VINEGAR AND BROWN PAPER
In Jim:(character on tv) I’m thinking, I’m sorry, I was only thinking of myself. I love you no matter what.
Jan:(ditto) I was only thinking of myself too.I love you too, Jim.
(Pause. Romantic music signalling the end of the programme .)
JACK: Jesus, will you turn that thing off. I can’t hear myself think.
JILL: I can hear what you’re thinking. You’re thinking me, me, me.
JACK:And what the hell is wrong with you, you, you?
JILL: I’m fucking lost, that’s what’s wrong. Things should be different now, but I feel like I’m back to where I was in London. Was going to sort myself out. But so dark and lonely here, Afraid. . . like Van der Goes, never hear the voice again, whose, don’t know anymore, but the voice that comes when, when the child is afraid of dark, saying “it’s okay, I’m here”
JACK: It’s okay, I’m here.
JILL: It’s not the same. It comes from inside. Something I have to fix.
JACK: (Gently) You should see a doctor. Maybe there are other pills, pills that don’t. .
JILL:I don’t want any fucking pills. I want. . .I want. . . I want to be myself again, whatever that is, I want to believe.
T.V vo.: Can Jan and Jim sort out their problems. Find out in next week’s thrilling episode.
Vinegar and Brown Paper by Colin Teevan
Vinegar and Brown Paper Jill is an artist recently returned to Dublin and Jack is her stand-up comedian boyfriend. As Jill tries to reconcile herself to her past through her work, Jack's career starts to take off. The play charts the collapse of a relationship through soap operas, football, the Dutch Masters and Christ's walk to Calvary.
Vinegar and Brown Paper was first produced by the Abbey Theatre Company at the Peacock Theatre, Dublin, 6th June 1995.
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'Imaginative and off-beat. . . it holds with a vice-like grip' Irish Times
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Published by Oberon Books in Two Plays: The Big Sea and Vinegar and Brown Paper. To order a copy click here.
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