# The Allotment

_Invented for the demo_

## CHARACTERS

- **ROSE PELL**
- **TEDDY PELL**
- **MRS DUNMORE** (supporting)

## ACT ONE — Dusk

### Scene 1 · Plot 14. A shed, a water butt, a bench made from a door.

_Dusk, the evening before the clearance._

_(Dusk. Rose is tying up beans that do not need tying. Teddy holds a letter.)_

**TEDDY PELL**
They've dated it. Tuesday.

**ROSE PELL**
Everything's dated. Milk's dated.

**TEDDY PELL**
Mum.

**ROSE PELL**
Hand me that twine.

**TEDDY PELL**
They'll bring a digger, Mum. Not a letter. A digger.

**ROSE PELL**
Then they'll want tea. Diggers are thirsty work.

_(She ties. He watches her hands.)_

**TEDDY PELL**
I've spoken to a solicitor.

**ROSE PELL**
With what money?

**TEDDY PELL**
He says the lease is a licence. A licence can be ended.

**ROSE PELL**
Thirty-one years is not a licence. It's a marriage.

_(Enter MRS DUNMORE. Mrs Dunmore comes through the gate with a clipboard, careful of her shoes.)_

**MRS DUNMORE**
Mrs Pell? I did knock. On the gate.

**ROSE PELL**
Gates don't knock back. Sit down, you're making the beans nervous.

**MRS DUNMORE**
I'd rather stand. This won't take long.

**TEDDY PELL**
It's taken thirty-one years.

_(Exit TEDDY PELL. Teddy goes into the shed and pulls the door to.)_

**MRS DUNMORE**
I'm here to agree an inventory. What's yours, what's the council's.

**ROSE PELL**
The soil's mine. I made it. You can have the clay underneath.

**TEDDY PELL**
Tell her about the apple tree.

**MRS DUNMORE**
Trees are the council's, I'm afraid. Anything rooted.

**ROSE PELL**
Then I'm the council's. I've been rooted longer than the tree.

**TEDDY PELL**
She planted it the day I was born.

_(Mrs Dunmore writes something, then crosses it out.)_

**MRS DUNMORE**
I'll put "disputed".

**ROSE PELL**
Put "hers".

### Scene 2 · Inside the shed.

_Later the same evening._

_(Inside the shed. A biscuit tin of seed packets, a radio that has not worked since the nineties. Teddy sits on an upturned crate with the letter.)_

**TEDDY PELL**
Tuesday.

_(Enter ROSE PELL. Rose comes in with two mugs and no intention of discussing anything.)_

**ROSE PELL**
She's gone. She took a photo of the apple tree.

**TEDDY PELL**
Evidence.

**ROSE PELL**
Or she liked it. People do.

**TEDDY PELL**
You could come and live with us.

**ROSE PELL**
I could live in a drawer. It doesn't mean I'd fit.

_(She hands him a mug. He does not drink.)_

**TEDDY PELL**
Dad would have chained himself to the shed.

**ROSE PELL**
Your dad couldn't find the shed after six o'clock.

**TEDDY PELL**
Mum.

## ACT TWO — Tuesday

### Scene 1 · Plot 14, stripped. The shed door stands open.

_Dawn, Tuesday._

_[A2S1 — not yet written]_