A Brief History of Why My Only Husband Drowned Himself in a Full Suit of Armor
by Stephanie Grilo
Name Address Phone Number
Agency Information CHARACTER NAME BRIEF DESCRIPTION AGE GENDER
Elizabeth A widow. An actress. A playwright. 28 F A suffragette.
George A drowned man in a suit of armor. 32 M Also an actor.
Edwin Booth An honest and kind man of the 53 M theatre. Very much like his father, in talent, but not in looks.
Henrik Ibsen Self important but still a Great. 48 M
Helena Modjeska/ A Polish actress, in love with Leslie. 25 F Marion Lea/ Part of Edwin Booth's touring troupe. Young Woman Marion, a rowdy Colorado woman 31 F now turned London Suffragette and actress.
Leslie Wright An African American actor in the late 24 M 1800's. Part of Edwin Booth's touring troupe. Elizabeth's dear friend.
The Kid/1st Baron Frederick 10-15 Non-Binary Pethic-Lawrence/Train Conductor SCENE ONE.
A Woman, a Suffragette, a Daughter, but never a Wife--at least not for long--enters. She rolls an overhead projector along with her. She notices us like from a distant star, but carries on her way.
The projector is plugged into an outlet along the barren upstage wall. Its health-class glow illuminates her in a way that immortalizes her.
She positions the laminate slide just precisely. Everything she does is precise.
The slides appear in grand scale .
Slide #1: A young couple in a daguerreotype photograph.
Slide #2: The man on a gaslit stage in velvet doublets and breeches.
Slide #3: The woman alone on a boat with a parasol.
Slide #4: A Victorian Home covered in Spanish Moss.
Slide #5: A close up of the woman staring blankly into the camera lens.
Slide #6: The man adorned in full stage armor.
Slide #7: The close up of the woman once more.
Slide #6: A lake, same as the boat and parasol scene, only this time at night.
Suddenly the light of the projector clicks off, the stage becomes the image projected.
From off we can hear the CLANK CLANK CLANK of an-armor-clad-something-approaching.
The Woman freezes. 2.
Shadows of the armored figure sweep past the stage. And then, just as the Woman follows the traces of the shadow with her eyes, The MAN in ARMOR enters. This is GEORGE.
The woman, ELIZABETH, watches him.
He watches her.
He moves a little, encumbered by his armor, and yet insists.
She mimics his movement.
GEORGE Elizabeth.
ELIZABETH George.
He moves again.
She follows/
GEORGE Elizebeth.
ELIZABETH George.
He hesitates.
She calls his bluff, he moves, she mimics/
GEORGE Elizabeth!
ELIZABETH George!
They are children in this moment.
They square off.
ELIZABETH You always were a terrible dancer. 3.
GEORGE And those moves got you kicked out of the only troupe who’d have you.
ELIZABETH I wanted to get kicked out.
GEORGE Bologna.
ELIZABETH His brother killed a president, did you know?
GEORGE I heard. Tragic.
ELIZABETH ...
GEORGE What?
ELIZABETH Nothing.
GEORGE What?
ELIZABETH I hate that word.
GEORGE And?
ELIZABETH Ever since/
GEORGE AND?
ELIZABETH Your story has become mine.
GEORGE That was the point. 4.
ELIZABETH That was the point?
GEORGE Yes.
ELIZABETH I thought it was because you were a drunk.
GEORGE And that.
ELIZABETH Yes, and THAT and now my life’s story cannot escape your life’s exit.
GEORGE ...
ELIZABETH What?
GEORGE Nothing.
ELIZABETH What?
GEORGE You’ve changed/
ELIZABETH I’ve changed. I’ve changed? I’ve changed! I have changed.
GEORGE You have.
ELIZABETH I was forced to.
GEORGE You’re changing has nothing to do with my exit. It has everything to do with/
ELIZABETH Do not tell me what my change was changed for. My change was a change for many! My change was necessary. 5.
GEORGE And that’s how you have changed. You’ve evolved.
ELIZABETH George, do not compare me to a moth emerging from its cocoon. I have simply moved on. I am not a spring hen, and I am certainly not a moth or a butterfly or anything else that transforms.
GEORGE
(referring to the projector) What’s that for?
ELIZABETH A documentary.
GEORGE About?
ELIZABETH Insects.
GEORGE What’s it really about?
ELIZABETH You.
GEORGE ...
ELIZABETH What?
GEORGE Nothing.
ELIZABETH GEORGE!
GEORGE Am I flattering in it?
ELIZABETH Hardly. 6.
GEORGE Are you?
ELIZABETH What kind of question is that? Of course I am.
GEORGE Well that’s your first mistake.
ELIZABETH If you’ve come back to tell me that I was the reason why you ended up in the bottom of that GOD FORSAKEN LAKE, SO HELP ME GEORGE I WILL SCREAM!
GEORGE ...
ELIZABETH George...
GEORGE You weren’t not NOT the/reason.
ELIZABETH
(screams)
During Elizabeth’s screaming, George finds his way to the projector, slowly climbs atop it and begins shattering it to bits. There is something primal, untethered and also incredibly immature and unsettling about it.
Once she’s finished screaming, Elizabeth just looks on.
After some time.
GEORGE There.
ELIZABETH There?
GEORGE How will you document it now? 7.
ELIZABETH I suppose I won’t.
GEORGE You won’t?
ELIZABETH How can I? You’ve destroyed my only means to.
GEORGE You have a second one of these surely. Lying around backstage somewhere. You always did have tricks. That’s the kind of actress you were. Nothing real, just tricks.
ELIZABETH I thought you were a beautiful performer.
A shared look of suspicion.
GEORGE ...I had my successes.
ELIZABETH Your last performance was your best.
GEORGE I’d rather you didn’t speak of my/
ELIZABETH Not that one. The real one. What I mean to say is the real-fake one. The stage one, George. That was the best performance you ever did. It’s why your story is entangled in mine. The public really loved you, George. I wish you knew that.
GEORGE You mean it?
ELIZABETH They won’t stop talking about you. Even now.
GEORGE What do they say?
ELIZABETH They mostly speak of your brilliance. 8.
GEORGE I can settle for that. It is a little vague, but not half as bad as I imagined.
(beat) Wait. You’re lying. You lied. Of course you did.
ELIZABETH What was my tell?
GEORGE That lock of hair--the one just above your left eye--it falls out of place. Every. Time. Drove me crazy.
ELIZABETH Drove you crazy? Imagine what it does to me. I could never gamble--Why are you here George?
GEORGE Same reason you are I suppose.
ELIZABETH No that cannot be the reason. Because if it were the reason, it would simply further my argument that you, George, are trying to sabotage my successes even in the afterlife.
GEORGE Who’s to say I’m not?
ELIZABETH I’m telling the real story.
GEORGE And which is that?
ELIZABETH The one where you stole everything from me.
GEORGE Oh stop being dramatic/It was just your career.
ELIZABETH That was once what you said you loved about me.
GEORGE Well I lied. 9.
Elizabeth begins hastily picking up the pieces of the broken projector.
ELIZABETH And that is the very reason why I MUST tell this story the way it was MEANT to be told!
GEORGE You can’t fix it, it’s broken. I broke it.
ELIZABETH I can! That’s what I do! I fix. You break. I woman. You man. Waitwaitwaitwait--I fix. You break. You woman. I man. No. Wait. No. I break woman, you fix. NO! You broke man, you fix!
She continues piling the pieces of plastic into her cradled arms. It quickly becomes an impressive tower that she balances like a circus act.
GEORGE Elizabeth.
ELIZABETH George.
She now tilts her body sideways continuing to balance the tower. She is now VERY impressive.
GEORGE Elizabeth...
ELIZABETH George...
In the midst of her tilt she now tries to switch the tower from one hand to the other--
GEORGE ELIZABETH!
Elizabeth jerks her head toward him.
ELIZABETH GEORGE!
The pieces of the tower come crumbling down. 10.
A strong silence. They both stare at the wreckage.
Elizabeth slowly turns to us and acknowledges us for the first time since the beginning of the play.
ELIZABETH
(to audience) George’s armor is fake everyone!
GEORGE No it bloody/ is not!
ELIZABETH That’s right! It’s fake everyone! In case you were gaining sympathy/ for him by this point in the story, don’t bother. Because it’s ALLLLLLLLL fake!
GEORGE Sympathy?! Sympathy?! What do you think that little act of yours was just now?? If that wasn’t pulling at heart strings, then I don’t know what is. You rascal. You are one dirty/ little rascal.
ELIZABETH You’re a reenactment actor.
GEORGE What?
ELIZABETH If I do tricks, than all you do is reenact. You’re no better than me.
GEORGE
(he turns) You’re right.
ELIZABETH ...
GEORGE ...
ELIZABETH ... 11.
GEORGE ...
ELIZABETH ...are you?
GEORGE Am I what ?
ELIZABETH Are you crying...?
GEORGE No, I am/ not crying!
ELIZABETH You are! You’re pouting. I can’t believe you’re pouting right now!
