Bang Bang Bang Read Online Free PDF Page A

Stephen – you twat.
    BIBI picks up another slice of pizza.
    STEPHEN. I’ll phrase it differently. Who did you sleep with?
    MATHILDE. Maybe they realise you need education to learn from experience.
    BIBI ( with her mouth full ). Can’t tell you how many times I’ve saved his ‘experienced’ / sorry ass.
    STEPHEN laughs.
    STEPHEN. She’s rewriting / history, Mathilde.
    MATHILDE. I’m clear what I’m letting myself in for.
    BIBI. Good, ’cause I’ve seen a lot of young people break down after only a few weeks in Congo – ‘Oh, all the suffering.’
    SADHBH. You get a cook, a cleaner, a driver and you get paid. I’ll be watching out for you.
    BIBI. Your compound is fifteen kilometres from the displaced persons’ camp in Masisi. It also houses MSF and Save the Children. Don’t sleep with the doctors.
    They never return your calls – and that’s kind of awkward if you actually get sick.
    MATHILDE. Okay.
    BIBI. Your contact at the camp is Mama Carolina – an experienced local health worker specialising in gender-based violence –
    speaks about eight different languages.
    She alerted us to the March massacres in Masisi.
    She says a name keeps coming up – a Tutsi warlord called Colonel Jerome Mburame.
    Any questions so far?
    MATHILDE. We’ve postponed our trip twice because of violence. How is it now?
    BIBI. It’s been quiet in the area for over a month.
    But be sensible. You and Sadhbh are in this together like a lifeboat.
    One person’s action or inaction will affect the other in terms of security.
    MATHILDE. Of course. I understand.
    STEPHEN. And if you don’t like it you can always leave.
    MATHILDE. I won’t do that.
    STEPHEN. I began as an idealist.
    I imagined I’d solve problems by day and at night I’d play guitar / under an African moon.
    MATHILDE. What’s wrong with idealism?
    SADHBH. Stephen –
    STEPHEN. We too – thought we could fix the world.
    We’d catapult ourselves in without a clue.
    MATHILDE. I’ve done my homework.
    STEPHEN. Good, because there’s too much that’s ineffective / about the work.
    SADHBH. And he’s off.
    BIBI. I take issue with that, Stephen.
    SADHBH. We all do.
    BIBI. I’ve seen enormously successful programmes / in Congo –
    STEPHEN. Really? And have they helped the Congolese become responsible for their own security? Have they fuck!
    MATHILDE puts down her pizza and cleans her hands.
    BIBI and SADHBH look at one another. An awkward pause.
    MATHILDE. So you guys worked all together?
    SADHBH. We met in –
    STEPHEN. / 1999.
    SADHBH. 2000 –
    BIBI. 2000.
    STEPHEN. Last time we all worked together / was in 2006.
    BIBI. Worked, ate, had dysentery together.
    I knew Sadhbh when she was running from a boy.
    I’m not talking / about Stephen.
    STEPHEN. Which boy?
    SADHBH finishes her pizza and cleans her hands on some kitchen roll.
    SADHBH. Oh – a sweetheart from home.
    It was expected I’d end up / with him.
    Does anyone want more pizza?
    BIBI. The sweetheart was so pissed with you.
    STEPHEN. I’ll take that half-piece.
    MATHILDE attempts to open another bottle of wine. The cork is stiff.
    STEPHEN cleans his hands on kitchen roll.
    SADHBH. Michael didn’t understand. My parents didn’t understand.
    SADHBH gives STEPHEN a small slice.
    I gave up a job in the bank to go to Congo with Oxfam. In Ireland that’s like giving up the priesthood.
    STEPHEN. Here – will I open / that for you?
    MATHILDE. No, no. / It’s okay – if I just – oh no.
    The light flickers overhead. The light fades then blinks out.
    The sound of tropical outdoors.
    A spot of light. A CHILD in a grotty oversize football shirt is holding a rifle.
    CHILD SOLDIER. Descende de la voiture.
    STEPHEN steps into the light.
    The CHILD gestures towards SADHBH and BIBI . They come forward.
    The CHILD gestures with the rifle that they should stop