you have hatched...
The Washer asks if this is "Your Shirt"
Performed by Julie Atherton
Performed by Julie Atherton
Phelim is fourteen years old. He's trotting through the streets near the estate where he lives. He's looking for someone, anyone, but no-one is around.
He finds an open laundrette and heads inside. The place is full of men, each one taking off his shirt and cueing up to give it to a woman: the Washer.
There are all kinds of men, and all kinds of shirts. The machines are tumbling around and around and around; it's very warm, and quite loud. Everyone stares at Phelim, who is a bit out of breath.
Phelim asks if anyone would come round the corner and help him get a big dog out of his flat. Big, black, scary dog, no idea how it got inside.
The men stare at him but don't answer. The Washer examines Phelim's shirt, and observes that it's a bit of a mess: splashes of paint on the cuff, and badly darned on one elbow.
In his mind, Phelim hears the voice of his sister, nagging at him to put on a clean shirt, telling him that he's always such a mess.
Phelim tries to leave, but the men block his way. The Washer tells him not to mind them: they're just here because when they died, their shirts come back to her. They always come back to her in the end, so she can wash them clean.
Phelim tries to escape, but some of the men seem keen to explain how they died. Their shirts are testament to this, being covered in the appropriate substances from their manner of death.
The Washer leads Phelim to an empty machine with a basket of dirty shirts on it. She pulls out a shirt that is identical to his, down to the elbow darn and the paint splashes, but this shirt has been burnt by something.
The Washer asks if it's his shirt, and Phelim knows that it is.
He runs. And runs. And doesn't look back.
