Therefore I Am

[SliceOfDog]

I'm currently directing a show called Therefore I Am at Uni, which will be performed on Dec 8th (I hope to film it, so should be able to get some footage up on here), and I finally finished the script earlier today (I'm writing it as well as directing)

It's got scifi elements, so I thought I'd share some of it here. The premise is an alternate Britain where the working classes are all under the influence of a drug called Nepenthine, which removes their free-will. The Upper classes have a Victorian-esque existence, living in mansions and walking around in top hats and so on, though also have some of the luxuries of modern day, such as travelling in helicopters and private jets. However, the Nepenthine that is required to keep the workers under control is running out, and the factory owners are not long in turning on one another as rioting workers lay siege to their homes.

Characters:
Judith Dillingham, the owner of a factory producing Nepenthine.
Catherine Dillingham, her daughter and the play's protagonist.
Sarah Dillingham, elder daughter and secret radical against Nepenthine.
Emma, the family's maid.
Harold Hartwood, family friend and munitions factory owner.
Elizabeth Hartwood (Mrs H), his wife.
Jonathan Hartwood, their son, who is in love with Catherine.
137, self-educated ring-leader of the rioting workers.
80 and 252, rioting workers.

This extract is from the end of Scene 1;

Spoiler

(Catherine looks at them in disgust, and runs out of the room. Jonathan calls after her and then follows. He stops in the doorway and stares out after her)

Hartwood: Whatever’s got into her?

Dillingham: (Shakes Head) She always like this during the riots, I think they upset her.

Mrs H: I can perfectly sympathise. Awfully noisy louts, the lot of them. We’d be more inclined to listen if they were just civil about it, isn’t that right Harold? (Hartwood grunts and nods)

Dillingham: In a way, I suppose you can’t really blame them. It’s in their nature to be violent sods, but if they’d been getting their Nepenthine doses they wouldn’t even think about stepping out of line.

Hartwood: (Turning to look at Emma. Then, to Dillingham) What do you call that one? (Nods to Emma)

Dillingham: Emma.

Hartwood: Emma, I say, over here (Emma approaches) You’ve taken your Nepenthine?

Emma: Yes sir

Hartwood: What are you thinking about?

Emma: (After short pause) I… I don’t –

Hartwood: (Interrupting) Right now, what are you thinking about?

Emma: (Frowning, confused) I don’t understand sir

(Mrs H chuckles and Dillingham leans forward smiling)

Dillingham: Can you think, Emma?

Emma: I’m afraid I don’t know what you mean Madam.

Dillingham: (To Mrs H) You see? And that’s just a small dose. If she were on as much as a manual worker she’d practically suffocate unless we ordered her to breathe.

Hartwood: (To Jonathan) I hope you won’t take this rioting nonsense at your factory, lad. If any of them skip their dose you put a bullet (Taps his temple 3 times) right here. They may not think like us… but they die like us! (He laughs. Mrs H, Dillingham, Guest 1 and 2 smile, but don’t laugh)

Dillingham: Oh, that reminds me. Before you go I want to show you the Emerald Statue we got from our campaign in the Americas. It’s in the Viewing Gallery (They rise to leave) Only one left in the world, you know.

Mrs H: Oh, were the rest destroyed?

Dillingham: We thought it best that way, yes, it raised the value of this one considerably (They exit, and Jonathan hangs back. He looks at Emma, who begins to silently pick up the glasses they have left)

Jonathan: Can you… really not think?

Emma: (Pause) I don’t know sir

Jonathan: Can you feel? Like… emotions?

Emma: (Pause) Yes

(Pause. Jonathan exits. Lights down)

The first half of scene 3:

Spoiler

Scene 3 – Living Room
(Dillingham down-stage left, signing papers and handing to businessmen. Sarah is upstage-right at desk. Emma is next to sofa looking through a file organiser. Enter Hartwood)

Dillingham: (Looking up briefly) Ah, you’re here.

Hartwood: How was Paris?

Dillingham: Erm… (Pause as writing on paper) bad.

Hartwood: Oh yes?

Dillingham: (To Emma, who has brought over a file) Not that one, the other one (To Hartwood) What’s that?

Hartwood: I say why was it bad? (Short pause, Dillingham looks slightly confused) The Paris trip.

Dillingham: Oh, of course. Well, we were going to see a fellow about sourcing us some new Nepenthine, only he went and got himself killed before we arrived. Terrorist activity apparently.

Hartwood: (Tuts) It’s all that time abroad, makes a man go soft in the head.

Dillingham: Quite. Well, we ended up talking to his Assistant, and it turns out that they didn’t even have enough to fill 10% of my order! Of course I bought it anyway (Emma approaches with new files, which Dillingham briefly scans) Yes (Waves hand and Emma walks over to Sarah who begins filling them in. Once she has filled one in she holds it up without looking, and Emma takes it and puts it into the file organiser. Dillingham continues talking to Hartwood) but the second we were back in the air I get told that three of my shipments coming in from India had been destroyed. Not stolen, mind, destroyed!

