I'm Sorry Prime Minister, I Can't Quite Remember (eBook)

Jonathan Lynn (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2023 | 1. Auflage
96 Seiten
Faber & Faber (Verlag)
978-0-571-38808-0 (ISBN)

Infos

I have a voice in the University, I'm in the House of Lords, I have this lovely permanent home. Everything's hunky-dory. I just need a bit of help. 'I wanted to write the final chapter about Jim Hacker and Sir Humphrey Appleby, now in their eighties, discarded, ignored, watching today's world with utter bewilderment. An elegiac play about old age and loss - loss of power, loss of influence, loss of friends, loss of family. The only play I've seen on this theme is King Lear. This will be funnier.' The hit BBC television series by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn, Yes, Minister, and Yes, Prime Minister, captured the political consciousness of the nation in the 1980s. Lynn's stage play I'm Sorry, Prime Minister, I Can't Quite Remember . . ., set in a contemporary Hacker College, Oxford, opened at the Barn Theatre, Cirencester, in September 2023.

Jonathan Lynn's prolific career spans more than four decades as a director, screenwriter, producer and actor in films, television and theatre, as well as best-selling author and novelist. His many movies include Nuns on the Run and Clue (both of which he also wrote), My Cousin Vinny (for which Marisa Tomei won the Oscar), The Whole Nine Yards (Bruce Willis and Matthew Perry), Trial and Error (Jeff Daniels, Charlize Theron), Greedy (Michael J. Fox, Kirk Douglas), The Distinguished Gentleman (Eddie Murphy - Political Film Society Special Award and the Environmental Media Award) and The Fighting Temptations (Beyoncé Knowles, Cuba Gooding Jr. - the NAACP Image Award for Best Film). Jonathan Lynn and Antony Jay's BAFTA award-winning political comedy Yes Minister first aired on BBC2 in 1980 and ran until 1984. The sequel, Yes Prime Minister, ran from 1986 until 1988. The programmes have been seen in 84 countries, and both series are now available on BBC DVD. They won a Special Award from the Campaign for Freedom of Information, and numerous other awards. Lynn's novels include Mayday and, with Antony Jay, The Complete Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minster, Volumes 1 and 2 (in paperback combined as The Complete Yes Prime Minister) which cumulatively sold more than a million copies in hardback, were on the British top-ten bestseller list for three years and have been translated into numerous languages. The stage play Yes Prime Minister opened in London's West End in 2010 to great critical acclaim and full houses. Comedy Rules was published by Faber in 2011. I'm Sorry, Prime Minister, I Can't Quite Remember. . . was published in 2023.

Textauszug

Act One

The living room of the Master’s Lodge at Hacker College, Oxford. The room is modern, because the college was built about fifteen years ago. It is open plan. There is a kitchen area (perhaps partly offstage) and doors/exits to a study/library and the hall.

It was once comfortably furnished but is now a scruffy, untidy mess. Big, overflowing packing boxes, papers strewn everywhere, bookshelves untidy. A half-eaten sandwich and a pizza box on a messy dining table.

There are windows, French or otherwise, looking out onto an wintry garden – bare trees. It is a sunny morning.

Jim, an old man who is largely but untidily dressed, buttons in the wrong buttonholes on his cardigan and wearing no shoes or socks, sits in a comfy chair. A Zimmer frame stands nearby.

He is talking to Sophie, an attractive Black woman in her early thirties.

Jim Have you got a CV?

Sophie Yes.

She hands it to him. He doesn’t look at it.

Jim What are you, a nurse? Social worker?

Sophie Neither. Sorry.

Jim Have you any references?

Sophie Here.

She hands some letters to him. He looks at them hopelessly.

Jim Um, I haven’t got my glasses. Tell me about yourself.

Sophie Nothing much to tell really.

Jim Have you done this kind of work before?

Sophie I cared for my mum and my dad. They both had dementia. So, yes.

Jim I don’t have dementia. Or Alzheimer’s.

Sophie (encouraging) That’s good.

Jim I have lower back pain. Arthritis in my knees. Bad hip. Oh, and gout. Apart from that I’m completely fine.

Sophie That’s nice.

Jim Oh – and congestive heart failure, which makes me a bit breathless sometimes. It’s hard to … do things.

Sophie I understand. That’s why you need me.

Jim Yes. (Cautious.) Or someone like you.

Sophie I see.

Jim I need help getting up, dressing, you know, putting on my shoes and socks, having a shower, that sort of thing … just helping, really.

