An Anthology of Plays

By Paul Stansby

Three plays set around bars & pubs; First one set in North East Cheshire. Second one set in Wisconsin USA. Third one set in Cornwall, UK

• Language: English
• Publisher: Paul Stansby
• Release date: Sep 13, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005717674

Book preview

AN ANTHOLOGY OF PLAYS

© Paul Stansby 2018-2022

A Short walk to... a French Restaurant.

Second Rate, Adequate, Passable.

Let's Get Down the Pub.

A Short Walk To.... A French Restaurant 

Setting a Pub on Friday night somewhere in England

    Number Four In the Short Walk Series of Six Plays

Charlie, the main character, every week goes down the pub on a Friday night and afterwards takes a rest on a park bench on his way home and lives out his fantasy job when he dozes off to sleep. His current job being a bank clerk/cashier. Each play portrays a dream, this fourth play is written eighteen months after third one. The idea of a series of plays using the same theme is that one can be performed each night of a performance week in a theatre, there’s still two more to write which are now planned out. The sets are simple, this particular play has a large cast of 28 so adjustments on numbers maybe necessary, if of course its ever staged, but for a read its fine and relatively short with just over a 11000 word count.

Act One Scene One,

Charlie entering the Pub, George, whose trade is a plumber, is at the bar with his girlfriend Greta.

‘How was France?’

‘Excellent except we were there for the my Uncle’s funeral, George‘

‘We heard, how old?’

‘Seventy-one’

‘Not too old, not too young either, before rheumatism and Alzheimers sets in so in control of his faculties till death, where in France’

‘Le Verdon Sur Mere, The Medoc region in France George’

‘That’s serious wine country’

‘It is Greta, unfortunately you can only buy it air side to bring it back, but we brought back my aunt’

‘That’ll be some company over here till she’s over her loss, your cousins will have got the house’

‘Oh yes, my aunt has the right to live in it till her death but I think she’ll back for good with my mother, she’s in her late sixties and my mum is fifty, but I got left his fishing boat’

‘Uh huh, you fish?’

‘Not for a while, I used to be out in the boat with my uncle during summer holidays then university days and backpacking down to Spain and South America took over’

‘Good, if it can traverse the English channel you could load it full of wine, maybe a little far as I’m just looking it up on line, what do you think George’

‘Too far, sounds a little like that film that Russell Crowe is in, the one where he inherits a chateau and vineyard from his Uncle, a lot grander than a boat, my mother’s a Russell Crowe fan and that’s film is one of her favourites, she watches it once a month’

‘Oh right, I’ve missed that one’

‘Provence, so that’s nowhere near the neck of the woods you were in, you’ve a picture of the boat’

‘Yep, here it is on the phone’

‘Let’s see, now that looks like something to reckon with, a good sized boat for fishing in the Atlantic, you’ll need to save up to put a full tank in her’

‘That’s a valid point, 800 litres costs a lot’

‘Around what I spend in here in a month and we’ve seen all those yellow shirts protesting about the price of fuel on TV in France’

‘Half of that is my Gins’

‘It is Greta, so how long is this boat’

‘Thirty-eight feet’

‘You have to moor it’

‘The mooring is paid for while I have the boat, he bought the berth, if I sell the boat the mooring is then property of my cousins’

‘Sounds a little more affordable, large enough to live on but we’re nowhere near the sea here, so in this port or marina anything worth taking note of, indulging in’

‘There’s a good restaurant, the bar for the locals is okay, a tapas bar has opened and another restaurant selling serious cuisine and great wines’

‘One for the aficionados, bound to be if there’s yachts around, French adore food and wine, well we do but not enough of us to warrant French restaurants sprouting up on street corners’

‘Fish and Chips kill it with us’

‘It does Greta, washed down with Gin as opposed to a french Bordeaux, these Medoc wines I’m looking at now online cost more than a bottle of Gin’

‘I’ll stick to Gin’

‘Good Greta, one of those lasts you three days, a bottle of vin rouge one night’

‘Harry knows the region’

‘He knows a lot of places Greta, A drink for Charlie please barman as you pulled yourself away from the hot totty on the other side of the bar, still on the beer or you going to tread dangerously and have some vin de maison’

‘Beer’

‘I thought so and a Gin for Greta, a large one this time as we're on Eight till Ten stint of doubles being singles prices, so I’ve never experienced a French restaurant in France, I have here on rare occasions’

‘It’s good, the one I first mentioned my Uncle always went to, impeccable service and a good terrace’

‘Fish I expect’

‘Not forgetting the shell fish, Oysters, Sea snails, Large Prawns and the fish casserole with a mixture of them, except the Oysters’

‘There around £2.00 each here’

‘Not there, a dozen for eighteen euros Greta’

‘ You’d slip those down in minutes Greta, I’ve had them at a wedding reception, first item to be eaten, gone in a flash’

‘We must go’

‘We’ve got digs on Charlie’s yacht Greta, it’s far to this restaurant’

‘A hundred metres’

‘That’s near, a home from home almost, they sell beer’

‘They do’

‘Excellent, football?’