GEORGE
(beat) I have to go , Elizabeth.
ELIZABETH ...
GEORGE This has been/
ELIZABETH Don’t.
GEORGE You have been/
ELIZABETH Don’t, George.
GEORGE Without you I am/
ELIZABETH Dead. 12.
A fog of silence pressurizes the stage.
Blue light, layered with crystalline swirls, beams from where George entered the stage before.
He take s one last look at Elizabeth.
She turns her back to him.
He understandably departs, his footsteps play him out like a funeral dirge. As he begins to fade behind the curtains, the sounds of water lapping up around him grow audibly horrific.
Elizabeth turns, runs to him--but it’s too late.
BLACKOUT.
END OF SCENE ONE.
SCENE TWO
A light focuses downstage right.
Enter a kid dressed in a late 1800’s Hollows Eve costume. It appears as though he is meant to be Abraham Lincoln.
He sees us. We see him. He doesn’t want to see us. We want to see him. He tries to hide. He cannot hide. He resigns. We are happy.
With him is a small side table. He sets it down haphazardly under the sharp flood of light, then exits once more.
When he returns he’s holding a Derringer in one hand and a single 45 long Colt bullet in the other.
He forgets we are there. He spins the gun between his forefinger and thumb, just for a taste. He then draws it like a Western. He pretends to get shot. Funny how he decidedly volunteers to be the victim in a game he’s invented himself whom no one but himself is playing. 13.
Suddenly from off we hear--
ELIZABETH HENRIK!
The kid scrambles up, tells us to “shoosh it,” then sets the gun and the bullet on the table and exits.
Just as he does, Elizabeth enters riding on a grand desk wheeled on by the Actor playing George. He exits.
Elizabeth lights a cigarette, rips the pages from her typewriter and looks at them with pride.
ELIZABETH HENRIK! I’VE DONE IT!
From the left, Henrik Ibsen enters in a bath robe. He smokes a pipe.
Elizabeth freezes him with a look of anticipation. He looks to her as if she were a dog.
She hands him the manuscript.
ELIZABETH I’ve finished it.
HENRIK IBSEN What’s that?
ELIZABETH My play. Votes for Women. I’ve finished it. Three Acts. All of it. It’s right there, every last page.
(beat) Will you read it?
HENRIK IBSEN Read it? Why would I read it?
ELIZABETH I borrowed your typewriter. 14.
HENRIK IBSEN Yes, I thought you were writing some epitaph for your late husband. Or, if I’m being completely sincere I thought you might be writing something for me. A poem. A sonnet. Some little thing.
ELIZABETH No. Not for you. Not some little--This play--well this is big--why would you think this was for you? Are you/
HENRIK IBSEN Elizabeth, are you insinuating...?
ELIZABETH Are you?
HENRIK IBSEN I mean/
ELIZABETH HENRIK!
HENRIK IBSEN What?
ELIZABETH Who is this man? This is not the man who once put me in his plays and called upon the audience to shutter at the sheer fact that women could in fact be savage. This--this--
(referring to his robed body with disgust) Hunk of meat and flesh clad in crimson velour/
HENRIK IBSEN Now, Bessie/
ELIZABETH DON’T call me that.
HENRIK IBSEN ...
ELIZABETH ... 15.
HENRIK IBSEN I am that same man. I just...
ELIZABETH You just what? The great Ibsen, you just/ WHAT?
HENRIK IBSEN I never saw you as a writer.
A pause.
ELIZABETH I see.
HENRIK IBSEN You’re a wonderful actress.
ELIZABETH Not even actresses who by some fluke have proved their powers have any choice as to what they should act. Not Ellen Terry herself, adorable and invaluable as she was, had any choice of parts, nor choice of how the parts chosen for her should be played. The only one who had a choice was the Actor-Manager or the...Actress-Manager.
(beat) I wrote this play, dear Henrik Ibsen, to be performed by, produced by, directed by, Women. So . Read. It.
HENRIK IBSEN
(quoting) “She has almost ennobled crime. She has stopped the shudder that so repulsive a creature should have inspired. She has glorified an unwomanly woman. She has made a heroine out of a sublimated sinner. She has fascinated us with a savage.”
ELIZABETH Do not quote my reviews to me. I’ve read them. I’ve lived them.
HENRIK IBSEN Then you should know you’re on a path to obfuscate the theater as we know it.
ELIZABETH Then read it. 16.
HENRIK IBSEN You’re not a writer.
ELIZABETH Funny. I just wrote Three Acts, as solidly with exacting precision to the acute senses of time, place, and unity as your dear Greeks would have it, and yet still. I am not a writer.
(beat) You’re jealous.
HENRIK IBSEN Don’t be ridiculous.
ELIZABETH If Henrik Ibsen’s great actresses take to the page, what becomes of him?
HENRIK IBSEN I am not jealous of you.
ELIZABETH Then READ IT!
Henrik moves with force to the desk.
HENRIK IBSEN You want me to read it?! I’ll read it!
He begins flipping through the pages with a pen in hand marking as he goes.
ELIZABETH Here? Now? Why here? Why now?
HENRIK IBSEN Because you will not shut up about it.
ELIZABETH What are you writing? Are those notes? You’re giving me notes?
HENRIK IBSEN If you are to write, and if I am to read, you will be getting notes, yes.
ELIZABETH Can we at least talk about it? Before you destroy the pages with your scribbled ink? 17.
She goes to him at the desk reaching for the pages. He does not concede but continues to antagonize her.
ELIZABETH Give me my play.
HENRIK IBSEN
(quoting her work) “Twelve o'clock, Sunday morning, end of June. With the rising of the Curtain, enter the Butler. As he is going, with majestic port--Oh how delightful, you’ve used an adjective to describe a menial task-- “Enter briskly from the garden, by lower French window, Lady John Wynnstay, flushed, and flapping a garden hat to fan herself. She is a pink-cheeked woman of fifty-four, who has plainly been a beauty, keeps her complexion, but is "gone to fat." Gone to fat? GONE TO FAT? I thought you were for Women’s liberation. “Gone to fat” seems highly problematic, don’t you think?
ELIZABETH I will not sit here and let you berate my work like some critic with a quill up his ass. And besides, it happens. We all go to fat! It’s biology. I mean look at you.
HENRIK IBSEN ...I am not fat.
ELIZABETH You are. And you wonder why I don’t sleep with you.
HENRIK IBSEN Because I am fat?
ELIZABETH Because you are fat. And you are mean. You are a fat, mean man who has disguised himself as my friend all these years and now you poorly beg sex from me and read my writing like I am some half-witted school girl.
HENRIK IBSEN Ahhh I know what this is about.
ELIZABETH Give me back my play.
HENRIK IBSEN Lisa of the blue eyes who threw a Sunday School book down the toilet when she was in her youth. And all her friends called her “the ever troublesome girl.” 18.
ELIZABETH I used that to source Hedda.
HENRIK IBSEN It worked for that, but not for this.
ELIZABETH You have no right, Henrik.
HENRIK IBSEN And you have no right writing plays. You haven’t the faintest idea of what it takes.
ELIZABETH
(quoting Hedda Gabler) “Now that you are the one cock in the basket”
HENRIK IBSEN I see what you’re doing, Elizabeth. And it will not work.
Elizabeth slowly makes her way to the downstage corner where the pistol rests on the side table still illuminated in light.
ELIZABETH What am I doing, Henrik?
HENRIK IBSEN You’re using my words against me.
ELIZABETH They’re not your words anymore.
HENRIK IBSEN Don’t play this game with me. You know I will win.
Elizabeth begins loading the single bullet into the pistol’s chamber.
ELIZABETH And tell me, how is that you will win?
HENRIK IBSEN For one, I wrote the play. And secondly, I gave you the opportunity to play the best role a woman could dream of. 19.
ELIZABETH Is that supposed to flatter me?
She holds the gun in her hands like she’s been here before.
HENRIK IBSEN Well it damn well did! But, now you’re--you’re/
Elizabeth turns to him pointing the pistol straight between his brows.
ELIZABETH I’m what?
HENRIK IBSEN Hedda--I mean--ELIZABETH! What are you doing?!?
ELIZABETH
(blasé) Pointing a pistol at your head.
HENRIK IBSEN Could you put it down?? We’ve seemed to have had a misunderstanding.
ELIZABETH Henrik, let me ask you something. Who was it that financed our production?
HENRIK IBSEN Now...
ELIZABETH Or is that too much of an imposition? Because, I vaguely remember it was...me. And if it weren’t for me lending my mother’s opal bracelet to the theater house, your play would have been performed in a back alley smelling of piss and stench. So. You either read my play sincerely, or I shoot you between your eyes.
HENRIK IBSEN If this is one of your pranks, I’m sorry to say I don’t approve.
ELIZABETH Read my play with honest sincerity or I shoot you in the head. 20.
It is a stand off.
Henrik holds the manuscript with a tight grip, Elizabeth the same with her pistol.
HENRIK IBSEN You know the old saying.
ELIZABETH Yes your friend was right, the gun must go off.
