Alan I’ve seen you. I’ve seen the days when you’re heavy on your feet and the days when the shadows are under your eyes. I’ve been watching it for years and always I’ve thought to myself: ‘She deserves more.’ (Beat.) You deserve more, Eve … You know that, don’t you?
Eve It’s just lately. It’s just a bad bit of luck.
Alan You want to look after your daughter, your mother? Think of what you’re doing with your life. Think what you’re doing to them –
Eve Don’t you dare –
Alan No, I will, I will. Because some things we can control –
She stares at him.
Can’t this be simple? Can’t this be my gift to you?
Lights down.
SCENE ELEVEN
WHY HAVE IT HARD?
The band plays ‘Why Have it Hard?’. Evening. Eve enters her house and begins to tidy the kitchen frantically. Iris is in the yard digging up dahlias, re-planting, perplexed, muttering. Lisa is in the living room with curtains closed, headphones on, reading a book. Eve stops suddenly, exhausted, leans on the table.
Alan (sung)
There’s a gentle path that softly thins
There’s an open door banging in the wind
There’s a simple song for us to sing
Does it make me weak to want it?
Chorus.
Why have it hard, love? Why take it so
Rough, why can’t you know
There are answers to all of these questions?
Why have it hard?
There’s a sleepy end to this wild parade
Tie the streamers up, pack the band away
There’s music where the quiet plays
And does it make you weak to want it?
Repeat chorus.
Alan (sung)
And my heart is the loudest drum
And my hopes are oceans crashing
And my arms are open, asking
Why have it hard?
Why have it hard?
Iris watches the flowers, waiting for them to grow. Danny enters, goes to Eve, hugs her. She turns to look at him, smiles. Lights down as the song ends, replaced by sparse percussion.
SCENE TWELVE
ONE DAY I WANT TO GET STRAIGHT
Food bank. The band continues the rhythm as Steph, Theresa, Gabi and Faisa move through the set, picking up tins, packets of dried food etc. Eve is alone elsewhere clutching bills, bank statements.
Eve (staring out) Deficit of £117.89 minus £18.88 equals … £99.1 pence. Cuts … cuts … (Looking through papers.) The phone, the laptop …? Direct debits already gone. Rent’s due on Friday. Cuts … cuts … £177.63 minus £99.01 = £78.62. (Beat.) £78.62 for food this month, £19.65 for food this week … 4 pounds and 91 pence each for food this week …
Faisa (sung)
One day I wanna get straight
One day I wanna get straight
I’m not asking for riches
Or an overflowing plate
But one day I wanna get straight
I’ve been working for the money
For the money I owe
And it’s taking the best part of me
I’ve been sleeping with the worry
Of the money I owe
It’s talking through the small hours to me
Faisa/ Steph/ Theresa/ Gabi (repeat chorus)
One day I wanna …
Faisa (sung)
Come take me, take me
To another old town
Where no one knows my name
Where the wind won’t blow sharp
In the winter time
And I’m new with each new day
Faisa/ Steph/ Theresa/ Gabi (sung)
One day I wanna get straight
One day I wanna get straight
I’m not asking for riches
Or an overflowing plate
But one day I wanna
One day I’m gonna
One day I wanna get straight
Eve looks around at the stacks of food, overwhelmed. Steph crosses with a box of tins, wearing a volunteer’s uniform. Seeing her, Eve turns sharply to leave.
Steph Eve …?
Eve turns to her, forces a smile.
You blanking me now?
Eve You working here?
Steph Volunteering. Could do without it today – I’m cream-crackered.
Eve (looking round) The kids been playing up again?
Steph (shaking her head) Started last night in this office in town. Six hours cleaning on me tod. I was talking to the Henry Hoover by the end of it.
Eve I meant to ring you back this week – my mum’s been all over the place.
Steph Don’t stress, love, I know how it goes.
Eve (turning) I was just having a nose, so …
Steph You’re here now – where’s your voucher?
Eve My what?
Steph From the Job Centre – to prove you’re in need.
Eve I’m not ‘in need’.
Steph (indicating others in earshot) Don’t let them hear that. (Putting items in a box. Low.) You like Angel Delight? Chickpeas?
Eve No. Actually thanks, but –
Steph Don’t get embarrassed. It’s only me.
Eve Who’s embarrassed?
Steph (packing food) You know, if you’re in a corner, me and the girls from the shop are gonna club together – start buying in bulk.
Eve What’ve I got to be embarrassed about?
Steph If you need any loo rolls, bar of soap …
Eve I’ve actually got some agency work lined up. Or I will have.
Steph And if you need someone for Iris, me and Theresa’ve got a rota going – for the kids –
Eve She’s not a kid.
Steph Eve, you’re not coping. You’re losing weight –
Eve Who do you think you’re talking to?
Steph You. Stood in front of me with handbags under your eyes.
Eve (turning to go) I know what you’re doing.
Steph (following) Eve …? Do you want your food or not?
Eve Keep your voice down.
Steph (shoving the box at her) Who’s listening?
