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    If There Is I Haven't Found It Yet: A Play
    If There Is I Haven't Found It Yet: A Play
    If There Is I Haven't Found It Yet: A Play
    Ebook82 pages1 hour

    If There Is I Haven't Found It Yet: A Play

    By Nick Payne

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    About this ebook

    Fifteen-year-old Anna is bullied by her classmates for being overweight. Her mother, Fiona, decides to transfer her to the school where she teaches, but that only makes things worse. Anna's father, George, is no help—he's too obsessed with saving the world. Just as Anna gets suspended for head-butting one of her tormenters, her uncle Terry arrives for an unannounced visit. A heartbroken, filthy-mouthed slacker, Terry reaches out to Anna in a way that no one ever has. Their unexpected friendship sends her parents' rocky marriage into a tailspin as the whole family wonders what—or who—really needs saving.
    Nick Payne's If There Is I Haven't Found It Yet is a brilliantly sad, humorous, and empathetic play about a family stuck somewhere between knowing what the problem is and doing something about it.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateMar 19, 2013
    ISBN9781466840737
    If There Is I Haven't Found It Yet: A Play
    Author

    Nick Payne

    Nick Payne won the 2009 George Devine Award for Most Promising Playwright. In 2010, he was the Pearson Playwright-in-Residence at the Bush Theatre. His firstplay, If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet, was producedat the Bush Theatre in October 2009. His second play, Wanderlust, was produced at the Royal Court Theatre in September 2010.

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    • 4/5
      Great story; I love how it was given. Good job writer! If you have some great stories like this one, you can publish it on Novel Star, just submit your story to hardy@novelstar.top

    Book preview

    If There Is I Haven't Found It Yet - Nick Payne

    The author and publisher have provided this e-book to you for your personal use only. You may not make this e-book publicly available in any way. Copyright infringement is against the law. If you believe the copy of this e-book you are reading infringes on the author’s copyright, please notify the publisher at: us.macmillanusa.com/piracy.

    For Mum and Dad

    I would suggest that even the most sophisticated and determined environmentalist … struggles with the fact that, under the shadow of future cataclysm, there is a life to be lived within the constraints of the here-and-now.

    —Anthony Giddens, The Politics of Climate Change

    Whatever we do today to reduce emissions will matter for our children’s generation and beyond, but not for our own. The problem of climate is one of legacy.

    —Gabrielle Walker and Sir David King, The Hot Topic

    ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

    In the United States: John Buzzetti, Jim Carnahan, Annie Funke, Michelle Gomez, Jake Gyllenhaal, Todd Haimes, Osheen Jones, Michael Longhurst, Brían F. O’Byrne, Jill Rafson, and all of the staff at Roundabout Theatre Company.

    In the United Kingdom: Michael Begley, Pandora Colin, Pippa Ellis, Jane Fallowfield, Ben Hall, Ailish O’Connor, Josie Rourke, Roxana Silbert, Rafe Spall, Tessa Walker, Lily Williams, Kate Wasserberg (and all of the actors who took part in a workshop at the Finborough Theatre), and all of the staff at the Bush Theatre.

    The panel of the George Devine Award for 2009: Lucy Caldwell, Chris Campbell, Harriet Devine, Bijan Sheibani, Graham Whybrow, Alexandra Wood, and Jenny Worton.

    Minna, Mum.

    Last, I would like to acknowledge the following books and their authors: How Bad Are Bananas? by Mike Berners-Lee, What’s Left? by Nick Cohen, The Politics of Climate Change by Anthony Giddens, Heat by George Monbiot, Six Degrees by Mark Lynas, and The Hot Topic by Gabrielle Walker and Sir David King.

    CONTENTS

    Title Page

    Copyright Notice

    Dedication

    Epigraphs

    Acknowledgments

    Production information (New York production)

    Production information (London production)

    Cast list

    Play

    About the Author

    Copyright

    If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet had its U.S. premiere in New York City on September 20, 2012, at the Laura Pels Theatre of the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre.

    Cast

    GEORGE Brían F. O’Byrne

    FIONA Michelle Gomez

    ANNA Annie Funke

    TERRY Jake Gyllenhaal

    Creative Team

    DIRECTOR Michael Longhurst

    SETS Beowulf Boritt

    COSTUMES Susan Hilferty

    LIGHTS Natasha Katz

    ORIGINAL MUSIC AND SOUND Obadiah Eaves

    If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet had its world premiere in London on October 17, 2009, at the Bush Theatre.

    Cast

    GEORGE Michael Begley

    FIONA Pandora Colin

    ANNA Ailish O’Connor

    TERRY Rafe Spall

    Creative Team

    DIRECTOR Josie Rourke

    DESIGNER Lucy Osborne

    LIGHTING DESIGNER Oliver Fenwick

    SOUND DESIGNER Emma Laxton

    ASSISTANT DIRECTOR Ant Stones

    COMPANY STAGE MANAGER Angela Riddell

    DEPUTY STAGE MANAGER Dave Blakemore

    SCENIC ARTIST Lara Etherton

    DESIGN ASSISTANT James Turner

    STAGE MANAGER (COVER) Xenia Lewis

    PRODUCTION ELECTRICIAN Chole Kenward

    CAST

    GEORGE, male, 40s.

    FIONA, female, 40s.

    ANNA, female, 15. Anna is considerably overweight.

    TERRY, male, 20s.

    Ellipses following a character’s name indicate a desire to speak but an inability to know quite what to say.

    GEORGE: When I was younger, I adored polar bears. My, my father used to subscribe to National Geographic, and for years I had polar bear paraphernalia all over the walls of my bedroom—I even had a pair of polar bear swimming trunks. But not long after my wife had given birth to our daughter, I insisted the three of us take a trip to Edinburgh Zoo to see the last two polar bears in Britain—a couple, Barney and Mercedes, would you believe. But when we arrived—and I’ll never forget this—when we arrived at the zoo, we were told that Barney had died: he had choked to death on a child’s toy that had been thrown into his pool. So, so, I suppose you could say that my interest in the fate of our little blue planet began with a love of all things Ursus maritimus.

    School corridor, day. ANNA and FIONA. ANNA wears her PE outfit. ANNA dabs a tissue on her slightly bloody nose throughout.

    FIONA: Why don’t we just start at the beginning? (Meaning tissue) Here.

    FIONA hands ANNA a fresh tissue and removes the old one.

    FIONA: Keep it pressed. Try not to dab it.

    ANNA: I can taste it. The blood, in the back of my throat.

    Beat.

    FIONA: I used to loathe PE, you know.

    ANNA: What?

    FIONA: The horror, my goodness, the horror of having to

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