shopping for shoes: synopsis and extracts
characters:
Alan Male, late twenties,
serious
Maxine Female, mid to late-twenties,
independent
Jim Male,
late twenties, dreamer, self-styled joker
Zoe Female, mid to late-twenties, personable
approximate running time:
90
minutes
synopsis:
Alan,
Jim, Maxine and Zoe are the best of friends and spend their time drinking,
partying and generally being together.
However, everything suddenly changes when Zoe, Alan’s girlfriend, is killed
in a random attack, ensuring that nothing will ever be the same again.
Told
in reverse, this harrowing, but often humorous play, explores what makes friend
‘friends’, and how the unexpected can take loyalty to its limits.
time and place:
The
play takes place over several months and across a variety of locales, moving
backwards, and sometimes forwards, in time.
The
set should be simple and evocative, with the action shifting fluidly.
extract one:
Outside the church.
Jim stands alone.
Maxine enters.
Maxine Hi.
Jim Hello.
You
look nice. Very smart.
Nice.
Maxine Thanks.
Thanks.
Where’s
Alan?
Jim Already gone in the church. He’s with Zo’s family.
Maxine Right.
Of course.
Pause.
Jim I see they’ve taken the flowers away from
the alleyway.
Maxine Have they?
Jim Yeah.
They’d all died and, well, you know …
Al
said that all the cards were passed on to Zo’s mum.
Who
had left them, Max? Who had left all
those flowers and messages?
Maxine I don’t know. Friends? Relatives? I don’t know.
Jim And who are all these people? I don’t know anyone here and we both knew Zo
better than most. What’s all this
about? Max?
Maxine They’re just here to show their respects. That’s all.
Jim What are we doing here, Max? I feel like a stranger. I don’t belong.
Maxine We’re here for Alan.
For
Zoe.
Jim But what’s the point of it?
Maxine It’s to celebrate her life. Isn’t it?
Jim It’s hymns and words. That’s all it is, Max. Hymns and words. It won’t change anything.
It won’t bring her back. Will
it? Will it?
Beat.
Maxine No.
No,
it won’t.
extract two:
Alan’s
bedroom.
Alan and Zoe are in bed together.
Alan
Imagine
if we had kids.
Zoe
Pardon?
Alan
Imagine
if we had kids. It would be strange to
think of us creating a person.
Eh?
From
nothing.
Zoe
I
wonder what they would look like?
Alan
Good-looking
like their father.
Zoe I’m serious. What would
they look like?
Alan
Well,
hopefully they won’t get my hair.
Zoe
I like
your hair.
Alan
I
think I’m going grey.
I
wouldn’t want to have a baby with grey hair.
Zoe
It’s
not grey.
Not
really.
Only
bits of it.
Alan
I’d
like them to have my eyebrows, I think.
And
your breasts.
Zoe
On a
baby?
They laugh.
Alan
I love
you.
Zoe
I love
you too.
Pause.
Zoe starts to
get dressed.
Alan watches her
and lights up a cigarette.
I
thought you’d given up.
Alan
I
have.
Last
one.
Promise.
Zoe
Yeah.
Alan
I
better get up, I suppose. Jim’ll be
here in a minute.
Zoe
Do I look all right?
Alan
Yeah …
Zoe
No, really?
Alan
Eh? What do you mean?
Zoe
I don’t know. I just feel as if
everyone can tell that we’ve just …
Do you
know what I mean?
I feel
like as soon as I see Jim, he’ll know.
He’ll just know. And all I will
be able to smell is sex. All around us. I know it’s all in my mind, but I always
think it. Every time. It feels embarrassing.
Alan
Yeah?
Zoe
Yeah.
Alan
I love you.
Zoe
Yeah?
Alan
Will you marry me?
extract three:
A space.
Jim.
Jim I’m five years old and I’m standing in the playground
waiting for my name to be read out. I
want to know what class I’m in. All the
other kids are with their parents and seem to know each other. I just stand on my own … my satchel filled
with cheese sandwiches and a Star Wars flask for lunchtime.
And I just stand on my own.
And suddenly I see her.
This pretty little girl with bunches.
And she looks at me and laughs.
I stare back at her. And then
she turns away. But I keep on looking
at her. She’s so pretty. And inside my head I start to pray. God, let me be in her class. Please.
Please let me be in her class.
Please.
But she’s not.
I get Mrs Day and she gets Mrs Brown.
(softly), Sod it.
extract four:
Alan’s house.
Music plays on the stereo, as Alan meticulously looks through scrap
books filled with photographs of Zoe and newspaper cuttings about her
death. Jim flicks through the a collection of CDs.
Alan
passes Jim a photograph.
Alan
This
is us in Rome. Last year.
She
looks great, doesn’t she?
Somebody
took it in St Peter’s Square at the Vatican, I think. Yeah, it must have been, because I’m wearing jeans. You had to cover your legs up if you wanted
to go in and it was really hot, but she really wanted to and …
She
looks great, doesn’t she?
Jim
Yeah …
So do
you think you’ll come? Could be a good
evening.
Alan
I don’t know.
Jim
You should. It’ll do you good.
Alan
I’m not sure. I don’t know.
Jim
You need to get out, Al.
Alan
I’ve been out.
Jim
To the service.
And to
the pub a couple of times, I suppose.
Alan
That’s out, isn’t it?
Jim
We miss you. I miss you. Watching bands. Having a drink together.
Alan
I’m not ready for all that. I’m
not in the mood for it yet. Can’t you
see that, Jim? Can’t you understand?
Jim
Yeah. Yeah, of course.
Can I
put something else on, Al? This song is driving me mad.
Alan
I like
it. It was the first record Zoe ever
bought. Her mum gave it to me.
Jim
Sorry.
Sorry,
Al.
Alan
returns to the photographs.
Alan
And this is her tossing a coin into the Trevie fountain. Everybody does it. It’s an Italian tradition apparently.
It
means that you’ll go back there.
Pause.
Alan stares out
into space.
© Matthew Wilkie
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Tel:07710 505806 (+44 7710 505806)
Email: matthew.wilkie@ntlworld.com
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