Richard Bean: Plays Five

“You’re an octopus. All mixed up, like me. One leg something, and one leg something else.”

As far as Sarah, Sara and Scheherazade are concerned, they have nothing in common. And yet they’ve all been called in for an interview to determine how British they are: a new requirement for those with ‘non-indigenous heritage’.

Sara looks kind of Asian. Scheherazade looks kind of Middle Eastern. And Sarah is kind of white and has no idea why she’s here. She also keeps bursting into song. But by the end of the play it becomes clear that the three women are all what Scheherazade thinks of as ‘octopuses’ — mixed race and mixed up with it. And maybe that’s true of Britishness too.

Octopus takes a satirical look at what it means to be British, how it feels to be treated as a foreigner in your own land, and the power of punk.

© 2017 Oberon Books (Ebook): 9781786821942

Release date

Ebook: May 2, 2017