Eve (shoving it back, speaking low) You were always the same. Ever since we were kids and you used to pull my skirt up in front of the boys.
Steph We were six. Are you not over that by now?
Eve Always been looking for every opportunity to give me a dig, knock me down a peg –
Steph Only when you needed it.
Eve Jealous. ’Cause I worked hard, ’cause I wanted something and everything wasn’t just a laugh.
Steph Still got yourself pregnant by the biggest knobhead in the class, didn’t you? He disappeared into a big puff of smoke – I wasn’t too jealous of that.
Eve Fuck off, Steph.
Eve shoves the box at Steph as she moves away. It falls to the floor, tins rolling.
Steph You never thought maybe I was proud of you? Maybe I was proud to have a best mate like you. Maybe I’m alright with what I am and what I’ve got?
Eve stops and listens.
I’ve never been jealous. That was in your head. And what does that say about you, eh? What does that say about you?
Eve exits. Lights down.
SCENE THIRTEEN
CUTS
Eve sits on the floor bathed in the blue light of a laptop screen.
Eve £14 for a lipstick kiss + £20 for six used cotton buds + £25 for fingernail clippings with polish … Postmaster 3000 in London wants to me to lick a stamp and send it back to him: 20 quid … + £20 for ten eyelashes = £99. Everything’s in demand somewhere. And in the corners of the net are the niche-est market places.
Eve takes a pair of scissors and begins to cut off her nails as she speaks.
There’s girls on these sites selling pictures of themselves. No faces – just fragments, angles, selfies and mirror shots. £13 for a thigh + £18 for the whole leg + £28 for breasts + a tenner for the foot if that’s your k
ind of thing + £40 for a fully body shot … £13 + £18 + £28 + £10 + £40 = £109. I could do a roast Sunday. I could buy Lisa some new clothes. (Beat.) John28 wants a private web chat. £200 quid and for that he wants every inch. Every detail. I could pay the credit card bill. Stop them ringing every day. (Beat.) £750 egg donation + £30 blood plasma + £40 blood platelets = £820. Egg donation every month, plasma every 48 hours, platelets every two weeks = £15,500 a year. £7,000 to rent a womb, £10,000 for a kidney= £17,000. Could go higher. Go further …
Eve closes her eyes, takes the scissors, takes a deep breath and slowly begins to cut off her hair. The music becomes discordant, chaotic as she cuts, hair falling. Music slows.
Eve (sung)
My weight in gold, in silver and lead
My diamond bones, my dreaming head
The price of me in black and red
I’m featherlight, I’m deficit
Chorus.
Come break me down, come crush me tight
My carbon eyes are burning bright
And the way you talk, it sounds so nice
But you’ll comfort me with a smile and a knife
My hair, my clothes, my heart, my hope
The lines on my eyes and the letters I wrote
The sum of me in black and red
I’m feather light, I’m deficit
Repeat chorus. Lights down.
SCENE FOURTEEN
PERFECT
Night. Eve lies in bed, not asleep. Danny enters quietly in a crumpled cheap suit, no tie.
Eve How did it go?
Danny Go back to sleep.
Eve You think I’ve been asleep? Where’ve you been?
Danny Just walking. Round the park.
Eve What, in the dark? Like a pervert?
Danny Yeah, exactly like a pervert.
Eve How did it go?
Danny It didn’t. Don’t worry about it –
Eve But you got there alright?
Danny There’ll be something else. Just don’t get wound up.
Eve You were late, weren’t you?
Danny Bloody hell, have a little bit of faith.
Eve I told you to leave loads of time.
Danny I was early. Bright eyed, bushy tailed, handsome and dazzling.
Eve Where’s your tie? I told you to keep the tie on.
Danny Why’d you always think – ?
Eve You didn’t wear the tie, did you?
Danny I didn’t mess it up. (Beat.) I wore the tie. We all wore our ties. And our shiny shoes. Kids and old fellas and women in suits, ’bout a hundred of us all shuffling in to that great big shining hall … And they had all these stalls set out … Lists where you could sign up. Voluntary. Charities. Community groups … No one paying. The only one actually recruiting was the army.
Eve So why would they send you …?
Danny ’Cause I went to a job interview today, didn’t I? They get to tick that box and file that data and I’ve jumped through one more hoop … Wandering like an urchin asking: ‘Who’s got the jobs? Where are the jobs?’ (Beat.) If Jimmy could’ve seen me today …
Eve (taking his hand) My dad took dole for ten years after they closed the docks. He had to. And he was never ashamed.
Danny I didn’t mess it up.
Eve I know. I know.
She hugs him.
Danny It’s not like I don’t get it, Evie. I get it. Your mum, and Lisa’s school and …
Eve And what?
Danny Thing is we’ve got to keep smiling somehow and if … if I can make you smile that’s something I can do –
She kisses him. He pulls her to him. Beat. He draws back, squinting at her in the low light.
Danny What have you …?
Eve What?
Danny (sitting up) What have you done?
Eve (of her hair) I cut it. Don’t make a thing of it.
Danny All your hair, Evie …
Eve I wanted it short.
