Welcomeby Richard Stuart Dixon
© Richard Stuart Dixon, 2007
(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)
Production Notes:
• running time: approx. 55 minutes
• style: gothic satire
• suitable for general audiences
• 25 characters (19 female, 6 male)
• black-box staging (no set required)
Summary of Script Content:
• “Adam and Evangeline” is set in the Canadian wilderness in 1919. The matriarch of a wealthy family has spent the family’s fortune on the construction of an airship on which the family and their servants hope to escape from an apocalyptic fire that will consume the earth.
(This play was first performed on February 27 & 28 and March 1, 2, & 5, in the year 2007, at Gleneagle Secondary School in Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada.)
∗Published Online by Good School Plays, March 26, 2016.
Go to:
Act One, Scene 1
Act One, Scene 2
Act One, Scene 3
Act One, Scene 4
Act One, Scene 5
Act Two, Scene 1
Act Two, Scene 2
Act Two, Scene 3
Act Two, Scene 4
Act Two, Scene 5
Act Two, Scene 6
Act Two, Scene 7
CHARACTERS:
Adam Goodman, 25, Betrothed to Evangeline
Evangeline (Eve) Enderfall, 19, Betrothed to Adam
Persephone Enderfall, 79, Eve’s grandmother (father’s side)
Martha Pocklington, 78, Eve’s grandmother (mother’s side)
Lysander Enderfall, 53, Eve’s father
Lenora Enderfall, 50, Eve’s mother
Jezebel Enderfall, 23, Eve’s sister, unmarried
Lucretia Enderfall, 21, Eve’s sister, unmarried
Calpurnia Enderfall, 17, Eve’s sister, unmarried
Ernest Pocklington, 44, Eve’s uncle (mother’s brother)
Phaedra Pocklington, 35, Eve’s aunt through marriage
Constance Pocklington, 16, their daughter, Eve’s cousin
Desiree Pocklington, 14, their daughter, Eve’s cousin
Amelia Bridgeburn, 42, Eve’s aunt (father’s sister)
Horatio Bridgeburn, 51, Eve’s uncle
Athena Bridgeburn, 16, their daughter, Eve’s cousin
Prometheus Bridgeburn, 14, their son, Eve’s cousin
Electra Charon, 77, Eve’s unmarried great-aunt (father’s aunt)
Invicta Leethy, 80, Eve’s unmarried great-aunt (mother’s aunt)
Victor Falstaff, 56, butler
Jenny Barker, 53, cook
Lucy Offenbach, 21, maid
Polly Turnbuckle, 20, maid
Helen Tolstoy, 34, governess
Merilee Tolstoy, 14, governess’ daughter
Adam and Evangeline by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Act One, Scene 1:
(SETTING: June, 1919. The great hall in the Enderfall mansion, located in northern Ontario some distance from the tiny hamlet of Jackpine.)
(VICTOR FALSTAFF enters, followed by EVANGELINE, who is leading ADAM by the hand.)
VICTOR FALSTAFF
I will inform your father you’ve arrived, Miss Evangeline.
EVE ENDERFALL
Thank you, Victor.
(Victor bows and exits.)
This is the great hall, Adam. Isn’t it splendid?
ADAM GOODMAN
(looking around in wonderment)
This one room is as large as a house, Eve.
EVE ENDERFALL
Grandfather wanted us to have a mansion big enough for the entire family.
ADAM GOODMAN
So he built a palace in the wilderness.
EVE ENDERFALL
Yes, way up here in northern Ontario, in the middle of nowhere.
ADAM GOODMAN
Where all this fine architecture remains hidden from the world.
EVE ENDERFALL
Grandfather was a secretive man. Reclusive, in fact. All my family tends that way.
ADAM GOODMAN
Is that why you’ve never told me much about them?
EVE ENDERFALL
I didn’t want to prejudice you against them. I want you to judge for yourself.
ADAM GOODMAN
And that’s exactly what I’ll do.
EVE ENDERFALL
(taking his arm)
Adam, I hope you like them. Of course I hope for that. But I’ll understand if you don’t.
ADAM GOODMAN
How could I fail to esteem anyone related to you, Eve?
EVE ENDERFALL
But if you find them strange…
ADAM GOODMAN
Then I’ll better understand the origins of a strange and wonderful girl like you.
EVE ENDERFALL
I suppose if you were able to survive the war, you’ll be able to survive my family.
ADAM GOODMAN
They won’t be taking pot shots at me, will they?
EVE ENDERFALL
Perhaps figuratively.
ADAM GOODMAN
In the trenches, we learned to keep our heads down. I’ll do the same here.
EVE ENDERFALL
(taking both his hands)
No matter what happens, nothing can change my mind about marrying you.
ADAM GOODMAN
Don’t fret, Eve. I won’t let anyone spoil our marriage plans.
(LYSANDER and LENORA ENDERFALL enter with VICTOR FALSTAFF.)
EVE ENDERFALL
Father.
(She shakes his hand formally.)
LYSANDER ENDERFALL
Welcome home, Evangeline.
EVE ENDERFALL
Mother.
(As with her father, she shakes her mother’s hand formally.)
LENORA ENDERFALL
Evangeline. I’ve missed you, my dear.
VICTOR FALSTAFF
This is Mr. Adam Goodman.
LYSANDER ENDERFALL
(offering his hand to ADAM)
How do you do, young man?
