/ indicates that the line continues as one speaks over the other.
Tank
Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre. Guards’ office.
The room is dimly lit. Most of the light comes from an array of CCTV feeds that line the back wall. The screens glow like empty fish tanks. A violent commotion silently takes place on one of the feeds, but the action is lost amidst the sea of monitors. GUARD 1 (1) sits reading the paper with his back to the screens.
Silence.
After a short while GUARD 2 (2) enters.
1 [Not looking up from his paper] Everything alright?
2 No.
1 If you were any paler I’d suggest you’d seen a ghost. Trouble?
2 She lost it again.
1 Which one?
2 The Algerian.
1 Lost it? Again? Dear dear.
2 We needed you out there.
1 I’m on my break.
2 Didn’t you see her on the monitors?
1 [Gesturing to his paper] I’m on my break.
2 Third time this week.
1 She’ll give in. They always do.
2 looks out.
2 They’ll be asking questions soon.
1 Who?
2 Head office.
1 Let them ask. It’s out of our hands now.
1 starts making himself a tea. 2 seems lost, vacant.
2 You’ve been here a while, haven’t you?
1 Little while, yeah.
2 How long?
1 [With no regret] Too long.
2 Why do you think they get going like that? Like how she does. I mean what’s the point, you know? They know that it’s not gonna win them any favours, or get them a ticket out, so why bother?
1 Not in their right minds.
1 sits with his tea and returns to the paper. Silence.
2 She shook me today.
1 You what?
2 Today. The Algerian. She shook me.
1 What d’you mean, shook you?
2 There was something in her eyes that wasn’t right, you know?
1 No.
2 All empty and silent. It was like she wanted out.
1 They all want out.
2 No, out of herself. Like she was trapped in here, but then there was something inside of her that wanted out of her. I couldn’t say what.
1 You’re getting philosophical again.
2 I can’t help it. It shook me.
1 Don’t let them get to you.
2 I’m not imagining it. I just... it just doesn’t make sense.
1 Look, she probably just caught wind of you being an easy target, is all.
2 You what?
1 She’s probably just cottoned on that you’re an easy target and is making the most of it.
2 What d’you mean an easy target?
1 I mean an easy target.
2 I’m not.
1 [Innocently] Aren’t you? I must have heard otherwise.
2 What you getting at?
1 Nothing.
2 No go on.
1 Well it’s just rumour has it you have a er...
2 What?
1 Well a er... particularly... soft touch.
2 What d’you mean by that?
1 Oh nothing nothing.
2 No go on.
1 Just rumours is all.
2 Who’s been saying that?
1 Oh I dunno, little birdies and the like.
2 Well they aren’t true. I’m a professional. I’ve got credentials, integrity.
1 [Laughing] We’ve all got them. That comes with this [he gestures to his badge]. It’s what we do with it that counts.
2 Well I haven’t done anything with it, alright?
1 Alright.
2 Good.
Painfully long silence.
1 [Still looking at the paper] Suzanne’s getting married. I heard. You invited?
2 Not yet.
1 Well she sent out the invites.
2 Well I s’pose I’m not invited.
1 Right.
Silence.
2 The Ethiopian was crying again.
1 You what?
2 The Ethiopian, she was crying again.
1 What the fat one with the massive tits? Crying?
2 Yeah.
1 Again?
2 Yeah.
1 What she crying about?
2 I don’t know. She just gets started and doesn’t stop. It shakes me when she cries.
1 Stop saying that.
2 What?
1 ’It shakes me.’ What’s the matter? You not cut out for it?
2 I am. It does shake me though. I never heard crying like it.
1 It’s African that’s why.
2 It’s more than that.
1 Soft spot is it?
2 You what?
1 Making use of that soft touch you got going around?
2 Leave it.
1 So it’s true?
2 Look, I dunno what you’ve heard but whatever it is you heard wrong.
1 I’m sure I have.
2 I can’t explain it.
1 What you’re soft touch? [He laughs.]
2 No! Her crying like that. It’s like a sadness that I never felt. I never felt as down as she does when she gets going like that.
1 You’re getting involved.
2 I can’t help it.
1 It’s dangerous. You’ll end up in it up to your neck and then they’ve really got you. You’ll be out on your arse if you’re not careful.
2 I am careful. It’s just sometimes it gets to me, the way they cry like that.
1 Shakes you, does it? [Beat] Thought as much.
Silence.
