CHRONICLES
OF HALDEN IIA
The
Banner:
|
a
dramatic
tetralogy
by
Robin
Gordon |
Part
3: Effie
Act II
-
Auksford, 2008 -
A back street. Tommo and Scouse. Tommo has an
aerosol
paint-spray, and he sprays “HALDEN RULE OK” on a
wall. Scouse looks scared and nervous.
Tommo:
Wassammarrer, Scouse?
Scouse:
I thought I heard something.
Tommo:
Scared, are you? Yellow!
Scouse:
Course not.
Tommo:
Thought
they were coming for you? Aw, diddums, diddums!
Diddums
think the nasty boys were going to get him, then? Aw!
Scouse:
Gerroff!
Tommo:
I heard summat!! Look out Scouse! They’re
coming for you!
Scouse:
Where?
Tommo:
They’re coming for your pants, Scouse!
Scouse:
Where?!
Tommo:
Ha! You’re shitting yourself with fright!
Scouse:
Silly bugger!
Tommo:
You should see yourself.
Scouse
leans against a wall.
Tommo:
Gonna be sick, are you?
Scouse:
Course not.
Tommo:
Thought you’d had it, di’n’t
ya? Hey, man, them braces you put on won’t save you.
Tommo
pulls up Scouse’s pullover revealing that his jeans are held
up
by both belt and braces. Scouse beats him away.
Scouse:
I don’t know what you’ve got to laugh at.
They’d have got you as well.
Tommo:
Don’t be daft, man. They’re all down at
the beck
waving Nails Palmer’s kegs about and yelling for a battle.
Scouse:
That’s what you
say. What did we have to split up
for? At least we’d have had a chance wid’
six of us.
Tommo:
I’ve already told you, haven’t I? We have
to leave Wank and Hutch to guard the van.
Tommo
sprays: T… O…
Scouse:
Well, four then.
Tommo:
If we split up we cover twice as much ground.
Scouse:
I still don’t know what we’re doing.
Tommo:
Looking for a way of getting Nails’s pants back.
Scouse:
I didn’t think you cared whether he got ’em back or
not.
Tommo:
You’re bloody thick, you are. We’re not
going to give
’em back to him. I don’t care whose pants
they
are. They’re the Swarrell battle-flag now, and
we’re
having ’em as our trophy. Gottit?
Scouse:
Yeah.
Tommo
sprays: R…
Scouse:
What ya writing?
Tommo:
Me name.
Scouse:
Funny way to spell Tommo.
Tommo sprays: O.
Tommo:
It’s me new name: Toro!
Scouse:
Toro?
Tommo
begins a new word: W… I…
Scouse:
What’s that?
Tommo:
Wild Bulls.
Scouse:
Wild Bulls? What’s Wild
Bulls
mean?
Tommo:
That’s us, innit? The gang. I’m
Toro, and the
Wild Bulls is you and Nelly and Claggy and Wank and Hutch.
You gotta have a
good name if you wanna be top gang …
He
completes the slogan “Wild Bulls” and stands back
to admire it.
Tommo:
…
and when we’ve got Nails Palmer’s pants, and mebbe
King’s as well, we’re gonna be top gang in Halden and
Swarrell. When Toro says “Jump!”,
everybody jumps.
A
group
of Swarrell lads, led by Ken and Stan, suddenly appear behind them and
jump on them. Tommo and Scouse are rapidly overpowered.
ACT II, SCENE 2
A
street. Effie and Sandra.
Sandra:
Aw cheer up Effie. I mean, they might not have gone off
fighting and that.
Effie:
Course they have! It’s all finished between King
and me!
They
mooch on in silence. Suddenly a boy hurls himself round the
corner and crashes through between them.
Effie:
Well!
Sandra:
It’s Jim Gormley.
The
Dragons explode round the same corner, knocking the girls aside.
Dragons:
Raaay! Geddim! Geddim! Raaay!
The
Dragons pound after Jim. The girls brush themselves down.
