Category: Theatre

Scene 2

(Birds shriek morning. Hat in hand, holding a basket, MABEL stands outside The Homestead, gaudily and fussily dressed in her spring best, attempting to pay a call – MAGGIE, a classically hardworking Irish domestic leans against the door)

MABEL
(Loudly)

You have received me so generously in your home; please allow me the satisfaction of this slight return. Please accept my hand painted panel of Indian pipes, which I hear is your favorite flower.

(MAGGIE, listening, does not open the door – EMILY standing at her writing table, considers a pad of paper)

EMILY

Tudor never was a beggar.

(Mockingly)

“Please accept this adder’s tongue.”

MABEL
(Trying again, producing a trophy from her basket)

I painted this jug myself with lovely trumpet vines.

EMILY
(Collapsing into her chair)

Summer’s delight is deterred by retrospect. Any gift but spring seems counterfeit, yet I always was attached to mud. We do not thank the Rainbow, though its trophy is a snare.

(Sits down and begins to write)

O Sue! Your absence insanes me so! I want to think of you every hour of every day. You have taught me more than Shakespeare. I have dared to do strange things – bold things – and have asked no advice from any. I heed beautiful tempters and do not think that I am wrong. An experience bitter, but sweet, and the sweet did so beguile me…nobody thinks of the joy, nobody guesses it. Now there is nothing old but things are budding and springing and singing…Take all away from me but leave me Ecstasy! I enclose my heart – sunburnt and half broken. Oh, the myrrh’s and mochas of the mind! A life that’s tied too tight escapes!

(Confidentially to the audience)

The most pathetic thing I do
Is pretend I hear from you
I make believe until my heart
Almost believes it too
But when I break it with the news
You knew it was not true.
I wish I had not broken it and so would you.

MABEL
(Loudly interrupting, talking determinedly through the door, holding out a book)

If I may quote dear, dear Emily, my beloved Austin’s cherished sister, “A book is a bequest of wings”. Please accept this copy of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnets From the Portuguese –
(A hand reaches out the door, snatches the book and slams the door.)

MAGGIE
(heavy Irish accent)

This is a house of sickness, so it is, you interfering madam!

EMILY
What Nature forgets, the Circus will remind her. Oh, Egypt! Oh, entangled Antony! Why should we censure Othello when the Lover says, “Thou shalt have no other Gods before me?”

(MAGGIE silently hands her the book)

EMILY
(scornfully recites)

What soft, cherubic creatures
These Gentlewomen are!
I would as soon assault a plush
Or violate a star!
Such Dimity convictions
A horror so refined
Of freckled human nature –
Of deity – ashamed.
Redemption, brittle lady
Be so ashamed of thee.

(Tears up and throws away a page, begins again)

I’ve dropped my brain, my soul is numb. “Dear beguiling villain –“

(Throws that one away and starts again)

She dealt her pretty words like blades
How glittering they shone.
And every one unbared a nerve
And wantoned with a bone.

Scene I, cont’d

(Lights up on the EVERGREENS where SUE stands before the fireplace mantel, holding a wineglass, extravagantly dressed in low-cut gown and jewelry; speaking to people we don’t see. Party noises.)

SUE
I was roused about half past four by such strange sounds – wild snortings and huffings. Running to the window, who should I see but our coach horse Tom tearing over the grounds – as fine a warhorse as I ever expect to see! I shall never forget the picture – the moon just over the elms with one star fainting in its light – the east pink with dawn – fresh and dewy as only early morning can be and that great splendid animal exulting in it all, swishing through the wet grass triumphing in his freedom. For a moment it seemed enough to just be Tom. Alas, he was forced to make a most ignoble retreat.

(She sighs.)

He did no harm, I’m sorry to say.

(Consults her watch.)

I can’t imagine what’s keeping Austin. He’ll eat another cold dinner.

(Drinks, waves a hand)

Or he’s over at the Homestead where decent ladies daren’t go. Those girls have no idea of morality whatever – why, when I went last week I found Emily reclining in Judge Lord’s arms!

(Voices swell with excitement and clatter. Lights out on SUE and up on the HOMESTEAD parlor where the lovers dress.)

MABEL
If people only realized that the more they try to keep lovers apart, the more they brood and think upon each other! Thoughts that are flames of conflagration greater even when than when they’re together. There would be less of these absurd separations.

AUSTIN
If you knew Sue –

MABEL
I thought I knew her. I wish she loved me. She fascinates me.