HENRIK IBSEN Please don’t reenact the ending of/
Elizabeth quickly turns the gun to the side of Henrik, fires it, just barely missing him.
Henrik falls to the floor trembling.
HENRIK IBSEN Pleasepleaseplease--don’t.
ELIZABETH I’m not going to shoot you, Henrik. There’s only ever one bullet in the chamber. You wrote that trope. Do you remember?
HENRIK IBSEN YesyesyesIremember.
ELIZABETH Good. Now. I’m leaving the manuscript with you. Kindly read it, talk to the Actor Managers, tell them I want in.
HENRIK IBSEN Okayokayokay. Whateveryouwant. Justdon’tshootme.
Elizabeth places the pistol on the grand desk and just before she exits--
ELIZABETH Oh and Henrik? You are still fat, you are still mean, and I will still not have sex with you. But, you are still my oldest friend.
She exits in confident haste. 21.
Henrik whimpers. He rolls into the fetal position and begins reading the play.
HENRIK IBSEN
(voice trembling) V--v--v--Votes for W---W--omen. By Elizabeth Robins.
(a deep exhale) Jesus christ.
LIGHTS FADE.
END OF SCENE TWO.
SCENE THREE
In the fade, a few Edwardian costume racks, a limelight ghost light, and minor backstage accoutrement are set.
As lights fade in--
Enter with luster, Helena Modjeska and Leslie Wright. Leslie has Helena hoisted in the air. Helena’s legs wrap round him like silk. They are both in their stage undergarments. They kiss as if no one were watching.
Leslie goes to pull Helena’s blouse and bodice off--
HELENA
(yelping in pain)
She slaps him.
He releases her.
LESLIE
(holding his hand to his face) OWWW! You slapped me! 22.
HELENA
(picking a wedgie he has just given her) GAH! It’s all one piece!
LESLIE I didn’t know--Owww! Do you slap Edwin that hard during your scene??
HELENA Sometimes.
LESLIE I should get into costume.
HELENA
(pouting) Not yet.
She pulls him into her.
LESLIE You slap me one minute and the next you want me closer? You are impossible!
They kiss.
Leslie abruptly stops and pulls away.
LESLIE What if they/
HELENA They won’t. They can’t.
LESLIE They could, Helena. This is the south. This isn’t New England or Gdańsk or/
HELENA I will not let it happen. Mr. Booth will not let it happen. There are arrangements for a car, just outside the stage door, in case of a riot/
LESLIE A RIOT!? 23.
HELENA Kurva! Come here.
(She takes him by the waist and whispers) There will not be a riot. You are safe. We will protect you.
LESLIE Anything could happen up there.
HELENA Yes. You are right. But tonight, tonight you are the lead. You are the lead actor, Lesie.
LESLIE In Charleston, South Carolina/
HELENA Tonight, you, Leslie Wright, play Othello.
LESLIE I love you.
They go to kiss again, but are in interrupted by--
Elizabeth entering in full costume.
She has a worrisome energy about her. She begins unearthing the costumes in search of something very important.
Leslie and Helena look on.
ELIZABETH Why aren’t you both in costume?
HELENA What time is it?
ELIZABETH Twelve! Twelve till house!
She continues her search.
HELENA Eh, that’s plenty of time. 24.
ELIZABETH
(to herself) Nononono, it has to be here. It has to.
LESLIE You lost it again.
Elizabeth halts her search.
ELIZABETH I...did. Not. Lose. It. Again. I just...
LESLIE He’s going to/
ELIZABETH I know he his, alright?
HELENA You might want to/
ELIZABETH I will, alright?
LESLIE Now?
ELIZABETH No, not now Leslie. Of course not now, Leslie, we’re about to open a show in--
(she goes to him, pulls his pocket watch from his waist-belt and reads the time) Ten minutes! Ten minutes, Leslie!
HELENA Third time this tour.
LESLIE Isn’t it the fourth? There was that time in Wilmington. Right? Where you used a pair of ladies stockings instead of the/
ELIZABETH Places in nine. Please. 25.
Helena and Leslie get the hint. They skittishly retrieve their oversized Elizabethan costumes from the rack. Helena exits off first, Leslie trails a bit behind, looking back to Elizabeth who stands in stillness as if searching her memory.
LESLIE He’s here tonight, isn’t he?
Elizabeth doesn’t turn.
ELIZABETH
(softly) Yes.
LESLIE You’ll be wonderful/
ELIZABETH Not without that damn handkerchief I wo/
LESLIE You’ll be wonderful.
(a beat) Make sure to check everyone’s pockets. That thing has been known to get around.
Leslie exits.
ELIZABETH
(turning to him) Thank you, Leslie--
He is gone.
Elizabeth remains still.
She takes a moment. She lowers in a seated position with her giant velvet gown billowed about her.
Her hand reaches into her bosom and she pulls out a small slip of paper. It is a Telegram. 26.
ELIZABETH
(reading) Liza. Will be in Charleston. Othello in America? God help him. I wonder what he’s thinking. Yours comma George.
(slipping the Telegram back into her cleavage) Well, George. I’ll tell you what he’s thinking. He’s thinking this ship has sunk and someone ought to rebuild it. He’s thinking the theater is not just for the flight of fancy as you would have it. He’s thinking the theater can be a great platform, an epicenter, a neutral ground for discovery and truth. And I have had similar quandaries. Similar ideas. Alike to that of the great male thinkers of our time. But, no. You’re not interested in all that. No. “Continue forth, Liza. Do not change course, pet. Maintain the status quo, love.”
She screams.
The kid from before runs in, as a Stagehand. They halt at Elizabeth’s striking presence.
KID Miss...Miss Elizabeth? Is there something wrong with your costume? Did you lose the/
ELIZABETH I DIDN’T LOSE THE HANDKERCHIEF! I’ve just--I’m fine, dear. I’m fine. What are we at?
KID
(checking their pocket watch) Two minutes...
ELIZABETH Great.
(she goes to rise, the Kid scurries to help her up) How’s the house?
KID Oh, Miss Elizabeth it’s grand! It’s just grand. There’s five hundred, at least! And you’re husband. I saw him! He’s here, Miss Elizabeth. He came all the way from London to see/
ELIZABETH To see me play Desdemona without a fucking handkerchief. 27.
Silence.
The kid slowly reaches into his pocket and retrieves a very tattered and dusty rag.
KID I know it’s not fancy, but you can use it.
ELIZABETH
(a slight smile bleeds across her face) I appreciate the gesture, dear. Very much. But, I don’t think Mr. Booth would appreciate the change.
KID
(stuffing it back into their pocket) It’s got grease from the lights on it, anyhow. Would mess up your pretty makeup.
He goes to exit--
ELIZABETH What do you want to be when you grow up?
KID Me?
(thinks hard) They say people might could fly some day. Isn’t that a thought? Well. I’d sure like to be one of those people.
ELIZABETH You’d like to fly?
KID Yes, mam. I would. Wouldn’t you?
ELIZABETH Yes. Yes I think I would. Maybe you and I will fly someday.
KID You really think so? That’d be special, Miss Elizabeth.
From off we hear-- 28.
A VOICE PLACES! PLACES EVERYONE!
KID That’s your cue, Miss Elizabeth! You’ll be wonderful!
Kid runs off.
Elizabeth closes her eyes.
From overhead we hear her deep inhalation, then--
Leslie enters opposite Elizabeth. He is adorned in his Moor’s costume. They face us head on.
They inhale.
They exhale.
Together.
They inhale.
They exhale.
Together.
The two actors playing Elizabeth and Leslie decide how long this goes on. Our time is their time in this moment.
Leslie breaks the silence, but both remain head on.
LESLIE Did you find it?
ELIZABETH No.
LESLIE What will you do?
ELIZABETH Nothing. 29.
They inhale.
They exhale.
Together.
ELIZABETH What will you do?
LESLIE Hang from the rafters as the rich white folk go home to their plantations.
ELIZABETH Leslie/
LESLIE But, until that happens, I Leslie Wright, will play Othello.
They inhale.
They exhale.
Together.
BLACKOUT.
END OF SCENE THREE.
SCENE FOUR
Lights fade in on the cantankerous innards of a Worcester Excursion Car with curtains drawn, no gleam of light or sign of life--like the dismasted hull of some great man of war stranded useless on the shore.
Suddenly, with a burst of laughter, enter Leslie, Helena and Elizabeth.
HELENA So it wasnt a riot, THANK CHRIST, but surely made a roar!
ELIZABETH Except for of course... 30.
LESLIE Yes, if it hadn’t been for that kind, plump gentleman in the front who offered you his kerchief--with his doe-eyed gaze staring up at the great Elizabeth Robins with absolute frightful reverence, the show simply could not have gone on.
Leslie throws himself dramatically into a train car set. He plays for us the scene that transpired during that evening’s performance.
LESLIE
(as Desdemona) The heavens forbid, but that our loves and comforts should increase, even as our days do grow!
He pats his eyes as if he were crying.
(as Elizabeth) Oh. It seems as though I’ve misplaced my...