ADAM GOODMAN
Well, thank you.
LENORA ENDERFALL
(offering her hand to ADAM)
Mr. Goodman.
LYSANDER ENDERFALL
(to VICTOR)
That will be all, Victor.
VICTOR FALSTAFF
Very well, Mr. Enderfall.
(He exits.)
EVE ENDERFALL
Well, I see no point in beating around the bush. Mother, Father, Mr. Goodman and I are engaged to be married.
LYSANDER ENDERFALL
Are you indeed?
LENORA ENDERFALL
Evangeline, such a serious declaration!
EVE ENDERFALL
Very serious, Mother.
ADAM GOODMAN
Sorry to spring this on you so precipitously, but Eve wanted it this way.
LYSANDER ENDERFALL
We know nothing about you, Mr. Goodman.
EVE ENDERFALL
He was an officer in the Ontario Regiment in France, father, and now he’s a medical student at Toronto University.
LENORA ENDERFALL
And your parents, Mr. Goodman?
ADAM GOODMAN
I’m afraid I haven’t got any, Mrs. Enderfall.
EVE ENDERFALL
Adam was raised in St. Joseph’s Orphanage, Mother.
LYSANDER ENDERFALL
How did you become an officer, Mr. Goodman?
ADAM GOODMAN
My regimental commanders thought I was rather good at war.
EVE ENDERFALL
He won the military cross for bravery.
LYSANDER ENDERFALL
And now you’re studying medicine?
ADAM GOODMAN
In France, I learned how to kill. Now I want to learn how to heal.
LYSANDER ENDERFALL
You’re blunt, young man. Just like Eve.
EVE ENDERFALL
Yes, just like me. Nothing you can say or do will dissuade me from marrying Adam.
LENORA ENDERFALL
No need to be so combative, Eve. My! You’ve come home and I’m very happy to see you.
EVE ENDERFALL
It was time for Adam to meet you.
LYSANDER ENDERFALL
Your mother has missed you, Eve.
EVE ENDERFALL
Leaving here was good for me. I’m glad I did it.
LENORA ENDERFALL
Well, you’re home now; and this young man is welcome to be our guest.
EVE ENDERFALL
Not just a guest mother. Your future son-in-law.
LYSANDER ENDERFALL
Lots of time to discuss that later, Eve.
(PERSEPHONE ENDERFALL enters with MARTHA POCKLINGTON.)
PERSEPHONE ENDERFALL
Evangeline! The prodigal granddaughter returns.
EVE ENDERFALL
Hello, Grandmother.
MARTHA POCKLINGTON
Dear Evangeline! Thank heavens you’ve come home.
EVE ENDERFALL
(going to MARTHA and taking her hand)
You’re as dramatic as ever, Granny Martha.
PERSEPHONE ENDERFALL
Who is this boy?
EVE ENDERFALL
My future husband Adam Goodman.
MARTHA POCKLINGTON
Husband! Whatever next!
LYSANDER ENDERFALL
He’s an orphan, a war hero and a medical student, Mother.
PERSEPHONE ENDERFALL
You’ve lived a busy life, young man.
ADAM GOODMAN
No more so than most men of my generation.
LENORA ENDERFALL
Mr. Goodman…
ADAM GOODMAN
Adam…
LENORA ENDERFALL
Adam, this is my mother Martha, and this is Lysander’s mother Persephone.
PERSEPHONE ENDERFALL
Shoo, shoo, Lysander and Lenora. I want to interview Evangeline on my own. Martha, you may stay, of course.
MARTHA POCKLINGTON
May I? How generous of you, Persephone.
LYSANDER ENDERFALL
Come along, Lenora. Mother knows best.
LENORA ENDERFALL
Our butler Victor will show you your room, Adam.
ADAM GOODMAN
Thank you, Mrs. Enderfall.
(LYSANDER and LENORA exit.)
PERSEPHONE ENDERFALL
What’s this nonsense about a future husband, Evangeline?
EVE ENDERFALL
No nonsense at all. Adam and I are to be married before summer is over.
MARTHA POCKLINGTON
We shall have the ceremony right here at Storm Manor.
PERSEPHONE ENDERFALL
Don’t be silly, Martha. Mr. Goodman…
ADAM GOODMAN
Please call me Adam.
PERSEPHONE ENDERFALL
Adam. Evangeline is a mere child, a willful runaway who left us against our wishes.
EVE ENDERFALL
I’m nineteen and I left because you did not wish me to.
MARTHA POCKLINGTON
I’m so glad you’re home, Eve.
ADAM GOODMAN
You’re right, Mrs. Enderfall. Eve’s young and willful, as am I, so of course we’ll marry, and that will be that.
PERSEPHONE ENDERFALL
Why do you trust Adam, Evangeline?
EVE ENDERFALL
I’ve no reason not to.
MARTHA POCKLINGTON
He seems like a nice young man, Persephone.
PERSEPHONE ENDERFALL
A man with no fortune who seeks to marry a woman of wealth.
ADAM GOODMAN
I’ve no interest in Eve’s wealth, and I’m willing to draw up a contract to that effect.
EVE ENDERFALL
That won’t be necessary, Adam. What’s mine is yours.
PERSEPHONE ENDERFALL
Eve, you may very well be making a mistake, but I won’t stand in your way.