Effie:
No respect for ladies at all! Just trample
all over us. Oooh! If I was a boy I’d
give that
Little Willie such a hiding.
Sandra:
Thought you were a peacemaker.
Effie:
That’s got nothing to do with it. He needs a
lesson, and if I was a boy I’d give it to him.
Loud
cheer from the Dragons.
Sandra:
Just think yourself lucky you’re not.
Effie:
What d’ya mean?
Sandra:
Look!
Willie
and the Dragons reappear, dragging Jim with them.
Effie:
What do you think you’re doing?
Willie:
Taking ’im to the goods yard!
D’you wanna come an’ watch?
We’re going to take
his trousers off!
Dragons:
Raaaay!
We’re
góing to táke his tróusers off!
We’re
going to take his trousers off!
The
Dragons drag Jim off towards the goods yard.
Effie:
Ooh! The little monster!
Sandra:
And the cheek of him! As if we would lower ourselves to
watching that sort of thing.
Effie:
It’s just getting worse and worse.
Sandra:
Never have been allowed when we were young. Children were
seen and not heard.
Effie:
There you go again!
Sandra:
Aw, I’m sorry.
Enter
King and Ronno.
King:
Hi, girls. Coming for a drink?
Effie:
Not wi’ you!
King:
What d’ya mean?
Effie:
I’ve told ya till I’m sick
of
telling ya: I’m not going out wi’ you
unless you stop it
– the gang and everything.
King:
But I
stopped
’em! Didn’t I, Ronno? Go on,
tell ’er!
Ronno:
Yeah. He did. Dunno how he did
it. They were howling for blood. You
should’ve heard
’em. La’al Willie squawking
“Buckets of blood,
buckets of blood!” like a parrot, and all o’ them
shouting
what they were going to do to Halden – and King came
… and
he just stopped ’em. “No
battle,” he said, and
that was the end of it.
Sandra:
Really?
Ronno:
Yeah.
Sandra:
And what happened?
Ronno:
He sent ’em off out o’ the goods yard –
and they went.
Effie:
Yeah, and what are they doing now?
King:
I
don’t know, do I? Not fighting Halden anyway.
Effie:
No. Beating up Jim Gormley, that’s
what they’re doing. You haven’t stopped
’em at
all. You’ve just sent ’em somewhere
else.
They’re still doing the same things, aren’t
they?
Still beating other lads up.
Sandra:
And taking their pants off!
Effie:
Yeah, that’s
got to stop, an’all.
King:
You don’t want much,
do you? I
stopped a battle – it wasn’t easy – but
that’s
not enough! I can’t be everywhere at once, watching
’em all the time, but that’s what you want,
innit?
Innit?!
Effie:
You know what I want.
King:
An’ you
know what I want.
He
grabs her.
Effie:
You keep your paws off me, Ernie King.
King:
You want a bloody saint!
Effie:
I want a peacemaker!
King:
And I wanna fuck you!
Effie:
Gerroff! Gerroff me! Lemme go!
King:
I’m gonna
fuck you!
Sandra:
Leave her alone! Help!! Ronno!
Sandra
grabs King. Ronno hesitates.
King:
Ronno, get the bitch off me!
Ronno
pulls Sandra away. King shoves
Effie against a wall. She struggle but he is
stronger.
Suddenly her resistance collapses.
Effie:
All right! All right! I give in.
King:
What?
Effie:
You can do what you want. I don’t care.
King
embraces Effie enthusiastically,
planting eager kisses on her face and fumbling at her, pressing her
between his body and the wall while Ronno and Sandra look away in
embarrassed silence. Throughout Effie reacts like a lifeless
doll, until suddenly King hurls her away from him. She
stumbles
and almost falls. Sandra helps her.
King:
Bitch! Stinking, rotten, bloody cow!
Effie:
Well, what did you expect?
King
[almost
in tears, to Ronno]:
Said I could do it, then went like a corpse on me!