(as the Gentleman audience member in the front row; clearing his throat) Excuse me, Mrs. Robins? I don’t mean to interupt but...well, you’re welcome to mine.
Leslie extends a parkinsined hand to Elizabeth .
HELENA Oh stop it, Leslie. We all know what happened. No need to remind us with the drivel.
Helena snatches a nearby bottle of Champagne from a dinner tray.
HELENA Now, let’s have a toast!
She pops the cork and Champagne spray and plumes from the bottle.
They pass the bottle amongst themselves during the following, taking swigs directly from it.
ELIZABETH To Leslie! A performance akin to the great Aldridge! “One of the finest physical representations of bodily anguish we have ever witnessed!” 31.
HELENA “Othello’s occupation’s gone!--Tis O’er./The Mask has fall’n”
LESLIE You’re embarrassing me!
HELENA Say it again, will you, my love?
LESLIE Say what again?
ELIZABETH Leslie Wright, you brilliant man, you say what you said during that curtain speech or so help me!
LESLIE Okay, okay, okay! Lionesses, the both of you!
A beat.
HELENA We’re waiting.
Leslie takes to the dinner table as if it were his stage. He stands and delivers.
LESLIE “Through deserts wide the Negro strays alone In happy innocense, untaught, unknown... But soon the white man comes, allured by gain-- O’er his free limbs flingers slivery’s galling chain... Transforms him to a brute.”
They each sit with this for some time, taking swigs from the bottle with intermittent contemplation.
During the silence, Edwin Booth enters the train car.
Elizabeth, Helena and Leslie sit straight up in their seats. They stare at him, wantingly. 32.
Edwin slowly, gilded in dignity and composure, makes his way to Leslie. He stops just short of him, and very simply offers him a hand.
Leslie accepts. They shake each other’s hands warmly and meaningfully.
Then, Edwin takes his leave to his private quarters.
Elizabeth waits a moment, before rising. She rests her hand on Leslie’s shoulder.
ELIZABETH Well done, Leslie.
Before Elizabeth can follow after Edwin, the Kid enters, stopping her.
KID Mrs. Elizabeth! Mrs. Elizabeth! Your husband is here to see you! He’s come to congratulate you--you and the cast! May I usher him in?
ELIZABETH
(slight hesitation) ...That’ll be fine.
The kid exits, as George enters.
He tips his hat to the three then takes it off and holds it to his chest.
GEORGE Decent work to you all.
LESLIE
(quietly) Thank you, sir.
HELENA Dziękuję bardzo. 33.
ELIZABETH Hello, George.
GEORGE Hello, Elizabeth. You must be tired. I won’t stay long.
ELIZABETH We do have a long trip ahead/
HELENA Nonsense! You must stay and have drinks with us! Leslie go and get him a drink!
LESLIE Why can’t you get him one?
HELENA At once, Leslie. This man has had a ong journey to America, he’s just say through three hours of Shakespeare/he called us decent. The least we could do is offer him a drink. And besides, my legs are too tired from performing. I couldn’t possibly muster the walk to the drink car.
GEORGE /I don’t drink/
LESLIE Your legs are tired? Yours? Your legs?/ What about my legs?
GEORGE Really, I don’t drink/
LESLIE Those three hours he just SAT through, I GALLOPED!
HELENA It was more of a trot/
LESLIE A trot?! That is laughable--a trot!
GEORGE I SAY, I DO NOT DRINK!
A beat.
HELENA Oh. 34.
LESLIE And ther eyou have it, dear. The man doesn’t drink.
ELIZABETH George, lower your voice please.
HELENA Well, get him a scotch anyway. He may change his mind.
GEORGE I assure you, I will not.
ELIZABETH George, you mustn’t argue with her. She’s positively armed to have you share a celebratory drink with us. One will not kill you.
GEORGE But, you’d rather it did, wouldn’t you?
A heavy silence.
LESLIE Helena, I think the moment has passed for celebration. Let us to bed and leave these two to catch up.
HELENA Tak tak spokojne, kochanie.
Helena downs the remaining Champagne as her and Leslie exit to their quarters.
Elizabeth and George sit a distance apart.
ELIZABETH That was an unnecessary thing to say.
GEORGE Yes, well, you’ve thought it so I hardly find it inconsolable to air the truth.
ELIZABETH Why are you here, George?
GEORGE I’ve come to bring you home. 35.
ELIZABETH London is not my home.
GEORGE Yes, but it is mine.
ELIZABETH And?
GEORGE And you are my wife.
ELIZABETH And?
GEORGE And I would like my wife to end her silly tour with these humble actors and live at my side once again at home.
ELIZABETH I told you, George. That is not my home. It may be yours, but it is not mine. And it never will be. I like these “humble actors.” They’re far more pleasant to be around than the English standard.
GEORGE You cannot possibly tell me you felt that was a compelling performance this evening.
ELIZABETH I can and I will. Mr. Booth is doing something important in the American theater and I want to be apart of that great importance. Great and wonderful things are happening here, George. Did you know that just last week, the papers read there will be marches in the streets across the Northern states and women could finally have the right to vote? Here in America! Oh, George! I can just see myself, lined up behind the men in their coat tails and top hats holding a ballot of my own, ready to enter the civil discourse and become a voter. A voter, George! Me, a voter!
GEORGE I’ve never like democracy.
ELIZABETH I think we should go to Mexico.
GEORGE Mexico!? Why? Are you mad? 36.
ELIZABETH I’d like to file for a divorce.
GEORGE Don’t be ridiculous.
ELIZABETH Oh, it isn’t. Plenty of people are doing it. Surely the money you made from the last productions will afford us the legal fees.
GEORGE You are being very laissez faire about this. People do not just go to Mexico to get a divorce.
ELIZABETH They do. I’ve read it in the paper. I saved the clipping. It’s in my sleeping car if you’d like my to retrieve it.
GEORGE NO I DO NOT WANT YOU TO RETRIEVE IT! For goodness sake, Elizabeth. You are speaking of our marriage like the choice between Clotted or Double cream! It’s insanity!
ELIZABETH Clotted is cooked and doubled is raw, so at this point in my life, I think I fancy the raw as opposed to the burnt.
GEORGE It isn’t burnt! It is very slowly simmered under low heat in the oven!
ELIZABETH Keep your voice down, George. People are sleeping.
GEORGE I am not burnt. I have given you a wonderful life.
ELIZABETH A wonderful life in your shadow.
GEORGE What would you have me do? Not act? Give up my profession for your budding one?
ELIZABETH No and that is why I would like for us to leave for Mexico directly after this tour, to end the thing that no longer works between us. 37.
George rises slowly.
GEORGE
(softly) Maybe I would like that drink now.
George returns his hat to his head and goes to exit.
He stops just short of the exit door of the train car and turns.
GEORGE
(retrieving a flyer from his coat pocket) Now that we’re divorcing, I don’t suspect you’ll come to see it. But, nevertheless here. Take it. Perhaps you’ll change your mind.
He hands her the flyer.
She takes and reads.
ELIZABETH
(a slight gasp) Prince Hal. Oh, George. Your dream.
GEORGE Funny isn’t, how a dream can fade. Goodbye, Elizabeth.
He turns back to the door.
ELIZABETH I’ll be in touch/
GEORGE Goodbye, Elizabeth.
He is gone.
Elizabeth finds herself, once again, alone.
She stares at the playbill flyer. 38.
She weeps a little, then composers herself, folds and tucks the paper into her waist belt, then slowly makes her way toward Edwin Booth’s private quarters.
We see her travel through train cars, as is from a looking glass, while a strident Schubert scherzo plays.
She reaches a glass encased door. It is lit from the inside by a gas lantern which gives off a comforting amber hue.
She knocks softly against the glass.
EDWIN
(gently) Come in.
Elizabeth slides the door open and walks into--
Edwin Booth’s private train car.
Edwin is seated in a klismos-style chair. He holds a glass of scotch in hand; donning eye glasses and reading quietly to himself.
At first, he does not look up at Elizabeth.
ELIZABETH I’m sorry to bother, Mr. Booth.
EDWIN
(muttering to himself) Hmm. Yes. Yes.
ELIZABETH I wanted to...to apologize...about the kerchief? It won’t happen again.
EDWIN Manfred.
ELIZABETH Excuse me? 39.
EDWIN A peculiar little piece. Byron wrote so eloquently about forgiveness, reckoning, the chance to begin again. Curious how he turns to guilt in Manfred. But surely, what could be the source of his guilt?
(beat) I’m sorry I’m babbling. You were saying?
ELIZABETH I...I’ve come to apologize.
EDWIN What ever for?
ELIZABETH It seems to turn up every night right after curtain. I find it in spots unimaginable; tucked inside the insole of Cassio’s left shoe, buried beneath the soldier’s props. As soon as I think I know where it is, it shows up missing once again.
Edwin rises and goes to his drink cart. He pours himself another.
EDWIN Lace is a tricky little devil.
ELIZABETH I promise you, I will not let it out of my sight the remainder of this tour.
EDWIN Have you checked your coat pocket?
