Japes

Simon Gray

WHO    Michael, mid-twenties, middle-class, a writer.

TO WHOM    Jason, his younger brother.

WHERE    The sitting room of their house in Hampstead, North London.

WHEN    The early 1970s.

WHAT HAS JUST HAPPENED    Michael and Jason’s parents are dead. The young men have shared ownership of the house they grew up in and where they continue to live. Here, close to the start of the play, they have been discussing Michael’s girlfriend Anita. Michael has asked Jason whether he minds the fact that she has been staying the night. Michael admits that he himself does not like the smell of the pot that Anita smokes. The speech that follows comes as a response to Jason asking, ‘But you haven’t said anything to her have you?’

WHAT TO CONSIDER

•	Michael is a writer. Throughout the play he is keen to find words that best describe his emotions.
•	Jason, whose nickname is ‘Japes’, is crippled. It happened following a childhood accident when the two boys were playing on a diving board. Michael blames himself.
•	Michael wants to marry Anita. It will mean changes to the way they have been living.
•	Michael is already guilty about the accident, which he believes to have been his fault. The prospect of turfing Jason out of the family home to make room for his wife is something that worries Michael.
•	Jason has also been sleeping with Anita.
•	The play spans twenty-seven years, charting the relationship between the brothers and their shared love for Anita.
•	The speech is short, but allows for a deal of emotional scope.

WHAT HE WANTS

•	To understand his growing feelings for Anita.
•	To articulate these feelings.
•	To explain to Jason why he needs to have Anita in the house.
•	Jason’s approval.

KEYWORDS  worries/worrying/worry  thinking  mystery  who

Michael

The point is she’s not – she hasn’t – well, she’s still a guest. So of course I haven’t said anything. But I might. Soon. That’s the point. But what worries me is – is that I’ve started worrying about her. I mean, when I should be working I start thinking, thinking, well, she ought to be bloody here by now, and where is she, and then a sort of worry grows, just a little one, never specific, not about her being run over or assaulted or – meeting somebody else, for God’s sakes, least of all that – it’s more – a worry over the mystery of her – of who she is. That’s what worries me about her absence, her lateness – not where or what or why – but who. Who is she? Perhaps the point is – the real point is – that I’m in love with her. Never felt like that about any of the others. Have you ever known me feel like that?