My Beautiful Laundrette (hier online bestellen)
The story:
The play is set in South London during the 1980s when unemployed skinheads beat up immigrants and Thatcherism
seemed to place personal gain before social conscience. Kureishi's protagonist, the son of a Pakistani father
and an English mother, lives in a city where prejudice, racial tension and class consciousness predominate. Events
are portrayed with humanity and humour.
My Beautiful Laundrette is a powerful appeal for increased tolerance and understanding and offers a new
opportunity for studying literature and drama in combination with the medium of film.
Extract from book:
Scene 50. INT. (=interior) THE LAUNDRETTE. DAY.
OMAR is showing JOHNNY round the laundrette.
JOHNNY: I'm dead impressed by all this.
OMAR: You were the one at school. The one they liked.
J.: (Sarcastic) All the Pakis liked me.
O.: I've been through it. With my parents and that. And with people like you. But now there's some things
I want to do. Some pretty big things I've got in mind. I need to raise money to make this place good.
I want you to help me do that. And I want you to work here with me.
J.: What kinda work is it?
O.: Variety. Variety of menial things.
J.: Cleaning windows kinda thing, yeah?
O.: Yeah. Sure. And clean out those bastards, will ya?
(Omar indicates the sitting KIDS playing about on the benches.)
J.: Now?
O.: I'll want everything done now. That's the only attitude if you want to do anything big.
(Johnny goes to the KIDS and stands above them. Slowly he removes the watch and puts it in his pocket.
This is na strangely threatening gesture. The KIDS rise and walk out one by one....)
......
Scene 92. EXT. (=exterior) STREET OUTSIDE LAUNDRETTE: DAY.
It is starting to get dark. OMAR and SALIM stand beside Salim's smart car.
Eager and curious customers are still arriving. Salim nods approvingly at them.
Above them the huge pink flashing neon sign saying 'POWDERS'.
Somekids are playing football in the street opposite the laundrette.
Johnny rushes to the door of the laundrette. He shouts at the kids.
J.: You mind the windows!
(Salim, being watched by Johnny, starts to lead Omar up the street, away from the laundrette.)
S.: (To Omar) I'm afraid you owe me a lot of money. The beard? Remember? Eh? Good. It's all coming back.
I thinkk I'd better had the money back, don't you?
O.: I haven't got money like that now.
S.: Because it's all in the laundrette?
....
S.: I'd better have a decent down payment then, of about half.(Omar nods) By the time Nasser has his annual party,
say. Or I'll instruct him to get rid of the laundrette. You see, if anyone does anything wrong with me, I always destroy
them. .....
About the author:
Born in 1954, Hanif Kureishi's mother was English and his father an immigrant from Bombay who had come to complete
his education in the 'Mother Country' and never returned. The rest of his father's family, who were Muslims, moved to Pakistan
after the partition of India had made their situation dangerous in a predominantly Hindu country. When Kureishi grew up in
south London, he experienced racial prejudice. He noticed that his white neighbours shifted from tolerance and fairness towards
disdain and hostility. Society in the 1980s was changing to the worse in respect of human virtues.
Buchdaten:
MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE by Hanif Kureishi
Sprache: Englisch
Taschenbuch - 69 Seiten - Faber and Faber
Erscheinungsdatum: 21. Februar 2000
ISBN: 0571202543
Preis: € 8,49
More works from the same author:
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