Hartwood: Ha, that’s the war for you. Of course it’s all money in my pocket, but then I’m in the right business aren’t I? Armaments are where the money is, I didn’t piss away my investments in (grins, snidely to Dillingham) pharmaceuticals.

Dillingham: (Restraining anger) It’s not the war. Two of them were going through Europe and the other was in bloody Dover. I’m telling you now, it’s terrorists.

Hartwood: (Scoffs) Terrorists? (More kindly) Listen to yourself, Judith, you’re sounding ridiculous. You’re not in Paris anymore, we’re civilised here, and we certainly don’t have terrorists in Dover!

Dillingham: Perhaps you’re right.

Hartwood: Of course I’m right.

The start of scene 4, which I used as one of my audition extracts:

Spoiler

Scene 4 – Bird Room
(Catherine is sitting in the bird room reading. Sarah is feeding her birds)

Sarah: I saw a dress you would have loved in Paris.

Catherine: (Absent-mindedly) Oh yes?

Sarah: Cost quite a sum though. You could feed someone for a year for the price they were asking.

Catherine: (As before) Mm.

Sarah: (Pause. Looks to Catherine, says as if to test her reaction) Not someone like us of course. (Pause) Maybe Emma.

Catherine: (Looking up) Sorry?

Sarah: (Nods down to her book) Planning to go into the family business? (Catherine frowns) Isn’t that ‘An Expanded History of Nepenthine’ that you’re reading?

Catherine: Oh, yes. Well I find the whole thing fascinating. I’ve always seen it just as a product before, as a way mother makes money, but these riots made me want to look into it more. Did you know that we’re one of the only cultures to directly inject Nepenthine into the bloodstream? The Turks smoke it, and not just their workers. They all do it, just for pleasure. Can you imagine? The Russians carry it around in flasks, and you know the phrase “I wouldn’t trade it for all of the Nep in China”? It comes from the legend that the Chinaman has Nepenthine –

Sarah: In his blood. I know. (Pause) Have you got to chapter twelve yet? It details one of the tests of that theory. They would take some Chinese prisoners, tie them down and open up their chest. Then they boiled the heart to try and get the Nepenthine into a purer form.

Catherine: (Cringing) But there wasn’t any.

Sarah: Of course not. But can you imagine the potential profits! So they made absolutely sure that they weren’t just approaching it the wrong way, using the wrong equipment and so on. They had to repeat several hundred times, men, women, children –

Catherine: That’s terrible!

Sarah: (Turning, pleasantly surprised) Yes! Yes it is!

And now the workers, who are known only by the numbers they were given in the factories. This is from the middle of scene 8, when the rioters have broken into the Dillingham mansion and taken Catherine and Jonathan hostage;

Spoiler

137: Well this just won’t do! (Fake thinking, then click) I will give you poor lost souls some numbers of your very own! (To Jonathan) You will be Number 1905, and you (to Catherine) will be Number 1906. Now –

Catherine: You can’t just –

137: (Suddenly aggressive) Quiet Number 1906! (Pause. Sees book on side. Moves to pick it up, starts flicking through it. Patronising surprise) One of you is a reader. You don’t mind me having a look? (Flicks through book) Hm… no slavery (Rips page out. Catherine and Jonathan wince. 252 starts slow guffawing, excited) No death (Rips page out) No machines (Rips page out) No disease (Rips page out. On each following word another page is ripped out. 137 becomes increasingly violent and Jonathan increasingly agitated) Starvation. Dismemberment, maiming, burning

Jonathan: Stop it!

137: (Pauses, hand on page, looking directly at Jonathan) No injections. In fact, no oppression of any kind. (Pause. Slams book closed. Sudden smile, casual) A fiction then, is it?

And later in the same scene, on the topic of worker illiteracy;

Spoiler

137: Well then, let me assure you that Mrs Dillingham is not well known for her patience. With that in mind, observe a typical day where 1149 was summoned to her office.

80: (As Dillingham) I tell you, terrible business. Some fool went and sent Requisition form 86/2a down to the posting centre before I could sign it.

137: At this point 1149 assured Mr Dillingham that the form was not at the posting centre (trails out)

252: (Slowly rises to normal volume) – not at the posting centre, but in a cabinet in office B.

137: (Aside) Office B being directly opposite Mrs Dillingham’s office. (To Jonathan) Office A.

80: (As Dillingham) Nonsense boy! I say it’s in the posting centre, now you go and fetch it for me before it gets sent out. And so help you if you don’t go as fast as you can.

