Paper (NHB Modern Plays)

By Chris Bush

Faye and Mel have been together forever. Two kids, a mortgage and a diabetic hamster. A regular, unexceptional existence. They work hard, they get by, they do their best. So if it's true - if Faye's father really has left the factory to her - they'd deserve it, wouldn't they? The site could be worth a fortune - not for making scissors, but ripe for redevelopment. It could change everything. But first they need the paperwork.
Paper is a play about family, heritage and legacy, and is part of Chris Bush's trilogy of plays about a Sheffield manufacturing family, Rock / Paper / Scissors. The three plays were first performed simultaneously with the same cast moving between three theatres in Sheffield – the Crucible, the Lyceum and the Studio – as part of Sheffield Theatres' fiftieth birthday celebrations in 2022.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Release date: Jul 7, 2022
• ISBN: 9781788506090

Chris Bush

Chris Bush is a playwright, lyricist and theatre-maker. Her plays include: Rock/Paper/Scissors (Sheffield Theatres, 2022); an adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre (Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, and New Vic, Newcastle-under-Lyme, 2022); (Not) the End of the World (Schaubühne, Berlin, 2021); Hungry (Paines Plough, 2021); Nine Lessons and Carols (Almeida Theatre, London, 2020); Faustus: That Damned Woman (Headlong, Lyric Hammersmith and Birmingham Rep, 2020); The Last Noël (Old Fire Station, Oxford, 2019); Standing at the Sky's Edge, a musical with music and lyrics by Richard Hawley (Sheffield Theatres, 2019, revived 2022 and at the National Theatre in 2023, West End 2024); The Changing Room (National Theatre Connections, 2018); Steel (Sheffield Theatres, 2018); an adaptation of Pericles (National Theatre, London, 2018); The Assassination of Katie Hopkins, written with Matt Winkworth (Theatr Clwyd, 2018); What We Wished For and A Dream.

Book preview

ACT ONE

A musty, unloved manager’s office. A large desk with a fairly ancient desktop computer on it, several filing cabinets, archive boxes littered all over the floor. Perhaps some general detritus that definitely doesn’t belong here – spare machine parts, cleaning supplies, bits and bobs. At least one electric heater. Probably some pest control boxes. It’s certainly not derelict, but absolutely gets a little cold and a little damp. A small area of the room appears to be in semi-regular use – a patch of free desk space, a clear path through to it – but generally it’s clear that this space is used as much for storage as work.

Along the back wall, a door leading to a corridor and a frosted-glass window, through which figures could be seen passing, but not easily identified. To one side, a door leading to a storage cupboard, and to the other, a fire door leading straight outside. The lights are off, but there’s enough daylight that we can see it fairly clearly.

FAYE and MEL enter from the corridor. FAYE turns on the lights.

FAYE. Oh. Oh, okay. This is it.

MEL. Yeah?

FAYE. Yeah.

FAYE breathes in deeply, taking it all in.

MEL. You okay?

FAYE. Yeah, fine – I’m fine – it’s just weird.

MEL. Right.

FAYE. Not bad-weird, just… I don’t know.

MEL. Do you need a minute?

FAYE. No, no. (Beat.) Do you remember it?

MEL. I’ve not been here before.

FAYE. Yes you have!

MEL. Have I?

FAYE. Yes, I took you back in… God. Super-early days. Like decades ago.

MEL. Right.

FAYE. I snuck you back here, just the two of us, and…

MEL. Did you?

FAYE. You really don’t remember?

MEL. Sure it was me?

FAYE. Who else would it have been?

MEL. I don’t know – another of your conquests?

FAYE. I’m very sure!

MEL (with a shrug). Okay. So where do you think we should be starting?

FAYE. No idea.

MEL. Next door looks like it’s just materials, and a bunch of stuff waiting to ship out.

FAYE. Uh-huh.

MEL. Didn’t think there’d be so much of it. And it’s all just