FLUSHED

A Comedy in One Act

Ron Nicol

 

 

 

Characters       Meg                 plainly dressed, innocent and good-natured

                        Jan                   fashionable, fiery and short-tempered

Tara                 strikingly attractive

 

The three women are in their twenties or thirties but could be almost any age. As they spent some time at school together their ages should appear to be similar. Jan and Meg were best friends at school and maintained their close friendship afterwards. Tara wears expensive designer clothing, but Jan’s description of her is greatly exaggerated and her dress is not as revealing as Jan suggests.

 

Setting             The Ladies Room in a basement below a dance hall.

 

Time                The present. Evening.

 

Synopsis:         It’s a singles night, and Jan and Meg are taking a break in the Ladies Room. Jan is criticising Tara, unaware that Tara is hiding in one of the toilet cubicles. When Tara’s presence is revealed a fight ensues and Jan confesses the reason for her jealousy. Then Meg discovers that the door to the room seems to be locked, and the succeeding series of mishaps and misfortunes ruins Jan’s appearance and assurance. Tara eventually manages to open the door, but on the threshold of escape they find that Meg is trapped in one of the cubicles.  

Running

Time:               40 minutes

 

“Flushed” was first produced by Glenrothes Theatre Company in Glenwood HS Drama Studio, Glenrothes in October 2013 and in the Town Hall, Leslie in April 2014 with the following cast:-

Meg                 Stephanie Childs

Jan                   Nikki Conn

Tara                 Anna Gorniak

Directed by Ron Nicol

A dilapidated ladies room in a basement below a dance hall. The door to the room is stage right. It has an old-fashioned round handle. Upstage a row of three joined toilet cubicles faces the audience. There’s a gap between the bottom of each door and the floor. Plumbing inside the cubicles isn’t vital or need only be suggested because the interiors will be mostly obscured as the actresses enter and exit. To stage left is a wash hand basin with a mirror above it. The basin is a typical box-like unit with the back towards the audience, so the basin itself can be hidden with perhaps only the taps seen behind the mirror. The ‘mirror’ is only a frame, so that as the actresses stand US of the basin to look into it they face the audience and can clearly be seen. A roller towel is fixed to a rail US of the basin, with a waste bin nearby. There’s a chair immediately DS of the basin and a short bench R.

(A singles dance is in progress upstairs, and the beat of music can be faintly heard in the background. As the lights come up MEG, JAN and TARA’s feet can be seen below each of the closed cubicle doors. MEG is singing to the tune of ‘Johnny’s So Long At The Fair.’)

MEG:             Oh dear, what can the matter be? Three old ladies locked in the lavatory. They’ve been there from Monday to Saturday, nobody knew they were there. Oh...

(MEG’s singing becomes a wail.)

Noooo! There’s no paper. Has anybody got any?

(The toilet in the cubicle at the SL end of the row flushes.)

Jan? Is that you?

JAN:               What?

MEG:             I don’t have any loo paper. Have you got any?

JAN:               Hold on. There’s a spare roll here.

(JAN’s hand appears under the SL cubicle door holding a roll of toilet paper.)

Put your hand under your door. I’ll roll it towards you so you can catch it.

MEG:             How will I know when it gets to me? I can’t see.

JAN:               Just put your hand out.

(MEG’s hand appears under the SR cubicle door.)

                        Are you ready?

MEG:             Yes.