Books
Chloë Moss

How Love is Spelt (NHB Modern Plays)

'She wanted spontaneity, adventure… I said I can be spontaneous… I just need a little bit of time to plan.'
Peta is new in town and ready for whatever London has to throw at her. She's looking for romance, for friendship, for exciting people to lead her on big adventures. But being an independent woman in the new millennium isn't easy, especially when there's a constant reminder of the life you're trying to escape.
With each new encounter, Peta flirts with what might have been, but has the journey to London put enough distance between her and her past?
Chloë Moss's play How Love Is Spelt is a fascinating and funny play, which premiered at the Bush Theatre, London, in 2004. It was revived by Brickdust and Project One at Southwark Playhouse in 2019.
72 printed pages
Copyright owner
Bookwire
Original publication
2016
Publication year
2016
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Quotes

  • b2032408310has quoted5 years ago
    but I don’t really ever seem it, so nobody asks and I get pissed off with ’em all. Like, feel really lonely and that’s my fault really, isn’t it? My mum’s always on at me . . . worrying.
    PETA. It’s good . . . that’s good for someone to worry about yer.
    CHANTELLE. I think she’s selfish. I said to her the other week, ‘Do you worry about me?’ I mean, that’s a stupid question but it’s not such a stupid question actually. ‘Apart from being run over or raped or mugged or murdered . . . or fucking getting pregnant. Do you actually worry about me? Do you worry about my head?’ and she said, ‘What’s wrong with your head?’ and I said, ‘I don’t know, nothing . . . it just . . . ’ and I couldn’t explain. I never can really, I’m shit at it. Can’t really be arsed once I’ve opened me mouth. But I’ve opened up a whole
  • b2032408310has quoted5 years ago
    but I don’t really ever seem it, so nobody asks and I get pissed off with ’em all. Like, feel really lonely and that’s my fault really, isn’t it? My mum’s always on at me . . . worrying.
    PETA. It’s good . . . that’s good for someone to worry about yer.
    CHANTELLE. I think she’s selfish. I said to her the other week, ‘Do you worry about me?’ I mean, that’s a stupid question but it’s not such a stupid question actually. ‘Apart from being run over or raped or mugged or murdered . . . or fucking getting pregnant. Do you actually worry about me? Do you worry about my head?’ and she said, ‘What’s wrong with your head?’ and I said, ‘I don’t know, nothing . . . it just . . . ’ and I couldn’t explain. I never can really, I’m shit at it. Can’t really be arsed once I’ve opened me mouth. But I’ve opened up a whole new section of worry for her now. She wants me to go for a head scan. She’s selfish. She’s thinking about herself . . . without me. She doesn’t imagine I might lose it . . . have a fuckin’ breakdown, does she? Cos that wouldn’t be so bad . . . she could have me at home all the time watching fuckin’ Trisha with her
  • b2032408310has quoted5 years ago
    was freaked at first, obviously, did a test on me own and it didn’t really sink in, to be honest . . . you don’t feel any different. Not that you would, your body and stuff . . . but mentally . . . I didn’t feel any different, I just thought how mad’s that? My mate’s got a little boy and she reckons she, well, knew before she did a test, she goes, ‘Oh you just know, Chan, you feel different, like you see things in a new way . . . ’ Well, I think that’s bollocks. Anyway, I thought I’d treat meself . . . celebrate. Joke, obviously. I went to this little French restaurant in Clapham for lunch, really expensive. Top-notch place . . . really romantic. I thought I’ll get all the best things on the menu . . . write a dodgy cheque for it. Make the most of a surreal day. I sat down and I started watching this couple at a table by the window and they were obviously together, together but you’ve never seen anything so wrong in all your life . . . not like they were ugly or nothing, they just didn’t . . . you could tell for a start that they were bound to split up.
    PETA. How d’yer tell that?
    CHANTELLE. She had hold of his hand, oblivious to everything else and he’s somewhere else entirely and I could hear what they’re saying and it wasn’t anything like I bet they wanted to say. All polite and clipped. Then they get the bill and she stands up first to leave and she’s pregnant and I thought, ‘Jesus, that’s you done now, love.’ Scared the living daylights out of me. Not that I needed anything else to help make me mind up but I thought some things are so not right . . . do you know what I mean?
    PETA. Do you regret doing it . . . do you ever think –
    CHANTELLE. Sometimes I get sad. Not about that specifically but
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