(252 turns and slow-motion runs out of the door)

137: And so off ran 1149, who, using his brilliant knowledge of the factory layout, knew that he could reach the posting centre most directly by passing through one short corridor. (252 exits) The door to which had a sign. (Pause. 137 slams door) ‘No entry’

80: ‘Danger of death’.

(137 walks back towards Catherine and Jonathan, and then begins to sniff the air. Then 80 sniffs)

80: Do you smell that? (137 and 80 make their way to the door) Smells fucking awful…

137: It almost smells like… (Opens door. 252 collapses through it onto the floor)

252: Burning flesh!

137: 1149 had, in his dutiful haste, ran straight into the factory’s generator.

(Pause)

252: (Backroll to standing) But don’t worry, it’s alright!

80: Because it turns out that the file

137: Requisition Form 86/2a

80: Was in the cabinet

252: In office B

137: And it got found

80: (As Dillingham) By Mrs Dillingham

252: (Excited) Before it got sent off

137: (Happily) So… no harm done. (Pause. All look to foot of door)

And that's about everything I'm up for sharing at the moment. Any comments? Con/crit would be greatly appreciated, and it's in fact early enough in the production process that your comments may affect the final piece! So yeah, feedback would be brilliant

[Terrapun]

I have some comments after a brief reading. These are off the top of my head so I wouldn't put much weight into it though.
I felt that in the first scene Dillingham and Hartwood were, maybe, a little over the top with their villainous mustache twirling, I almost felt that in the next scene they would proceed to molest puppies. Understandably they are a product of a somewhat different culture than our own, and establishing how they think and act is important, it was just a little hard for me to “buy” (maybe because it was all amassed in one scene). Granted, that may be because of my own naivety. I was never able to conceive a convincing villain.
Now, the conclusion of scene four (well that part of it anyway) was brilliant. Sarah's reaction, that someone else might share her views, her “pleasant surprise”, might suggest that she opposes the use of this drug for all the wrong reasons. Like it was some sort of intellectual endeavor to make her boring, comfy life interesting, and now there was a chance to include others to share the game. This would make her as distant from the lower casts plight as the rest of the nobles (why wouldn't she be, her status separates her from misfortune). This realization really creeped me out when I played the scene in my head, and it was a good feeling. Of course I might have misinterpreted the scene, especially since it is out of context, if that happened, I'm sorry. So there you have it, my first thoughts after reading.
Overall I think it would be nice to see it as a whole, but so far I like it.

[SliceOfDog]

a little over the top with their villainous mustache twirling, I almost felt that in the next scene they would proceed to molest puppies. Understandably they are a product of a somewhat different culture than our own, and establishing how they think and act is important, it was just a little hard for me to “buy” (maybe because it was all amassed in one scene).

That's a very good point, and you may be interested to know that I actually posed this question to my cast. To my slight disappointment, they almost all agreed that the characters could be described as 'villains', although they thought it was to an acceptable level. However, after getting that reaction I have to admit that you have a very valid point. It's too late to change my script now for the first performance, but I hope at a later date to start sending it out to professional theatres, so before I do I will certainly be editing it. I still like most of what I have made them believe/say, but spacing it out and padding it with less horrific sentences certainly couldn't hurt!

Now, the conclusion of scene four (well that part of it anyway) was brilliant. Sarah's reaction, that someone else might share her views, her “pleasant surprise”, might suggest that she opposes the use of this drug for all the wrong reasons. Like it was some sort of intellectual endeavor to make her boring, comfy life interesting, and now there was a chance to include others to share the game. This would make her as distant from the lower casts plight as the rest of the nobles (why wouldn't she be, her status separates her from misfortune). This realization really creeped me out when I played the scene in my head, and it was a good feeling. Of course I might have misinterpreted the scene, especially since it is out of context, if that happened, I'm sorry.

No, this is excellent! I'm glad you picked up on the pleasant surprise bit (so far my actors haven't been, really), and although your interpretation of why it's pleasant surprise are slightly different from mine, that's absolutely great! I always wondered if people might interpret my writing differently from me, but so far I've never had much that could be interpreted much. Contrary to what you might think, it's a wonderful feeling to have someone else notice something different in your writing. I struggled to represent Sarah in a slightly negative light (which I wanted to do, since I don't approve of her extremism), and again; when/if I develop the script for professional use, I will almost certainly add an element of this into it.
About half of my cast agreed that they considered Sarah to be "crazy", which is another aspect of her that I had never considered while writing, so it's great seeing different people see her actions and words differently.

Thanks for the feedback, and never worry about interpreting things differently from the author! One of the first things they teach you when you're doing English at University level is the concept of the "death of the author", which claims that the authors intentions are completely irrelevant to a text, and so even if I stood up and said "This play is about gender confusion" (which it isn't), you would be completely entitled to say "No it's not. It's about X Y and Z".