1. Quality Street
By Cláudia Barbosa, Daniela Magalhães, Inês Silva, Sara
Santos, Tânia Ferreira, Tiago Pinto. 11ºCT1
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Quality Street by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

2. 1ST TEA
They are in a big room talking about milk and Nigeria’s
economic problems.
NARRATOR
One of the few things that Mrs.
Njoku and her daughter Sochienne
could still do together without
acrimony was drinking tea.
MRS NJOKU
I think you should go to the new
boutique on Victoria Island or
Titi’s Place for a facial.
SOCHIENNE
Fat bourgeois! Nigeria is
failing...
MRS NJOKU
As you could solve the country’s
problems by depriving yourself of a
manicure.
NARRATOR
Drinking tea was neutral - as long
as it was without fresh milk. The
first week of Sochienne’s return,
Mrs. Njoku offer her daughter
something different.
MRS NJOKU
Look at it! I bought you a carton
of fresh milk.
SOCHIENNE
I won’t touch it! I drink only the
locally made condensed milk that’s
only locally assembled.
ANNOUNCING THE WEDDING
NARRATOR
... Who knew that a private
university in Ohio would mean that
Sochienne would return six years
latter, announcing that she was
engaged to a Kenyan, refusing to
eat meat, asking the baffled
houseboys about fair wages, and
wearing her hair in long rubbery
dreadlocks.
(CONTINUED)

3. CONTINUED: 2.
SOCHIENNE
I want have my wedding at Amarachi
just because i prefer a venue of
emotional significance to an
overpriced gilded hall.
MRS NJOKU
I have already hired the famous
wedding planner, already booked St.
Mary’s Catholic Churh and the grand
convention center for the
reception.
Amarachi is a decrepit house, the
grounds sloped, this is a rainy
season and the mud will ruin
women’s shoes and nobody will take
a wedding seriously if it is held
in that backwater.
NARRATOR
Mrs Njoku could already imagine
Mrs. Fernandez-Cole, saying village
wedding... However Sochienne was
not alone, actually the original
idea was suggested by her friend.
Sochienne and her friend used to
spend their holidays at Amarachi.
FRIEND
I had first suggested it after she
told me. She had then wondered why
she had not thought of it herself.I
can’t also understand why she
wanted get married so young, and
why she didn’t get a younger man in
America.
SOCHIENNE
Do you know what am I thinking now?
I guess that there isn’t enough
room at Amarachi to fit all my
guests.
Sochienne smile as though Mrs. Njoku were the child and she
the mother.
SOCHIENNE
Just twenty guests will be mine,
and the other four hundred will be
people that I don’t know.
(CONTINUED)

4. CONTINUED: 3.
NARRATOR
Mrs.Njoku poured hot water on a new
teabag and agreed to her only
child’s wedding in a ordinary
village house because she feared
the next suggestion would be a
ceremony on Bar Beach with
everybody wearing secondhand
clothes.
MRS. NJOKU VISITS HER DAUGHTER’S UNIVERSITY
Mrs.Njoku visit her daughter’s University. And see some
students wearing bathroom slippers.
MRS NJOKU
Oh my God! Is that bathroom
slippers on their foot?
SOCHIENNE
Mummy, we use this because of the
rare blast of warm weather.
MRS NJOKU
As giving bathroom slippers the
American label of sandals would
make it more respectable.
NARRATOR
Mrs. Njoku had been assured that
wealthy Americans sent their
children there but here young
people in slouchy T-shirts and
discolored beads around their
necks. Still, she had not worried
too much about her daughter then,
didn’t she in the following years,
because she assumed that the child
she raised would retain her good
sense.
MRS FERNANDEZ-COLE PRESENTATION AND CONVERSATION WITH THE
WEDDING PLANNER
Mrs. Fernandez-Cole came from one of the those old Lagos
families.In different houses.
MRS NJOKU
I think it’s silly that anybody
could feel superior about having
forebears who were slaves in South
(MORE)
(CONTINUED)