MARTHA POCKLINGTON
Then there shall be a wedding!
PERSEPHONE ENDERFALL
(aside to EVE)
Have you told Adam about the apocalypse?
EVE ENDERFALL
No. Why don’t you do it for me, Grandmother.
MARTHA POCKLINGTON
Oh, dear!
PERSEPHONE ENDERFALL
The world is about to come to an end, Adam.
ADAM GOODMAN
Is it?
PERSEPHONE ENDERFALL
That terrible war. Millions lost. And then the influenza epidemic. Millions more dead and gone.
ADAM GOODMAN
The Grim Reaper has been enjoying himself.
PERSEPHONE ENDERFALL
The signs are all there. My late husband showed me how to read them. The world will end, and soon.
MARTHA POCKLINGTON
There’s no arguing with her, Adam. She truly believes what she says.
PERSEPHONE ENDERFALL
And so, Adam, whether or not you marry Evangeline becomes rather moot.
EVE ENDERFALL
Adam, Grandmother has used the family fortune to finance a scheme to save those of us who live in this mansion.
ADAM GOODMAN
Has she indeed?
PERSEPHONE ENDERFALL
You have already seen the hangar, have you not?
ADAM GOODMAN
Through the trees, yes.
MARTHA POCKLINGTON
So there’s no point in trying to keep it secret, is there, Persephone?
PERSEPHONE ENDERFALL
No point at all. There’s an airship in that hangar, Adam, a large dirigible balloon that is complete and ready to fly.
EVE ENDERFALL
Father had already started to work with the contractors at the time I left for Toronto.
PERSEPHONE ENDERFALL
Much money has been paid to those who built the airship. The whole thing is a well-kept secret.
ADAM GOODMAN
But now I know about it.
PERSEPHONE ENDERFALL
How much cash will it take to buy your silence?
EVE ENDERFALL
Grandmother, you cannot insult Adam with money. He’s not that sort of man.
MARTHA POCKLINGTON
He’s a fine young man. I can see that, Eve, with my old eyes.
ADAM GOODMAN
I won’t tell a soul, Mrs. Enderfall, unless Eve asks me to.
EVE ENDERFALL
And I shan’t.
PERSEPHONE ENDERFALL
You won’t tell anyone about the mad old woman who believes the world will be consumed by fire on midsummer’s night?
ADAM GOODMAN
I would never betray a confidence entrusted to me by my fiancé’s paternal grandmother.
MARTHA POCKLINGTON
You see, Persephone? Eve’s a clever girl. She wouldn’t pick a bad man to be her future husband.
PERSEPHONE ENDERFALL
On midsummer’s night, all of us here, including you, Adam, will board the airship and rise into the heavens, while beneath us the world will burn.
MARTHA POCKLINGTON
She has accepted you, Adam.
(VICTOR FALSTAFF enters.)
VICTOR FALSTAFF
Young Mr. Goodman’s room has been prepared, Mrs. Enderfall.
PERSEPHONE ENDERFALL
Then take him there so he can dress for dinner. Eve, you had better do the same. Thank you, Mr. Goodman. You have passed my interview. Come along, Martha.
(PERSEPHONE and MARTHA exit)
EVE ENDERFALL
Do you think us mad, Adam?
ADAM GOODMAN
I witnessed the war, Eve. Nothing anyone can say or do surprises me anymore.
(ADAM and EVANGELINE exit with VICTOR.)
End of Scene.
Adam and Evangeline by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Act One, Scene 2:
(SETTING: Later that day, after the evening dinner.)
(JEZEBEL, LUCRETIA, and CALPURNIA enter.)
JEZEBEL ENDERFALL
Well, our first dinner with our sister Eve’s so-called fiancé is over.
LUCRETIA ENDERFALL
The nerve of her, bringing a strange man here. What if he tells the newspapers about the airship?
CALPURNIA ENDERFALL
Eve wouldn’t have brought him here if he couldn’t be trusted.
JEZEBEL ENDERFALL
Don’t be silly, Calpurnia. A woman in love will do anything.
LUCRETIA ENDERFALL
Including betray her family by bringing an outsider here.
CALPURNIA ENDERFALL
But she’s so much happier than when she went away, Lucretia, and he’s the reason.
LUCRETIA ENDERFALL
He’s ingratiated himself into her life, and now he’s worming his way into ours.
JEZEBEL ENDERFALL
I don’t want him on that airship on midsummer’s night. We’ve got to find a way to drive him off.
CALPURNIA ENDERFALL
You shouldn’t plot against him, Jezebel. You don’t know anything about him.
LUCRETIA ENDERFALL
I agree with Jezebel. Adam Goodman is an outsider. We didn’t invite him here. He can’t go with us, and that’s that.
JEZEBEL ENDERFALL
Lucretia and I are your older sisters, Calpurnia, as is Eve. We know her better than you. She’s headstrong and impulsive, and she makes bad decisions.
LUCRETIA ENDERFALL
She ran away against Grandmother’s wishes, didn’t she? And now she’s come back with a man she barely knows. Is that good judgment, Calpurnia?
CALPURNIA ENDERFALL
I like him. I don’t care what you say. And Eve may be headstrong, but she’s not stupid.
JEZEBEL ENDERFALL
Listen, Calpurnia, don’t you go telling Eve that Lucretia and I are against that man.
