The Disagreeable Oyster (Nepříjemná ústřice, 1973)

Přidal: Přemek |

Leden 2, 2012

Giles Cooper. Rozhlasová komedie. Další tvůrci a interpreti nezjištěni.

Natočeno 1973. Premiéra 5. 12. 1973 (BBC R4, 20:15 h.).

Pozn.: Mervyn Bundy, the main character of this play, is divided into two parts – Bundy Major and Bundy Minor. Bundy Major is the real person. Bundy Minor is the bit inside him – his second thoughts, or his conscience, or whatever you want to call him. The only thing we really know about him is that he’s inside Bundy Major, and he can’t get out. …Highly stylised handling…as rich as a cartoon film in outrageous comic invention and as sober as a Chekhov play in its concern with human beings. …. (from an essay by Donald McWhinnie).

Lit.: anonym: Workshops for Writing, Producing and Acting Radio Drama, Documentaries, Poetry and Readings – Beginning Your Play. In Audio Workshop, b. d. (článek + úryvek ze scénáře) – Cit.: Radio is not a captive medium. You must enchant and enthral your listener within the first two or three minutes or they will switch off.

Let’s look at the work of a master of radio, Giles Cooper. In this play from the early sixties he is writing about an ordinary man in an ordinary situation and yet he invites us to empathise with Bundy his central character and to become involved in his dilemma.

How does he do this?

Author’s note: Mervyn Bundy, the principal character of this play, has been divided into two parts, Bundy Major and Bundy Minor. This is partly because he has a lot to say to himself and partly because some of what he says would never be said by the Bundy we see walking about the streets, this being Bundy Major, who is nearly always unaware of the existence of Bundy Minor. Minor, on the other hand, is only too well aware of Bundy Major, being inside him and unable to get out.

Another convention that Giles Cooper introduces is that of the play having a surrealistic dimension, which he is to use to great effect later. Listen to the dust in Bundy’s hall.

Notice also how sparing but really effective the sound effects are. Beware of having too many, confusing sound effects.

Actors: try delivering the lines as quickly, clearly and articulately as you can and without making them sound “read”.

Directors: Think about mike positions, acoustics and how and when in the recording process you introduce the sound effects. Actors will usually relate more naturally to „spot“ or „live“ rather than pre-recorded sound effects.
The Script
ANNOUNCER    We present a play by Giles Cooper entitled, ‚The Disagreeable Oyster’.
BUNDY    You can say that again.
ANNOUNCER    ‚The Disagreeable Oyster‘
BUNDY    They do disagree with me, but how was I to know when I stood on the steps of the Rosedene Family and Commercial Hotel, thinking that the world was my oyster that -
BUNDY MINOR    Begin at the beginning.
BUNDY    Oh, the beginning is at twelve o’clock on a Saturday morning in my office at Craddock’s Calculators Ltd. It is not a nice office, even the typing pool have a narrow view of St. Paul’s, but poor old Bundy …
BUNDY MINOR    My name, Mervyn Bundy …
BUNDY:    Deputy Head of Costing, has to put up with an office looking out on an air shaft, and all I can see is the upstairs part of a mercantile bank …
BUNDY MINOR:    Well?
BUNDY:    That’s the beginning. I’m sitting at my desk on a fine May morning, wondering whether it’s worth starting anything else before the weekend begins.
(DOOR OPENS NOISILY)
GUNN:    Bundy! Good man, Bundy, glad you’re still here.
BUNDY:    Yes, Mr. Gunn?
GUNN:    Bundy, there’s a crisis, pin your ears back and listen.
BUNDY MINOR:    Mr. Gunn has ginger hair growing out of his ears.
GUNN:    C.C.W.’s Stoddeshunt works have just rung through to say that there’s an inconsistent error in the V.V.X. machine they brought from us. They’re working overtime this week on an export contract with a dirty big penalty clause. Okay, Bundy?
BUNDY:    Yes, sir.
GUNN:    Right, now Maintenance have two men on leave, one sick and one in Pompey.
BUNDY MINOR:    Mr Gunn spits a little when he says words like Pompey.
GUNN:    That’s their full establishment. Okay, Bundy?
BUNDY:    Yes, sir.
GUNN:    Right, but all the same we’ve got to get someone up there soonest or we’ll lose their account. Okay, Bundy?
BUNDY:    Yes, sir.
GUNN:    Right, you’ll go straight along to Accounts and draw money for expenses, you will then catch the one five, change at Leicester for Stoddeshunt. You will go to the C.C.W. works and ask for Mr Rigg. He’ll show you the machine and you will correct the error. Right?
BUNDY:    But, sir, I’m Costs, not Maintenance.
GUNN:    Great heavens, man, I know that, but this is an emergency. Can’t you rise to an emergency?
BUNDY MINOR:    He spits when he says emergency too.
GUNN:    The board are worried sick about this C.C.W. account. They’d have recalled the Pompey man, only Pompey’s an emergency too. Now don’t stand there dabbing yourself with your handkerchief, man. Get cracking.
BUNDY:    I’ll have to tell my wife.
GUNN:    Ring her up.
BUNDY:    I might have to stay the night.
GUNN:    You will, I know the trains.
BUNDY:    I’ve no things.
GUNN:    Buy them, get yourself a toothbrush, pyjamas, bedroom slippers, anything you like when you get there. Here’s a chit for the cashier; I’ll make it out for thirty pounds. Okay, Bundy?
BUNDY:    Yes, sir.
GUNN:    Right, and whatever you do, don’t miss that train.
(DOOR SLAMS)
BUNDY:    I haven’t slept away from home for twenty-two years but I couldn’t tell him that.
(FADE IN RINGING TONE OF TELEPHONE)
BUNDY MINOR:    That’s my telephone on the rickety table in my hall. I can hear the sunlight sending a long shaft down from the landing window, I can hear the carpet breathing dust.
(RINGING TONE STOPS. RECEIVER LIFTED)
ALICE:    (DISTORT) Hullo, who’s that? My husband’s out.
BUNDY:    Alice, it’s me, it’s Mer.
ALICE:    Is something wrong?
BUNDY:    No, no, but I’ve got to go away for the night for the firm. It’s an emergency.
ALICE:    For the night?
BUNDY:    Yes, and I’ve got to buy a toothbrush and a pair of pyjamas. I’ll wear my mackintosh as a dressing gown.
ALICE:    But what about me? I shall be all alone.
BUNDY:    I know, darling, but it can’t be helped. It’s an emergency. I’ll be back tomorrow morning, don’t forget to put the chain on the door.
ALICE:    But who will get the coal, and who will empty the rubbish from the kitchen?
BUNDY:    I will, Alice, I will, tomorrow.
ALICE:    And bread, I want a wrapped loaf and the shops are shut.
(TRAIN WHISTLES)
BUNDY:    I’ll get some in Stoddeshunt, but now I must catch the train.   Goodbye, Alice, look after yourself, goodbye. (TRAIN RUNNING UNDER FOLLOWING SPEECHES) … I haven’t travelled from Euston for years.   It’s all so different from what I’m used to.