| Dad |
I'm so glad that we've managed to meet. |
| Gwawr |
Yeah, I was worrying that they would change the restrictions or something. |
| Dad |
I mean you can still get away with doing pretty much anything ─ it's not like they're really policing it. |
| Gwawr |
Yeah … I suppose … you know, morally it's/ |
| Dad |
/When we had curfew in Jamaica, I was held at gunpoint because of the killings. |
| Gwawr |
Sorry what, I don't know what you mean, what killings? |
| Dad |
The killings in Kingston, political violence. |
| Gwawr |
I really don't know what you're talking about. |
| Dad |
That's ok, I never taught you. |
| Gwawr |
No, you didn't. |
| Beat. |
|
| Dad |
So you had the Jamaican Labour Party and then just across the road you have the PNP, People National Party, they were just killing each other. Killings and gangsterism were just a hangover from colonialism. |
| Gwawr |
So, they had a curfew on the whole country? |
| Dad |
You couldn't go out in public unless you were a doctor or something. |
| Gwawr |
That sounds familiar. |
| Dad |
Yes (Chuckles.) I suppose, but more dangerous, we were just outside the city limits, I was with my cousins in Spanish town. Yeah, but anyway, we go across and we go see some Rasta man just over the other side of the city limit, and we sit there and we eat and we smoke, not that I was smoking mind … |
| Gwawr |
Yeah, sure. |
| They both laugh knowingly. |
|
| Dad |
… and we're coming back and there's a massive lorry full of soldiers, I could hear it in my head for ages after, they had this tail gate on the lorry, dropped the tail gate, boom... boom... boom. And they had us up against the bank, and this one soldier stuck his rifle in between my legs, I was only, like, 14, and he went, 'bang...bang, spread out', and I, I was helpless like this, and then he came right up to my ears just touching me, and, excuse my language, he said, 'boy, if I feel anything hard in your belt buckle I'm gonna kill you'. (Tony laughs hysterically.) That's what he said to me. Lucky they let us go. |
| Gwawr |
That's not funny, why are you laughing? This isn't funny. |
| Dad |
But this was normal, guns was everyday life. Here in Wales we're lucky. |
| Gwawr |
I'm not sure about that. |
| Dad |
In comparison. |
| Gwawr |
Yeah, in comparison. |
| Dad |
Must've been hard for you, growing up in Wales like you did, being a Welsh speaker. |
| Gwawr |
Yeah, it was. |
| Dad |
I gave your Mam some books, I don 't know whether she/ |
| Gwawr |
/Yeah she did, thank you. |
| Pause |
|
| Dad |
Did you like them? |
| Gwawr |
I did, yeah. It's mad isn't it, thousands and thousands of years ago everybody was black, fact. And then mutated humans turned white in Europe and developed a superiority complex that has lasted for hundreds of years. This is only a fragment of history. |
| Dad |
What is? |
| Gwawr |
This, now. Racial inequality, a fragment of the entire existence of the world. I hope people look back and laugh (Gwawr laughs) and think, those stupid… stupid people. |
| Dad |
So you did read it? |
| Gwawr |
How the hell could they think that one man was better than another? |
| Dad |
(Laughs.) So, tell me, which University are you going to? |
| Gwawr |
I got into Cardiff Uni. |
| Dad |
Cardiff University… waw. Not that I'm surprised, you're very clever. Well of course you are, us Andersons we're all very intelligent people. |
| Gwawr |
How do you know I'm clever ─ this is the first time you've seen me in 10 years. |
| Dad |
You're analytical, you obviously absorb knowledge, interrogate thoughts. |
| Gwawr |
I wasn't looking for a compliment. |
| Dad |
You're an Anderson, when an Anderson sets their mind on something we go for it with everything we've got, I can see that in you. |
| Gwawr |
I'm not though. |
| Dad |
What do you mean? |
| Gwawr |
Well. I'm Gwawr Davies. |
| Silence |
|
| Gwawr |
Have you got a family tree or anything I can have a look at? |
| Tony |
How far back? |
| Gwawr |
Well, I don't know. |
| Tony |
We'll explore it together. |
| Gwawr |
(Uncertain.) Ok |
| Tony |
I can't tell you how happy I am. |
| Beat |
|
| Tony |
You probably were very angry at me for a long time, wrote me off. |
| Gwawr |
Um... |
| Gwawr wonders whether to tell the truth. Beat |
|
| Gwawr |
Yeah, absolutely. |
| Tony |
Naturally. |
| Gwawr |
Yeah, naturally. |
| Tony |
There's not a day that goes by when I don't think about you, not a single one. |
| Gwawr |
That's not true. |
| Waitress |
Just to let you know we're closing in 10 minutes. |
| Gwawr |
Don't worry we won't be that long. |
| Tony |
Gwawr/ |
| Gwawr |
/What? |
| Tony |
What have I said? |
| Gwawr |
How can not one day go by without you thinking of me but it takes me to reach out to speak to you. |
| Tony |
Well I did reach out/ |
| Gwawr |
/To tell me about you, to make shit excuses. |
| Tony |
But I want you in my life, I want to get to know you. |
| Gwawr |
You can't pop in and out when you like. You can't have me. |
| Tony |
They're not excuses, it's the truth. (Changes tactic.) You're just like your mother. |
| Gwawr |
Ha, there you are, there's the truth/ |
| Tony |
No sorry, I didn't mean/ |
| Gwawr |
So you're not sorry that you upset me? |
| Tony |
That's all I said, is that it was, it's not my fault that you were born, it was your mother's. |
| Gwawr |
So if it was up to you I wouldn't even be here now? I would've never existed? |
| Tony |
Yes. |
| Segments from the documentary and script begin to play between the dialogue leading up to Gwawr's exit. |
|
| Presenter |
It's 1947 in the capital city of Wales, Cardiff, which was, and still is, the largest Negro district in the United Kingdom. |
| Gwawr |
All this time I thought I had missed out on something, that I had a missing part that needed to be filled… but… that's not it at all. |
| Presenter |
How about the children, are they sane? |
| Gwawr |
I was looking for something… a person that doesn't exist… a father that you will never be… |
| Presenter |
… likely to impair on the harmony, strength and cohesion of public life and cause discord and unhappiness amongst all… |
| Gwawr |
I haven't missed out on anything, you've missed out on me. |
| Presenter |
... justice for George Floyd, the unarmed, handcuffed black man who pleaded with the police officer to let him breathe. |
| Dad |
I have missed out. |
| Gwawr |
Yeah you have. |
| Presenter |
...A dyna falch ydyn ni o ddallt seremoni olaf Eisteddfod Caerdydd fod yna gymaint o deilyngdod... |
| Dad |
I hear you, but I'm different. Let's do this again, let me to prove to you/ |
| Gwawr |
I've got what I needed, thank you |
| Presenter |
... no justice... no peace (clip from protest) |
| Gwawr |
Sorry, I'm going to go. |
| Tony |
Well can we do this again? |
| Gwawr |
No. |
| Tony |
Gwawr? |
| A compilation of the documentary style elements used previously. Signifying Gwawr's mind trying to make sense of it all: the largest Negro district in the United Kingdom… impair on the harmony, strength and cohesion of public life… you're just like your mother... justice for George Floyd... fod yna gymaint o deilyngdod… it will struggle against the higher level… no justice, no peace… the children, are they sane?... it was not my fault that you were born. Silence |