ELIZABETH Don’t be silly.
EDWIN I’m always leaving things in mine.
ELIZABETH
(suspiciously checking the right pocket of her overcoat) It couldn’t be...
Elizabeth reveals a small, lace handkerchief. 40.
EDWIN Surprise.
He smiles coyly.
ELIZABETH How did you know...?
EDWIN As I said, our pockets often attract the missing.
ELIZABETH I swore this coat was in my...
(remembering) Last night, in Martinsburg. We had just left the theater, myself and Leslie came in for a drink, we sat in the dining car for several hours and I must have...You. It’s been you. This whole time, it’s been you. Mobile, Chattanooga, Memphis, Richmond--it was always you. But/
EDWIN I hear Geroge was here tonight. Quite a ways for a Londoner.
ELIZABETH Mr. Booth, I am sorry, but I must insist we remain on the topic of the kerchief. You’ve been running a racket on me.
EDWIN No, not a racket.
ELIZABETH Have I done something to offend you? Are my performances not to your liking? Your expertise has always-- I can adjust. Please, if there is something I have mistaken in my/
Edwin returns to his seat and picks up his book.
Elizabeth does not finish her sentence, but lets it hang there like linen drying out in the sun.
Edwin reads silently. Elizabeth waits.
Suddenly-- 41.
EDWIN The lamp must be replenish'd, but even then It will not burn so long as I must watch.
A beat.
ELIZABETH George was here tonight, yes. He’s just left our train, in fact.
EDWIN Headed back to London I presume?
ELIZABETH Yes.
EDWIN I’ve always found London to be very stuffy. As did my father.
A beat.
ELIZABETH Why have you been hiding it?
EDWIN Is it not better to be ever searching, than to be ever found?
A beat.
ELIZABETH Manfred fears he’s the cause of her death.
EDWIN I have no dread, And feel the curse to have no natural fear Nor fluttering throb, that beats with hopes or wishes Or lurking love of something on the earth.
ELIZABETH He’s lied to himself. Haven’t you?
EDWIN We all have to at some point. Desdemona, for one, cannot escape it.
(beat) 42.
EDWIN
Can you?
ELIZABETH Guilt is ugly.
EDWIN Guilt is what saves us from ourselves.
(beat) What will you do when the tour is finished? Where will you go?
ELIZABETH I...I don’t think I have the answer to that question.
EDWIN Back home to London?
ELIZABETH London is not my home.
EDWIN Your childhood home, then?
ELIZABETH There’s nothing left for me in Kentucky.
EDWIN Kentucky. Now, there’s a state. I’ve never been. How does it fair?
ELIZABETH Cold. Barren. Pioneer prospects still reign supreme. It’s a battleground for men torn between two unmoving ideals.
EDWIN Sounds insufferable. I don’t blame you for not wanting to return.
ELIZABETH When my mother was convicted, her last words to me were,“Sugar don’t come from the ground in these hills, but from the cane we plant in it.” I think you’re planting, Mr. Booth. And I’d like to help you here in America.
EDWIN You don’t need me, Elizabeth. And you don’t need George either, for that matter. 43.
ELIZABETH I’m leaving him. When the tour is over. I’ve arranged for us to go to Mexico. For a divorce.
EDWIN Ah.
ELIZABETH Perhaps I shouldn’t. Perhaps I’m being foolish. Selfish. A little child. But, I...I find myself...
EDWIN Guilty.
ELIZABETH Yes, but if I leave he’ll fault himself. I know him. He will take my leaving him as an affront to his very person. He will blame me, and then he will blame himself.
EDWIN That I do bear This punishment for both.
(beat) Would you care for a drink?
He slowly rises. This time his age shows.
He slowly walks to the drink cart and pours Elizabeth a glass of scotch.
Elizabeth sits in a nearby Méridienne, he returns to her presently with the drink and then makes his way back to his seat.
EDWIN My brother...
ELIZABETH Mr. Booth, you don’t have to/
EDWIN Edwin, please. We’re sharing a drink. Mr. Booth was my father. 44.
ELIZABETH
(taking a sip of her drink) Scotch is a powerful tonic.
EDWIN One of my curses.
They drink.
Elizabeth tries to hold back from reeling at the ripe toxicity of the drink.
EDWIN My brother. You know, it’s interesting where a man’s guilt lies. I never did quite understand it. Why he did it. Why he hated me so much. Why he chose to suffer. But, some years have passed now and I’ve sat with it. That question. Why did he do it? And I return to the bigger question, where does the guilt lie in all of us? I read Byron and I think, is it in the mind which is immortal? Is it that I have not been thy dupe nor am thy prey, but was my own destroyer? I read Shakespeare. I perform his works. And in them a bed of truths lie. But, I cannot seem to strip the sheets enough away for the barren underbelly of the answer to reveal itself to me. And so my only truth is that, I the living, will bare the guilt of the dead.
They drink slowly. Thoughtfully.
ELIZABETH But, you saved his son.
EDWIN Whose son?
ELIZABETH Lincoln’s son.
EDWIN It was serendipity that saved him, nothing more.
ELIZABETH It was a testament of your character. 45.
EDWIN Character. Aren’t we all, all of them at once?
(beat) You’ll excuse me, a few of these scotch’s in and I become a poet myself.
A beat.
ELIZABETH Edwin...I’m afraid I can’t do it alone.
EDWIN Hmm. That’s queer. You’ve continuously found the missing handkerchief despite your best efforts to give up and forget the matter completely. My bet is, you’ll do just fine on your own.
ELIZABETH I have nothing to my name, aside from a few bracelets and brochettes of my mothers.
EDWIN To the contrary, you have the stage. One can never forget that.
ELIZABETH And if it decides it doesn’t want me?
EDWIN Do you want it to?
ELIZABETH No.
EDWIN You’re safe in thinking it might. There’s always the risk. My father was penniless from it. He was reluctant to turn it over to me. But when he did, it must have had something to do with guilt. For years he made his bed and lay there in it, until he could no longer.
(beat)
Perhaps, at this moment, as with my father, as with Manfred, as with Desdemona and all the parties involved, you lie next to guilt and take him as a lover. It is up to you to decide when you leave the bed. For better or for worse. 46.
ELIZABETH
(beat) Edwin?
EDWIN Yes?
ELIZABETH Will you continue to hide the handkerchief?
He smiles coyly.
Elizabeth rises and sets her empty glass down.
ELIZABETH It’s getting terribly late.
EDWIN Ah yes. Tomorrow Savannah and then up to Macon, and straight toward bustling Atlanta.
Elizabeth goes to leave.
She turns.
ELIZABETH Thank you and goodnight, Mr. Booth. You don’t want to stay up too late reading Byron. Perhaps a light fairytale to wash it down.
EDWIN Ah, yes. yes. Humpty Dumpty it is.
Elizabeth exits.
Edwin pours himself another drink, returns to his seat, and continues reading Byron.
Lights fade on him as Gene Austin’s “The Lonesome Road” plays us out.
END OF SCENE FOUR. 47.
SCENE FIVE
In the blackout the train car is removed. The stage returns to her barren belly.
When lights rise--
We see the KID dressed as an Elizabethan Page.
He drags on a plastic baby pool filled with water.
When he places it just right, he sits and pulls from his pocket a small toy boat.
He lets the boat sail through the water; an innocent, simple moment.
Ever so often he will turn his head to us and acknowledge our presence. But quickly he returns to his play.
Suddenly--we hear the clanking of armor approaching.
The Kid freezes.
George, in a full suit of armor, enters.
His helmet visor is turned down with the occularium open.
He sees the Kid. The Kid sees him.
George begins his slow approach to the baby pool. The Kid is hesitant.
As George finally reaches the Kid, he looks down at the water, the toy boat, and then back up to the kid.
The kid slowly pulls the toy boat from the water and extends it toward George.
George accepts the boat, when suddenly the Kid hears something from off--
He quickly rises, exits, forgetting his boat entirely. 48.
George looks solemnly at the direction of the Kid, then down at the pool, then up to his hand holding the boat, then to us.
Lights isolate on George. A terrible blue.
In a brief instant we hear a deep, frightened inhalation and--
BLACKOUT.
“THE LONESOME ROAD” PLAYS US OUT.
END OF SCENE FIVE.
SCENE SIX
Lights rise on a graveyard; Bonaventura--the most unconventional and appropriate place of graves. Imagine acres and acres of apparently endless natural woodland, spots of rough sunlit grass and reaches of densest shade, bowers of tangled vines and reddening winter berries along the wide shell road that winds through this silent place of peace.
Elizabeth and Leslie are seated with their backs resting against twin headstones.
A mess of liquor bottles and shot glasses surround them like buzzards over a corpse.
They stare out ahead.
Are they looking at us? Or beyond?
Elizabeth pours herself a shot and then Leslie. They tilt their heads back, gulp, Elizabeth throws her glass at a nearby headstone.
The glass shatters.
ELIZABETH Bullseye. 49.
LESLIE Good aim.
ELIZABETH Yup. I’m a regular ole’ sharp shooter.
