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    Buggy Baby (NHB Modern Plays)
    Buggy Baby (NHB Modern Plays)
    Buggy Baby (NHB Modern Plays)
    Ebook92 pages43 minutes

    Buggy Baby (NHB Modern Plays)

    By Josh Azouz

    ()

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    About this ebook

    A horror comedy about trying to build a normal life when nothing about life is normal.
    Jaden, Nur and baby Aya have escaped another country and ended up in a rotting room in London. While Nur is at college, Jaden chews leaves and has visions of giant rabbits with burning red eyes. He thinks Aya is someone else, someone dangerous. But she's just a baby. Isn't she?
    Buggy Baby premiered at The Yard, London, in March 2018, directed by Ned Bennett.
    'Like a surreal Harold Pinter play, Josh Azouz's brilliantly warped fairytale is very weird and uncomfortably funny' - Guardian
    'Bizarre, baffling, brilliant… tells a serious story about emigration and social isolation in the most stylised way possible' - The Stage
    'A surreal but not uncaring comedy about the isolation and alienation of becoming a refugee, shut off and going slightly mad… undeniably bloody stimulating' - Time Out
    'Flits between kitchen sink realism to surrealism and from comedy to horror… a story of poverty, refugees, single mums, post-traumatic stress disorder, and bunny rabbits carrying bazookas' - Independent
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNick Hern Books
    Release dateMar 20, 2018
    ISBN9781788500371
    Buggy Baby (NHB Modern Plays)
    Author

    Josh Azouz

    Josh Azouz is a playwright, screenwriter and theatre director. His plays include: Once Upon A Time in Nazi Occupied Tunisia (Almeida Theatre, London, 2021); Victoria's Knickers (National Youth Theatre, 2018); Buggy Baby (Yard Theatre, London, 2018); and The Mikvah Project (Yard Theatre, 2015).

    Read more from Josh Azouz

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      Book preview

      Buggy Baby (NHB Modern Plays) - Josh Azouz

      Josh Azouz

      BUGGY BABY

      pub

      NICK HERN BOOKS

      London

      www.nickhernbooks.co.uk

      Contents

      Original Production

      Dedication

      Acknowledgements

      Buggy Baby

      About the Author

      Copyright and Performing Rights Information

      Buggy Baby was first performed at The Yard, London, on 7 March 2018. The cast was as follows:

      For Mandy

      Acknowledgements

      I’d like to thank the following people who helped me figure out this play. Najib Alhakimi, Alice Birch, Georgina Bednar, Bernadette Cahill, Nadia Clifford, Souad Faress, Bettrys Jones, Youssef Kerkour, Serena Manteghi, Hamish Pirie, Ashley Scott Layton, Giles Smart, Louise Stephens, Parth Thakerar, Zubin Varla, Nic Wass. The Royal Court Writers Group.

      I’d especially like to thank Ned Bennett and Jay Miller for their extensive dramaturgical support. The Yard gang. The fearless actors and creative team. And lastly Zadie… for more recent inspiration.

      Characters

      NUR, eighteen

      JADEN, mid-thirties

      BABY AYA

      TWO RABBITS/MEN

      Author’s Note

      Baby Aya wears an NHS-prescribed helmet. The sort given to babies to correct a misshapen or flat head. The character might be played by an older woman.

      The actors are should speak in their own natural accent. On the odd occasion when they speak English, they should adopt an accent because it’s their second language.

      Note on the Text

      Words in brackets ( ) should be played by the actor, not said out loud.

      … indicates a hesitation, unspoken or unfinished thought, or when a character is searching for a word.

      A forward slash (/) indicates the point at which the next speaker interrupts.

      The lines in BOLD should be spoken directly to the audience.

      Spaces in between lines are invitations for longer pauses or signifiers of time passing.

      This ebook was created before the end of rehearsals and so may differ slightly from the play as performed.

      Prologue

      The house lights are still on.

      A damp room.

      A wardrobe. A sink. Two mattresses on the floor.

      People shouldn’t live here.

      From the wardrobe we hear:

      NUR. They’ve gone.

      JADEN. Shh.

      NUR. They’ve definitely gone.

      JADEN. How do you know!?

      NUR. I can’t hear them.

      JADEN. Maybe they’re waiting for us to come out.

      NUR. We’re talking quite loudly they’d hear us!

      JADEN. Shush then!

      NUR. I can’t feel my legs.

      JADEN. Stay still.

      NUR creeps out of the wardrobe. She’s sixteen years old.

      NUR!

      NUR looks at the audience.

      A MAN enters the room.

      Beat.

      NUR runs. MAN chases.

      Across the stage, through the seats, up the balcony, out the doors… we might even hear him chase her around the bar.

      At one point during the chase the MAN puts two fingers above his head and exposes his front teeth like a rabbit. Blackout.

      Spotlight on the wardrobe door. JADEN opens it and looks at us.

      JADEN. IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT THEY FLED THEIR WAR-TORN HOME. FIVE JOURNEYED THROUGH AFRICA. FOUR CROSSED THE MEDITERRANEAN. THREE TOOK A LORRY THROUGH EUROPE…

      JADEN WOULD TELL YOU THE NAME OF HIS HOME BUT IT NO LONGER EXISTS.

      Spotlight on NUR, who pauses mid-chase, breathing hard.

      NUR. NUR DIDN’T THINK THIS TYPE OF SHIT HAPPENED IN LONDON. SHE THOUGHT RUNNING BELONGED TO THE PAST. THANK GOD

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