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PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art 27.3 (2005) 101-130



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Camarilla

Characters

PROFESSOR MARGARET-ANN TANNER, an Australian-born senior lecturer in Political Science at a London university, and a well-known public intellectual. Fifties.

JOHN ALLTHORPE, Maggy's husband. A northern teacher/trade unionist, now a labor historian. Fifties.

REBEKAH TANNER-BURTON, Maggy's daughter from her first marriage. A twenty-three year-old recent university graduate, now working as an admin assistant for a small PR company.

DAVID CRYSTAL, John's estranged son from his first marriage. American-raised. A lawyer working in the legal department of a media company. Twenty-eight.

CHARLES ASHE: A member of the G8 London Summit Secretariat.

DAVID and CHARLES are to be played by the same actor.

Scene

London, the Tanner/Allthorpe home in Fulham. Present day.

For Damien Cahill, my hero.

Prologue

London. A shopping street. A massive explosion—a bomb—ripping glass. Panic, Sirens. An aftermath. MAGGY cradles REBEKAH in her arms. They are in a circle of shattered glass, covered in it. They are bleeding, both riddled with cuts—REBEKAH the worse. MAGGY is hysterical, Rebekah almost unconscious, with blood running down her face.

MAGGY: (Screaming.) Somebody! Somebody help my daughter!

REBEKAH: Mum . . . It's all right, Mum; it's all right . . .

MAGGY: Help me! They've hurt my daughter! [End Page 101]

Scene 1

The Tanner/Allthorpe house, the next day.JOHN ALLTHORPE enters the living room with a mobile phone, searching for a television remote control.

JOHN: (On the phone.) I just wish people would leave her alone—Which channel? I can't hear—All day! Place is like a madhouse—! (He switches on the television.) No—

TELEVISION: . . . the Australian-born academic who has been a vocal critic of the government's response to the global terrorist threat. In an interview with Newsnight last year, the Professor—

JOHN: Played this on the radio as well— (He turns off the television.) Everywhere—I don't—Yes, I will. When she's—

MAGGY: (Offstage.) John!

JOHN: The kraken wakes—nevermind; I'll have to call you later—

(Enter MAGGY, in a dressing gown, brandishing a newspaper.)

MAGGY: Have you seen this?!

JOHN: (To phone.) Of course—bye—

MAGGY: John—?!

JOHN: Brad Somers just called to see how you were faring. Marie sends her regards as—(A landline telephone begins to ring.)

MAGGY: That sound! That's the fiftieth bloody time!

JOHN: Quite a fanclub of well-wishers—

MAGGY: (With the newspaper.) Sending poisoned roses and—are you answering that?!

JOHN: No, I'm not. (JOHN goes over to the telephone and rips it out of its socket.) Peace in our time.

MAGGY: Tell me you're going to plug that back in.

JOHN: They can live without us (turning off his mobile), if we can live without them. I don't want you disturbed. Come now, back to bed. The doctor said—

MAGGY: Bugger the doctor—(with the paper) what's this doing in our house?

JOHN: You should be resting, love.

MAGGY: I just got up to go to the bathroom and this greets me. "Red professor," "Terrorist friend Tanner," "Marxist aca—" here!—"maybe her daughter needs more than a few more cuts and scratches for Prof. Tanner to grasp what the British public has known all along—" They've got a picture—of her!—What was this doing in the bathroom?

JOHN: I did intend to wipe my arse on it. (JOHN comforts her.) You know it's drivel. When you're rested you'll remember—and they'll already be driveling at somebody else.

MAGGY: Where's Rebekah?

JOHN: She's sleeping.

MAGGY: She should be—!

JOHN: The doctor wants you both to rest. The concussion's lifted—there's no reason for Rebekah to— [End Page 102]

MAGGY: Page five, right-hand side, covered in blood—In this bloody—I'm going to call Harold West and I'm going to have them in court—they've got a—

JOHN: Why don't you rest and think about it?

MAGGY: I don...

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