Ravenhill Plays: 1: Shopping and F***ing; Faust is Dead; Handbag; Some Explicit Polaroids (Contemporary Dramatists) by Mark Ravenhill Read Free Book Online

watching me. Do you understand?
    Mark      I think so.
    Gary      Does everyone feel like that?
    Mark      Well . . . no.
    Gary      What do you want?
    Mark      I don’t know yet.
    Gary      You must want something. Everybody’s got something.
    Mark      I used to know what I felt. I traded. I made money. Tic Tac. And when I made money I was happy, when I lost money I was unhappy. Then things got complicated. But for so many years everything I’ve felt has been . . . chemically induced. I mean, everything you feel you wonder . . . maybe it’s just the . . .
    Gary      The smack.
    Mark      Yes. The smack, coffee, you know, or the fags.
    Gary      The microwaves.
    Mark      The cathode rays.
    Gary      The madcow. Moooooo.
    Mark      Right. I mean, are there any feelings left, you know?
    The coins clatter
.
    I want to find out, want to know if there are any feelings left.
    Gary (
offering two Pot Noodles
)     Beef or Nice and Spicy?
    Scene Seven
     
    Accident and Emergency waiting room
.
    Robbie
sits bruised and bleeding
. Lulu
is holding a bottle of TCP
.
    Lulu      I asked the Sister. She said I could. It’ll sting a bit.
    But with blood. It might get infected. Like gangrene.
    Lulu
applies the TCP to
Robbie
’s face.
    Lulu      Keep still. Don’t want to end up with like – one eye mmm?
    Look good actually.
    Robbie      Yeah.
    Lulu      Yes, suits you. Makes you look – well . . . tough.
    Robbie      Good.
    Lulu      I could go for you. Some people a bruise, a wound, doesn’t suit them.
    Robbie      No.
    Lulu      But you – it fits. It belongs.
    Lulu
slips her hand into
Robbie
’s trousers and starts to play with his genitals
.
    Lulu      Is that good?
    Robbie      Yeah.
    Lulu      That’s it. Come on. That’s it.
    Tell me about them.
    Robbie      Who?
    Lulu      The men. Attackers.
    Robbie      Them.
    Lulu      The attackers. Muggers
    Robbie      Well.
    Lulu      Sort of describe what they did. Like a story.
    Robbie      No.
    Lulu      I want to know.
    Robbie      It’s nothing.
    Lulu      I don’t want to just imagine.
    Robbie      I wasn’t like that.
    Lulu      Come on then.
    Robbie      Look.
    Lulu      What was it like?
    Pause
.
    Robbie      There was only one.
    Lulu      Didn’t you say gang?
    Robbie      No.
    Just this one bloke.
    Lulu      A knife?
    Robbie      No.
    Lulu      Oh.
    So. He pinned you down?
    Robbie      No.
    Lulu      Got the money.
    Robbie      I didn’t – there wasn’t any money alright? I never took any money.
    Lulu      You never / sold?
    Robbie      No.
    Lulu      So before you even got there this man. With his knife –
    Robbie      / There wasn’t a knife.
    Lulu      Attacks and gets the E.
    Robbie      No. I got there. I was there with the E.
    Lulu      So?
    Robbie      So.
    Pause
.
    Lulu      You’ve lost it. (
His erection.
)
    Robbie      Yeah.
    Lulu      Gone limp on me.
    Robbie      Yeah.
    Lulu      Why’s that then?
    Pause
.
    Robbie      I was there. I was all ready. I was ready to deal.
    Lulu      Right.
    Robbie      There’s a few other dealers. Stood around the dance floor. I take up my position. I’m ready.
    And this bloke comes up to me. Really, really nice-looking.
    And he says: ‘You selling?’ Yeah, I say. Fifteen quid a go.
    And the way he looks at me I know he fancies me, you know?
    And he reaches in his pocket and – oh shit. So stupid.
    Lulu      It was the knife yes?
    Robbie      There wasn’t a knife.
    Lulu      Gun?
    Robbie      He. Look. He reaches in his pocket and says:
    ‘Shit I left my money in my other jeans. Oh shit, now how am I gonna have a good time, now how am I gonna enjoy myself?’
    Lulu