Public-domain ebook
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In: Crime, Thrillers and Mystery·Plays/Films/Dramas·British Literature
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #7765.
The opening · free to read
The orchestra plays light tunes until the house lights are turned down; the curtain rises in darkness, accompanied by solemn music. A small light grows in the middle of the stage, and shows the LORD CHIEF JUSTICE sitting in judgment, wearing wig and red robes of office, in the Court of Criminal Appeal. His voice, cold and disapproving, gradually swells up with the light as he reaches his peroration.
LORD CHIEF JUSTICE: ... and there is no need to recapitulate here the arguments for and against this point of law, which we heard in the long and extremely fair summing up at the trial of the appellant at the Central Criminal Court. The case was clearly put to the jury; and it is against sentence of death for these two murders that the prisoner now appeals. Which means that the last stage of this important and extremely horrible case has now been reached. On a later page in the summing up, the learned judge said this ... (turning over papers) ... "This case has, through the demeanour of the prisoner in the witness-box, obtained the most widespread and scandalous publicity, which I would beg you most earnestly, members of the jury, to forget." I cannot help thinking that the deplorable atmosphere of sentimental melodrama which has pervaded this trial has made the theatre a more fitting background for it than a court of law; but we are in a court of law, nevertheless, and the facts have been placed before the court. A remarkable and in my opinion praiseworthy feature of the case has been that the sanity of the prisoner has never been called into question; and, like the learned judge, the Court must dismiss as mischievous pretence the attitude of this young man who stands convicted of two brutal murders in cold blood. This case has, from beginning to end, exhibited no feature calling for sympathy; the evidence has on every point been conclusive, and on this evidence the jury have convicted the appellant. In the opinion of the Court there is no reason to interfere with that conviction, and this appeal must be dismissed.
The chords of solemn music are heard again, and the stage gradually darkens. A few seconds later the music merges into the sound of church bells playing far away, and the lights come up on.
Centre back, a small hall; in its left side the front door of the house (throughout the play, "left" and "right" refer to the audience's left and right). Thick plush curtains can be drawn across the entrance to the hall; they are open at the moment. Windows, one on each side of the hall, with window-seats and net curtains beyond which can be glimpsed the pine-trees of the forest. In the left wall, upstage, a door leading to the kitchen. In the left wall, downstage, the fireplace; above it, a cretonne-covered sofa, next to a very solid cupboard built into the wall; below it a cane armchair. In the right wall, upstage, a door leading to _MRS. BRAMSON'S _bedroom. In the right wall, downstage, wide-open paned doors leading to the sun-room. Right downstage, next the sun-room, a large dining-table with four straight chairs round it. Between the bedroom and the sun-room, a desk with books on it, a cupboard below it, and a hanging mirror on the wall above. Above the bedroom, a corner medicine cupboard. Between the hall and the right window, an occasional table.
The bungalow is tawdry but cheerful; it is built entirely of wood, with an oil lamp fixed in the wall over the occasional table. The room is comfortably furnished, though in fussy and eccentric Victorian taste; stuffed birds, Highland cattle in oils, antimacassars, and wax fruit are unobtrusively in evidence. On the mantelpiece, an ornate chiming clock. The remains of breakfast on a tray on the table_.
MRS. BRAMSON is sitting in a wheeled chair in the centre of the room. She is a fussy, discontented, common woman of fifty-five, old-fashioned both in clothes and coiffure; NURSE LIBBY, a kindly, matter-of-fact young north-country woman in district nurse's uniform, is sitting on the sofa, massaging one of her hands. OLIVIA GRAYNE sits on the old woman's right; holding a book; she is a subdued young woman of twenty-eight, her hair tied severely in a knot, wearing horn-rimmed spectacles; there is nothing in any way remarkable about her at the moment. HUBERT LAURIE _is sitting in the armchair, scanning the "Daily Telegraph." He is thirty-five, moustached, hearty, and pompous, wearing plus fours and smoking a pipe.
A pause. The church bells die away_.
MRS. BRAMSON (sharply): Go on.
OLIVIA (reading): "... Lady Isabel humbly crossed her attenuated hands upon her chest. 'I am on my way to God,' she whispered, 'to answer for all my sins and sorrows.' 'Child,' said Miss Carlyle, 'had I anything to do with sending you from ...' (turning over) '... East Lynne?' Lady Isabel shook her head and cast down her gaze."
MRS. BRAMSON (aggressively): Now that's what I call a beautiful character.
NURSE: Very pretty. But the poor thing'd have felt that much better tucked up in 'ospital instead of lying about her own home gassing her 'ead off----
MRS. BRAMSON: Sh!
NURSE: Sorry.
OLIVIA (reading): "'Thank God,' inwardly breathed Miss Corny.... 'Forgive me,' she said loudly and in agitation. 'I want to see Archibald,' whispered Lady Isabel."
MRS. BRAMSON: You don't see many books like East Lynne about nowadays.
HUBERT: No, you don't.
OLIVIA (reading): "'I want to see Archibald,' whispered Lady Isabel. 'I have prayed Joyce to bring him to me, and she will not----'"
MRS. BRAMSON (sharply): Olivia!
OLIVIA: Yes, auntie?
MRS. BRAMSON (craftily): You're not skipping, are you?
OLIVIA: Am I?
MRS. BRAMSON: You've missed out about Lady Isabel taking up her cross and the weight of it killing her. I may be a fool, but I do know East Lynne.
OLIVIA: Perhaps there were two pages stuck together.
MRS. BRAMSON: Very convenient when you want your walk, eh? Yes, I am a fool, I suppose, as well as an invalid.
OLIVIA: But I thought you were so much better----
NURSE: You'd two helpings of bacon at breakfast, remember----
MRS. BRAMSON: Doctor's orders. You know every mouthful's agony to me.
HUBERT (deep in his paper): There's a man here in Weston-super-Mare who stood on his head for twenty minutes for a bet, and he hasn't come to yet.
MRS. BRAMSON (sharply): I thought this morning I'd never be able to face the day.
HUBERT: But last night when you opened the port----
MRS. BRAMSON: I've had a relapse since then. My heart's going like anything. Give me a chocolate.
OLIVIA rises and fetches her a chocolate from a large box on the table.
NURSE: How does it feel?
MRS. BRAMSON: Nasty. (Munching her chocolate.) I know it's neuritis.
NURSE: You know, Mrs. Bramson, what you want isn't massage at all, only exercise. Your body----
MRS. BRAMSON: Don't you dictate to me about my body. Nobody here understands my body or anything else about me. As for sympathy, I've forgotten the meaning of the word. (To OLIVIA) What's the matter with your face?
OLIVIA (startled): I--I really don't know.
MRS. BRAMSON: It's as long as my arm.
OLIVIA (drily): I'm afraid it's made like that.
She crosses the room, and comes back again.
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