LUCRETIA ENDERFALL
If you do, you’ll be sorry.
CALPURNIA ENDERFALL
Eve already knows you don’t like him just from the way you treated him at dinner.
JEZEBEL ENDERFALL
But she doesn’t know we plan to keep him off the airship.
LUCRETIA ENDERFALL
And she’s not going to know.
CALPURNIA ENDERFALL
What would you do if I told her?
JEZEBEL ENDERFALL
We’d make sure you don’t get on the airship either.
CALPURNIA ENDERFALL
But I’m one of the family!
JEZEBEL ENDERFALL
Not if you turn against us by betraying us to Eve.
CALPURNIA ENDERFALL
You’re jealous of Eve. You always have been.
LUCRETIA ENDERFALL
Nonsense. We have chosen to remain single because we know our duty.
JEZEBEL ENDERFALL
Grandmother taught us that family must always come first.
LUCRETIA ENDERFALL
The end of the world is coming, Calpurnia. Don’t you understand?
JEZEBEL ENDERFALL
Whoever’s on that airship will determine the future of humankind.
LUCRETIA ENDERFALL
Do you want some stranger on there who might have impure motives?
JEZEBEL ENDERFALL
Someone who will contaminate our precious stock? No, Calpurnia, Adam Goodman cannot be allowed on that airship.
CALPURNIA ENDERFALL
You’re doing this to spite Eve.
JEZEBEL ENDERFALL
Don’t you dare say a word about any of this, unless you want to burn to death like the rest of this awful world.
(She and LUCRETIA exit, leaving CALPURNIA to stew in her juices. ELECTRA CHARON and INVICTA LEETHY enter.)
ELECTRA CHARON
Why, Calpurnia, whatever’s the matter?
CALPURNIA ENDERFALL
The end of the world is coming, Aunt Electra.
INVICTA LEETHY
Yes, dear, but we shall be safely in the airship, far above it.
CALPURNIA ENDERFALL
But the thought of everything burning, Aunt Invicta, it’s terrifying.
ELECTRA CHARON
Perhaps the end won’t come, and we will return to this mansion and resume our normal lives.
INVICTA LEETHY
The airship is the very best sort of insurance; it will take us up, up into the air, and, if necessary, north to the arctic.
CALPURNIA ENDERFALL
Do you like Eve’s fiancé, Aunt Electra?
ELECTRA CHARON
Yes, dear. Eve’s very lucky to have such a sensible young man by her side at a time like this.
CALPURNIA ENDERFALL
And you, Aunt Invicta, what do you think of Adam Goodman?
INVICTA LEETHY
I won’t mince words, Calpurnia. I don’t like him. I think he’ll bring bad luck.
ELECTRA CHARON
My sister Persephone has given him her grudging support, Invicta.
INVICTA LEETHY
And my sister Martha thinks he’s wonderful. But I disagree, and I have a right to my opinion.
ELECTRA CHARON
You just don’t want any more people on the airship.
INVICTA LEETHY
Lysander has designed the ship carefully to accommodate the immediate family and our staff. There’s no room for outsiders.
CALPURNIA ENDERFALL
But Aunt Invicta, surely we can accommodate just one more passenger?
INVICTA LEETHY
I wouldn’t be surprised if the younger passengers didn’t push me out at the last minute.
ELECTRA CHARON
Invicta, don’t be ridiculous.
INVICTA LEETHY
Or you, Electra, or Martha, pushed out like so much rubbish. We’re all old and useless. We’re not needed in the future.
CALPURNIA ENDERFALL
Father would never defy Grandfather Enderfall’s last wishes, Aunt Invicta.
ELECTRA CHARON
That’s right. His will stipulates quite clearly who’s to be on the airship.
INVICTA LEETHY
He didn’t mention Adam Goodman. And now that brash young man thinks he can simply waltz onto the airship as if he was a blood relative.
ELECTRA CHARON
If the world really does burn up, Adam will be needed, Invicta, by the young women on the airship.
INVICTA LEETHY
Electra! I can’t believe my ears! Are you suggesting that Adam Goodman would be allowed to sire children with more than one woman?
ELECTRA CHARON
Only if the world really does end, and then only if he and Eve agree that it’s necessary.
CALPURNIA ENDERFALL
Aunt Electra, what if some of the family try to stop Adam from getting on the airship with Eve?
ELECTRA CHARON
Your grandmother Persephone would never allow that. Once she has made up her mind, there’s no changing it.
INVICTA LEETHY
She may accept the man as a progenitor of future children, but I can tell she is not happy about his arrival in our midst.
ELECTRA CHARON
Oh stop it, Invicta! We shall all get aboard the ship. No one’s going to throw you off.
CALPURNIA ENDERFALL
Your place on the ship is certain, Aunt Invicta. I’m afraid we can’t say the same for Adam Goodman.
(CALPURNIA exits.)
ELECTRA CHARON
That child’s upset. Her sisters must be up to something.
(She exits after CALPURNIA.)
End of Scene.
Adam and Evangeline by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Act One, Scene 3:
(ERNEST POCKLINGTON, his wife PHAEDRA, and their children CONSTANCE and DESIREE enter.)
ERNEST POCKLINGTON
Aunt Invicta, did you enjoy dinner?
INVICTA LEETHY
No, I did not, Ernest.
(She exits.)