‘No, no onscreen entertainments’

‘Different tastes and socialising, going out is more for couples rather than one gaping at the TV watching a match, well you can do that at home with your mates and cheap booze, no doubt your new holiday destination now’

‘I’ve not thought about it much yet?,

‘Any pleasant and romantic memories down there in your youth, I’m kinda of recalling this movie again’

‘I did have some romances, and like in the movies it would be good to meet up again’

‘They're most likely with a pram and in full baby mode’

‘You’re old fashioned George, girl’s have changed’

‘My mother hasn’t, she always asking if you’re expecting’

‘No chance, bangs goes life and fun’

‘That does appear to happen, no wild weekends and beer nights on Wednesday with the footy with the lads’

‘I have to miss out on those’

‘You do Charlie with the clients that come in that bank you work in, a beer stench on your breath from the previous night would not work well’

‘Maybe he’ll re-kindle a past romance, girls often stay around the areas they grew up in’

‘You’ve seen that film too at my mother’s?’

‘Of course, she knows the lines off by heart George, they have bikes there Charlie’

‘They do, many, as it’s all flat’

‘We could go cycling George’

‘We no doubt will, go cycling, drink wine and eat fish, I'm looking online again, there’s a lot of chateaus with wineries who provide tasting of their wines and nudists beaches Greta’

‘Really, I need to tone up to go aux natureul, myself and my friends love our bikinis’

‘Well you won’t catch me on them Greta, I’m shorts and t-shirt, Charlie?’

‘I’ve never thought about it, I prefer a different sort of hanging out, especially in the pub’

‘Well put Charlie, so on your Friday night short hike back from here to your apartment via the park bench which dreams you think may come to mind, happen in your head’

‘It is a fine night again for a rest on the bench, I’ve a choice of two I think, fishing and the restaurant, I’ve never partook in much wine tasting or beach activities in my youth’

‘So viticulture and beaches are out, or even a tour de France competitor’

‘I never cycled, my Uncle and Aunt drove everywhere, so no doubt on my next visit I will’

‘You’ve got a month a year holidays to enjoy this boat, that’s not a lot, so maybe you’ll be dreaming of robbing the bank you work in’

‘May till September is good weather there, I remember that after my O and A levels, a month a year holidays does rather bring it all down to earth, we’ll see, I can’t see me being a fisherman’

‘That’s romantic, living by the sea and fishing’

‘Well out of touch with reality though Greta, you need to be a Harry to work that one in with his writings. I think those sort of guys are about one in fifty million, maybe a hundred’

‘I wonder where he is this week as his wine has not been uncorked in readiness for a Friday night visit’

‘Two more and A Gin is it as I see you’re all empty, no Harry is in LA, but there’s a Manu Man City at Five O’clock on Sunday so a possible if he’s on route to Europe’

‘A big match, where’s Mark tonight?’

‘I’m Glenn filling in for Mark, I normally do lunchtimes but Mark had told me not to serve the wine that has label taped to it with Harry written on so I know about Harry’

‘So the same again Glenn please’

‘Coming right up Charlie, I know your names, you're with the bank and George as his van is outside most days with his name and number on it’

‘Yes, it’s a good location to park your van for business, a good office as well as most of my clients pick me up, I just get my tools from out of the back of the van’

‘Here are the drinks gents, which Gin miss, Tanqueray?’

‘Gordon’s, Glenn, large over ice and no tonic as its now happy hour on doubles’

‘It works well with the girls the happy hour,’

‘It does, the girls make a V line for this place and keep all the lads in buying beers at full price’

‘The rounds of drinks are sizeable, what do you reckon Charlie’

‘Unfortunately Glenn banks can’t have a happy hour on loans, half price on loans wouldn’t work, cash is king here, having it coming in as opposed to loaning it out, a complete reversal’

‘I’m surprised there so many still in business with the low interest rates, little encouragement to save’

‘Oh they’re cutting back all the time, banking used to one of the safest jobs to be in, who knows perhaps I’ll have to fish with further cutbacks’

‘Puts a new meaning on the phrase gone fishing’

‘Waiting for the floats to sink so you can reel the fish in, too many sinkers and sea becomes as empty as the banks’

‘Online too’

‘We’re well hooked on that now George, almost all netted up’

‘Its pun time,