5. CONTINUED: 4.
MRS NJOKU (cont’d)
America and yet I always feel
plebeian in Mrs. Fernandez-Cole’s
presence.
MRS FERNANDEZ-COLE
When I met Mrs.Njoku the impression
I had was that she was a parvenus
to be tolerated with amusement.
MRS NJOKU
I am feeling helpless, enraging
need to prove myself an equal.
WEDDING PLANNER
You needed cash right away to book
a new caterer since Yanka’s Food’s
& Events only worked in the Lagos
area.
MRS NJOKU AND SOCHIENNE WENT TO THE BANK
Mrs Njoku and Sochienne went to the bank and they were
surprised with the bank worker.
MRS FERNANDEZ-COLE
Good afternoon...
MRS NJOKU
Mrs Fernandez? What are you doing
here?
MRS FERNANDEZ-COLE
Well, I am working here.
MRS NJOKU
But you don’t need to work, do you?
MRS FERNANDEZ-COLE
As my daughter married, I became
more and more alone, so I decided
work. I think that working in a
bank is very good to meet people.
But what would you need?
MRS NJOKU
I need to deposit two thousand
naira... You know, my daughter is
getting married and I need to
transfer it to that wedding planner
that you recommend to me.
(CONTINUED)

6. CONTINUED: 5.
MRS FERNANDEZ-COLE
Really? She is very good! Good
choice! IS that all?
MRS NJOKU
Yeah.I think it’s enough to pay
her.
MRS FERNANDEZ-COLE
I think so. Please take your things
and have a good afternoon.
MRS NJOKU
Oh, thank you! And, as reward...
Mrs. Njoku give to Mrs. Fernandez-Cole fifty naira.
MRS FERNANDEZ-COLE
Madam, thank you very much. You
know that i don’t need it... but I
accept.
MRS NJOKU AND SOCHIENNE LEFT THE BANK
They are entering the car.
SOCHIENNE
Mom! Did you see what you did in
the bank?
MRS NJOKU
What’s the problem, Sochienne? I
think that I gave you everything,
why can’t I give her a reward?
SOCHIENNE
Mum, in my opinion is unethical and
you don’t have consideration...
Don’t you think about the people
who really need that money? Don’t
you think about the beggars who
made their way from car window to
car window in the traffic? their
skin tight over bony faces, their
eyes hopeful, saying "God bless
you..."?
Mrs Njoku thought that maybe she had been too harsh in her
own defenses.
(CONTINUED)

7. CONTINUED: 6.
MRS NJOKU
Sochienne, do you feel the air
conditioner too cold?
SOCHIENNE
No, I don’t.
MRS NJOKU
What’s changes we would ask the
wedding planner to make to the
decor now at Amarachi?
SOCHIENNE
I don’t know.
MRS NJOKU
Do you want to stop at Chicken
Republic?
SOCHIENNE
Yes, we can goes there. Kosgei, can
you goes with us?
KOSGEI
Oh, thank you! But, I’m waiting
here for us.
MRS NJOKU
Yes, stay here! I would get
something to take away. Why are you
looking terrified?
KOSGEI
Because looking to you it’s like
imagine Cruella. Your hair is
ridiculous, and you are a very bad
person, you can´t think in the
others?
NARRATOR
They did not speak to each other
during the drive. They did not have
dinner together. They did not drink
tea, and they barely spoke to each
other until the wedding at
Amarachi.

