Chalkland

Evicted from a house he can no longer afford, a middle-class man sets up home on the street, sketching his living room in chalk on a brick wall.  A baffled passer-by, on her way to protest downtown with the anti-austerity demonstrators, tries to snap him out of his continued trust in the system.  But will his choice not to resist prove the most powerful argument?

One day, when I saw in the news about the collapse of Lehman Brothers, I realised that the building on Wall Street that appeared on the screen was drawn in chalk; a year later I was studying at the library and I went to pick up a book but they were all made of chalk.  

A week later it was my bloody law degree that was drawn in chalk; yesterday I was crossing the Paseo del Prado and the entire north wing of the museum had been rubbed out, and this morning I couldn’t find the entrance to the health centre.

Even the bus I take to Puerta del Sol just disappeared in a puff of chalk, right before my eyes.

Chalkland premiered at the Royal Court Theatre on 29 June 2013 as part of The Big Idea: PIIGS.  It was directed by Richard Twyman and performed by Nadia Clifford and Robert Lonsdale.  It is part of a set of short plays, along with Voicemail and House Arrest.

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