Sophie All day?

Jim Well, morning and bedtime. And sometimes during the day.

Sophie No problem.

Jim I think I’m in pretty good shape for someone of my age.

Sophie How old are you?

Jim Over eighty. What do you charge?

Sophie Twelve quid an hour.

Jim Isn’t that a bit steep?

Sophie It’s very little. An agency would charge you twenty.

Jim But austerity and all that …

Sophie I know all about austerity, thank you?

Jim You understand economics?

Sophie I experience economics. I have trouble making ends meet.

Jim Perhaps you need to economise a little.

Sophie Poor people can’t afford to economise.

Jim I’m glad you didn’t say you understand economics because nobody does really. (Indicates ring finger.) I see you’re married. What does your husband do?

Sophie I haven’t got a husband.

Jim Oh. Divorced?

Sophie I’ve got a wife.

Jim Ah. How very … modern of you. So, why do you want to be a carer?

Sophie I don’t. A carer takes care of a family member for free, helps them shower, dress, eat. I would be what’s called a care worker.

Jim I see. Like sex worker?

Sophie (firm) No, nothing like.

Jim I just meant adding the word ‘worker’ sort of turns it into a job.

Sophie It’s a job whatever word you add. I thought you’d like to know the correct terminology as you’re the head of an academic institution.

Jim I just was asking why you want to do it.

Sophie I like caring for people. I’m good at it.

Jim But no qualifications of any sort?

Sophie I didn’t say that. I said I’m not a nurse or a social worker.

Jim So what do you have? GCSEs?

Sophie Yes. And a degree.

Jim Oh. Where from?

Sophie Oxford.

Jim Oxford? Really? Which college?

Sophie This college. I was in your second year’s intake.

Jim A degree from Hacker College! Wonderful! Did you love it here?

Sophie I hated it.

Jim (surprised) Why?

Sophie All the entitled public-school kids. I was very uncomfortable, I didn’t belong, I couldn’t breathe.

Jim That’s changing. They’re not all from public schools now. And there are lots of girls here now.

Sophie Yes, some women too.

Jim Oh yes, women, not girls, sorry. I can say women?

Sophie You can say women. There was nobody else here from a council estate in Tottenham.

Jim What a pity you didn’t enjoy it here. What did you read?

Sophie English.

Jim That explains why you’re just a carer. Care worker. Why you can’t get a decent job …

Sophie If that’s your opinion of this job, I don’t think I want it.

She stands up.

Jim No. Wait a minute. Sorry … I just meant, if you’d done computer studies, something useful, technological, that equips you for the modern world …

Sophie Studying English is not useful?

Jim No, no I just meant something with career prospects. What can you do with an English degree other than become a teacher? (Disparaging.) Or an academic.

Sophie And as master of a college you don’t think there’s any point in being an academic?

Jim That’s not what I meant either.

Sophie That’s why I hated it here. Education for its own sake isn’t valued any more. It’s all about jobs and targets, according to you lot.

Jim My lot?

Sophie Politicians. It doesn’t seem to make much difference which party’s in power.

Jim I agree. That’s why I sit on the cross benches now. And believe me, I’m sometimes pretty cross. (Chuckles at his own joke.) So, um, why do you want this job? Is it because I’m famous?

Sophie (amused) Certainly not.

Jim I used to be prime minister, you know.

Sophie I know. You were an important man once.

Jim (offended) Still am! Master of an Oxford college named after me.

Sophie We’ve met before, you know.

Jim Have we? I’m so sorry, I don’t remember.

Sophie I wouldn’t expect you to. You were the Master while I was here. I came to your freshers’ sherry party.

Jim How did you hear I needed someone?

Sophie Jeff said you needed a bit of help.

Jim Jeff?

Sophie One of the porters. You don’t know them by name?

Jim I’m not good at names any more.

She stands up and looks around.

Sophie This place is a bit – (She pulls a face.) Do you have a cleaner?

Jim She hasn’t been in. I’ve had the same one for four years, I paid her above the going rate, then suddenly she phones and says she can’t come in because her husband’s just been diagnosed with cancer. (Bitter.) That’s how she repays me.

Sophie Poor thing.

Jim But what about me? Look at the mess here!

Sophie...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 26.10.2023
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Lyrik / Dramatik ► Dramatik / Theater
• Themenwelt: Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Theater / Ballett
• ISBN-10: 0-571-38808-6 / 0571388086
• ISBN-13: 978-0-571-38808-0 / 9780571388080