Speaking in Tongues (NHB Modern Plays)

By Andrew Bovell

A powerful study of infidelity and interwoven lives, filmed as the award-winning Lantana.
A woman disappears. Four marriages become entangled in a web of love, deceit, sex and death. Who will survive?
Nine parallel lives – interlocked by four infidelities, one missing person and a mysterious stiletto – are woven through a fragmented series of confessionals and interrogations that gradually reveal a darker side of human nature.
'Bovell explores love, marriage, strangeness, intimacy, trust, betrayal, obsession, self-punishment and detachment with generous emotional intelligence' - Observer
'Clever, provocative, elliptically resonant' - New York Times

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Release date: Jun 27, 2016
• ISBN: 9781780013350

Andrew Bovell

Andrew Bovell is a critically acclaimed Australian playwright and screenwriter. His theatre credits include Things I Know To Be True (Frantic Assembly and the State Theatre Company of South Australia, 2016); The Secret River (Sydney Theatre Company, 2013 Sydney Festival and 2016 national tour, winner of six Helpmann Awards including Best Play, as well as Best New Work Sydney Theatre Awards); When the Rain Stops Falling (Brink Production/State Theatre Company, 2008 Adelaide Festival, Almeida Theatre, Lincoln Centre NYC, winner of five Lucille Lortell Awards). Earlier works include Speaking in Tongues and Holy Day. Film credits include Strictly Ballroom, A Most Wanted Man, Edge of Darkness, Blessed, Lantana, and Head On.

Book preview

Introduction

Speaking in Tongues is about the right and wrong of emotional conduct. It’s about contracts being broken between intimates while deep bonds are forged between strangers. It maps an emotional landscape typified by a sense of disconnection and a shifting moral code. It’s about people yearning for meaning and grabbing on to small moments of hope and humour to combat an increasing sense of alienation. The play is written in two halves. Each half has a particular tone. It has been written for four actors but there are nine characters. It’s in three parts. Each part is an exploration of the relationships between four people. But they are not mutually exclusive. The connections between the characters exist across the parts as well as within them. Characters reappear, others disappear. Stories told in one part take on significance in another part. It’s driven by a sense of mystery. The answers are there but they are elusive. The plot doesn’t always move forward. It leaps sideways and backwards. It travels back to moments already seen but reveals them from a different angle. I’m conscious of the play being structurally difficult. It doesn’t follow the normal rules of playwriting. I’m worried that the audience will experience a degree of frustration with it. But I have faith that audiences are seeking different narrative shapes and new modes of dramatic exchange. The least I hope for is that they leave the theatre as haunted by these people as I am and perhaps asking the same questions they do. How do I conduct myself in this world? How do I survive it?

I’d like to thank $5 Theatre Company, Chameleon Theatre Company, La Mama, Deidre Rubenstein, Playbox, and Performing Lines, and particularly Ros Horin and the Griffin Theatre Company. All have contributed to the development of this play.

Andrew Bovell

June 1998

Speaking in Tongues was first produced by Griffin Theatre Company at The Stables, Sydney, on 6 August 1996, with the following cast:

The play received its British premiere at Hampstead Theatre, London, on 8 June 2000, with the following cast:

Speaking in Tongues was revived at the Duke of York’s Theatre, London, on 28 September 2009 (previews from 18 September), with the following cast:

Characters

Part One

LEON, Sonja’s husband

SONJA, Leon’s wife

JANE, Pete’s wife, Nick’s neighbour

PETE, Jane’s husband, Nick’s neighbour

Part Two

VALERIE, John’s wife, Sarah’s therapist

SARAH, Valerie’s client, Neil’s ex-girlfriend

NICK, Jane’s and Pete’s neighbour

NEIL, Sarah’s ex-boyfriend

Part Three

JOHN, Valerie’s husband

LEON

SARAH

VALERIE

Each part has been written for four actors: two men and two women.

Note on the Text

Whenever a forward slash ( / ) symbol appears within the dialogues, it is to indicate that the remainder of the speech is spoken simultaneously with the speech following.

PART ONE

Meet PETE and JANE and LEON and SONJA. PETE is married to JANE. SONJA is married to LEON. PETE meets SONJA in a bar and they go back to a cheap hotel room. LEON meets JANE in a bar and they go back to a cheap hotel room. A double infidelity. Except PETE and SONJA don’t go through with it. While LEON and JANE do. SONJA leaves LEON. PETE leaves JANE. PETE meets LEON in a bar. They talk. JANE meets SONJA in a bar. They talk. When PETE goes back home, JANE tells him a story about a neighbour who throws a woman’s shoe into a vacant block. When SONJA goes back home, LEON tells her a story about a man who wears brown brogues.

* * *

Two bars. The city.

Music rises… a little sexy. Latin. Two couples are dancing. PETE and SONJA are in one bar. LEON and JANE are in the other. The dancing is close… and it’s good, more than a simple shuffle. The dancing is identical. Both couples are like mirrors of the other. The lights fade on the couples dancing.

Two rooms. Cheap. Spartan. Faded.

SONJA and JANE enter. They look around the room. PETE and LEON follow. They look around the room. Each couple holds a stillness for a moment.

PETE/LEON. It’s not much.

SONJA. It’s what / I expected.

JANE. I expected – I don’t know what I expected. It makes me feel / cheap.

SONJA. Cheap. Sordid.

PETE/LEON. Do you want to leave?

SONJA/JANE. No.

SONJA. I like it. / Do you?

JANE. Do you?

LEON. We could go somewhere else.

PETE. I’m not sure.

JANE. We’re here now.

PETE. I’m sorry.

SONJA. Why?

PETE. It’s just that / I haven’t done this sort of thing before.

LEON. I haven’t done this sort of thing before.

SONJA/JANE. Nor have I.

LEON looks at JANE. PETE looks at SONJA. They both look away. LEON and PETE each touch their heart.

LEON. I’ve got this pain in / my chest.

PETE. My chest is pounding.

SONJA/JANE. Are you all right?

PETE/LEON. Yes.

SONJA/JANE. Are you sure?

PETE. I said / I’m all right.

LEON. I’m all right.

PETE. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap.

JANE. You’re not having / a heart attack?

SONJA. A heart attack is something I couldn’t cope with / right now.

LEON. Right now I could do with / a drink.

PETE. A drink would go