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Ella Hickson

The Authorised Kate Bane

A painfully comic excavation of a family history that asks if there is an authorised version of the past — or just the one we can live with. Premiered at the Traverse Theatre in October 2012.
Kate Bane returns home to her parents for a winter weekend to introduce her new boyfriend. As the snow falls, Kate finds herself searching with increasing desperation for the truth about her family's past. Are her memories fact, or are they continually shifting acts of imagination?
Unable to pin down the truth, can she write a version of the family mythology that will ensure her own happiness?
'Fascinating… an Escher-like playfulness in its examination of the nature of creation' The Stage
'An amusing piece, well-crafted' The List
76 printed pages
Copyright owner
Bookwire
Original publication
2012
Publication year
2012
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Quotes

  • b2032408310has quoted4 years ago
    ing – I’d like you to know – to be clear that that takes an almost impossible – I mean – it feels like every single fucking cell is sweating with the effort of looking at the horizon and trying to see sun and my fists are tight and I’m trying as hard as I’ve ever fucking tried for anything to see the blue sky and the two-point-four and the happy-ever-after and I’m squeezing the will, aching to generate because I want to – because I want to believe so fucking badly – it’s really all I want – that’s the thing – it’s all I want – really – I just – I just – there’s this little Nazi inside of me that doesn’t care about anything but the wanting of that place – the wanting of that place where it’s safe and warm and there’s the sun out and the mama and the papa and the little babby and they all love each other – and that little Nazi in there – it has big dreams and the dreams make it feel nice – and it wants its world to be safe and if that means that people have to die – if it means they are cold because me and my three are warm then I don’t mind – my little Nazi doesn’t mind as long as we three are safe and warm. And so you do believe it – you believe in it for a second – you see it like you’re small and naked on a bed – you see it like you’re in it and there’s no noise – and then – and then – (Beat.) and then you’re afraid – (Beat.) you remember something else and you’re afraid because it feels like if you do believe it – then something bad is going to happen – just come up and smack you in the face for being a fucking idiot and not keeping your eyes out for the bad thing – it’ll smack you just for being stupid enough to not expect it to jump up and smack you.
  • b2032408310has quoted4 years ago
    nd to see some kind of happy ending – I’d like you to know – to be clear that that takes an almost impossible – I mean – it feels like every single fucking cell is sweating with the effort of looking at the horizon and trying to see sun and my fists are tight and I’m trying as hard as I’ve ever fucking tried for anything to see the blue sky and the two-point-four and the happy-ever-after and I’m squeezing the will, aching to generate because I want to – because I want to believe so fucking badly – it’s really all I want – that’s the thing – it’s all I want – really – I just – I just – there’s this little Nazi inside of me that doesn’t care about anything but the wanting of that place – the wanting of that place where it’s safe and warm and there’s the sun out and the mama and the papa and the little babby and they all love each other – and that little Nazi in there – it ha
  • b2032408310has quoted4 years ago
    – and that might be because I started my being alive in a house that was filled with pain or it might just be that pain and hurt and anger actually are the real thing, the proper ones – the base notes – the closest we ever really get to whatever it actually is to be alive. It’s chicken-and-egg maybe. But either way it feels like hard-wiring.

    But since I met you – I’ve tried harder than I’ve ever fucking tried – to believe bunnies and happy endings to pull myself together and just get on with it – but, but you do have to believe in it, you have to have faith in a thing, Al – it’s not just strapping a pair on and putting one foot in front of the other – and I – I – I’d like to tell you – I’d like to make it clear to you that believing – for me – believing things are going to turn out okay – I mean for ever – I mean, to look at the rest of it all
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