Effie
[with
dignity]: I said
you could do what you
liked. I said I couldn’t stop you.
That’s all
I
said.
King:
Bitch!
King
makes to strike Effie. Sandra
and Ronno try to prevent him. They glare at each other in
angry
silence.
Enter
Ken, running, breathless.
Ken:
Hey, man, King … come on, quick!
Ronno:
What’s up?
Ken:
Halden lads.
King:
What?
Ken:
Two of ’em.
King:
Where?
Ken:
Spraying slogans … we caught ’em.
Ronno:
Where are they?
Ken:
Under the bridge … Come on, quick …
Willie’s after ’em.
Effie:
You’ve got to stop him!
Ken:
Stan and them are guarding ’em … We said
they’re our
prisoners.
Ronno:
Who?
Ken:
Tommo and Scouse.
Effie:
Let them go, Ernie. Please!
Ronno:
That Tommo deserves all he gets.
Sandra:
What’s he ever done to you?
Ronno:
Traitor to his own leader.
Ken:
Gonna be top gangleader … him and his Wild Bulls
… that’s what he was saying.
Ronno:
Yeah?
Ken:
Yeah. “When Tommo says jump
everybody
jumps,” – so we jumped
– right on top
of him.
Took him to the bridge. You better come quick.
Bring the
key. Lock ’em up before Willie gets ’em.
King:
What’s Willie got to do with it?
Ken:
Met him and the Dragons at the engine sheds – chucking some
lad’s pants around.
Ronno:
As usual.
Sandra:
Jim Gormley.
Ken:
Soon as they saw the prisoners they came rushing
over: “Hey look! Halden lads!
We’re going to
take their trousers off! We’re going to take their
trousers
off!”
Ronno:
What did you do?
Ken:
Told him they were King’s
not his.
Sandra
[sarcastically]:
I bet that stopped him.
Ronno:
Did he try and get them?
Ken:
Would’ve done, but the lad they were mucking about with made
a break for it.
Effie:
What?
Ken:
Grabbed his kegs right out o’ Willie’s hands and
ran straight for that gap in the fence.
Sandra:
Did they catch him?
Ken:
Dunno. He got a good start. Took off
along the street like a bat out o’ hell with the whole mob
after
him – hey! Look out! Here they come!
Enter
the Black Dragons, on their way back to the goods yard, led by Willie.
Dragons
[singing]:
What’ll we do with
the Halden prisoners?
What’ll
we do with the Halden prisoners?
What’ll
we do with the Halden prisoners?
Take
their trousers off them!
Raaaay!
We’re
going to take their trousers off!
We’re
going to take their trousers off!
King:
Hey, Willie!
Come ‘ere!
Willie:
What d’ya want?
King:
Where you gan?
Willie:
They’ve got two Halden lads at the
bridge. We’re going to de-keg
’em. We’re
gonna give them a worse going over than we gave Nails Palmer.
We’re gonna torture
’em! We’re gonna throttle
’em and put grass down their necks! We’re
gonna carve
our initials on their chests and debollock ’em and put
’em
through the mill and give ’em Chinese torture and fling
’em
in the nettles! We’re gonna chop ’em into
little bits
and grind ’em into pulp! We’re gonna take
their
trousers
off, a’n’t we, lads?
Dragons:
Raaaay! We’re going to take their trousers
off! We’re going to take their trousers off!
Effie:
Ernie! You’ve got to stop them!
Effie
throws her arms around King in her
desire to plead with him. He is fully occupied in trying to
disentangle himself. Willie looks on mutinously, then mutters
to
Pete.
Willie:
If they try an’ stop us we’ll have their
kegs off an’all.
Pete:
Sh!
Ronno:
What
did you say, La’al Willie?
Ronno
grabs Willie.
Willie:
Gerroff!
Pete
and a few of the Dragons make a move to help Willie. Ken and
steps forward and they fall back.
Ronno:
You’re getting too big for your britches,
La’al Willie, aren’t ya? You wanna watch
it, you do.
