Days of Wine and Roses

Owen McCafferty, after JP Miller

WHO    Donal, mid-twenties, from Belfast.

TO WHOM    Members of an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.

WHERE    London.

WHEN    1968.

WHAT HAS JUST HAPPENED    The play tells the story of Donal and Mona, both in their twenties, both fleeing Belfast in order to taste life as it is lived in 1960s London. They meet at the airport, subsequently marry and have a son. Donal works for a successful bookmaker, and as the money flows their life becomes one long round of partying. But their ‘days of wine and roses’ are numbered as they fight to control their alcohol addiction. In the speech that follows, Donal, having arrived at an AA meeting, attempts to confront his demons.

WHAT TO CONSIDER

•	The play is a reworking of a film script by JP Miller set in Manhattan. You may like to watch the film starring Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick.
•	Donal is determined to kick his habit. Mona is in denial about the extent of her addiction. You might like to imagine Mona as someone with whom you are in love or to whom you are very close. In this way you will realise the extent to which Donal must be cruel in order to be kind.
•	The shame he feels at his own behaviour.
•	The courage it has taken Donal to attend the meeting.
•	The language and punctuation. Note how the playwright uses only lower-case letters. There are no commas or full stops, only dashes where a character might take a breath and have a change of thought. What does this suggest to you? How might this determine the playing of the speech in terms of rhythm and pace?

WHAT HE WANTS

•	To own up to his addiction.
•	To apologise for his wrongdoing and to redress those wrongs.
•	To find an answer to why he is the way he is.
•	To change.

KEYWORDS  alcoholic  judged  easier  need  good  effort  self-discipline  dignity  saddest  frightens  worse  journey  struggle

Donal

my name is donal mackin and – and i am an alcoholic – the problem with talking like this – i know that you have all done this – and that i won’t be judged – i had a feeling that would make this easier – but it isn’t – maybe that’s it – maybe you need to do it and then it will be easier – it’s just – i don’t want to say things i don’t want to say – yet i know deep down those are the things i need to say – need to get out into the open – there are other people involved – and i don’t know how fair it is to mention them when they are not here – i have a wife and a son – i feel like i have taken them on this journey – i feel like i am a good man – yet i don’t act like a good man – i don’t put enough effort into the right type of living to make me a good man – that’s what good people do – they put effort into a normal type of living – i think that’s what they do – i don’t know – maybe i don’t even know any good people – i thought so much about myself i haven’t noticed who’s been around me – i’m sorry i know i don’t seem to be making any sense – i – my wife is an alcoholic as well – she doesn’t see it like that – but she is – she thinks all this is just a matter of self-discipline and dignity – she didn’t want me to come here – i can understand why i didn’t want to come myself – she shouted at me before i left the house this evening – i feel like i’ve let her down in some way – not in some way – i have let her down – i have let both of them down in different ways – her because i’m doing this on my own – and him because i haven’t taken proper notice of him – like all children he’s been telling me about his world – and i haven’t been listening to him – that’s the thing i feel saddest about – it’s also the thing that frightens me most – that i have put him second – put everything way down the list – except for drink of course – i don’t really want to talk about my wife and child – i’ve said enough about that – this has to be about me – i know that – that’s why i’m here – although in saying that i don’t really know how i got here – i do – it’s because i had nowhere else to go – i mean i don’t know how i got to this point – it feels like it has all just passed me by or something – one minute i’ve arrived in london to start a new life and the next it’s over six years on and i’m explaining myself at an a a meeting – everything was good – it couldn’t have been better – married to the woman i love – a beautiful child – and a good job – a job that i liked doing – i had a future – it was as if the drinking caught up with me – i was drinking to be sociable – that’s what i thought – it was always part and parcel of what i did – i am – was – a bookie – we were having a ball – people – drink – activity – there was always activity – i always thought that was a good thing – doesn’t seem like that now – i sometimes ask myself was it because i was in london – because i was away from home – i’m from belfast – would it have been the same if i had’ve stayed in belfast – that’s not something you can answer is it – something changed in me – i can see that now – i don’t really know how to explain this – but it’s like life being good isn’t really enough – it’s as if you go out of your way to make things more difficult for yourself – what you think you’re doing is making the world a better place – what you’re really doing is the opposite of that – the strange thing is i knew i was doing it – i knew i was making things worse – you can’t help yourself – it’s not just drink – it’s about understanding yourself or something – i don’t know – i haven’t worked that out yet – maybe that’s something you never work out – maybe the journey or the struggle or whatever it is is a lifelong thing – i don’t know what’s going to happen to me – i just know something has to happen