LESLIE We should stop while we’re ahead.
ELIZABETH Not yet.
She pours another.
She goes to pour one for Leslie, he declines.
ELIZABETH Suit yourself.
She tips her head back, gulps, then throws.
Glass shatters.
She goes for another, but Leslie stops her.
LESLIE Okay, okay! You’re done. Give me the bottle.
ELIZABETH Nope.
She drinks straight from the bottle.
She downs it.
Throws the bottle and it shatters.
She reaches for another bottle.
But before she can reach it, Leslie snatches it from her.
LESLIE You’re done.
ELIZABETH Give me the vodka. 50.
LESLIE I’m cutting you off.
ELIZABETH Leslie Wright, you son of a bitch, you give me the Vodka.
LESLIE
(rising) Or what?
ELIZABETH Or I will ask my dead husband to haunt you for the rest of eternity.
LESLIE That’s not funny.
ELIZABETH I wasn’t being funny. Now, give me the bottle.
LESLIE If I give it to you will you promise to stop throwing glasses at the dead?
She chucks an empty glass at another headstone.
It shatters.
She picks up another but Leslie stops her--
LESLIE These people had lives, Elizabeth!
She halts her throw.
They had mothers and fathers and children. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them weren’t your own blood--pretty southern grave like this. Yes, your husband is gone. And you remain. And I’m sorry. But, don’t you think--
He quickly goes to a headstone and reads--
Mrs. Eleanor Holocomb lost a few along the way?
(he reads again) 51.
She died in 1868.
(beat) I’m sure her sons were soldiers in the war. But for Christ’s sake! They weren’t lucky enough to get a plot next to their own mother. No. No, they’re likely buried in some ad- hoc grave in a battlefield outside Lexington. And don’t you think she left her own share of souls behind? A daughter or two? Her husband? Maybe he survived her. And the family comes to her grave after service on Sundays to pay their respects. But, here you are making a mess of the only little piece of earth she has left.
(beat) Death is death and everybody deserves peace. Even George.
Elizabeth sinks to her knees, the glass softly tumbling from her hand as she does.
LESLIE
(going to her) Come now, come now.
(he holds her gently)
LESLIE Shhhh, shhhh, shhhhh.
ELIZABETH I didn’t even get to see him play Hal.
(beat) I was going to leave him. I told him on the train, that night after Charleston, “I want a divorce.” And he didn’t believe me. He told me I was being ridiculous. But, I insisted. I wouldn’t even let him have a say in the matter. I just demanded it. Like a proud little girl. Like, “little, troublesome Bessie in the schoolyard,” all those years ago. My life is repeating itself, Leslie. I find myself circling back to bygones when I had no one in this world but myself. And here I am, once more, alone.
(beat) If I had never taken up the stage, perhaps he’d still be alive.
LESLIE George didn’t own the stage, dear and neither do you. We share it. Together. And today we all share in your grief. You are not alone and you cannot give up. 52.
ELIZABETH Promise me you’ll stay after the tour is over? We can start our own troupe! Think of it, Leslie. You, Helena and I. We’d be magnificent! I don’t have much money, but we’ll find a way. Wouldn’t you like that?
Leslie goes silent.
He rises, picks up the bottle and takes a calculated swig.
He passes it to Elizabeth.
She declines.
ELIZABETH Leslie...
He sneaks a glance at her.
ELIZABETH Leslie.
LESLIE America is not my home.
ELIZABETH Haven’t we made it home for you though? With the tour and our friendship and what about Helena? What will she do?
Leslie goes silent again.
ELIZABETH You haven’t told her, yet.
LESLIE She can’t know. Not until I’m gone.
ELIZABETH Leslie you have to tell her. You can’t just leave her like that. If you must go, why not take her with you?
LESLIE She loves America. It has stolen her heart.
ELIZABETH And you have stolen hers. 53.
LESLIE Yes.
ELIZABETH Every night I look at her, in the wings, staring at you. It’s always at the end of Act Three. She should be getting ready for her scene with Iago but instead her eyes transfix on this beautiful, strapping young man doing the impossible on stage.
(beat) I’ve never seen a love like that. I certainly never had it with George. Why leave that behind, Leslie? For what?
LESLIE
(sings softly “The Battle Cry of Freedom”)
Oh we'll rally round the flag, boys, we'll rally once again, Shouting the battle cry of freedom/
ELIZABETH But, the war was won...
He begins a soldiers march around the cemetery.
LESLIE
(singing slightly louder now)
And we'll rally from the hillside, we'll gather from the plain, Shouting the battle cry of freedom/
He toots the next verse of the Battle hymn like a trumpet from his lips.
Elizabeth tries to speak over him--
ELIZABETH You and Helena could own your own little piece of earth! In the Northern states!
Elizabeth rises. 54.
LESLIE
(still singing) The Union forever, hurrah! boys, hurrah! Down with the traitors, up with the stars;
ELIZABETH Leslie! Will you stop it and listen to me please?!
LESLIE
(singing loudly now)
While we rally round the flag, boys, we rally once again, Shouting the battle cry of freedom!
Leslie continues to toot the remaining verses through his lips like a fury.
Elizabeth goes to him. She tries to snap him out of his song and dance.
Leslie grabs hold of her; he goes silent.
He takes her hand and shoves it like a dagger into his own stomach.
He collapses into a muddied puddle next to a grave.
ELIZABETH LESLIE WRIGHT!!!!
LESLIE ELIZABETH ROBINS!!!!
Elizabeth attempts to pull him up.
He refuses.
ELIZABETH You’re covered in soot!
A beat.
Leslie pulls away from her suddenly. 55.
LESLIE ‘O, the more angel she, and you the blacker devil’
ELIZABETH I’m. I’m sorry. Leslie, I was speaking of the earth not/
LESLIE It’s always just a symbol or imagery supplanted isn’t it? But, you angel, do not know how those words of dagger pierce my skin.
(beat) The North thought it won its war. Then Lincoln was shot by an angry white man, and here I am traveling with his brother across the confederacy trying my best to make my reparations known. But, the battle cry is muted. The North thought it won its war. But, when a country is founded on what this Nation did, how can it ever go back? The North thought it won its war, but angels like you will always be angels and men like me...well... Besides, America is not my home, after all. Why should I try and fight its battles?
He reaches for another Vodka bottle, he takes a swig, then lifts it into the air for Elizabeth to take.
This time she accepts.
She sinks down into the mud with him, then takes a swig from the bottle.
ELIZABETH I’ll go with you.
LESLIE Noooooo. London is not your home. Remember?
ELIZABETH I don’t know where home is anymore.
LESLIE I think you have more important things to do here. I can’t do it. Not me, not here, not yet. But you dear, you need to secure your rights.
(he sits up suddenly)
Are you listening to me? Do whatever you can to vote. To get that right. For women. And then you get it for me. You have to start somewhere. 56.
ELIZABETH
(putting her hand out) Shake my hand.
LESLIE What for?
ELIZABETH A pact.
LESLIE It’s going to take a lot more than a handshake.
ELIZABETH It’s a start.
He shakes her hand.
LESLIE You’ll have to go at it alone.
(beat) Take care of her please. Don’t let Helena join the circus.
ELIZABETH Oh, but she’d be a wonderful trapezes!
LESLIE Dear God, could you imagine.
ELIZABETH You’re really not going to tell her? I’m terrible at keeping secrets.
LESLIE Take a page from Mr. Booth’s book. Seems he had you fooled for quite some time.
ELIZABETH Did you know?? You knew! You knew the whole time! Leslie!
LESLIE I appreciate a good trickster.
ELIZABETH You would be the perfect Puck. 57.
LESLIE And you the perfect Constance. Forever on the verge of madness, but absolutely vindicated. You, my dear Elizabeth Robins, are a wonder.
ELIZABETH Who is wonderfully drunk. And you Leslie Wright, are going to change the world.
LESLIE Yes, you are drunk.
They look on at the cemetery.
ELIZABETH
(beat) I don’t know where to bury him.
LESLIE Under a trap door.
ELIZABETH Yes, perhaps.
LESLIE Will you bury him in his armor?
ELIZABETH Seems fitting doesn’t it?
LESLIE Slightly morbid.
ELIZABETH He drowned himself in a full suit of armor. I don’t think one could get more morbid than that.
Lights fade out on them as a steam train whistles.
END OF ACT ONE. 58.
ACT TWO
SCENE ONE
Lights and sound abruptly shift to a bustling metropolitan area.
The stage itself has become a chic den; an artist’s salon. The seating arrangements are telling of the kind of business that occurs in this sort of a place. It is dimly lit as if we are, per se, inside the glass and coils of an Edison bulb.
Enter 1ST BARON FREDERICK PETHIC- LAWRENCE, who should be played by THE KID. His overcoat should be much too large, his shoes a size too big, and his hat should most certainly swallow his pea- sized head.
He is followed by HENRIK IBSEN.
1ST BARON PETHIC-LAWRENCE Oh my good Ibsen, you haven’t the faintest idea the sorts of turmoil they’re in.
