Ugly Lies the Bone (NHB Modern Plays)

By Lindsey Ferrentino

After three tours in Afghanistan, Jess finally returns to Florida. In a small town on the Space Coast, as the final shuttle is about to launch, Jess must confront her scars – and a home that may have changed even more than her.
Experimenting with a pioneering virtual reality therapy, she builds a breathtaking new world where she can escape her pain. There, she begins to restore her relationships, her life and, slowly, herself.
Award-winning American playwright Lindsey Ferrentino made her UK debut with this honest and funny new drama, at the National Theatre in February 2017.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Release date: Feb 23, 2017
• ISBN: 9781780018591

Lindsey Ferrentino

Lindsey Ferrentino is a New York-based playwright originally from Florida. Lindsey’s critically acclaimed Ugly Lies the Bone premiered at Roundabout Theatre Company in the Underground, has been produced at theatres across the United States, and marks both her National Theatre and UK theatre debut. She is the recipient of the National Art Club’s Kesserling Prize, Laurents/Hatcher Citation of Excellence, ASCAP Cole Porter Playwriting Prize, Holland New Voices Playwriting Award, Paul Newman Drama Award, made the 2015 Kilroys List, finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn, nominated for the Outer Critics’ Circle John Gassner Award, and is the only two-time finalist for the Kendeda Playwriting Prize. In the 2017–18 New York theatre season, Lindsey’s Amy and the Orphans was produced at Roundabout Theatre Company and her play This Flat Earth at Playwright’s Horizons. Lindsey’s plays have been developed at Atlantic Theater Company, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, Playwrights Horizons, MCC, The O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, Premiere Stages, Florida Studio Theater, The Great Plains Theater Conference, 3LD Art and Technology Center, Manhattan Repertory Theater, and The Marilyn Monroe Theater in New York. Her work has been seen regionally at The Kennedy Center in DC, The Alliance Theater in Georgia, The Blank Theater in LA, and The Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. Ferrentino is a recipient of the Edward Albee Playwriting Fellowship and Residency as well as Blue Ridge Playwriting Fellowship. Her short stories have been published in New York Magazine and Aaduna Literary Magazine. Lindsey holds a BFA from New York University and two MFAs in playwriting from Hunter College and the Yale School of Drama.

Book preview

As house lights fade, ‘When Johnny Comes Marching Home’ plays in the dark, preferably the folk-rock version by Glen Navis.

‘When Johnny Comes Marching Home’

When Johnny comes marching home

When Johnny comes marching home again,

Hurrah! Hurrah!

When Johnny comes marching home again,

Hurrah! Hurrah!

Well the men will cheer and the boys will shout

And the ladies they will all turn out

And we’ll all feel gay when

Johnny comes marching HOME!

A woman’s voice speaks on top.

VOICE ( Off. ) Open your eyes.

Lights up to a small lit area downstage where JESS stands alone, in an army-green T-shirt and men’s sweatpants. Her hair, forehead, and ears are wrapped tightly in a scarf. She wears a virtual reality headset.

Get ready for the Jubilee,

Hurrah! Hurrah!

We’ll give the hero three times three –

JESS Excuse me – Can – Hello?!

Hurrah! Hurrah!

The laurel wreath is ready now

To place upon his loyal brow

And we’ll all feel gay –

JESS HELLO?

– when Johnny comes marching HOME…

JESS rips off the headset and music cuts off. Her face and neck are severely distorted by third-degree burns. Skin is stretched tight with the rippled sheen of melted plastic.

VOICE Are you alright?

Is there a problem?

JESS That song.

Are you kidding me?

VOICE It’s just a stock song file. Looks like I have – let’s see – a few patriotic anthems and… Paul Simon!

JESS Look at me.

Aren’t I suffering enough?

VOICE Loud music will overwhelm your senses… It’s the same as when you were a child and your mother said look over here so you didn’t notice while she ripped your Band-Aid off… that’s all I’ll do. Distract the brain with enough stimuli, it can’t THINK about your pain. It simply won’t have time…

JESS …

VOICE ( Tapping the mic. ) Am I still coming through the / speakers?

JESS Yes.

VOICE Any pain?

JESS Pressure. Under my right eye.

VOICE From the headset? When fitting equipment on the first day, I need to make sure the headset itself doesn’t add to your pain.

JESS It took three surgeries to give me back my eyelid. So no. It’s always there.

VOICE I cannot undo what’s been done, but I can help you move on from here, if you’ll let me.

JESS And you think this will work?

VOICE I hope.

In time.

JESS … How long – ?

VOICE That’s what you’re helping me to figure out.

JESS Just tell me –

How. Long.

VOICE Honestly, I don’t know yet, exactly. Very few people are – well, frankly, injured enough to qualify for this