AUSTIN
Well, she doesn’t fascinate me, and by her own choice. Believe me, I suffer every wound you receive from my family. I will straighten out the matter or smash the machine – I had rather be under the wreck than under what I am. There would be broken heads, certainly, but I would take a chance of coming out on top.

(He ushers MABEL out the door. Light goes up on EMILY writing at her table.)

EMILY
Dear friend, it is strange that I miss you at night so much when I was never with you – but love invokes you soon as my eyes are shut and I wake warm with the want sleep had almost filled. Should I curb you, say the “Nay” and spoil the child? You know you are happiest when I withhold. Don’t you understand that NO is the wildest word in language? The Stile is God’s my sweet one – for your great sake – not mine – I will not let you cross. But what I am is all yours and when it is right I will lift the bars and lay you in the moss. Oh, my too beloved, save me from the idolatry that would crush us both. T’is a stern winter in my pearl jail.

(Tosses a crumpled page – speaks to herself)

Tell him the page I didn’t write! I am afraid to own a body! I am afraid to own a soul!

(Recites a poem)

A bone has obligations
A being has the same
A marrowless assembly
Is culpabler than shame!
(Writes as she speaks)
I cannot live with you
The sexton keeps the key.
They’d judge us.
I cannot die with you for I must await
The other’s gaze shut down.
How you sought; I could not.
You saturated sight when I had no more eyes.
Were you saved and I condemned
My self were hell to me.
So we must meet apart – you there – I here
With just a door ajar,
There oceans are, and prayer
And that white sustenance
Despair.

(Lights out. end scene)

To be continued…

Scene I, cont’d

(enter EMILY‘s brother AUSTIN, tall, sedate, black-clothed midlife male with somewhat wild hair. He sweeps off his wet hat.)

EMILY
Brother! This is the season reindeer love! What brings out you on a night like this when thunder gossips low, and water wrecks the sky?

(Very dramatic, gesturing)

A massacre of suns have been by evening’s sabers slain!

AUSTIN
(Pushes past, impatient at her foolishness. He doesn’t want to play.)
Is everyone in bed?

EMILY
Yes of course. I have taken off my crown of thorns and donned my evening diadem. (Sighs explosively) Ah! To die divinely once a twilight!

AUSTIN
I must needs interview, dear Sister. I require the parlor.

(He looks and acts guilty.)

EMILY
Brother, how can we receive those who talk of hallowed things and embarrass my dog! The only one I meet is God.

AUSTIN
No, no, no. Off to bed with you, Emily. It’s just that Sue can’t attend to…Mrs. Todd.

(Falsely jovial)

You remember Mrs. Todd. She’s indisposed.

EMILY
Brother, you become improbable. Mrs. Todd is indisposed?

AUSTIN
No, Sue.

EMILY
(Anxiously pulling at his sleeve)

Is my Domingo ill? It’s easier to look behind at pain than to see it coming.

AUSTIN
Sue chooses to be ill. She chooses to be black as death. Please don’t wait up for us. We won’t disturb you.

EMILY
Life is death we’re lengthy at. All right, then, Brother. Impossibility exhilarates! I will take up my lantern, and go in search of deathless me. Keep a gas light burning, Brother, to light the danger up.

(AUSTIN brushes away her hand – EMILY dives behind the door to her conservatory – but eavesdrops. AUSTIN opens the front door, ushers a heavily veiled but elegantly clothed and youthful lady inside, into the parlor, closes the door behind them. Shoots the bolt home.)

EMILY
(Listening behind the door)

They might not need me – yet they might! I’ll let my heart be just in sight. A smile as small as mine might be precisely their necessity. Ah, night’s possibility! I don’t mind locks as long as I can pick ‘em.

(In the parlor AUSTIN builds up the fire, as MABEL unwinds her many veils, which he eagerly receives. They face one another. )

AUSTIN
Rubicon!

MABEL
Rubicon indeed.

(They scrabble desperately at one another’s clothing, half undressing.)

EMILY
(Listens, shaking her head)

Here’s a candy scrape! Love is hungry and must graze! Good to hide and hear ‘em hunt but better to be found.

(Spot follows her as she prepares her plants for the evening.)

AUSTIN
I am famished for you.

MABEL
I trust you as I trust God.

EMILY
(Singing)

Title divine is mine!
Wife without the sign!
Garnet to garnet, gold to gold,
Born, bridalled, shrouded in a day
Is this the way?

(She holds a blossom to her cheek.)

My red, red, Persian ladies! Flowers are so enticing I fear that they are sins. I would rather have your moment’s blossom than a bee’s eternity.

AUSTIN
(To MABEL)

I love you! Why should I and why shouldn’t I? Who made and who rules the human heart? Where is the wrong in preferring sunlight to shadow?

