One Act Play 1:THE NEVER-NEVER NEST – CEDRIC MOUNT

One Act Play 1: THE NEVER-NEVER NEST – CEDRIC MOUNT

OUTLINE OF THE ESSAY:

*INTRODUCTION

*JACK AND JILL

*OWNER BY INSTALMENT

*CONCERVATIVE AUNT JANE

*COMPLETE OWNERS

*NEVER NEVER NEST

*CONCLUSION

INTRODUCTION: The One Act Play ‘ The Never-Never Nest’ is a comedy about a young, naive couple, Jack and Jill. They believe in buying things in installments. When Aunt Jane visits the couple, she finds them leading a luxurious lifestyle. The play brings out the buy-now-pay-later marketing system which enables the low-income group to own things, which they cannot buy easily on their own. On the other hand, the system also makes people extravagant and makes them fall into the habit of borrowing.

 JACK AND JILL: Jack and Jill were a young married couple who had a small baby. Jill was a housewife. Jack and Jill had purchased a villa in New Hampstead, a car, furniture, a radiogram, a piano and a refrigerator. Aunt Jane is a relative of Jack and Jill. She visited their new house. She was surprised to find that they lived in a beautiful house with all comforts. She finds it hard to believe that Jack could afford to buy all these things. She was worried that she had given them 2000 pounds as a wedding gift instead of 200 pounds. At this point, Jack informed her that they had bought their house and all the expensive things in installment basis.

OWNER BY INSTALMENT: Aunt Jane understood that though Jack and Jill had everything, they did not own anything. Only a steering wheel of the car, a wheel and two cylinders had been paid for. And only one leg of the sofa that Aunt Jane sat on, belonged to them. Jack’s salary was six pounds a week but the total amount of installments he had to pay was seven pounds and eighty eight pence. When Aunt Jane asked how he could pay the extra money, Jack said that they could always take a loan from Thrift and Providence Trust Corporation. Again, the loan had to be paid back in installments. Aunt Jane was glad that Jack and Jill had everything but she didn’t like the idea of borrowing money to pay the installments.

CONSERVATIVE AUNT JANE: Aunt Jane was shocked at the way Jack and Jill lived in debt. Aunt Jane believes that one should not owe money to anyone in life. She believed that one should spend less than what he earned. She refused to sit on Jack’s sofa and travel in his car because the sofa and car was only partly owned by Jack and Jill. She scolded them severely and asked Jack to take her to the bus station. Before she left, she gave them a cheque for ten pounds and told them to use it to make at least one thing completely their own.

COMPLETE OWNERS: While Jack went with Aunt Jane, Jill sent the money to Dr.Martin. Jack came back and said that they should use the money given by Aunt Jane to pay the installments on the car. But Jill said that she had already used it to pay the last installment to the doctor. According to them, they had purchased their own baby from Dr. Martin in installment. Finally, Jack and Jill become complete owners of their own baby. The end of the play is ironical. The play is really a satire on the materialistic bent of modern man.

NEVER NEVER NEST:   The ‘nest’ in the title literally refers to the home of birds. Birds take a lot of time and work very hard to build their nest. But, in this play, both Jack and Jill have instant gratification for luxuries by installments without saving any money. The double negative in the title emphasizes the impossibility of home.

       CONCLUSION:  The play criticizes the new trend of young middle-class couples who have the habit of buying many household items and houses in easy installments. The playwright feels that such couples would make a nest easily but they will never settle happily.