SUICIDE QUEENS

VIV has considerable energy for a woman of over forty but it has never been expended
On anything productive. She is aggressively female but is not very alluring or seductive.
She has done an assortment of office jobs and been the mistress of the boss for a great
many years. When the play opens, he has broken off the relationship. She feels both
relieved and dumped. Her one daughter was raised by her ex-husband and she has become a member of the city council.

ROSE is a woman over forty who thinks and acts young for her age, dresses young but does not look young. She wears a little too much make up, but she has an innocent sexuality about her movements that makes her attractive. Born in Malta she has been in this country since her twenties and speaks English fluently. She has worked as a prostitute for twenty odd years but always with her older sister with whom she has a really affectionate relationship.

ANN is Viv’s daughter, an energetic young woman who’s done well at college and intends to go far in politics. She would be considered ruthless if not for a scatty quality that peeps through her well-made outfit and tight shoes, although she does not tolerate fools gladly. She’s modeled herself on Margaret Thatcher and has already held a City Council seat which she expects to be nominated for again. She is irritated by her mother’s character, which does not fit neatly into her plans for success.


SOLLY – a thirty-five years old man of ethereal transsexual appearance but neat and tidy, he works as a travel agent and has a complicated sexual life. Liked by a great many, he is lonely and looking for a partner. He does not wear make-up or conventional women’s clothes: his outfits are artistic and dated, his behavior veers between priestly-wise and coquettish.




Playwright’s Note: The character of Solly, who appears at the end can be cut, VIV and ROSE merely indicating that they’re going to some future downstairs.