Off stage on the opposite side are the fire doors leading to the stairs. Off stage to one side (either left or right it’s not important which way round) – are the lift (elevator) doors. For example – boxes, a table with an upturned chair on top of it, files and a pile of old celebrity magazines. It is an untidy place where a number of things have been dumped. The basement is being used as a storage area. Set: The play is set in the basement of an office building – dimly lit and claustrophobic. Suitable for: PG needed as mild sexual descriptions and references are present Genre: One act drama about sexual exploitation of young women Type: One act play Read more about playwright James Chalmers. Norbury Youth Theatre, Worcestershire, UK – 2016 Milton Academy, MA, USA – 2018 Chapman University Department of Theatre, CA, USA – 2018 Wakefield College / Performing Arts, Wakefield, UK – 2019 Merchant Taylors Girls School – Crosby, United Kingdom – 2019 Strathcona School, Alberta, Canada – 2020 One of the actors won the best Actress award at one of the drama festivals. It allows for strong performances by each of the three female actors – whose characters are very individual. Is he a sinner or a saint? Why has Martine, one of his former proteges, come to see him? Is Hazel really his PA which she claims to be? Rhona is in the building for a different reason – but this too connects with the underlying theme of how men sexually dominate and exploit women.Ī Payment unkind was performed in 2011 at three different Drama Festivals. They side with each other in different combinations as arguments develop – the main disagreement being about Alex Naylor an entertainment impresario whose office is on the seventh floor of the building. They are able to establish contact with the reception desk – so they know they will be freed – but they don’t know when. And then increasing tension between them as it is revealed why each of them is in the building. There’s initial tension as a result of being stuck in this small room.
Three women find themselves trapped in a small basement room of an office building after the lift takes them down instead of to the floors they wanted to go to.