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Not available as this play is not to be included in a production.
A realistic play for a cast of two females and two males. The fourth play in the Russet Hippalector series. Basically it is the same as play 3 but without the Hippalector and without the absurdities. It was written some time after the other three, more or less as a matter of form.
RODNEY: Mid thirties in a business suit.
DIANNE: Married to Rod. She is wearing an expensive frock but is not comfortable with it.
BRADLEY: Mid thirties, casually dressed. Wears a humorous T-shirt.
AMELIA: Married to Bradley. Dressed as a businesswoman.
The affluent lounge of Rod and Dianne. Settee, chairs and coffee table. Finger things on the coffee table. It has just been tidied up. This set should be similar to the set for act 3 but more 'realistic'.
Two couples meet for a dinner party. There is, or has been, a relationship between each partner in each possible combination. There is an enigmatic ending.
RODNEY ALONE IN THE LOUNGE WITH A CELL-PHONE.
RODNEY: Yes CJ... Yes CJ... I understand... I'm to call the minister's secretary and make an appointment to discuss the conditions concerning our mining operation on the Coromandel... Yes, I've got that... put it in my diary?... yes CJ. (TAKES OUT A SMALL DIARY AND MAKES AN ENTRY.) I've done it... Tonight...? I've got Amelia Griffiths over, and her husband, for cocktails... she's the Minister of Agriculture's personal assistant, I've been talking to her about our water buffalo farm... she says the trouble with buffalos is they're ugly beasts... not always good for the image... yes I agree, an image of power... the brute in Guernica... I can't commission Picasso, he's dead... yes, good night CJ. (HANGS UP.)
DIANNE: (ENTERS) Are you going to tuck the children in?
RODNEY: The children?
DIANNE: Yes. Are you going to tuck them in?
RODNEY: I thought you were upstairs doing that.
DIANNE: Yes I was.
RODNEY: Hardly seems necessary to tuck them in again.
DIANNE: They want to see you.
RODNEY: You cosset the children too much. They need to learn independence. I had to when I was a child.
DIANNE: So you keep telling me.
RODNEY: I don't know why I should have to tell you something twenty times... [before it sinks into your thick head.]
DIANNE: They like their father to tell them a story on the few occasions that he's home.
RODNEY: A story?
DIANNE: A bedtime story.
RODNEY: Oh, a bedtime story. Our guests will be here any minute.
DIANNE: I'll see to them. Tell the children one of your stories, they like that.
RODNEY: If I must. I'll tell them about Steve the Sharebroker.
DIANNE: Craig said he wanted a story about dragons and knights in shining armour.
RODNEY: You fill his head with all these fantastical notions. There's a real world out there you know, it's not full of dragons and damsels in distress. It's full of hard facts, it's about making a living in the corporate jungle.
DIANNE: OK relax. Use your imagination.
RODNEY: Imagination? I'm a businessman.
DIANNE: Oh I don't know, just tell them a story.
RODNEY: All right then, I'll tell him about Dannie the Dragon sitting on his hoard of gold, and how he took to Steve the Sharebroker and invested it in gilt-edge.
DIANNE: Yes dear.
RODNEY: That way I'll cater to their childish fantasies and teach them an important lesson at the same time.
DIANNE: Yes dear.
RODNEY GOES. DIANNE FUSSES AROUND THE ROOM FOR A MOMENT. THE DOORBELL RINGS. SHE ADMITS AMELIA AND BRADLEY.
AMELIA: We're not late? (GIVING DIANNE A PECK)
DIANNE: Not at all.
AMELIA: It is informal isn't it? I always have problems (HAHA) getting Bradley into anything formal.
BRADLEY IS VERY CASUAL, EVEN SLOPPY. DIANNE IS IN A NEW FROCK, SELECTED BY RODNEY, WHICH SHE FINDS UNCOMFORTABLE. AMELIA IS IN HER WORK SUIT.
BRADLEY: The old tuxedo had an attack of mothballs.
DIANNE: Oh yes, informal. Rodney will be down in a minute, he's just saying goodnight to the children.
BRADLEY: Ah Children. The little angels in heaven. (THIS ANNOYS AMELIA)
DIANNE: Let me take your coats. (SHE TAKES THEIR COATS AND GOES OFF.)
BRADLEY: (LOOKING AT A MODERN WORK OF 'ART' ON THE WALL.) Very nice, yes very nice. Picture of a piece of stilton cheese. So realistic I can almost smell it.
AMELIA: It's modern art.
BRADLEY: Oh yes, modern art. Art of the moderns. We are all a bit modern aren't we, all a little avaunt garde.
DIANNE: I don't think they are avante garde Bradley. More of the business
executive type.