Willie:
Gerroff! I’ll get you for this!
Ronno:
What?
Willie:
Aaaargh!
Ronno:
You’re gonna find out what happens to la’al kids
that get in our way.
Willie:
Yow-ow!
Ronno:
You’re a cheeky … [Ronno
cuffs
Willie] …
la’al … [cuff]
… kid [cuff].
– Aren’t ya?
Willie:
Just wait … Ow … yarooogh! Ow, ya
sod! Aaargh!
Ronno:
If you wanna stay in the gang, La’al Willie, you better say
you’re sorry!
Willie:
Ya bugger! – Ow! – I’m sorry
I’m sorry I’m sorry!
Ronno:
Just mind on then.
Ronno
releases Willie just as King extricates himself from Effie’s
clutches.
King:
Will you gerroff me!
Effie:
Oh, Ernie, please don’t let them do
it. Please! You promised. You know you
did.
It’s all I’ve ever wanted.
King:
Peacemaking?
Effie:
Yes. Please, Ernie!
Ronno:
You’re not going to listen to her, are you?
They’ll not stand for it.
King:
Who’s leader?
Ronno:
You
are.
Ken:
You
are.
King
[to
Willie]:
Who’s leader?
Willie
[sullenly]:
You
are.
King:
Right! Then we do things my
way.
Willie:
We go and debag ’em?
King:
No.
Willie:
Eh?
Ronno:
What?
Willie:
We do!
We’re góing to táke their
tróusers óff!
Dragons:
We’re going to take their trousers off!
We’re
going to take their trousers off!
King
[grabbing
Willie]: Shurrup,
you! I
said we’re doing things my
way. Trouble with you,
Willie,
is you’ve got a one-track mind. Soon as you see
Halden lads
you start squawking about taking their pants off. No
imagination! Well, from now on we’re doing things my
way!
– We’re gonna put them to the Count!
Ken
[impressed]:
Hey!
Willie:
What’s the Count?
King:
Don’t know everything, do you Willie?
You and all your initiation ceremonies. She’ll tell
you.
[King
indicates Effie].
Willie
[to Effie]:
What is it?
Effie:
How should I know? Please, Ernie. You’ve
got to let them go.
King
[ignoring
her]:
You’ll enjoy it, Willie. Bring a ruler.
Willie:
What’ for?
King:
What d’ya think?
Willie:
I thought you said …
King:
We’ll give ’em a real
going over. Far worse than Nails Palmer.
Willie:
Measure ’em?
King:
And put ’em to the Count!
Willie
[light
dawning]:
Hey! Hey, can I
do it?
King:
Naw.
Willie:
Why not?
King:
It’s gonna be summat special.
You can
take the pants off them, but the Count
– that’s her
job!
[King
indicates Effie].
Ronno:
Eh?
Willie
[impressed]:
Hey! Hey, great! The Count!
We’re
going to take their trousers off!
We’re
going to take their trousers off!
The
Count! The Count! Raaaay!
Dragons:
Raaaay! The Count!
We’re
going to take their trousers off!
We’re
going to take their trousers off! Raaay!
Willie:
Girls
doing it!
Dragons:
Raay!
Effie:
I won’t! I won’t!
King:
Oh yes you will! Cos if you don’t we’ll
have your
knickers off an’all!
Effie:
What?!
King:
That’s summat La’al Willie
hasn’t thought of – but I bet he’d enjoy
it.
Lock her in with the prisoners! She can think about Willie
ripping her knickers off in front of hundreds of lads, then mebbe
she’ll change her mind. I’m
in charge now, and
she’ll do as I tell her. Get the gang together,
lads!
Ronno:
Great! King rules, OK!
King:
Yeah! La’al Willie’s getting a
bit too big for his britches, wid’ his Dragons an’
their
initiations and that. But I’ve not abdicated yet,
and
I’m not going to. We’ll have the biggest
rally ever
for the stripping of the prisoners – then they can all swear
allegiance to the three
banners of King’s
gang.
