Yous Two (NHB Modern Plays)

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What’s particularly impressive is the playwright’s attention to the detail of the exchanges between parent and child, how Billie deliberately provokes Jonny by using explicit descriptions of a friend’s underwear, while her dad wearily replies, “Behave.” And then there’s an exact sensitivity to class: one of Billie’s classmates “gets thrush cream from her mum”, who “makes documentaries for Channel 4 so she’s probably quite used to stuff like that”. The mixture of a teen’s growing perception of class and social relations with a daughter’s negotiations with her parent is exactly conveyed. Likewise, I appreciated the combination of directness and tenderness. Lovely writing. Oh! I know that smell! It's that hoochie-coochie! I'll take one of them wee monkeys, if there's one going! Chase yersel, Isa. Who I think got it off Piggy Patterson, him with the gastric band that burst at the trampoline park.

The book Labrador Days Tales of the Sea Toilers (1919) uses it to represent "Newfoundland and Labrador dialect", according to the transcriber. Here is an example where youse is clearly singular: Never get high on your own supply, that's what they say, isn't it? What are we going to do? Smash up the operation. The word ye, yis or yous, otherwise archaic, is still used in place of "you" for the second-person plural. Ye'r, Yisser or Yousser are the possessive forms, e.g. " Where are yous going?" https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiberno-English As usually happens when language shifts to lose a useful piece of grammar, dialect variations that cover this gap tend to spring up. The most notable of these are: Not two pennies to rub together, the soles hanging off his shoes, and not even a coat to keep him warm.Like Clare McIntyre’s Low Level Panic, Yous Two is set entirely in a bathroom, although this one has a manky carpet, a faint smell of piss and is in need of a really good coat of paint. It belongs to Jonny, the tenant and 36-year-old single parent of his 15-year-old daughter Billie, whose mum committed suicide soon after her birth. In the bathroom, Billie chats to her dad and entertains her school friends Rachel and Fudge. She is a lively, intelligent teen who gets great grades in maths and science and has ambitions to go to a better school, as well as to university. But when she gets unexpectantly pregnant, her future is suddenly put in doubt. The use of the word ‘youse’ as a plural of ‘you’ is almost universal amongst the people of Derry,” she writes. “They also use the word ‘youse-uns,’ as an emphatic form, with remarkable frequency.” Ali Barouti, Leah Harvey, Shannon Tarbet and Joseph Thompson will star in Georgia Christou's debut play Yous Two, directed by Chelsea Walker and playing Downstairs 18 January - 24 February. We catch up with Chelsea Walker, director of Georgia Christou's Yous Two, about career highlights, directing heroes and life advice.

What are yous having? Can I get Pete's fry-up? Listen, what about that big, hairy Bluto bastard, Boabby? Is this The Clansman? HIGH-PITCHED VOICE: No, The Clansman's next door. Plural) Represents a group of people where the speaker is excluded. «Soldiers, I am happy with you(s) [all]» So nothing's really changed, then? Well, I Right, for old time's sake, right, hit us with both barrels. Visiting Johannesburg for a research and development trip with playwright Jess Sian, when we were working on her debut play Klippies. Theatre is much more frontfooted in its politics over there.As you say, modern English, unlike some other languages, has only one form of “you” for both singular and plural. (This wasn’t always the case, as we’ve written before.) It’s been suggested by some linguists that “you-all,”“you-uns” (a Pittsburgh expression) and “yous” or “youse” actually originated as attempts to differentiate plural “you” from singular “you.” Winner of the RTST Director Award 2017, Chelsea Walker’s theatre credits include Low Level Panic (Orange Tree Theatre), P’yonyang (Finborough Theatre) and Klippies (Southwark Playhouse). Both Rachel and Fudge are also given lines that question the capabilities of their own parents. Rachel says that her mum and dad don’t get on, and she thinks her father is having an affair because he owns two phones; she is also worried when Billie wants her to help her give birth. Meanwhile, Fudge, the cool kid in class, has his own ideas about his extended family — “twenty six of us on Christmas Day”. They will love Billie, and they will help look after her child. At one point, he says, “If it was a boy I’d wanna call him some hench name like Aslan.” Hilarious. You-uns (from you + ones) is a South Midland form most often found in uneducated speech; it is being replaced by you-all.

With its 70 minutes distributed over nine neat scenes, Yous Two is a short play but a resonant one. Chelsea Walker’s vigorous production, with a cutaway design by Rosanna Vize, has four excellent performances: Shannon Tarbet’s Billie is sparky but also thoughtful, even melancholic, often more mature than her dad (Joseph Thompson as a lovable rogue). Leah Harvey’s Rachel and Ali Barouti’s Fudge are likewise vivid character studies, completely convincing. Parenthood can be both empowering and fragile, and Christou’s debut is thrilling in its aplomb and in her potential. Definitely, a name to watch. What? Can I go to the toilet? Away, you wee fanny! Boabby? I don't need the toilet! Where do you keep the scampi fries? Oh, in that box above the chest freezer, Mark. A: You may have too much time on your hands, but there are worse things to do with it than think about the language! At least (presumably) this preoccupation keeps you off the streets. Fifteen-year-old Billie has lived with her dad in their little flat for as long as she can remember, but all that's about to change. She's got big plans – get Dad a job, sort out her grades, and live in a house with five bathrooms. The show hastens, too speedily, through a final act, leaving you burning for just a few more minutes with these characters. All in all, though, this is a measured and well-oiled writing debut from Christou. Yous Two is the 50th show in the Downstairs space at the Hampstead since its new writing initiative started in 2010, and, if this piece is a sign of what's to come, then I'm already excited for the next 50.

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Yous(e) as a plural is found mainly in (Northern) England, Scotland, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, northern Nova Scotia, parts of Ontario in Canada and parts of the northeastern United States (especially areas like Boston where there was historically Irish immigration) and in Mexican-American communities in the southwest. It also occurs in Scouse.