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The Night of the Ninth

A drama in three acts

  • Historical
  • Drama
  • 3-character play
  • 2 women, 1 either
  • 45 min
  • Advanced
  • Ages 12+
PDF Word Free, no sign-up

Synopsis

East Berlin, 9 November 1989. Television has just announced that people will be allowed to cross to the West, and Lena, released from prison two years ago after a failed escape, wants to go over this very night. Her mother, Hanna, refuses to go down into the street. Then Alex, who lives across the landing, rings the bell with a bag in hand and a notebook to give to Lena before leaving.

A sixth-floor flat on Karl-Marx-Allee, East Berlin, the night of Thursday 9 to Friday 10 November 1989.

Casting

403 lines
  • HANNA Female role, Senior 60, laid bricks on this avenue in 1952 and has lived on it ever since; retired since March.
  • LENA Female role, Young adult 26, her daughter; has worked in a laundry since her release from prison in October 1987.
  • ALEX No gender marker, Adult around forty, lives in the flat across the same landing; keeps the building’s register of visitors.

Contents

  1. Act One: Half Past Seven
    • Scene 1
    • Scene 2
  2. Act Two: Twenty Past Ten
    • Scene 1
    • Scene 2
  3. Act Three: A Quarter to Midnight
    • Scene 1
    • Scene 2

Excerpt

Act One: Half Past Seven

Scene 1

(A room that serves as living room and kitchen. A table, an ironing board, a television set, a radio on the sideboard, a window onto the avenue. Hanna is sitting down, an open sewing box in front of her. She is sewing a button back onto a coat. On the television, the opening titles of the evening news are coming to an end.)

(A key in the lock. Lena comes in, out of breath, in her work jacket.)

LENA

Did you hear?

HANNA

Shut the door.

LENA

Did you hear, yes or no?

HANNA

I’ll hear if you keep quiet.

(Lena shuts the door. On the television, a newsreader is reading a statement. We make out: “… private travel abroad can be applied for without any preconditions…”)

LENA

That’s it. That’s what he said.

398 more lines, 9 scenes

The rest is waiting in the file.

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