PHAEDRA POCKLINGTON
What a shame. I thought things went rather well.
CONSTANCE POCKLINGTON
Aunt Invicta made faces at Eve’s fiance.
DESIREE POCKLINGTON
Because he’s young and handsome and she’s old and hasn’t got a man.
ERNEST POCKLINGTON
Desiree, you must not speak that way about your aunt.
CONSTANCE POCKLINGTON
Desiree’s infatuated with Adam Goodman.
DESIREE POCKLINGTON
I am not, Constance! It’s just that it’s nice to have someone fresh and young in this dreary mansion.
PHAEDRA POCKLINGTON
Desiree, I will send you to you room if you continue to be so belligerent. Whatever’s come over you?
CONSTANCE POCKLINGTON
She’s fallen in love with that man and she’s going to make no end of trouble about it.
DESIREE POCKLINGTON
Stop it, Constance, or I’ll pull your hair out!
PHAEDRA POCKLINGTON
Desiree!
(seizing her)
Listen to me. Your cousin Eve has found a sort of happiness with that young man. Don’t spoil it by being troublesome!
ERNEST POCKLINGTON
You and Constance must understand that we must all co-operate with one another.
DESIREE POCKLINGTON
I don’t see why.
ERNEST POCKLINGTON
Soon, midsummer night will be here, and we will all board the airship. Only God knows what will happen after that. In the meantime, you will both be civil to Mr. Goodman and to me and your mother.
CONSTANCE POCKLINGTON
Yes, Father. Oh, I can’t wait to get on the airship and sail away from here.
DESIREE POCKLINGTON
It’s all silly. Nothing’s going to happen. The world’s not going to end.
ERNEST POCKLINGTON
I know you’re frightened, Desiree, but you’ve got to be brave enough to at least have good manners.
CONSTANCE POCKLINGTON
But why is Eve’s grandmother allowing Adam Goodman on the airship? He’s not part of the family.
PHAEDRA POCKLINGTON
Adam Goodman is an orphan like me, children, so in a way he’s sort of a brother to me.
ERNEST POCKLINGTON
That’s a rather strange way to look at it, Phaedra.
PHAEDRA POCKLINGTON
He seems like a very good man. In a way, it’s a shame he’s gotten mixed up in all of this.
CONSTANCE POCKLINGTON
Why is it a shame, Mother? He’s allowed on the airship, isn’t he?
PHAEDRA POCKLINGTON
This is not an easy family to be part of at the best of times.
ERNEST POCKLINGTON
Phaedra, I don’t think you should talk this way in front of the children.
PHAEDRA POCKLINGTON
Am I never to be allowed to say what I think, Ernest?
DESIREE POCKLINGTON
Don’t bully Father, Mother.
PHAEDRA POCKLINGTON
Desiree, please. What I have to say to your father is not your concern.
DESIREE POCKLINGTON
Then why are you saying it right in front of me?
ERNEST POCKLINGTON
Phaedra, you’ve been agitated ever since Adam and Evangeline arrived. What’s come over you?
CONSTANCE POCKLINGTON
Tell us all, Mother. Then perhaps we can help you.
PHAEDRA POCKLINGTON
Adam’s an orphan, but he’s a man of experience. I’m an orphan too, but I married your father when I was very, very young. I’ve never really had a chance to explore the world.
ERNEST POCKLINGTON
All of us here will soon be in the airship, exploring what’s left of the world.
PHAEDRA POCKLINGTON
I can’t help but feel that Adam Goodman’s days of freedom and adventure are over. He’s getting caught up with us like a fly in a web.
ERNEST POCKLINGTON
Sorry for him? Phaedra, Adam Goodman has the love of Evangeline and an invitation to go on the airship. He’s a lucky man.
DESIREE POCKLINGTON
Yes, he’s lucky. And why? Just because Eve thinks she’s in love with him.
CONSTANCE POCKLINGTON
Eve’s not dependable. Everyone knows that. She might suddenly decide that she doesn’t love him any more, and then he won’t be able to go on the ship.
DESIREE POCKLINGTON
He deserves someone better than Eve.
PHAEDRA POCKLINGTON
Desiree and Constance, you must not interfere with Evangeline and Adam. You’re just children, and must mind your own business.
DESIREE POCKLINGTON
What about you, Mother? The way you’re talking, anyone would think you’re in love with Adam Goodman.
PHAEDRA POCKLINGTON
Don’t be silly, Desiree.
DESIREE POCKLINGTON
I’m not being silly. You are!
(She runs offstage.)
CONSTANCE POCKLINGTON
Desiree is a foolish little girl. She’s impetuous and headstrong, just like Eve.
ERNEST POCKLINGTON
We’re all overwrought because midsummer night is coming so fast, and so much might happen. But we must always be grateful to Persephone Enderfall and her son Lysander. They’ve supported me all these years because my sister is Lysander’s wife, and now they offer us a place on the airship.
PHAEDRA POCKLINGTON
I must get outside. I can’t stand it in this stifling house a moment longer!
(She exits.)
CONSTANCE POCKLINGTON
You better watch Mother carefully, Father.
ERNEST POCKLINGTON
Yes. I’d better.
(He and CONSTANCE exit.)
End of Scene.
Adam and Evangeline by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Act One, Scene 4:
(AMELIA BRIDGEBURN enters with her husband HORATIO and her children ATHENA and PROMETHEUS.)