1 You going to Christmas party?
2 Hadn’t thought about it.
1 You should. First year and all. Usually a proper knees up. Head office let their hair down. All inclusive bar tab. What’s not to tempt?
2 I might be working.
1 Course you won’t. No one works at the Christmas party.
2 Who watches these lot then?
1 Agency blokes. Proper ruffians. That’s when you ought to be feeling sorry for them [he forces a laugh].
Silence.
2 She was blubbering over a photograph of a girl.
1 Who was?
2 The Ethiopian. They tried to take it from her but she wouldn’t let them. In the end I pulled it from her hand so hard that it ripped. Then she got to crying even more.
1 Pull it together.
2 I thought it would make her stop.
1 Well I’m sure she’ll survive.
2 She never stopped.
1 Stopped what?
2 Crying. [Beat] I can’t get out of it.
1 Out of what?
2 They’re everywhere. It’s like every time I turn a corner, or open a door, even when I shut my eyes there’s one of them standing there. I had this dream the other night.
1 Oh here we go.
2 What?
1 The dream sequence, stop thinking about it. I can’t help it. You can help it. You’re indulging. I never saw such mountainous mole hills.
2 They were all there.
1 Who?
2 All of them, even the ones I don’t know.
1 Where?
2 In the dream. They were standing behind bars. Only I couldn’t see what side of the bars they were on, you know? And she was crying, the Ethiopian, they all were, but she was crying the loudest. Only none of them looked like they were crying. You know? I could just hear it. It was like it was coming from the ground. Like an earthquake and they were just standing on it so it seemed like them who were crying but really none of them were, it was the ground, the earth, you know?
1 No I don’t know. Look, these lot are the lucky ones. To get on one of them boats they’ve gotta have money. It’s the ones stuck over there that you should be crying over.
2 [Looking over to the CCTV monitors] They don’t look all that lucky to me.
1 Trust me. You see some skinny cunt in the arse end of nowhere, rib cage sticking out like a fucking xylophone, you’ll think old crying big tits was living the life of riley. Stop thinking about it.
2 Don’t you ever get to thinking about it? About them?
1 Sometimes, but then I get to thinking about how it’s pointless. There’s no way what I think is gonna do anything for any of them so what’s the point in wasting thoughts on it? They get food don’t they? Shelter. Warmth. It’s better than the hell-hole they’ve left behind that’s a given. Why else would they come?
Pause.
2 We should get back out there.
1 I’m on my break. You should get back out there.
2 looks at the screen feeds.
2 There she is.
1 You what?
2 The Algerian. She’s there.
1 Where else would she be?
2 She was going off earlier. You said. Now she’s just sitting there, staring at the wall. [Pause] What d’you think they get to thinking about?
1 I have no idea.
2 When they go off like how she does. Then they don’t eat for days. Barely even drinking water. And now, now she’s just sitting there. All silent. Staring. From here it’s like she’s thinking about nothing. Emptiness. But there must be thoughts in her head that I never even heard of. Strange that.
1 What?
2 How we can see her here now. And we can hold her in the cells -
1 They’re not cells. They’re dormitories.
2 Either way. We can - you know - touch her and that. Watch her. But it’s like it’s not really her, you know? Like her body isn’t really a person. It’s just a shell that’s got someone in it, but it ain’t the right person cos the right person’s fucked off for a bit. So...
1 So?
2 I never felt so different from anyone in all my life.
1 They’re different to us. Are they? Course they are. What they know ain’t what we know. That’s why they don’t do well even when they’re out of here. They’re like goldfish in a tank with no water in it. Flapping around, all lost, like. Keepin’ themselves to themselves ’cos it’s different. It ain’t what they know. They weren’t built for it. It’s all wired in. And the difference builds up, you know? Bit by bit, ’til one day they realise that the pearly gates of dear old Blighty really wasn’t quite what the brochures had cracked it up to be. Know what I mean? The emerald city always did look much prettier from afar. Hearth and home and all that. That’s how come they don’t mix.
2 They mix in here.
1 That’s cos they’ve got to. Out there I mean. It’s the Pakistanis with the Pakistanis, the Iraqis with the Iraqis and so on and so on. Birds of a feather.
2 They mix out there. My next door neighbour’s... Indian or something. He’s always round.
2 looks back to the screens.