HENRIK IBSEN I most certainly do. I’ve written about it quite frequently. Do you read my plays?
1ST BARON PETHIC-LAWRENCE No.
HENRIK IBSEN Well, then you should.
1ST BARON PETHIC-LAWRENCE I will bloody well read what I want.
Henrik sits in a lavish chair next to a drink cart.
He pours himself what can only be assumed is absinthe into a crystal glass.
HENRIK IBSEN I know what you’re thinking. 59.
1ST BARON PETHIC-LAWRENCE Oh yes, you can read minds now? Please go ahead. Inform me on my thoughts.
HENRIK IBSEN As a playwright, I consider myself a keen observer of the human mind. And you, Baron, have concluded that I am a man of higher class, higher status and therefore do not understand the plight of the common man, let alone the common woman. Which thereby insinuates that I cannot, and for that matter do not, side with Votes for Women.
1ST BARON PETHIC-LAWRENCE Brava! You do read minds.
HENRIK IBSEN But, what you have not considered is that my mother was a Saint. And besides that fact, you are the son of wealthy Unitarians. I hardly think you can go around preaching your ethics and gospel of love while a pretty penny rests in your pocket.
1ST BARON PETHIC-LAWRENCE We may agree to disagree, Mr. Ibsen. But, I still reserve the political high ground on this one. Not once have I seen you at a rally. Not once have I witnessed you protest amongst the masses. Not once have I heard your voice rise above the page. The page, dear Ibsen, is all you will ever be.
Henrik bursts up from his seat, drawing a pistol on the Baron.
The Baron draws his.
Suddenly, MARION LEA enters. She is a stout and gruff woman from the American West.
MARION LEA Can’t I leave you two alone for a moment without you drawing your pistols?
(she goes to Henrik) Give me that thing.
She disarms him.
The Baron lowers his.
1ST BARON PETHIC-LAWRENCE He wouldn’t have fired, anyway. He hasn’t the constitution. 60.
The Baron finds himself a seat.
MARION LEA Poor a lady a drink, will you Henrik?
He does so, reluctantly.
1ST BARON PETHIC-LAWRENCE What’s the word, Marion?
Marion crosses to Henrik’s chair and steals it while he’s not looking.
MARION LEA Word on the street is you’re a socialist, Baron.
She gives him a cheeky smile.
1ST BARON PETHIC-LAWRENCE That’s news to you?
MARION LEA Now, on the matter of the Movement.
Henrik turns with the drink in hand, he sees Marion has taken his chair.
HENRIK IBSEN Yes, that matter.
He hands her the drink begrudgingly.
MARION LEA The American front is gathering in very high numbers. But, we’ve slowed here in London. Frederick, what’s your take?
HENRIK IBSEN Well I believe it is due to the fact/
MARION LEA I asked the Baron, Henrik. You’ll have your turn.
Henrik crosses with a pout to another chair opposite Marion. 61.
1ST BARON PETHIC-LAWRENCE Simply put, we need new recruits. Many of the women here have found their way to America, for various reasons, but the movement certainly took a blow when that happened. Our numbers are falling short of where they need to be, as you said.
MARION LEA I wouldn’t lose hope yet. These skirts in London have just as much tenacity as my women in Colorado. Shit, the ladies here in the factories alone surpass any shadow of a doubt that working women want the vote.
(beat) How are the leaflets coming along, Henrik?
HENRIK IBSEN Leaflets?
MARION LEA Yes.
HENRIK IBSEN What leaflets?
MARION LEA The ones that you, THE WRITER, were going to write? For the movement? Henrik?
1ST BARON PETHIC-LAWRENCE
(under his breath) God, help us.
HENRIK IBSEN I don’t remember being asked to write any sort of a leaflet, or a pamphlet or any propaganda of the sort. Are you sure you asked me and not Henry James?
1ST BARON PETHIC-LAWRENCE James was too busy traveling the Italian coast and making ins with the French.
MARION LEA We asked you because you said, and I quote “If anyone should do it, it should be me. I’M THE WRITER.”
HENRIK IBSEN Yes, well. Seems I forgot. 62.
1ST BARON PETHIC-LAWRENCE You are rather useless even with your mighty pen.
Henrik goes to draw his pistol once again but remembers Marion has taken it.
MARION LEA Looking for this?
Just as she holsters the pistol into her waist belt, ELIZABETH enters in traveling clothes. She carries two pieces of modest luggage.
An envelope is in her hand.
ELIZABETH Excuse me, is this...?
(she looks about rather confused) I was told to meet a man here by the name of Henrik Ibsen. About a play. You might know him. I think he’s quite famous. But you’ll forgive me, this doesn’t look like a theater...
She continues to look about still confused at the location of this requested meeting.
HENRIK IBSEN Ah HA! Why yes, yes, yes! You must be the wonderful, Elizabeth Robins.
He rises and goes to her.
He takes her hand, stretching it towards him and kisses it.
MARION LEA Well all be damned. Elizabeth Robins. Good find Henrik.
ELIZABETH I’m sorry but, who are you?
(and to the Baron) And you?
1ST BARON PETHIC-LAWRENCE It’s a pleasure to meet you, Elizabeth. I am the 1st Baron Frederick/ 63.
HENRIK IBSEN Never mind him. He’s a Unitarian.
Marion steps in to shake Elizabeth’s hand.
MARION LEA And he’s an outstanding labor rights organizer.
(she extends her hand generously to Elizabeth) Please to meet you. I’ve heard a great deal about you from America. A fine, fine actress from what I’ve been told. And no doubt you hold a lot of other potential in you. Names Marion, Marion Lea. I’m a Colorado girl originally. But, came across the lake a few years back to put up a fight.
HENRIK IBSEN Yes, yes, yes. Everyone wants to fight these days.
(beat) Now, Elizabeth I’d love to tell you about this new little piece I’m working on.
He tries to usher her away.
Elizabeth stops him.
ELIZABETH
(to Marion) To put up a fight? A fight for what?
HENRIK IBSEN Ah, here we go. Can’t we ever just talk about plays anymore?
Henrik goes to the drink cart and begins pouring himself and Elizabeth a glass of absinthe.
MARION LEA Dear, you have arrived right on time. You ever hear of the Manchester National Society for Women's Suffrage?
ELIZABETH I have not. Is it similar to what Mrs. Cady Stanton is doing in the states? 64.
MARION LEA Ah, good, good! I see you’re up with the times. That’s good. And yes, here in London we’re organizing just as the American Association is.
HENRIK IBSEN
(leaning in) But things are at a bit of stalemate at the moment.
MARION LEA They are not. Don’t listen to this old quack. He’s hardly lifted a finger for the cause.
1ST BARON PETHIC-LAWRENCE Couldn’t even write the leaflets. And, HE’S A WRITER!
HENRIK IBSEN Now, you listen to me. I am growing tired of this nonsense teasing from you both! You’re nothing but a pair of children. It is undeserved, undignified, and outright/
ELIZABETH I can write them.
The room goes silent.
ELIZABETH What? You need a writer. I can write them.
HENRIK IBSEN Don’t be ridiculous. Have you ever written anything?
ELIZABETH No.
HENRIK IBSEN Then, how do you suppose you’ll write them?
ELIZABETH The same as anyone would? With pen and parchment?
Marion crosses Henrik to light a cigarette.
MARION LEA I like her more and more.
Henrik goes to Elizabeth with the glass. 65.
HENRIK IBSEN
(handing it to her) Look, I’ve asked you to come here to discuss being an actress in a great play I’ve written, with an unparalleled character for an actress of your sort. Now, shall we discuss that and leave this squabbling about Associations this and National Conferences that?
ELIZABETH Why not do both?
MARION LEA I REALLY like her.
HENRIK IBSEN If we must.
(beat) Please, please have a seat, Elizabeth.
She does while Marion hovers behind her chair.
She lights a cigar and offers it to Elizabeth.
ELIZABETH
(declining) Oh no thank you. This drink will do just fine for now.
HENRIK IBSEN Now...
He reaches for a manuscript on a nearby end table and presents himself and it like a proud peacock.
HENRIK IBSEN HEDDA...GABLER!
Silence.
HENRIK IBSEN I say...HEDDA...GABLER!!!
They all clap with reluctant pigeon-hearts. 66.
HENRIK IBSEN Thank you, thank you. I pray, sit your weary hearts down and I shall tell you the whole synopsis/
1ST BARON PETHIC-LAWRENCE
(under his breath) Oh good heavens.
HENRIK IBSEN We begin on the spacious and handsomely furnished drawing room of Mrs. Hedda Tesman’s villa in the great Kristiania/
MARION LEA
(under her breath) Is he going to describe the curtains too?
HENRIK IBSEN Hedda and the others are asleep while Aunt Julle, Mr. Tesman’s aunt--Marion you’ll play Thea--and Berte--the Tesman’s servant--we’ll need to find a young woman young enough but not too naive to play Berte--the two, Berte and Mrs. Tesman discuss fond memories of when Aunt Julle used to be Berte’s mistress. All the while, Berte is drawing open the curtains to let some fresh air and daylight in when suddenly George Tesman enters--this is Hedda’s new betrothed--I must find a strapping young man, someone fresh and new and unrefined to play George. But, that is neither here nor there--
At this point the Baron has fallen asleep in his chair and is snoring ever so faintly.