MABEL
You reached out your hand in darkness, almost without knowing, and met another, warm and tender and you clasped it. It shall never be withdrawn.

AUSTIN
I am overwhelmed, overjoyed. Intoxicated. We were made to give joy to each other.

(They make love. Light goes up on EMILY)

EMILY
The bane is love. To lack it is a woe, to own it is a wound.

(She looks toward the parlor)

In all the circumference of expression the words of Adam and Eve never were surpassed: “I was afraid and hid myself.”

(Lights out on HOMESTEAD.)

to be continued…

a play

In her inimitable style, Emily comments on her relatives’ struggle over her estate following her death. Based on family letters, trial documents and the letters & poems of Emily Dickinson.

CHARACTERS

EMILY DICKINSON – a spryly girlish middle-aged woman with red hair
AUSTIN DICKINSON – her slightly older brother, very tall and dignified but with hair and subtly tailored clothing that suggest a wilder inner spirit and a conviction of personal aristocracy
MABEL LOOMIS TODD – a very pretty woman in her late twenties accustomed to showing herself to advantage, drawing all eyes and getting what she wants
SUE GILBERT DICKINSON – a woman Emily’s exact age but more commandingly matronly as Austin’s wife she is the major local hostess accustomed to luxe décor, rich and fashionable clothing, valuable jewelry, elegant parties, avant garde discussions of progressive ideas and competently ordering fleets of servants.
MAGGIE MAHER – Middle-aged Irish maid, very devoted to the Dickinsons, especially the Sisters
LAVINIA “VINNIE” DICKINSON – slightly younger than Emily, a tad foolish and very fond of cats, she is easily led until she gets her back up
DAVID TODD – a proud lover, a well-dressed ladies’ man, an astronomer and inventor who simply can’t advance in the world because he can’t leave other men’s wives alone
MR SPAULDING – The lawyer from Northampton. A clueless booby.
JUDGE – Elderly male
MR. HAMMOND – Prosecutor – hard driving mature male
MR HAMLIN – Defense – silky voiced mature male
MATTIE DICKINSON – Young woman; Sue and Austin’s daughter – pining for a youth lost in family squabbles, the very last descendant of an increasingly embattled family (should be played by the actress who plays SUE)
MILLICENT TODD – Young woman; an upstart with a good education determined to prove her mother’s not a whore (should be played by the actress who played MABEL)

SETTING: AMHERST, MASSACHUSETTS IN THE 1880’s and 1930’s.

SCENE BREAKDOWN:
Scene 1 – Massachusetts in the 1880’s. The stage is divided into two “houses”, represented at right by The EVERGREENS (open to show Library) and at Left by the HOMESTEAD (open to show Parlor.) A strip of flowery meadow runs down the center. Both buildings are in tiptop condition. Action takes place back and forth between The HOMESTEAD and The EVERGREENS.
Scene 2 – Same year, same place, a spring morning a few days later. Back and forth between the houses. Action commences at The Homestead where MABEL attempts to pay a call.
Scene 3 – A few weeks later, beginning at the Homestead.
Scene 4 – Austin & Mabel at the Homestead
Scene 5 – A brilliantly sunny day a few years later. A fresh-painted new house has been added between the two previous houses – at the back of the stage.
Scene 6 – Same places following AUSTIN’s death.
Scene 7 – Mabel & Vinnie at The Homestead
Scene 8 – A path in town a few weeks later
Scene 9 – Massachusetts courtroom in the 1890’s.
Scene 10 – The Homestead and the Evergreens in the 1930’s.

Scene 1
(At the front of the stage, lights go up on a red haired woman wearing worn black boots and a gauze aproned petticoat over black modern dance full-figure leotard. She stands stiffly at the center of the stage, clutching opposite hands in formal recitation pose.)

EMILY
(Introducing herself; a recital pose)

This is my letter to the world that never wrote to me.

(Clears her throat, nervous at first, confidence increasing)

I’m Nobody! Who are you?
Are you Nobody too?
Then there’s a pair of us.
Don’t tell! They’d advertise, you know.
How dreary to be somebody!
How public! Like a frog!
Telling one’s name – the livelong day
To an admiring bog!

(She attempts some awkward dance steps.)

They shut me up in prose when I was just a girl, so I cannot dance upon my toes. But had I ballet knowledge, I’d pirouette to blanch a troupe!

(Ring on bell followed by knocking. EMILY rushes to answer door.)

What fortitude the Soul contains that it can so endure the accent of a coming foot, the opening of a door!

To be continued…