Cup Final Day: A Play

By Alan Elsner

Morris Winslow and his wife Rachel are about to celebrate the bar mitzvah of their younger son Andrew in London in May 1967. A crisis is brewing in the Middle East with Arab states threatening to annihilate Israel. Morris' sister Yardena and her husband arrive from Israel to attend the bar mitzvah. Morris and Yardena have not seen each other since 1939 when she left their home in Poland for Palestine. Morris has never told anyone what he went through during the war or how he survived. During this play, old wounds will be bared, traumas explored and we will see the effect on all of Morris' loved ones. Meanwhile, Morris' elder son Charlie is interested only in one thing --the biggest soccer game of the year -- the Cup Final. We explore the relationship between ordinary life and extraordinary events.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Dec 21, 2022
• ISBN: 9781667876269

Book preview

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Cup Final Day

A play

© 2022, Alan Elsner.

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

ISBN (eBook): 978-1-66787-626-9

Contents

SCENE I

SCENE II

SCENE III

SCENE IV

SCENE V

SCENE VI

Cast breakdown: 6 characters: two adult males, two adult females, two boys, aged 13 and 15. We also hear voices of a BBC news reader and a TV soccer commentator.

Cast List:

Morris Winslow, 46, pharmacist, Jewish, originally from Poland, speaks English with slight accent. His sister calls him by his Polish name Marek.

Rachel Winslow, 40, his wife, a skilled seamstress, speaks with slight Cockney accent, presents a British keep calm and carry on attitude.

Charles (Charlie) Winslow, 15, their elder son, fit, muscular, coming into his own as a young man, cocky smile, confident, tough.

Andrew Winslow, 13, their younger son, on the verge of adolescence, voice has not changed yet, slight, delicate, sensitive and studious

Yardena Keshet, 50, Morris’s sister, speaks English with an accent, short-cropped hair, heavily-lined face, deeply tanned. Her brother sometimes calls her by her Polish name, Jarmila.

Nimrod Keshet, 57, Yardena’s husband, retired colonel, still thinks he’s in the army, has a military style and bearing, speaks excellent, almost unaccented English which he learned serving with British forces in World War II.

SCENE I

We are in the Winslow’s kitchen in a suburb of northwest London. A smallish room with a stove, fridge and small dining table. An large radio stands on a shelf. MORRIS enters wearing a bathrobe over pajamas. He switches on a light, looks furtively around, then reaches into a cupboard and pulls out a bottle of whiskey and a shot glass. He pours one shot, drinks it in one gulp and then another. He washes the glass, dries it with a tea towel, then replaces both glass and bottle in the cupboard, switches off the light and exits.

RACHEL enters, wearing dressing gown, hair in hairnet. She switches on the light, opens the cupboard and checks the level of the whiskey bottle, takes out the shot glass and feels it to see if it’s wet, then replaces it shaking her head. Next, she fills the kettle with water turns on the radio. We hear the news playing in the background as the scene unfolds. It begins with the pips marking the hour.

NEWSREADER (plummy British BBC accent)

Good morning from BBC Radio in London. It is eight o’clock, May 20, 1967. The news. It’s Cup Final Day. Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur will kick off this afternoon at Wembley Stadium, the first time two London teams have reached the final. One hundred thousand people are expected to attend. The nation looks forward to a splendid contest as both sides strive for glory. And may the best team prevail!

RACHEL (opens door and shouts upstairs)

Charlie, Andrew, time to get up boys. Breakfast time.

(Yardena enters, yawning)

YARDENA

Good morning Rachel.

RACHEL (turns around, surprised)

Oh Yardena. Up already after such a late night? Sorry. I didn’t mean to disturb you. Did you sleep well? Was the bed comfortable?

YARDENA

Don’t worry, I’m a very early riser, up before five every day at the kibbutz. The cows don’t milk themselves. But Rachel, where is my brother? Where is Marek? I expected to see him when we arrived. I was so excited. And he’d gone to bed. How could he have done that? Is he sick?

RACHEL

Who Morris? No, he’s right as rain. Just tired. Couldn’t keep his eyes open. He has been looking forward to seeing you. He’s just…well let’s just say he’s been very tired lately. This time of year is hard for him. Must be hard for you too. (Pause) I’m so excited to finally meet you properly after all these years. And here you are, larger than life. I can’t believe you actually came. Finally you’ll see your brother again and my boys get to meet their Uncle and Aunt.

YARDENA

What’s special about this time of year?

RACHEL

On account of your parents.

NEWSREADER

And now to the Middle East, where fears of war are growing. The United Nations has agreed to a demand from Egyptian President Nasser to withdraw an international peacekeeping force from the Sinai Peninsula.

YARDENA

What did he say? Make it louder please. I need to hear.

NEWSREADER

Egypt has massed tens of thousands of troops in the Sinai and President Nasser is vowing to wipe Israel off the map.

RACHEL

But, just look at me, greeting you in my hairnet. What you must think of me? I didn’t imagine you’d be up so early after your long trip. I’ll get dressed in a bit. But I’ve got to get those boys moving first.

YARDENA

Quiet. Please, I need to listen.

NEWSREADER

And today’s weather. It will be bright and sunny in London and mostly cloudy in the north. It will rain all day in Scotland. (Rachel switches the radio off.)

RACHEL

I don’t like to hear this talk about war and such. It sets Morris off. The last thing we need in this house is another war. Cuppa tea?

(There is a lengthy pause)

YARDENA

I would take a coffee please.

RACHEL

Sorry love, you’re in England. Coffee’s for continentals.

YARDENA (sighs)

Then I suppose tea will be fine. Strong please, black, no sugar.

RACHEL

Who drinks their tea without milk? And you working with cows. Oh well. To each his own. (The kettle whistles, she takes it off the stove, pours some loose tea leaves into a pot, adds water and places a tea cosy over it.) Got to let it sit and steep for a few minutes.