Ronno:
Right.
Ronno
and Ken drag Effie away.
ACT II, SCENE 3
A
store-room made
by
walling in one of the arches of
a bridge that crosses the goods yard. We are looking from the
back of the shed towards the front wall with small-paned, metal-framed
windows and a warped wooden door. The disused store-room has
been
taken over by King’s gang. It contains a packing
case, a
broken chair, one leg supported on bricks and some smaller boxes
obviously used as seats.
The door bursts open. Enter
Ronno.
Ronno: Bring
’em in!
Stan
and some
other
youths bring in Tommo and
Scouse. Their hands are bound behind their backs and their
ankles
are tied together.
Ronno: This is it
then! Our gang headquarters.
It’s what you were looking for, innit? But it
won’t
do you any good, cos as far as you’re concerned, this is the
condemned cell.
Ronno
nods and
the youths
throw Tommo and Scouse into the shed. They fall on the floor.
Ronno: If
you’re looking for the Banner – don’t
bother. It’s not here. We’ll
the first
one’s not here, but the next two are, aren’t they,
lads?
Gang: Yeah!
Ronno: Yeah, next
time this door opens, you’re gonna be
dragged out of here and taken behind the engine sheds.
There’s gonna be more Swarrell lads there than
you’ve ever
seen in your lives – and we’re gonna give you a
worse going
over than we gave Nails Palmer. Have you ever heard of the
Count?
Doesn’t matter if you haven’t, you’ll
find out soon enough – and we’ve got summat else
special
lined up for you: special executioner!
Ronno
signals.
Ken and another lad hustle Effie into the shed.
Ronno:
She’s our secret weapon. She’s gonna
strip you, measure you, and I don’t know what else
– then
she’s gonna put you to the Count.
Ronno
nods.
They push Effie forward so that she stumbles.
Ronno: If
you’ve got any last requests – forget
’em! We’re gonna enjoy taunting you,
Tommo.
Taking your trousers for a banner is gonna put King right on top, where
he belongs. I’m glad it’s you,
Tommo. I’m
glad it’s the traitor that stripped his own leader.
Cos you
deserve everything you’re gonna get. Come on, lads!
Effie:
No! Ronno! Don’t leave me here!
Effie
tries to
catch hold
of Ronno.
Ronno:
Gerroff! You had your chance! Don’t
think King’ll fall for all that again! You either
do it, or
La’al Willie and the Dragons’ll have your knickers
off! Now gerroff!
He
pushes her
away and
follows the others out.
The door is slammed shut and there is the rattle of a padlock and chain
outside. Effie hurls herself at the door and bangs on it.
Effie:
Ronno! Ronno! Let me out! Ronno!
There
is no
answer. At last she stops.
Effie:
Bastards! Bastards!!
She
sits down on
one of
the boxes with her back to Tommo and Scouse.
Effie: I
won’t … It’s all …
Bastards!
They’re all bastards, the lot of ’em!
… You try to help them … D’you think I
care any
more? They can fight and kill each other till
there’s not
one of ’em left alive! Peacemaking? Huh,
peacemaking! Look where it’s got me. You
try to help
them. You try to be good. You try to be a
peacemaker, like
he said, but it’s all for nothing. What does it get
you? You have to do things like that
– and
everybody’ll be saying “She’s just a
common tart,
doing things like that,”
but if you don’t you get raped or
something – well, I’m finished
with it! I’m
finished wid ’em all, and if Ernie King thinks he can get
round
me again … I’m finished with him!
Bastard!
Silence.
Tommo: You
don’t have to do it.
Effie [swinging
round]: Shurrup,
you! It’s all your
fault! If it wasn’t for you I wouldn’t be
here!
Tommo: How
d’ya make that out?
Effie: You come
here, spraying slogans, looking for a fight!
Tommo:
D’you wanna get out of here, or not?
Effie: What do you
think?
