-
Excerpt from ‘The Playhouse’
The book that Liz is working on is based on the life of a lesser-known actress, playwright and filmmaker, a radical feminist whose rage produced a violent, disturbing and nightmarish film about female mental breakdown. Liz had been drawn to her work, partly because she had seen a version of one her plays in the
-
Bath nights
-
It wasn’t all bad, or was it?
They did a lot of smoking in the bath, it seemed counter-intuitive to do something involving burning things and water, but they did it in more than one hotel around the country. She cringes slightly when she thinks about the number they must have ruined with cigarette burns. She can see quite clearly the odd
-
You know what I mean
She was asked once how it all began, where it started. It started on a beach in South West France. The Côte d’Argent, 250km of uninterrupted silver sand. She has come down to sunbathe in the late afternoon to avoid the hottest part of the day and positioned herself so that the bottom half of
-
Falling
The French have a phrase which perfectly describes the feeling she had when they met, “l’appel du vide”. It is a phrase that translates to “the call of the void” in English. It describes that sudden impulse of wanting to do something dangerous or reckless, that compulsive urge you sometimes get when you are standing
-
Crossing
When I left home it was dark. I hadn’t slept and was muzzy and dizzy with fatigue and misery and the beginnings of a hangover. I had made the decision about what to do, but driving though the lanes had given me more time to think so when I get to the cattle grid at
-
The Frog Prince
The trouble with Frog Princes is that they are, by their very definition, not what they appear to be. They are slippery customers, masters of deception, illusion and evasion with hidden qualities. Kissing them is a big risk, you may end up with the fairy tale prince we all know about from childhood fairy tales,
-
Knock, knock, knockin’
Why do we keep knocking at doors that are closed to us? Why, when we have been explicitly told not to try to go through a particular door, that entry won’t be permitted, do we keep on pushing at it hoping it will open? Perhaps it is because we know that while it may be
The Playhouse
Like the old woman who swallowed a fly, the past wriggled and wiggled and jiggled inside her, perhaps she'll die. It would be a relief. But, first, she needs to find the frog prince. She imagines that while he was once a common or garden frog, he is probably a sharper, sleeker, genetically modified super frog who is smarter and dangerous and no amount of kissing will turn him in to the prince in her stories.
The Playhouse 