6 Nov 2008

The Premonitions of A Lady

Here's the first scene of my play, it's almost completed - I've been writing it for 14 years! It's the tale of a modern woman who uncovers secrets about her past on the death of her Mother! It reminds me of Virginia Woolf and Ivy Compton Burnett - what do you think???


SCENE 1 INT. JUDITH’S FLAT. DAY
Light: Spot JUDITH. Spot CHARLIE.

CHARLIE:
Buy your goods here! Want stuff? I’ve got stuff! Good morning Lady Judith, don’t you look a picture this fine day!
JUDITH:
Do you have any milk Charlie?
CHARLIE:
Nah, nah milk.
JUDITH:
Well what about cotton?
CHARLIE:
Nah, none of that neither. Price of cotton’s sky-rocketed what with all them jeans factories opening up in the New World.

JUDITH:
(Narratorial) The year was 1934, and I, Judith Coalstream, all round modern woman, was sowing barley in my window box in Bloomsbury. Everything was changing so fast; it was a new age of hope, of opportunities for women.

JUDITH:
(Quiet) Do you have any disposable razors?
CHARLIE:
Milady! What’s a nice girl like you want with a disposable razor?
JUDITH:
Never mind that, have you got any?
CHARLIE:
I’ve got one left, but it’s going to cost you.
JUDITH:
See you at the tradesman’s entrance.

Telephone ringing

JUDITH:
Wait a moment Charlie, it’s my telephone.

JUDITH answers telephone, holding disposable razor.

JUDITH:
Hello?
CAPTAIN:
(On Telephone) Judith?
JUDITH:
Uncle, is that you?
CAPTAIN:
Yes Judith, it’s the Captain. You aren’t holding a disposable razor are you?
JUDITH:
Why no, of course not!
CAPTAIN:
Good. In that case I’ve got some terrible news. Your mother she’s…dead.
JUDITH:
Oh dear.
CAPTAIN:
Yes, as dead as your dead father. Her addiction to ethanol finally caught up with her. We found her dead, in bed, this morning and I thank God you’re not holding a disposable razor because if you were I dread to think what you might do with it.

SD: JUDITH looks meaningfully at the razor.

CAPTAIN:
Of course you must come from London at once. Can you bear to return home after all these years?

Light: Black out

No comments:

Post a Comment