:

Fucking batshit

 

James:

A bit maybe

 

Cathy:

I’ll leave /

 

James:

/ You don’t have / to

 

Cathy:

/ No, I will

 

beat

 

Cathy:

I need to

 

James:

Yeah okay

 

Cathy:

Get back and join the rest of the rat race

 

(James laughs, just slightly)

 

James:

What’s the cheese?

 

(Cathy was just leaving, she has been tempted back in)

 

Cathy:

What?

 

James:

The rats chase after cheese what do the humans chase after

 

Cathy:

Love?

 

James:

Stop running

 

Cathy:

See you around

 

(She leaves the bathroom and closes the door behind her, the world is gone)

 

Ruth lives in Leeds and goes to college in Huddersfield, she writes plays and film scripts.