‘The Temp’

By

William Shakespeare.

Actus Primus, Scena Prima,,

A tempestuous noise of Thunder and Lightning heard, Enter a Ship-master, and a Temp.

Master: Boat-swaine.

Temp: He’s not at work, today – some malady or other, I expect – the Agency sent me – as a replacement Boatswaine.

Master: Good. Speake to th’Mariners: fall too’t, yarely, or we run our selves aground, bestirre, bestirre, Exit

Enter Mariners.

Temp. Good morning. I’m Mostyn, I’m from the Agency. As you can see, we are having a bit of trouble with the weather. So, the Captain has asked me to put forward his two-point plan, which is to; ‘bestirre, bestirre’ and, hopefully, by your doing so, we can get this craft through our current ‘difficult’ situation. Perhaps we can consider this a “team-building” exercise. Any questions?

Enter Alonso, Sebastian, Antonio, Ferdinando, Gonzalo, and others.

Temp: No? Okay. If you could just make a start, I think that the “paying” passengers would like a word or two with me.

And so it went.