HENRIK IBSEN The three discuss a myriad of financial set backs, what with the lavish honeymoon and the aristocratic lifestyle of his new bride. And then we are finally introduced to our title character, Hedda! She comes bursting through the doors and/
ELIZABETH
(stands and crosses downstage facing out) She draws the curtains closed. Something about the harshness of morning light retracts her from herself. It’s like a burning on her skin.
(Elizabeth goes in deeper)
Why would she draw the curtains? This early? Is she mad? I’m told I must be nice to her. What for? What’s the use? 67.
(she crosses diagonally down) My piano looks like shit in the corner. I’ll have it removed. Or we’ll buy another, though I doubt George has the means. I’ve married a failing academic. Why did marry a failing academic? Why did I marry at all? I cannot stand this fucking piano.
Elizabeth stands in a despondent trance.
The others wait in silence until--
HENRIK IBSEN
(clapping) Bravo! Bravo!
(he goes to her and turns her to face himself) Yes! Yes! Elizabeth! That is exactly right!
Elizabeth is slightly still tranced.
HENRIK IBSEN She is vindicated! We cannot play to her weakness as a spoiled rotten autocrat. We must find her truth, her nuance, her fears! You have, as I suspected, dear Elizabeth known these woes, these truths within yourself and therefore/
Elizabeth bursts into tears.
ELIZABETH
(crossing away from him and grabbing her luggage) I’m sorry. I’m terribly sorry--I have to/
She rushes off stage.
Silence.
HENRIK IBSEN Was it something I said?
MARION LEA Henrik you bumbling idiot!
Marion stubs her cigar out and goes after Elizabeth. 68.
The Baron bursts awake.
1ST BARON PETHIC-LAWRENCE It seems I fell asleep.
(beat) Now, where were we? The Movement. Ah yes, the Movement.
HENRIK IBSEN No, not the Movement! Enough with the Movement! It’s the play we were discussing-- the PLAY, Baron!
1ST BARON PETHIC-LAWRENCE Ah.
(he closes his eyes once more) Then I shall keep resting.
Henrik takes a long draw from his glass of Absinthe as lights fade on the parlor.
END OF SCENE ONE.
SCENE TWO
In an instant the parlor is gone.
Overhead we hear the deafening sounds of a busy London street coupled with the heavy breathing of Elizabeth.
The stage is bare, but the sounds fill it like an overstuffed meal.
Suddenly, the clanking of armor is heard; the streets grow silent in response as does Elizabeth’s breathing.
The clanking is slow, tender in its pursuit.
The following takes place from off--
ELIZABETH (OFF) Not now, George. 69.
GEORGE (OFF) How did you know it was me?
ELIZABETH Your little stunt with armor is hardly a mystery. The whole world seems to be talking about it.
GEORGE Stunt? A stunt would have been for the stage. This was quite real.
ELIZABETH Real! Real! What is real, George?! Is this real? Your little visitations? Because if they are, then I have completely gone mad and maybe I should join you at the bottom of the lake!
Silence.
GEORGE It’s quieter than I remembered.
ELIZABETH There you have it! This simply must not be real because I can hardly hear my own thoughts!
The city sounds grow loud once more.
GEORGE
(yelling over the noise) Try Elizabeth! Try to shut it out! It’s the only way you’ll ever--
ELIZABETH I’ll ever what, George?! I’LL EVER WHAT?! Destroy you? You’ve proven impossible to escape. In life I could not run from you, and I’ve had little to no luck in death either--so what is it? What must I do to be rid of you?
The city sounds abruptly stop once more.
GEORGE Be still.
Silence.
GEORGE Where are you right now? 70.
ELIZABETH I’m hiding.
GEORGE From who?
ELIZABETH You, George/
GEORGE No. Not just me. From who?
An ambulance wails.
ELIZABETH I don’t know! I can’t hear anything! It’s too loud, too loud, everything is too/
GEORGE
(over the siren) BE STILL, ELIZABETH! BE STILL AND LISTEN!
Silence, again.
GEORGE What do you hear?
ELIZABETH Nothing.
GEORGE What do you hear?
ELIZABETH Nothing, I hear nothi/
A distant church bell chimes.
GEORGE And now?
The bell again.
ELIZABETH A church bell. 71.
A beautiful steeple descends from above as lights illuminate around it.
GEORGE Which church?
ELIZABETH St Dustan-in-the-East.
GEORGE Right. Exactly. Keep listening.
ELIZABETH To what?
A train bellows.
GEORGE THERE!
ELIZABETH Kings Cross.
The kid enters dressed as a Conductor.
GEORGE Do you see him?
ELIZABETH No.
GEORGE You’re lying. You do see him. Stop hiding, Elizabeth.
ELIZABETH I don’t know what you’re talking about! I see nothing!
A young woman, dressed exactly as Elizabeth, enters. She’s carrying luggage and holds what looks to be Immigration papers. She approaches the Conductor.
GEORGE And now?
ELIZABETH What is this? What are you doing? 72.
GEORGE What do you see?
ELIZABETH ...
GEORGE Stop hiding. What do you see?
ELIZABETH
(softly) Me.
GEORGE There you go.
ELIZABETH This was only a few hours ago.
GEORGE Yes.
ELIZABETH I look happy.
GEORGE You do. You were.
ELIZABETH But, why?
GEORGE Listen.
KID
(in a Conductor’s voice) Purpose for visit?
YOUNG WOMAN I... 73.
KID Mam, what is your purpose in London?
YOUNG WOMAN AND ELIZABETH I’m...a writer.
ELIZABETH But I’m not/
KID
(stamping the papers) Everything is in order. You’ve been unconditionally approved for entry into the United Kingdom. Enjoy your stay.
The kid hands the Young Woman her papers back then exits.
The Young Woman stands there in stillness.
Suddenly, in the distance a church bell chimes, she grabs her luggage and exits just as a choir begins singing a familiar hymn.
Elizabeth re-enters opposite stage with the same luggage and the same dress.
She peers upward at the church steeple, her and it are illuminated in light.
GEORGE I will not stand in your light any longer.
The choir grows louder.
ELIZABETH George? George!?
Silence.
From opposite the steeple, Marian Lea enters hurriedly.
She spots Elizabeth-- 74.
MARION LEA Shit, you’re fast.
ELIZABETH Yeah, well.
Elizabeth throws her luggage down and sits atop it.
MARION LEA May I join you?
Elizabeth gestures for Marion to have a seat.
Marion pulls up Elizabeth’s second suitcase next to her.
ELIZABETH I don’t know what I’m doing here.
MARION LEA You didn’t strike me as the religious type.
ELIZABETH Not here, here. But...here.
MARION Across the pond? Ah. Listen, can I tell you something?
ELIZABETH ...
MARION LEA I meet a lot of women come to make a name for themselves. Whether it be here or back home. And most of the time they’re young and hungry but without a lick of sense to their name. You, however, have lived through it. I can tell. And you know how I can tell?
ELIZABETH How?
MARION LEA Your hair looks like shit and you smell like you haven’t bathed in about a month.
ELIZABETH I beg your pardon. 75.
MARION LEA Which means you’ve been thinking. When a woman gets to thinking she forgets to bathe, she forgets to gussy up, tie the corset, don the hairdo and all that other crap they want us to do so we fit the part. You stopped fitting the part and now it’s time to get to work.
ELIZABETH It’s that easy?
MARION LEA It is if you want it to be. And let me tell you honey, the work feels good. A lot better than all that worry over the trivial shit they’ve been feeding us. We’ll get the right to vote, I guarantee it. And then we get to decide if it’s worth getting our knickers in a wad over our Finishing School matters of conduct and what not. I’m done being cast as the juvenile part, and I think you are too.
ELIZABETH And what of this Hedda play?
MARION LEA You said it yourself back there. There’s more to her than anyone has ever seen on the stage. And, I think you ought to play her. As a matter of fact, I think you and I ought to produce this play and let the world know that a woman is not such a gentle creature as we’ve been made to appear.
ELIZABETH And Mr. Ibsen?
MARION LEA Oh, Henrik. He likes to pretend he has the funds to put this show up, but we all know his pockets are bare. But, my hat goes off to him. He’s written the best damn female character I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading.
ELIZABETH Then we’ll do it.
MARION LEA Ata’girl!
Marion spits into the palm of her hand and extends it to Elizabeth.
Elizabeth hesitates--
MARION LEA Shake on it. 76.
Elizabeth slowly extends her hand to Marion’s--
MARION LEA Ah, ah, ah you gotta’ spit first. Then shake.
Elizabeth thinks on it, then confidently draws back a huge wad and spits it into her hand.
They shake as lights fade on the two in a shared laughter.
END OF SCENE TWO. 77. 78.