A Table Tennis Play (NHB Modern Plays)

By Sam Steiner

A long summer weekend, two strangers, and a full-size table tennis table.
Sam Steiner's A Table Tennis Play is a play about how everything and nothing changes as people bat a ball. It premiered at the 2019 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, in a production by Walrus in association with Theatre Royal Plymouth.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Release date: Aug 21, 2019
• ISBN: 9781788502511

Sam Steiner

Sam Steiner is a playwright and screenwriter from Manchester. His plays include: A Table Tennis Play (Walrus Theatre, Edinburgh Fringe, 2019); You Stupid Darkness! (Paines Plough &amp Theatre Royal Plymouth, 2019); Kanye the First (HighTide, 2017) and Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons (Walrus Theatre, 2015). He is a co-founder of Walrus, a new writing and touring theatre company.

Book preview

BEFORE

When the audience have taken their seats, the stage is plunged into darkness.

Quiet for a few moments.

Eventually we hear the sound of digging. And an old man’s muttering. Unintelligible. It’s coming from above us. It sounds as if someone is walking on the floor above the ceiling of the theatre.

The sound of a shovel hitting metal. Clanging against it.

The sound of a car pulling up.

More muttering.

From above:

MIA (from far away). Dad what are you… come on Dad you should be inside.

DAD (off). something. something here.

MIA. What are you doing out – come on

DAD (off). something under the flowers.

MIA. There’s – what’s… what’s that?

Sound of a foot on the metal roof.

DAD (off). careful there. got to be careful. important. big match coming. ball throw too high for wind last time. yes. hanging left. concentration is the… yes too much. too much going on to… yes. Mia? Mia?

Sound of two feet walking along the roof.

Sound of someone gripping the handle.

Metal scratching against metal as the door opens.

Blast of light and sound for a