East
East Author: Steven Berkoff
First Performance: 1975, Edinburgh
Published: 1977
Genre: Drama in 19 scenes; prose and some free verse
Setting: East End of London, 1970s
Cast: 3m, 2f
Mike and Les are firm mates since they fought with razors over Mike's fiancée, Sylv. Sylv's Mum and Dad are a bored, deprived couple. Nostalgically, Dad recalls the 1938 Cable Street riots when Oswald Mosley led his Nazi Blackshirts through the East End. Mike seduces Sylv, Sylv dreams of being a man, and the family and Mike go on holiday to Southend. Les has sex with a 14-year-old and is sent to prison for rape. Les represents a motorbike and Mike rides off on it, flying ‘like a king’. Dad sentimentally reminisces about old times, and Mum soliloquizes about masturbating a young stranger in the cinema, only to discover when the...
[The entire page is 315 words long]
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