LATE NIGHT AT THE PUNCH AND JUDY

An early draft of this play was short-listed for the Verity Bargate award on 1998. Since then, it has moved on, changing shape considerably in the process.
Was it Verlaine who said that, “A work of art is never finished, merely abandoned”? For some reason, I can`t abandon this play. I know that there is something very important hidden in it, and I must distil it if it takes me another ten years.

Running time 120 minutes (approx).

Cast requirements:
Three men, Tod, the Punch and Judy man, a holidaymaker, and one other
Two women, Maggie, teens, and Elsie, in her late seventies.

Tod has befriended Maggie, a runaway who hardly speaks, and who wants to injure herself in any way possible.
There is a strong sexual tension between the two which Punch (who is Tod`s alter ego, but also seems to have a life of his own) tries to manipulate into violence.
It is a play about mothers and fathers and growing up into love, and uses music, mirrors, masks and puppets to create an atmosphere of threat and danger.

The set represents all three of the main places of action: a beach with a Punch & Judy booth, Tod`s workroom cum living room which is full of wood shavings, paint, puppets and sculptures in different stages of creation, and a bench on the pier.
The workroom should have possibilities for lighting from inside boxes and drawers, and the operation of puppets by people offstage.
On the table, a mermaid, carved out of driftwood, only the top of its tail present as the wood ends there. Before the play starts, Tod is working on this.
The bench on the seafront should be two sided, facing downstage and upstage. There should be the feeling of space out towards the sea, and a string of coloured lights overhead.
Action moves seamlessly between the areas, and it should be possible to suggest that people in one area are aware of what`s going on in another, even though this would be impossible in reality.

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