8. 7.
MRS NJOKU STAYED HORRIFIED
Sochienne and Mwangi are laughing.
MRS NJOKU
What are you doing here? Are you
crazy?
SOCHIENNE
Mum...
MRS NJOKU
Just after the wedding.
DIALOGUE BETWEEN MWANGI AND THE WEDDING PLANNER.
Mwangi and the wedding planner began to talk about the
flowers and the cocktail; and Mwangi found in her a
counselor.
WEDDING PLANNER
Hello fiance!, are you happy with
my work?
MWANGI
Yes, I think that are everything
beautiful. But, in my opinion, I
like more natural, more flowers,
like wild roses, orchids, and
tropical flowers.
WEDDING PLANNER
You should have told me it sooner,
but I’ll do everything to attend
your request. What about the colors
of the decor?
MWANGI
I trust in Sochienne. She knows a
lot of things about the color
study, maybe you you should talk
with her.
WEDDING PLANNER
Are you nervous? You have just a
week.
MWANGI
No...Yes...I don’t
know...hm..maybe. I’m sure that I
want marry, but it’s too much
pressure to me. I don’t like that
(MORE)
(CONTINUED)

9. CONTINUED: 8.
MWANGI (cont’d)
all the people ... always question
me about insignificant details. At
the wedding there are feelings that
have more importance.
WEDDING PLANNER
I think that is usual the pressure.
MWANGI
For me the marriage is not a proof
of love or something to be accepted
by our families as a couple. I
think it’s just a religious
connection. Do you understand? This
celebration is superfluous. It’s
just a way to spend money
unnecessarily where the people wear
scandalous dresses for a ceremony
to which they don’t give a damn to
it!
WEDDING PLANNER
Well, Mwangi...
Absolutely! However what would be
this religious connection without
both families presence? That’s
which strengthens and elevates the
happening. I have sure that this
ceremony will be for ever in our
mind.
MWANGI
But it could be in our minds by the
simplicity of the celebration.
WEDDING PLANNER
So we were not needed. People like
you don’t bring profits to the
business.
MWANGI
That’s the problem! Everything is
taken by business and not by its
essence.
WEDDING PLANNER
Everything is business and
everything is necessary.

10. 9.
LAST PREPARATIONS
Mrs. Njoku and the Wedding Planner are in the wedding place.
NARRATOR
On the wedding day , Mrs. Njoku,
very stressful, was doing calls,
shouting at people, and inspecting
all the preparations.
WEDDING PLANNER
Mrs.Njoku, in my opinion the buffet
tables are not as we request.
MRS FERNANDEZ-COLE
I’m waiting for you at the Enugu
airport. How miss I had this
country.
MRS NJOKU
Look to your tone voice? Are you
laughing? Are you kidding me?
MRS FERNANDEZ-COLE
It’s just appearance. I’m really at
the airport completely tiresome.
Hairdresser arrived.
MRS NJOKU
What are the options to her for
dreadlocks really?
SOCHIENNE
Mum, my hair are quite well! And,
at least they grew in my head, look
at yours... It seems like sewn-om
plastic!
While raining
SOCHIENNE
It’s will be best to hire a
rainholder.
MRS NJOKU
A man preventing rainfall? For God
sake!
SOCHIENNE
Are you trying to say that is
supersticion? What about Catholic
rosaries? Faith it’s like a tin of
Quality Street.
(CONTINUED)

11. CONTINUED: 10.
MRS NJOKU
Quality street is our life.
SOCHIENNE
Mother, you remember when father
climbing up the frangipani tree to
conquer my fear of climbing? When
father nearly burned down the house
while making a fire to roast cashew
nuts?
MRS NJOKU
For the first time you have the
expression of wonder that you had
often has a child.
NARRATOR
The wedding planner came in to say
that it was time. Sochienne raised
her bouquet. She had combined the
expensive silk flowers the wedding
planner had ordered from somewhere
in Europe with the frangipani
flowers whose petals now drooped in
the moist heat. She asked if her
mother liked the bouquet and
Mrs.Njoku said no, following her
daughter downstairs. I the end, it
did not rain. It did drizzle, a
fresh igth shower, the clouds
parting just before the reception
started.
The wedding begin, and Mrs.Fernandez-Cole, the wedding
planner and her mother Mrs Njoku are the main guests. The
bride marched by the small field of land until the groom.
After the matrimony, the bride throw the bouquet, and
Mrs.Njoku picked it up.
THE END