The Iron Rainbow : Part One

THE IRON RAINBOW

The play setting : The play is set in a bail hostel. This is a newly built facility with all mod cons. It is situated in a built up area in the middle of a council estate.

The Cast : All the boys are 18-20 : Kenneth, Jason, Lee, Marti, Jonathan and Lizard. There is only one older man, that is Mole who is forty.

The two probation officers are both 25 and they are Susan and Len.

The hostel’s cook is any age though maybe as old as Mole. He is Norman.

Julian is a probation officer who is mentioned in the play but he does not actually appear.

This is a dialogue only play with no thought given to staging, though some scene description will be given.

 

Music :  Blue Moon : Greek Love Story ( The Psychotherapy session) : Somewhere Over the Rainbow (Eva Cassidy) : Friends and Lovers,  What’s Wrong with this Picture? (Chesney Hawkes)

 

ACT ONE

Scene : The dining area of the hostel. The tables are set for lunch as it is not long before it will be served. Set apart from the formal dining tables is a small coffee table with about six chairs placed around it. Seated in this area are Susan, Kenneth, Jason and Jonathan.

 

SUSAN : (Holding a newspaper she begins to read aloud an extract from it)........MAKING GOOD PEOPLE  LOOK BAD IS CORRUPTION, AND MAKING THEM SUFFER FOR THE CRIMES OF OTHERS, THE GREATEST EVIL. IT IS THE END OF JUSTICE .

KENNETH : If it’s the end of justice I wonder if they’ll close down the prisons.........

JASON : Of course not.......... they’ll keep them open for the dummies who will be fronting for real crims like that paper says.

JONATHAN : They should blow up that sort of society. I can’t imagine how things could have got that bad. People are past caring.

SUSAN : I don’t think it’s so much that people are past caring......... it’s more an unhappy resignation.

KENNETH : Like when Paul Gascoigne left Newcastle United?

SUSAN : You never think anything is serious, Kenneth. Let’s hope that the magistrates don’t think your crime is serious.

KENNETH : Oh that..........it’s all a big mistake. Some people even think that I don’t like Asians because the person I’m supposed to have hurt has half caste relatives.

SUSAN : Well, there is a lot of racism now. Most of the crimes on this estate have a racist element. Len told me yesterday a gang attacked someone – that Pakistani woman was attacked and robbed at the back of her shop in Welbeck Road.............. you know the one I mean..... her saris are the same midnight blue as the shop’s window frames and her spirits are permanently depressed.

JASON : Or in danger of being lifted?

SUSAN : Very funny, Jason...... anyway I’ve always bought my bread there since the cook recommended it and I’ve not regretted it. Her brother bakes it, she sells it, and for the most part it’s the unemployed on this estate that eat it. It’s funny really that most of the businesses in this area are in fact run by foreigners. Why English people, living locally, don’t get in first I don’t know. Often I’ve seen teenagers hanging around outside, and I’m sure they’re taking stuff from the lorry before it’s even delivered to the shop. Crime’s easier than working I suppose. Of course Len says that’s only the half of it and the crime is so well organized that that sort of pilfering is insignificant. With effective extortion businesses run at a virtual loss for the owners. I suppose it suits the crims to get the Pakis to do the work after starting up with money from abroad or even ours. Then they bleed them dry, perpetuating their crime by threats and blackmail.

JASON : Are you telling us how to exploit immigrants, Susan?

SUSAN : No, I’m just pointing out that racism exists, and if you have any sense at all you will steer well  clear of any involvement.

JONATHAN : But don’t you think that they wouldn’t or couldn’t touch the big boss behind a racket because of his muscle?

SUSAN : You can’t hold the police to ransom. That’s a fallacy.

JONATHAN : It’s not a fallacy that a lot of crims are living it up abroad with well-developed tans and vilas in Marbella.

SUSAN : How do you know?

JONATHAN : I’ve seen the Cook report.

JASON : Yeh, I have. All that happens is Roger Cook gets doors slammed in his face and is told to do a runner.

JONATHAN : Yes, the crims are worried by him obviously but that’s all. It’s where he finds them that makes you think that crime can pay – Brazil or the Bahamas, or even just leafy Hampstead.

SUSAN : I think that they are more than worried. They spend their lives living in fear that they will lose their ill-gotten gains. The more fraudulent the criminal is the less he can afford to relax. They are never at ease and never really happy with something that they know isn’t ever really theirs. Because of this their life style is fraudulent if you see what I mean. It’s just a sham. Cheats cheat themselves in the end, no matter how it may look to an ordinary observer.

(Susan Exit)

JASON : This is enough to bore anyone to tears. I may be stuck in here but my interests have not changed – sex and food, particularly sex because I don’t see my girlfriend much.

JONATHAN : I know it’s roast pork for lunch. We should be certain of that if not your other interest. Tonight  I’m going for a takeaway and picking up a DVD.

JASON : If you seea  good time girl on the way it won’t do you any good. I wouldn’t bother going.

