OBERON BOOKS

      LONDON

      First published in 2010 by Oberon Books Ltd

      Electronic edition published in 2012

      Oberon Books Ltd

      521 Caledonian Road, London N7 9RH

      Tel: 020 7607 3637 / Fax: 020 7607 3629

      e-mail: [email protected]

      www.oberonbooks.com

      Copyright © Richard Bean 2010

      Richard Bean is hereby identified as author of this play in accordance with section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. The author has asserted his moral rights.

      All rights whatsoever in this play are strictly reserved and application for performance etc. should be made before commencement of rehearsal to United Agents, 12-26 Lexington Street, London W1F 0LE ([email protected]). No performance may be given unless a licence has been obtained, and no alterations may be made in the title or the text of the play without the author’s prior written consent.

      You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or binding or by any means (print, electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

      A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

      PB ISBN: 978-1-84002-775-4

      EPUB ISBN: 978-1-84943-354-9

      Cover image by Dan O’Flynn

      www.DanOFlynnPhotography.com

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      Printed, bound and converted in Great Britain by CPI Group (UK) Ltd., Croydon, CR0 4YY.

      Contents

       The Big Fellah

       The Troubles – a Chronology

      Out of Joint and the Lyric Hammersmith present The Big Fellah by Richard Bean First performed on 2 September 2010 at the Corn Exchange, Newbury with the following cast:

      Set / Staging

      Most of the action takes place in an apartment in the Woodlawn district of the Bronx.

      Other locations are Costello’s speeches at St. Patrick’s Day dinners, and the art gallery settings for Ruairi’s meetings with Karelma. Both these can be done without fixed staging.

      The apartment is formed out of the first floor of an old brownstone. It’s a man’s place and generally cramped, lacking style, and scruffy. There is a kitchen/diner/reception type arrangement. Stage right and in the back wall are four doors, three to bedrooms, and one to a bathroom. The entrance to the apartment is stage left. A big sash window stage left looks out on to 237^th street. On one of the walls an acoustic guitar hangs as a decoration. An old two seater sofa, an armchair, and coffee table, fill the space. Some sporting trophies – baseball and/or ice hockey, maybe a team photo with a young Michael. One or two posters of rock bands of the sixties and a big bad landscape, redolent of a romanticised Ireland.

      Through the different time periods the apartment furniture might change with the fashions of the time, as well as predictable updates of the domestic technology.

      Characters

      DAVID COSTELLO

      37 in 1972

      MICHAEL DOYLE

      20s in 1972

      RUAIRI O’DRISCEOIL

      20s in 1972

      TOM BILLY COYLE

      20s in 1972

      KARELMA

      20s in 1972

      ELIZABETH RYAN

      30s in 1981

      FRANK MCARDLE

      50s in 1987

      Prologue

       (1972. DAVID COSTELLO is isolated in a spot. A surround soundscape of chatter, eating, cutlery/crockery clanging. The audience is the St. Patrick’s day parade dinner crowd. COSTELLO is dressed in a full Brian Baru and Irish kilt. He lights a cigar. He’s cool. He’s done this before. He picks up a wine glass and taps it with a fork. This has no effect on the chatter which continues with only a few shushes thrown in. He tries again with the wine glass. No change. He looks stage left and mimes a blow on the pipes. There is an almighty and comic blast on the pipes, rather longer than COSTELLO wanted. It is followed by laughter and applause. He speaks in a New York accent.)

      COSTELLO: I won’t keep you long. I understand that one of you’s godda go to work in the morning.

       (Laughter.)

      I’d like to thank the chef, Jimmy Schultz, and all his staff for a real terrific meal – as ever!

       (Applause.)

      Hell! At five hundred dollars a plate – it’s godda be good!

       (Laughter.)

      It woulda been a lot cheaper if we’d all been born Protestant!

       (Laughter.)

      THE FIRST EVER NEW YORK ST.PATRICK’S DAY PARADE WAS IN 1766!

       (Small cheer.)

      In nineteen seventy two, two hundred and six years later, WE’RE STILL MARCHING!

       (Many cheers.)

      America has given each of us the opportunity to fulfil our true potential! God Bless America!

      ALL: God Bless America!

      COSTELLO: Some of us have prospered.

       (Laughter. COSTELLO acknowledges that the laughter is directed at him.)

      And