2 Someone should check on her.
1 Why?
2 Make sure she’s alright. Don’t want her going off again like that. They’ll start asking questions.
1 Who?
2 Head office.
1 What’s wrong with them asking questions?
2 We don’t want trouble is all.
1 Oh I dunno. I don’t mind a bit of trouble every now and again. Anyway, what’s to worry about? It’s just a few formalities. It’s all good. Unless you got something to hide? [Beat] Tickled a nerve? She ain’t bad though is she?
2 Who?
1 The Algerian. Hold her up against some of the filth we get in here, she’s like a fucking Arab Kate Moss.
2 I hadn’t noticed.
1 Is that right?
2 Not my place to.
1 Alright alright, didn’t think you’d get all precious over it. All I’m saying is I’d give her one.
2 You shouldn’t talk like that.
1 Says Mr soft touch over here.
2 Leave it.
1 What’s wrong?
2 Nothing.
1 You seem off.
2 I’m not.
1 Scared of something.
2 I’m not.
1 What you scared of?
2 Nothing.
1 What’s eatin’ at you?
2 They’re getting to me is all.
1 There’s more than that.
2 I don’t want head office asking questions.
1 I told you, it’s fine. Unless you got something to hide. [Beat] What is it you’ve gotta hide?
2 What?
1 You. You’re hiding something.
2 I’m not.
1 Go on. Indulge me. It won’t leave these walls. Nothing ever does.
2 I’ve got nothing to hide.
1 It’ll take the weight off. Share the load.
2 I haven’t got a load.
1 It’ll drag you down /
2 It won’t.
1 / eatin’ away at you ’til there’s nothing left.
2 I dunno what you’re talking about.
1 Bit by bit, chunk by chunk, ’til you’re no more than that uniform held up by the safety pin of that badge. Empty, but for the credentials and the integrity of course. [He laughs]
2 Leave it.
Beat.
1 I think I know what you done.
2 I’ve done nothing.
1 I think that you know that I know what you done.
2 [Slow, adamant] I’ve done nothing.
1 It’s fine. We all do it, every now and again /
2 I dunno what you’re talking about.
1 / take a breather. Let off the steam. It’s a difficult job, /
2 I never.
1 / but someone’s gotta do it.
2 Stop it.
1 Bound to happen eventually.
2 I never!
1 Never what? [Beat] Never what?
2 Nothing.
1 No go on.
Pause.
2 It’s just...
1 It’s just what?
Pause.
2 I just feel trapped, you know?
1 Yeah.
2 Like I can’t get out of it.
1 Uh-huh.
2 All stuck. It’s like a glass wall around me. I can see out and I could get out if I wanted to. But I don’t, you know? I can’t. [Beat] I feel like I’m drowning in here, we all are. And they’re drowning with us and they know it, but we don’t, or I didn’t but now I do, you know? I can feel it, like the water’s creepin’ up under my chin, and it makes me mad, you know? It’s like we’re all in the same boat and it’s sinking. And it makes me mad cos I’m not the same as these lot. You said it yourself. We’re not the same as these lot, but that doesn’t matter. ’Cos we might be different, but we’re sinking with them. We are sinking with them. And at the end of the day we’ll all end up sunk, and they know it. You can see it in their eyes, they know it. And they’re screaming but we’re not listening. They’re tellin’ us, shoutin at us, but no one’s listening. We’re all deaf and it’s going down and it’s all just fucked. But we need to do something, you know? It can’t just keep going, so - so we’ve gotta show ’em.
1 Show them what? [Beat] Show them what?
2 Show ’em that... that although it might be sinking with all of us in it, it’s still our ship. It is still our ship. And they can’t forget that. You know?
1 [Softly laughing] Yeah, I know.
2 So...
1 So you show them.
2 Yeah. [Looking back to screens] But now I get to lookin’ at her from up here and I just wish that I... I just want out. But I know that if I bail now then... well then they’ve won.
1 That wouldn’t do, would it?
2 No. But the walls are moving in, and I don’t know how much longer I can take it before I jump.
1 [Laughing] In with the fishes? The sharks?
2 Yeah. Something like that...
1 laughs. 2 does not.
Silence. 1 returns to his paper. 2 remains looking at the screens.
The feeds turn off one by one. Only the ALGERIAN remains, floating amidst the sea of monitors.