: Suzanne Heathcote
: Never Let Me Go
: Faber& Faber
: 9780571394586
: 1
: CHF 11.40
:
: Dramatik
: English
: 96
: Wasserzeichen
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: ePUB
The first stage adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro's heartbreaking, bestselling novel. Never Let Me Go is a gripping exploration of what it means to be human. You were brought into this world for a purpose. And your futures. All of them. Have been decided. Kathy, Ruth and Tommy were Hailsham kids. Like everyone raised at the seemingly idyllic school, they exist for a single reason. Their dreams, their desires, their love for one another: all irrelevant in a world that only values them for what they will one day give, without question or condition, to someone they have never met. And as that day grows near, Kathy looks back at her life. Memory and reality collide in Suzanne Heathcote's gripping adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro's bestselling novel. Never Let Me Go opened at the Rose Theatre, Kingston, in September 2024.

Suzanne Heathcote is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter based in the UK and US. Her first play, Concrete Fairgrounds, was selected as part of the Royal Court Young Writers Festival. She has since received the New York Stage and Film Founders' Award, was a resident playwright at SPACE on Ryder Farm, and a member of the Ars Nova Play Group, NYC. For screen, Suzanne was lead writer/executive producer for Killing Eve (Emmy Award nominee) and writer/executive producer for The Crowded Room. Other TV/film credits include Fear the Walking Dead, Little Voice, and a rewrite for the upcoming film adaptation of Richard Osman's The Thursday Murder Club.

Darkness.

Within it a song. It’s from the mid-1950s. Bossa nova beat. As it plays, light dimly illuminates a woman. Her back to us. Swaying in time to the music.

The song’s lyrics emerge through the female singer’s voice. Her singing is haunting. Sensual. Something akin to ‘You’re My Thrill’ by Dolores Gray. But this isn’t Dolores Gray.

This is Judy Bridgewater.

Judy Bridgewater    (Voice-over;singing.)

Oh baby, baby.

The woman swaying to the music slowly turns.She is holding a pillow.Cradling it like a baby inher arms.Eyes closed.She sings along with Judy:

Judy BridgewaterandWoman    (Singing.)

Oh baby, baby.
Oh baby, baby.
Never let me –

Phillip I thought this was my room.

The woman, Kathy, is next to a bed plumping a pillow in a room which is clinical. Clean. Impersonal.

Kathy It is.

At the door stands Phillip. He’s wearing an overcoat.A duffel bag over his shoulder.

(Re: the pillow.) Sorry I was just checking they’d.

They can be a bit lax here so I.

A projection: ‘Part One: England, 1998’.

It’s Phillip isn’t it?

I’m Kathy. Kathy H.

Your carer.

Phillip looks at the bed.

Phillip Can I –

Kathy Yes. Yes of course.

They switch places. Phillip sets his bag on the bed. He begins unpacking his things. Some pyjamas. Underwear. A toothbrush. He puts them in a small cupboard.

Was the journey long?

Phillip Couple of hours.

Kathy Oh not too bad then.

Well you don’t have any appointments today so you can just relax. Settle in.

I can give you a tour of the centre if you like?

Phillip continues unpacking.

You’re lucky. It’s nice here.

Phillip Nice and lax?

You said they can be a bit lax.

Kathy Oh. Not with anything. Important.

Is there anything you’d like me to bring on my visits?

Fruit juice?

Biscuits?

Novels –

PhillipNovels?

Kathy Yes. If there’s a particular author you like or.

I pass a second-hand bookshop on the way so –

Phillip How often will you be here?

Kathy Couple of times a week.

More around the time of your first.

Phillip continues unpacking.

You must have been a carer?

Phillip Not for long.

Told them I wanted to get on with it.

Kathy Well that’s very.

Good for you.

I’ve been doing it eleven years now.

PhillipEleven?

Kathy It’ll be twelve in January.

Phillip Bloody hell. You must be the world’s best carer.

Kathy Well I know someone who did it for fourteen and she was pretty useless so.

I wouldn’t get your hopes up.

Kathy smiles. Phillip doesn’t.

Phillip Aren’t you bored shitless? With all the travelling and appointments and.

People.

Kathy I like the travelling. And the people.

Phillip But it’s such a waste of time.

Kathy How do you mean?

Phillip Well it’s not what we’re here for is it?

It’s not what we’re supposed to be doing.

Kathy I think it’s all part of it. Making someone’s experience.

Better.

Phillip Are you going to make my experience better?

Kathy I hope so.

Phillip looks at Kathy.

Kathy looks at Phillip.

Phillip goes back to unpacking.

Phillip Pick-and-mix.

I like pick-and-mix.

Kathy Alright. That’s easy enough.

Kathy takes out a small notebook and makes a note.

Phillip But not Refreshers. I hate them.

They get stuck in my teeth.

Kathy No Refreshers. Got it.

Phillip organises his things in the cupboard.

Right.

Well.

I should go and chat to them out there. Get your appointment schedule and –

Phillip Did you go to Hailsham?

Kathystops. Attheword‘Hailsham’,there’salow,almostimperceptible hum.

Kathy What makes you say that?

Phillip You just seem so.

Hailsham.

The humgets louder.

Kathy Have you met many Hailsham students?

Phillip None.

But I’ve heard things.

I’m right aren’t I?

You were a Hailsham kid.

The humgets louder.

Bloody hell.

Didn’t it close down years ago?

You must be one of the last ones left.

The humgets louder.

Kathy Nice meeting you Phillip.

I’ll make sure to bring you that pick-and –

Phillip How does the man on the moon cut his hair?

Phillip is sitting on the bed, clothed. He’s eating sweets from a bag of pick-and-mix.

Kathysitsonachairacrossfromhim. She’sfillingin variousforms.

Phillip Eclipse it.

The room has signs of being lived in.The weather outside different.The light of day altered.

Kathy (Reading.) Night sweats?

Phillip What did the sea say to the beach?

Kathy Shortness of breath?

Phillip Nothing. It just waved.

Kathy Blurred vision? Floaters?

Phillip What’s brown and sticky?

Kathy Phillip please.

Phillip A stick.

Phillip looks at the sweets in the bag.Takes one out.

They’re going to ask all those questions when we’re in there.

Kathy Well they ask for the forms beforehand. So we give them the forms.

Phillip When I was a carer I let people fill out the forms for themselves.

Like grown-ups.

...