CHARLIE has serious ambitions - to mess with teachers' heads, to front a gang, to ride a motorbike. But when the new music teacher, Miss Fry, arrives, things start to change.
Here CHARLIE talks to her friend Lee about one of her music lessons.
CHARLIE:
"She... One lesson.. .you see, some lessons she didn't actually teach. And sometimes, especially at the beginning, what she did was boring, you don't wanna hear, she drones. But now and again... One time she was about to play a song about a lady who drowned in a river, but it was nothing to do with the lesson, it was just that she liked it. I said it sounds miserable to me, miss, but she said hang on, and she told me the story: It's a sad song, she said... she fought for love and she lost. . . and now her skin is white as a lily, her lips are rose red, she's still, and floats downstream. She told me to close my eyes and imagine it was a dark moonlit night and that the water was lapping around the lady, taking her in. She said that when she got to the bridge of the song there would be a special note that didn't sound like the rest of the tune. It was a high sound, extra sad, a black key near the end of the piano - and when I heard it I had to imagine it was like a shooting star bursting across the river, trying to wake up the lady. I told her I couldn't be bothered, but when she started to play... And at the end of the second verse, when she hit that key and the sound broke, I felt the note shoot through the roof of this room like a bullet and I saw the star burst and I wanted the lady to wake up. I couldn't wait for that note to come round again. So that she'd open her-eyes."
MY MOTHER SAID I NEVER SHOULD by Charlotte Keatley
The play is about four generations of women living this century in London and Manchester. In 1971, 19-year-old JACKIE had an illegitimate baby, Rosie. Her mother, Margaret and father, Ken, bring Rosie up as their own child, but when Margaret dies in 1987 Rosie finds her birth certificate. Here, Rosie has just accused JACKIE of wanting her own life more than she wanted a child.
JACKIE:
"How dare you! (Goes to hit Rosie but cannot.) You're at the centre of everything I do! (Slight pause.) Mummy treated me as though I'd simply fallen over and cut my knee - picked me up and said you'll be all right now, it won't show much. She wanted to make it all better. (Quiet.) … She was the one who wanted it kept secret … I WANTED you, Rosie. (Angry.) For the first time in my life I took care of myself - refused joints, did exercises, went to the clinic. (Pause.) 'It's a girl.' (Smiles irresistibly.) - After you'd gone I tried to lose that memory. (Pause. Effort.) Graham … your father. (Silence.) He couldn't be there the day you were born, he had to be in Liverpool. He was married. (Emphatic.) He loved me, he loved you, you must believe that! (Pause.) He said he'd leave his wife, but I knew he wouldn't; there were two young children, the youngest was only four … we'd agreed, separate lives, I wanted to bring you up. He sent money. (Pause.) I took you to Lyme Park one day, I saw them together, across the lake, he was buying them ice creams, his wife was taking a photo. I think they live in Leeds now, I saw his name in the Guardian last year, an article about his photographs … (Pause.) It was a very cold winter after you were born. There were power cuts. I couldn't keep the room warm; there were no lights in the tower blocks; I knew he had an open fire, it was trendy; so we took a bus to Didsbury, big gardens, pine kitchens, made a change from concrete. I rang the bell. (Stops.) A Punjabi man answered, said he was sorry … they'd moved. By the time we got back to Moss Side it was dark, the lift wasn't working - (Stops.) That was the night I phoned Mummy. (Difficult.) Asked her. (Pause.) I tried! I couldn't do it, Rosie. (Pause.) It doesn't matter how much you succeed afterwards, if you've failed once. (Pause.) After you'd gone … I kept waking in the night to feed you … A week … in the flat … Then I went back to art school. Sandra and Hugh thought I was inhuman. I remember the books hat came out that winter - how to succeed as a single working mother - fairytales! (Pause.) Sandra and Hugh have a family now. Quite a few of my friends do. (Pause.) I could give you everything now. Rosie? …"
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