Tommo: Untie us,
then.
Effie: Why?
Tommo:
We’ll bust the door down.
Effie: Oh
yeah? You and whose army?
Tommo: Could do it
easy. It’s only held together wi’ sticky
tape.
Effie:
That’s what you
think! That door’s solid. Nobody could
bust it without a bulldozer.
Tommo: We could
try. Untie us!
Effie: Oh
yeah? And when they come back and find I’ve untied
you? What then?
Tommo:
We’ll get out somehow. We’ll at least
have a chance.
Effie: And then
they’ll take it out on me.
No thank you.
Tommo:
We’ll tie you up, if you like. You could say we
broke free. Blame the kids that tied the knots.
Effie:
You’d like that, wouldn’t you? You
don’t care who gets beaten up as long as it’s not
you.
Scouse: Not
us! Not us! You’ve gotta let us go.
Tommo: Shurrup, man!
Scouse:
It’s all his fault.
Him and his big
ideas. Gonna be top gang, he says. Gonna get the
Banner and
be top gang. Wild Bulls, he says. I’m not
a Wild
Bull. I wanna go home.
Tommo: Will you
shurrup?
Effie
turns away.
Tommo: Now look
what you’ve done.
Scouse: I wanna go
home. I don’t wanna be a Wild Bull.
Effie:
They’re all the same, boys are. Either their
pawing you and trying to have their way with you or they’re
kicking each other’s heads in …
Tommo: Listen
…
Effie: …
and when they’re not doing that
they’re pulling each other’s trousers
off. I
don’t know what they get out of it. It
doesn’t matter
what you say to them.
Scouse: We should
never have joined up with Nails Palmer and them
in the first place. That’s what gave him
ideas.
Ambition and that. But he’s
not a gang-leader.
Effie: Blessed are
the peacemakers, that’s what he
said. Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called
children of God. But he’s only a man,
even if he does wear
a dog-collar and talk posh: that’s
where
you chapesses come in,
you could have an immense influence for good.
And before he was a
man he must have been a boy,
and I wonder what happened when his
blood
was up … but I don’t suppose he really went round
the
streets with a gang, breaking windows and fighting and that.
Scouse:
That’s why he stripped Nails Palmer. Thought
he was going to be the great leader: invade Swarrell, screw Marlene
Foster. What do I
get out of it? I get me pants taken off,
that’s what, wid’ everybody looking on and
laughing.
I wanna go home.
Effie: I tried, I
really did. I thought it would be all
right when Sid joined the gang, but he’s worse than any of
’em. I thought Ernie would listen, but now look:
I’m
stuck here and I’ve got to do things like that
or I get
raped! Bastards!
Tommo: Will
you
listen?!
D’you wanna be a peacemaker? Do you want to be a peacemaker?!
Effie:
I’m sick
of being a peacemaker. Look where it’s got me.
Tommo: Look where
it’s got all of us. Listen, I’m only here
cos I’m a peacemaker.
Effie: What did you
come to Swarrell for, then? For the Banner!
Tommo:
Yeah. Course. For the Banner.
There’ll never be peace while the Swarrell lads are waving
Nails’s pants at us and calling us useless wankers.
Think
what it’d be like if we
had King’s
kegs. The Swarrell
lads would come for ’em and keep on coming till they got them
back. They’d have
to. Same with our
lads. Their
manhood’s at stake.
Effie: So you
thought you’d get it first , and you’d be top
gang-leader.
Scouse: Toro and
the Wild Bulls. I wanna go home.
Tommo:
No! Course not! I was gonna sneak it
away. They’d never know what happened.
They’d
all forget. After all, Nails isn’t in the gang any
more
…
Effie: No, you saw
to that, didn’t you? If you
can’t start a fight in Swarrell, you start one among
yourselves
in Halden. Why do you always have to be fighting and trying
to
get on top? Girls aren’t like that, so why are
boys?