JONATHAN : If I go out not looking I probably will. But I know what you mean. We can’t do anything about it, even if they are willing. It’s just a cycle of frustration. I never get what I want.

KENNETH : That’s the story of my life. At school it wasn’t just the girls that didn’t like me. There was a holly bush in the grounds and I was the one who was shoved into it more than anybody else. I was  always getting what I didn’t want.

JONATHAN :  A prickly problem.

KENNETH : I don’t think it’s funny. There’s always something or someone to make life difficult. These days it’s an effort to get out of bed.

JASON : That’s because there’s nothing to get out of bed for. For one of my interests there’s no need anyway. I think you learn more about life through not getting up. Sexual experience is where it’s at, getting to know the reality of the writhing serpent.

JONATHAN : At the apex of the ARC is something worth having eh?

JASON : I think so. Do you think Julian was thinking of that when he talked about his ARC idea?

JONATHAN : I would have thought so, otherwise he’s not that intellectual. These probation officers – what was it? Through Conversation we face Reality and then gain Affinity. He is a wise guy, isn’t he?

JASON : You’re right. He’s someone who knows far too much.

KENNETH : I know you rabbit on about things that are of no importance. Getting fed is all that matters to me. Do you know what’s for dinner?

JONATHAN : I told you a few minutes ago. We’re going to have pork. The meals here are almost as good as those at home. I was looking at the menu he’s pinned up on the board. Starters is Vichysoisse, then pork with apple sauce, spring vegetables and creme duchesse potatoes, finished off with orange and chocolate cream gateau.

JASON : What’s Vichysoisse when it’s at home?

JONATHAN : It’s cold soup. The peculiar thing about it though is that really it’s more like something from Wales than France.

JASON :  Why’s that?

JONATHAN : It’s made from potatoes and leeks.

JASON : I wonder if the Welsh rugby team like it.

JONATHAN : I doubt it when they call it Vichysoisse.

JASON : You are just a snob.

JONATHAN : Maybe but then so is Norman. He could have just called it potato and leek soup.

JASON : Yeh, he makes his meals sound posh. Stupid bastard.

(Enter Susan)

SUSAN : There’s a phone call for George.

JASON : He’s not in here, Susan.

SUSAN : Go and look for him then, will you?  You’ve got nothing better to do. If he’s not in his room check the toilets.

(Jason Exit)

JONATHAN : He’s always on the phone. He gossips like an old woman.

SUSAN : Maybe he does but at least he’s not racist or against christianity. To me he’s just a sad, old man.

JONATHAN : Yes I know what you mean, but when he starts that billing and cooing at seven o’ clock in the morning you get seriously worried. Someone here has nicknamed him the Warbler.

SUSAN : Presumably he’s communicating with his wife.

JONATHAN : No idea.

KENNETH : I know he likes to be thought of as a family man.

JONATHAN : Yes and he’s probably a great fan of Julie Andrews and the ‘Sound of Music’ too.

SUSAN : Maybe not but I don’t think he’s a Martin Scorsese fan either. I watched that film ‘The Last Temptation of Christ’ last week and it left me cold. I suppose I’m conventional in my tastes because I found it very peculiar. My husband says it’s because I’m a catholic. To me it would only appeal to a kinky audience, no matter what religious views you have. They say society is not a church-going one anymore but some of the lads that come through here have had a catholic or Church of England background. You’re catholic aren’t you, Kenneth?

KENNETH : Yes but I don’t go to church anymore.

SUSAN : Did you go to St. Xavier’s school?

KENNETH : I spent a few terms there before my family went abroad but I didn’t like it. It wasn’t too disciplinarian or anything, just depressing being there. I suppose it was like any other school except for the fact that a few of the teachers were priests and very dull. They didn’t interest me in anything. Best thing about it was the Football League when we played against the other schools. Henry Morgan Comprehensive always tried to beat the hell out of us. They were more like an arch enemy.

SUSAN : I thought football was a game – doesn’t sound like sportsmanship to me.

KENNETH : Sportsmanship?

SUSAN : Yes, fairness, Kenneth.

KENNETH : We just didn’t like each other.

SUSAN : You mean you were prejudiced. Different coloured strips on the playing field started off looking like Subbuteo, but when at the end of the match half of them are marked with blood you know that it’s no game. The fact that the two schools had different religious beliefs would exaggerate your sense of being different, but often it takes no more than a purely arbitrary division like area or being in a different building.

KENNETH : I think it’s religion that causes a lot of trouble. It never brought people together, just drove them apart, and caused unrest.

SUSAN : You are right. Sometimes people misunderstand good people because of that. It wouldn’t take much for most non church-goers to see christians, whether good or bad, as people hiding behind the church who only want to do evil with a cover.

(Lizard and Lee appear at the door) (Aside to each other in a low voice)

LIZARD : I think they are talking about our principles – evil with a cover.

LEE : Maybe, Lizard, but they’ve probably got it all wrong. Neither of them know what they are talking about.

JONATHAN : What are you two muttering about? Come on in. The conversation is getting a bit too heavy for me anyway. I’m off.

(Exit Jonathan)

Continued in Part Two