AMELIA BRIDGEBURN
Dinner would have been much more pleasant if Eve and that fiancé of hers hadn’t been there, Horatio.
HORATIO BRIDGEBURN
They seem very happy together, though.
AMELIA BRIDGEBURN
At our expense. He’ll add more weight to the airship, and use up some of our provisions.
PROMETHEUS BRIDGEBURN
Uncle Lysander will make sure there’s enough of everything, Mother.
ATHENA BRIDGEBURN
Cousin Evangeline’s fiancé can have my place on the airship.
AMELIA BRIDGEBURN
Don’t be silly, dear. Under no circumstance would I let you stay behind.
ATHENA BRIDGEBURN
I don’t want to go up in the air.
PROMETHEUS BRIDGEBURN
She’s afraid she’ll fall out.
ATHENA BRIDGEBURN
Well, I might. I’m so clumsy.
PROMETHEUS BRIDGEBURN
There are safety belts on the ship, Athena. You can’t just “fall out”.
HORATIO BRIDGEBURN
You might find that you enjoy flying, Athena. After all, you love to watch birds.
ATHENA BRIDGEBURN
That’s different. They’ve got wings; I don’t.
PROMETHEUS BRIDGEBURN
But Athena, an airship in the air is like a bubble in water. If floats up no matter what.
ATHENA BRIDGEBURN
Then how will it come down? What’s to stop us from floating all the way up to the moon?
AMELIA BRIDGEBURN
The airship has engines, dear, and valves to release gas from the bags.
ATHENA BRIDGEBURN
Father, do you really think the world is going to burn up on midsummer’s night?
HORATIO BRIDGEBURN
I don’t know, Athena. But we’ll all enjoy spending the night in the airship, watching the sun dip below the horizon and pop up again.
AMELIA BRIDGEBURN
Your grandmother and your Uncle Lysander have worked very hard and spent a great deal of money on the airship. They believe that it’s our best hope if indeed the world is consumed by fire.
PROMETHEUS BRIDGEBURN
The airship is even designed to fly high enough to get through the tremendous updrafts generated by the fires that will rage beneath us.
ATHENA BRIDGEBURN
I don’t understand any of it. Why can’t I just stay on a boat out on a lake or something?
AMELIA BRIDGEBURN
The water in the lake will boil.
PROMETHEUS BRIDGEBURN
You’d be cooked like a potato in a pot.
ATHENA BRIDGEBURN
Don’t be awful, Prometheus.
PROMETHEUS BRIDGEBURN
I’m not. I’m just telling you the truth.
HORATIO BRIDGEBURN
Cheer up, Athena. You know as well as I do that there’s every chance it will just be another lovely midsummer’s night.
ATHENA BRIDGEBURN
That’s why it’s silly to go in the airship.
HORATIO BRIDGEBURN
No, Athena. It’s sensible, because a family must stick together, and going up in the airship is a way to show our confidence in your grandmother and Lysander who, after all, give us our daily bread.
PROMETHEUS BRIDGEBURN
Besides, if there’s no fire, the airship will be sold and used to ferry passengers, and we’ll all be richer than ever.
AMELIA BRIDGEBURN
Everything is in Grandfather’s will. He wanted us to build the airship, he warned us about the fire, and he left the money for us to live here together. We must honour his wishes, no matter what.
HORATIO BRIDGEBURN
And we’ve been rather happy here, haven’t we?
PROMETHEUS BRIDGEBURN
I have.
AMELIA BRIDGEBURN
And you’ve had everything a girl could possibly want, Athena, and so has Prometheus.
PROMETHEUS BRIDGEBURN
I consider myself very lucky.
ATHENA BRIDGEBURN
Sometimes I wish I was just an ordinary girl, meeting lots of new people and working at an ordinary job in a factory.
AMELIA BRIDGEBURN
That sort of life has its own sort of dullness, dear. Never wish to be ordinary.
HORATIO BRIDGEBURN
When I was a lad in England, my father emptied rubbish bins and my mother took in laundry. You wouldn’t want a life like that, Athena, let me tell you.
AMELIA BRIDGEBURN
Your father was lucky to meet me, and you are lucky to be our children.
HORATIO BRIDGEBURN
We’ve lived a life of luxury. Now we can show our gratitude by spending an evening in an airship.
ATHENA BRIDGEBURN
I’m sorry, Mother and Father, but I can’t help feeling that there’s something very wrong with all of us.
AMELIA BRIDGEBURN
If we are mad, then it is a happy sort of madness, my child.
(HELEN TOLSTOY enters with her daughter MERILEE.)
HORATIO BRIDGEBURN
Ah, Mrs. Tolstoy, our fine governess, are you searching for your charges?
HELEN TOLSTOY
Yes I am, Mr. Bridgeburn, and now I’ve found two of them. Athena, Prometheus, time for your evening lessons.
ATHENA BRIDGEBURN
Why do lessons if the world’s going to end?
HELEN TOLSTOY
If we are to survive such an event, we will need all the knowledge we can muster, will we not?
MERILEE TOLSTOY
Last night, I had another awful dream about the end of the world.
HELEN TOLSTOY
Merilee has a fertile imagination.
MERILEE TOLSTOY
The airship was spinning around and around, and everyone was flying out and tumbling like ragdolls onto the hard, hard ground.