I suppose you call it manhood, don’t you? Proving
your
manhood by being harder than anybody else. Well
it’s a
funny sort of manhood, that’s all I have to say,
it’s a
funny sort of manhood if the only way you can keep it is by kicking
somebody else’s head in – and it’s a
funny sort of
manhood if you can lose it by having your trousers taken off.
Scouse: I wanna go
home.
Tommo:
I’m not like that. I’m a
peacemaker.
Listen, you can’t make peace with a bloke by
kicking his head in. People like you and me, we’ve
got to
know how to talk. That’s all I did to
Nails. I just
talked to him. I said to him just what you’ve
said. I
told him manhood’s not kicking other lads’ heads in
and
that. I told him about peacemaking. I
don’t know what
I said to him. It all just suddenly came to me –
put into
me mind by some higher power – and it really got through to
him,
cos he suddenly burst into tears and said him and the gang had got it
all wrong about manhood, and he wasn’t fit to be a man at all
– and then he takes his pants off and flings ’em
away and
goes off crying.
Effie: Pull the
other one!
Tommo:
It’s true! On my mother’s life
– I
swear it. We never laid a finger on him, did we, Scouse?
Scouse: I wanna go
home.
Tommo: I said
we never laid a finger
on Nails. He took his own
pants off – didn’t
he?
Scouse:
Yeah. Not like us.
I wanna go home.
Effie
turns away.
Tommo:
Yeah. Yeah. Poor old Scouse. I got him
into this. Me and my big ideas about peacemaking.
I thought
I could stop the fighting, but all I’ve done is lose me
trousers. I’ll really be finished after
this. No more
peacemaking.
I’ll just need to open me mouth and
they’ll all start laughing. The Swarrell
lads’ll have
me kegs for a banner. That’s what happens to
peacemakers.
But it’s poor old Scouse
I’m sorry
for. He doesn’t understand what’s
happening. He
thought it would be all right. I told him peacemaking’s
great – and now he’ll have his pants
taken off and
they’ll put him to the Count
and they’ll all be laughing at
him, and he’ll have to walk all the way back home in the
streets,
with people pointing at him and jeering.
Scouse [weeping]:
I wanna go home. I just wanna go home.
Tommo:
You’ve got to help us.
Effie: I
don’t know what they’re going on
about. Anybody would think they were in the condemned
cell.
They’re only going to be debagged, that’s
all.
They’re just going to have their pants taken off.
Willie
and the Dragons are always pulling each other’s trousers
off. They use debagging as an initiation ceremony, but
there’s always new lads joining the gang. What are
they
going on about?
Tommo: The Count!
The shame!
Scouse: I wanna go
home.
Effie: What do they
think it’s like for me? They don’t seem
to think about that.
She
turns towards
Tommo.
Effie: You
don’t think what it’s like for me,
do
you? You and your manhood! Just think about someone
else
for a change! It’s all right for you,
isn’t it?
You go fighting and brawling about the streets like hooligans, beating
each other up and shouting your filthy slogans – you and your
gangs and your initiations and your debaggings and your
counts!
Well what d’you think it’s like for me?
I was only
trying to save you from killing each other, and now I get all mixed up
in your filth and I have to do
things or get stripped and raped.
You don’t think
about that, do you?
While Effie has
been
speaking there has been a
growing commotion outside. The door is rattled.
Boys can be
heard cheering. Willie and the Dragons have arrived.
Dragons: What shall
we do with the Halden prisoners?
What shall we do with the Halden prisoners?
What shall we do with the Halden prisoners?
Take the trousers off them!
Willie [rattling
at the door]:
Hey! We’re going to take you’re trousers
off, ain’t we lads?
Dragons:
Raaaaay! The Count! The Count!
Willie:
Yeah! And she’ll
be doing it!
Dragons:
Raaay!
Hoo-ray! We’ll have their trousers!
Hoo-ray! We’ll have their trousers!
Hoo-ray! We’ll have their trousers!
And put them to the Cou-ount!
Willie
rattles
the door
ferociously.