Holding the Man (NHB Modern Plays)

By Tommy Murphy

Based on the award-winning memoir by Timothy Conigrave, and adapted for the stage by acclaimed playwright Tommy Murphy, Holding the Man tells a remarkable true-life love story that speaks across generations, sexualities and cultures.
The course of teenage love rarely runs smooth, but it is a white-water adventure if you are secretly gay in an all-male school in 1970s Melbourne with a crush on the captain of the football team.
Against the odds, Tim and John develop a relationship that, for fifteen years, survives everything life throws at it - the separations, the discriminations, the temptations, the jealousies and the losses - until the only problem that love can't solve turns up to part them.
'Tommy Murphy is a bewitching playwright of startling originality' - Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton, Artistic Directors of Sydney Theatre Company
'fresh, frank and funny... a wrenchingly moving love story I defy anyone with a pulse not to relate to' - Evening Standard
'Compelling, wrenching… unflinching, devastating, moving and funny' - Sydney Morning Herald

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Release date: Oct 20, 2015
• ISBN: 9781780016696

Book preview

Characters

TIM

JOHN

Suggested Allocation of Roles

This adaptation was originally written for six actors: two actors playing Tim and John and the remaining four playing all the other characters, with meaningful and appropriate doubling where possible. It could also be performed with a larger cast.

For the original Australian and UK productions, the doubling was as follows:

ACT ONE

One

The actor playing TIM enters.

ACTOR PLAYING TIM (to the audience). Let’s begin.

A small puppet spaceman enters.

TIM (to the audience). At the end of the sixties the world seemed very exciting for a nine-year-old. Things were changing at an incredible rate.

The lunar surface. NEIL ARMSTRONG is in conversation with the familiar voices and beeps of HOUSTON MISSION CONTROL.

School. Meanwhile, TIM, nine years old, is sitting cross-legged next to KEVIN, watching the TV.

NEIL ARMSTRONG. Okay, Houston, I’m on the porch.

HOUSTON MISSION CONTROL. Roger, Neil. And we’re getting a picture on the TV.

NEIL ARMSTRONG. I’m at the foot of the ladder. Going to step off the LEM now. That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.

KEVIN. Is it really there? Tim, are they up there now on the moon?

KEVIN touches TIM’s leg.

TIM. Yeah.

NEIL ARMSTRONG. And Kevin’s touching my leg. Houston, do you copy?

HOUSTON MISSION CONTROL. Roger, Neil. We’re checking that.

TIM. The teachers are crying. Why? They’re crying.

KEVIN puts his arm around TIM.

HOUSTON MISSION CONTROL. We’re getting a heart rate off the graph, Neil.

NEIL ARMSTRONG. Yeah. I know.

KEVIN puts his lips to TIM’s cheek.

TIM. Don’t.

KEVIN. I wish you were a girl.

NEIL ARMSTRONG. Kind of stirring, a buzz coursing through me.

HOUSTON MISSION CONTROL. Roger, Neil. Just ride it out.

KEVIN. Tim…

TIM. Just try to pay attention, Kevin.

KEVIN. Maybe we shouldn’t play poofters any more.

TIM (aside). My God, I’m a poofter.

Two

Backstage at a shopping centre. TIM is alone. Enter an actor costumed as the SCARECROW from The Wizard of Oz.

SCARECROW. Who are you? You’re not supposed to be backstage.

TIM. I’m Tim Conigrave.

SCARECROW. Who?

TIM. I am a friend of Juliet’s. She’s in the centre-court floor-show with you.

SCARECROW. Oh, you’re Tim.

TIM. Yes, why? What have you heard about me?

SCARECROW. Nothing.

TIM. Must be terrifying in front of an audience. Your show was really good today.

SCARECROW. Yeah, well, it pays the bills. I’m not really… I mean, a lot of my ideas weren’t taken on board. Some. I went to NIDA.

TIM. What’s that?

SCARECROW. Acting school. The national drama school. I left after second year because it can be limiting – that’s the decision I made – but I mean I also do voice-overs and write but this isn’t really me because I’m saving up to go to the States. Juliet says you think you might be gay.

TIM. What? She told you?

SCARECROW. Yes.

TIM. But that’s our secret.

SCARECROW. I’m a bit of a role model for her and the others. I only wanted to say, mate, don’t you think it’s a bit early to make that decision? You’re only fifteen, aren’t you?

TIM. It’s not really a decision.

SCARECROW. You’ve got your whole life ahead of you.

TIM. I know.

SCARECROW. Do you have doubts?

TIM. No. Not since primary school. Now I have unrequited fantasies.

SCARECROW. Which is sweet but just don’t close off your options. That’s kind of a motto for me.

TIM. Okay.

SCARECROW. Okay.

Enter JULIET.

JULIET ( to SCARECROW). Sorry, Bruce. Sorry about ‘If I Only Had a Brain’.

SCARECROW. It happens. I know that. Anyone waiting for photos?

JULIET. Some.

SCARECROW exits.

TIM. I know why they talent spotted you at the Maldon Fête, Juliet.

JULIET. Thanks, Tim.

TIM. You made a lot of shoppers happy today.

JULIET. They’re doing Shakespeare at your school with my school next year. You should audition with me.

TIM. Me? I couldn’t do that.

JULIET. It’s Romeo and Juliet, Tim. I think I’ll get the role.

TIM. Because your name is Juliet?

JULIET. Not only that. Audition, Tim. We’d spend more time together.

TIM. I’m sad I can’t be your boyfriend, Dorothy.

JULIET. Oh, look, I’m sick of this. I mean, you say you’re gay, I’ve said that’s okay. Big deal.

TIM. I had to tell you because I went into such a spakko mood at the dance, outside, when we kissed, and I touched your breast and then went all quiet and then I wrote you that strange letter and I don’t have feelings about girls, but the guys at school? All the time. That guy, John, I pointed out at the dance –

JULIET. He had his girlfriend.

TIM. So did I. Sorry.

JULIET. That’s okay.

TIM. And she wasn’t John’s girlfriend. They’re just friends.

JULIET. Like us?

TIM. Not like us. We’ll be friends for ever. She barely knows John.

JULIET. Okay.

TIM. Like I’d know. I don’t talk to John. I never have. I cried driving home from the dance. Supertramp came on the radio and I hid my face from Dad and I cried. I dunno why.

JULIET. Have you ever had sex?

TIM. Yes. With Kevin, a boy from primary school.

JULIET. You did it in primary school?

TIM. Not till upper primary. Another time too, more recently, at the footy oval, near my house.

JULIET. Who?

TIM. A man called Terry I met on a train.

JULIET. A man?

TIM. A boy. About eighteen. He had a boyfriend.

JULIET. He cheated?

TIM. They had an arrangement. Just as long as they didn’t bring someone home.

JULIET. Oh.

TIM. I know. I wouldn’t do that if I had a boyfriend.

JULIET. And did you just start talking on the train? How’d