Danny It doesn’t look like you.
Eve Well, it is me.
Danny Just like that? You cut it yourself?
Eve It’s not that bad, is it?
Danny You love your hair.
Eve I love you. I love Lisa and my mum. Hair’s just hair.
Danny What you talking like that for? Evie?
Eve I sold it.
Danny You what?
Eve Gabi told me about this site. Ten pound an ounce if it’s in good condition.
Danny You sold it?
Eve Extensions. It’s a big market now. Untreated hair’s a premium.
Danny Are you messing about?
Eve I’ll put it in the post – get seventy-five quid for the lot.
Danny You sold your hair?
Eve We’re skint, Danny.
Danny We could’ve sold something else.
Eve Like what?
Danny You should’ve told me.
Eve You wouldn’t have let me.
Danny That’s why you should’ve told me.
Eve I went to the cash machine after work today. Thought I had twenty quid to get some shopping in. I’d planned it. It was there. And then I’m just staring at this machine, at these minus numbers and I’m trying to do the sum in my head. Because it must be one of the bills has gone up. It must be it’s gone up and we’ve gone over and then they’ve fined us. And I feel like walking into the bank and calling them all thieves. But I’m just staring, and I realise there’s a queue behind me and I must’ve been standing there for ages. And someone coughs. So I just walk away. I take my card and walk away. (Beat.) This sorts the fine. Puts us back to nothing.
Danny You didn’t have to do that.
Eve I went round three admin agencies today. One glance at my CV, they look right through me. They want twenty-year-olds with business degrees to do the photocopying these days.
Danny I’ll get my back pay any day now –
Eve Everything has to go on rent now, Danny – everything.
Danny You didn’t have to.
Eve I had to do something.
He strokes her face, touches the edges of her hair.
Tell the truth: is it awful?
Danny You’re perfect.
He kisses her.
Perfect … Perfect …
SCENE FIFTEEN
THE CRUNCH
The band plays off-kilter rhythms. In the bedroom Iris chases an invisible bird: batting at the air, bumping into things, increasingly determined. Lisa enters brushing her hair, watching Iris. In the kitchen Danny is making breakfast, Eve is searching through her handbag.
Danny Do you want toast?
Eve Lisa needs to eat something.
Danny I’m asking you.
Eve I’ve got to be at the Job Centre in half an hour.
Eve’s phone rings in her bag. She digs for it, squints at the number, answers it.
Hello …
Danny Lisa! You want toast?
Lisa (calling from upstairs) Nan’s chasing the budgie again.
Eve moves into the yard to escape the noise.
Iris (making a jump for it) There! The bastard …
Danny (shouting up to her) Iris! There’s no bird, there never was a bird!
Iris Bloody bastard thing. It was Jimmy wanted it, not me. Always pecking and shitting on everything. (Leaping in the air.) There!
Eve looks to the noise. She turns away, talking quietly, urgently.
Danny Lisa?! Am I making you breakfast or not?
Lisa approaches, searching for her shoes. Iris continues to pursue the bird noisily.
(Searching the kitchen.) Where’s the bloody … Eve, where’s the toaster?!
Lisa She eBayed it. She’s eBayed everything.
Danny Jesus. What we gonna eat now?
Lisa Bread. Obviously.
Upstairs Iris goes crashing into something.
Iris Stinking, shitting, squawking thing …
Lisa Someone’ll have to catch it for her.
Danny There is no bird
.
Lisa In her world there is.
Lisa finds her shoes while Danny butters bread and Iris stalks around after the bird.
Eve (re-entering the kitchen) Lisa, what you still doing here?
Lisa I’m going.
Eve Then go.
Lisa goes to the living room, searching for books, packing her bag, in no hurry. Iris makes another leap and falls over, yelling in frustration.
Danny (shouting up) Iris! I’ve caught the budgie! I’ve caught it and broken its bloody neck.
Iris sits slowly, taking this in, perturbed, muttering.
(To Eve.) Don’t look at me like that: it’s the only way to deal with her. (Beat.) Who was on the phone?
Eve stares at him.
Danny If it’s the PPI tell them to piss off.
Eve It was the girl from the letting agency.
He turns to her sharply.
She said they need their money.
Danny No, I talked to her last week – I told her.
Eve She said the payment was two hundred short.
Danny They’ll just have to wait for it.
Eve They’ve waited a week. It should’ve been there.
Danny Don’t let her scare you. She’s just putting the pressure on.
Eve Why wasn’t it there?
Danny We’ve got rights here, Evie –
Eve Why wasn’t it there, Danny?
Danny I lent it to Pav.
Eve You …?
Danny It was my back pay, wasn’t it?
Eve It was our money, it was our rent.
Danny He said it’d only be for a day, tide him over till his benefits came in.
Eve Then where is it?
Danny He missed a meeting or something: they sanctioned him.
Eve You gave it away?
Danny He’ll pay me back.
Eve When? Now? Can I go round and get it now?
Danny He came here crying, Evie – you should’ve seen him. He’s in bits with this bedroom tax business. They were gonna evict him –
The Sum Page 5