ATHENA BRIDGEBURN
Merilee, don’t.
MERILEE TOLSTOY
I tell Mummy my dreams, but she says they’re just stories that have nothing to do with what will actually happen.
AMELIA BRIDGEBURN
And she’s quite correct.
MERILEE TOLSTOY
I don’t want to go on the airship.
ATHENA BRIDGEBURN
Me either. I don’t trust scientific things like airships.
PROMETHEUS BRIDGEBURN
You must learn to love science. It is humanity’s greatest hope.
MERILEE TOLSTOY
But science made machine guns, and the bullets punched bloody holes in so many men in the war.
HELEN TOLSTOY
But our side won, did they not? Our brave Canadian boys routed the Hun and now they’ve come home victorious.
AMELIA BRIDGEBURN
Only to be engulfed in flames as the world comes to an end. What an ironic fate!
HELEN TOLSTOY
But we lucky few are to be spared, thanks to the airship.
MERILEE TOLSTOY
But my dreams, Mother…
HELEN TOLSTOY
Just indigestion, my dear Merilee. You would not dream so much if you chewed your meat more thoroughly. Now where are Desiree and Constance?
HORATIO BRIDGEBURN
Close by, no doubt. What do you think of Adam Goodman, Evangeline’s young man, Mrs. Tolstoy?
HELEN TOLSTOY
Well, I’m only the governess, not a member of the family, so it’s really not my place to make a judgement about him, Mr. Bridgeburn.
AMELIA BRIDGEBURN
No, no, speak your mind, Mrs. Tolstoy. We give you permission.
HELEN TOLSTOY
Well, then, if you insist, I shall tell you. The man is an outsider, and he has undermined the work I did with Evangeline.
MERILEE TOLSTOY
Mother has never forgiven Evangeline for being a difficult student.
HELEN TOLSTOY
I did my very best with the girl, but she thwarted me at every turn. Precocious and stubborn, that’s what she was, and now she’s got an ally who will encourage her wrong-headedness at every opportunity.
AMELIA BRIDGEBURN
Yes, yes, I couldn’t agree more. As far as I am concerned, Evangeline, who was always difficult, has been further contaminated by that young man.
HORATIO BRIDGEBURN
Oh, now, Amelia, he’s a war hero and medical student. We should give him a chance to prove his worth.
MERILEE TOLSTOY
He’s handsome and speaks bravely. I think he’s like a knight in shining armour in a storybook.
HELEN TOLSTOY
No, Merilee. He’s more like the serpent in the Garden of Eden.
ATHENA BRIDGEBURN
Everything you all say is so awful! I won’t go to my lessons tonight, Mrs. Tolstoy, because your words hurt my head!
(ATHENA exits.)
PROMETHEUS BRIDGEBURN
My sister lacks backbone.
AMELIA BRIDGEBURN
Come, Horatio, Prometheus, we will retrieve her and send her to Mrs. Tolstoy. The girl must do her lessons.
(She exits with HORATIO and PROMETHEUS.)
MERILEE TOLSTOY
Mother, should you have talked so frankly to the Bridgeburns?
HELEN TOLSTOY
I don’t see why not. After all, they asked me to.
MERILEE TOLSTOY
Do you really believe that the world is going to burn up on midsummer’s night?
HELEN TOLSTOY
I wouldn’t be surprised. There have been signs ever since this accursed century began. War, revolution, pestilence!
MERILEE TOLSTOY
But for everything to burn? That’s so awful! And what could cause such a thing?
HELEN TOLSTOY
The surface of the earth is merely a dry scab on top of a molten ball of rock, Merilee. That molten rock will one day spew like pus from a wound and set fire to everything.
MERILEE TOLSTOY
But why now? Why this midsummer?
HELEN TOLSTOY
Old Grandfather Enderfall was a man of remarkable knowledge. He looked at ancient documents and studied the geographical history of the earth, and concluded that June 21, 1919, would be the fateful day.
MERILEE TOLSTOY
But won’t the airship burn too?
HELEN TOLSTOY
Not if it’s high enough in the air, far from the spewing magma.
MERILEE TOLSTOY
How long will the earth burn?
HELEN TOLSTOY
For twenty-four terrible hours. Only the ice caps will be spared.
MERILEE TOLSTOY
Won’t they melt?
HELEN TOLSTOY
Just enough to enable us to land and create a little settlement with a garden, where we will attempt to regenerate human life.
MERILEE TOLSTOY
Am I to be a baby-maker, Mother?
HELEN TOLSTOY
Yes. You are young and fertile. The hope of humankind rests in your ovaries.
MERILEE TOLSTOY
But who will be the fathers?
HELEN TOLSTOY
Only the most distant relations of the mothers-to-be.
MERILEE TOLSTOY
Then why are you so disdainful of Adam Goodman? He is not related to me at all.
HELEN TOLSTOY
I fear the man will start the whole cycle of evil all over again. He’s a soldier, a warrior, and we have suffered too much at the hands of such men.
MERILEE TOLSTOY
But he’s also a healer, a man of medicine.
HELEN TOLSTOY
That sort of medicine is just another sort of butchery. Real medicine concerns itself with the spirit, not the body.
MERILEE TOLSTOY
You mean like religion?
HELEN TOLSTOY
Call it that if you must. I call it the divine hand of God.
(CONSTANCE and DESIREE enter with PROMETHEUS and ATHENA.)
