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Gabriel Nkoke, a Nigerian-born man raised in England, delivers a monologue to an unseen National Front representative as he tries to join the organization, drawn to its racialist agenda despite feeling he belongs neither in England nor Nigeria.
Patsy Bear, a boxer who cannot read or recognize numbers reliably, meets Avril Ainger, a mathematics lecturer. She helps him learn basic arithmetic, though Patsy is more interested in sex. Avril discusses her abusive first marriage and asks Patsy to leave boxing; after she cuts up his gear, he becomes ill and falls into a coma. His doctor says conversation may restore his memory. In the final scene, Avril pushes him in a wheelchair along the street where they met, and they repeat their counting routine.
Twelve-year-old Michael meets aging Dada artist Kurt Schwitters while collecting bus tickets. Schwitters, a refugee facing deportation, befriends Michael and gradually earns his mother’s trust. He hopes the mother will marry him so he can become a naturalized citizen, though she has no romantic interest. When Schwitters gives Michael an unrideable Dada bicycle instead of the bicycle he wanted, the boy explains that he values its uniqueness. Schwitters, believing he is too eccentric for the family, decides to leave, but Michael asks him to stay.
The play starts with the courtship between Eliot and Vivienne Haigh-Wood in 1914 and ends with their separation in 1933, followed by Vivienne's gradual mental health decline until her death in 1947. The play also follows the early career of T.S. Eliot, the death of Vivienne's father, and how her mother Rose dealt with her daughter's failing marriage and mental health.
Gabriel Nkoke, a Nigerian-born man raised in England, delivers a monologue to an unseen National Front representative as he tries to join the organization, drawn to its racialist agenda despite feeling he belongs neither in England nor Nigeria.
Patsy Bear, a boxer who cannot read or recognize numbers reliably, meets Avril Ainger, a mathematics lecturer. She helps him learn basic arithmetic, though Patsy is more interested in sex. Avril discusses her abusive first marriage and asks Patsy to leave boxing; after she cuts up his gear, he becomes ill and falls into a coma. His doctor says conversation may restore his memory. In the final scene, Avril pushes him in a wheelchair along the street where they met, and they repeat their counting routine.
Twelve-year-old Michael meets aging Dada artist Kurt Schwitters while collecting bus tickets. Schwitters, a refugee facing deportation, befriends Michael and gradually earns his mother’s trust. He hopes the mother will marry him so he can become a naturalized citizen, though she has no romantic interest. When Schwitters gives Michael an unrideable Dada bicycle instead of the bicycle he wanted, the boy explains that he values its uniqueness. Schwitters, believing he is too eccentric for the family, decides to leave, but Michael asks him to stay.
The play starts with the courtship between Eliot and Vivienne Haigh-Wood in 1914 and ends with their separation in 1933, followed by Vivienne's gradual mental health decline until her death in 1947. The play also follows the early career of T.S. Eliot, the death of Vivienne's father, and how her mother Rose dealt with her daughter's failing marriage and mental health.