CONSTANCE POCKLINGTON
We have come for our lessons.
DESIREE POCKLINGTON
What awful thing must we learn today?
ATHENA BRIDGEBURN
Something dreadful about fire and death, no doubt.
PROMETHEUS BRIDGEBURN
They are out of sorts, Mrs. Tolstoy, because they don’t trust science.
HELEN TOLSTOY
Or the Lord.
MERILEE TOLSTOY
Let us get on with the lesson, for heaven’s sake, though magma will spew no matter what we learn.
(They all exit.)
End of Scene.
Adam and Evangeline by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Act One, Scene 5:
AT RISE: VICTOR FALSTAFF enters with JENNY BARKER.
VICTOR FALSTAFF
Well, Mrs. Barker, that Mr. Goodman has certainly stirred up a fuss.
JENNY BARKER
That he has, Mr. Falstaff, what with his being engaged to Miss Evangeline and all.
VICTOR FALSTAFF
The old lady herself has decided to let the young gentleman have a place on the airship.
JENNY BARKER
Has she indeed, Mr. Falstaff? Whatever next!
VICTOR FALSTAFF
I’m not one to question the grand old lady’s decisions, but I’d rather the young gentleman stay on the ground, if you know what I mean.
JENNY BARKER
Oh, I know what you mean, Mr. Falstaff, I know what you mean.
VICTOR FALSTAFF
To my way of thinking, we don’t need any extra weight on the balloon.
JENNY BARKER
I’ve been on a diet myself, Mr. Falstaff, just trying to help.
VICTOR FALSTAFF
And besides, what do we know of the man? Perhaps he’s some sort of spy or saboteur.
JENNY BARKER
You’re making me anxious, Mr. Falstaff, very anxious.
VICTOR FALSTAFF
But nothing’s to be done about it. After all, we’re just servants and bloody lucky to be getting on that airship under any circumstance.
JENNY BARKER
To tell the truth, I’m terrified of that thing.
VICTOR FALSTAFF
Why? It’s just a bit of gas in a bag.
JENNY BARKER
But that’s just it: a bit of gas in a bag! And that’s all that’s going to be holding me up in the air, far above the hot, burning ground.
VICTOR FALSTAFF
Mr. Lysander Enderfall has spent a fortune on that thing, Mrs. Barker. It will fly, and you will fly too, up, up in the sky in your heavy petticoats and all.
JENNY BARKER
I’m just an old cook, Mr. Falstaff. I’m not used to the world ending and balloons and gas bags. It’s all a bit much for me.
VICTOR FALSTAFF
Perhaps you need a bit of a tickle, Mrs. Barker, eh? A bit of a nip and a tickle, eh?
(He gives her a tickle or two.)
JENNY BARKER
Ooo, stop it you naughty man! What if someone saw?
VICTOR FALSTAFF
What if they did? The world’s coming to an end, my little lass, so what difference does it make what we do! Come on now, let’s have another tickle!
(He stalks her, and she runs from him. He pursues her as LUCY OFFENBACH and POLLY TURNBUCKLE enter. When MR. FALSTAFF and MRS. BARKER see the maids, they stop their game and assume an air of gravity.)
JENNY BARKER
You two maids should know better than to barge in here without announcing yourselves.
LUCY OFFENBACH
Sorry, Mrs. Barker. We didn’t know you and Mr. Falstaff was……busy.
POLLY TURNBUCKLE
It’s just that we’re a bit upset, Mrs. Barker.
JENNY BARKER
About what?
(They don’t answer.)
VICTOR FALSTAFF
Speak up, you two nit-wits!
LUCY OFFENBACH
It’s Mistress Evangeline.
POLLY TURNBUCKLE
And her new beau.
JENNY BARKER
What about them?
LUCY OFFENBACH
We don’t know if we ought to say it.
POLLY TURNBUCKLE
It’s a bit difficult to put into words.
VICTOR FALSTAFF
Well, try, or get out.
LUCY OFFENBACH
We was upstairs doing the halls.
POLLY TURNBUCKLE
Wiping them down and such.
LUCY OFFENBACH
And we saw that Mr. Goodman.
POLLY TURNBUCKLE
But he didn’t see us.
JENNY BARKER
You were spying on him, weren’t you, you two little scallywags?
LUCY OFFENBACH
No, Mrs. Barker, honest! We just happened to see him in the hall.
POLLY TURNBUCKLE
We was kind of in the shadows, you know, just in the shadows.
LUCY OFFENBACH
So he couldn’t see us.
POLLY TURNBUCKLE
And he went…he went…
VICTOR FALSTAFF
Spit it out! Spit it out! We ain’t got all day!
LUCY OFFENBACH
He went into Mistress Evangeline’s bedroom.
POLLY TURNBUCKLE
There! We’ve said it, but it weren’t easy.
JENNY BARKER
Into Mistress Evangeline’s bedroom. What do you make of that, Mr. Falstaff?
VICTOR FALSTAFF
Well, I should think it’s bloody obvious, Mrs. Barker.
LUCY OFFENBACH
And he didn’t come out.
POLLY TURNBUCKLE
Not while we were there.
LUCY OFFENBACH
And we were there for quite some time.
POLLY TURNBUCKLE
Just to be sure.
JENNY BARKER
Sure of what?
LUCY OFFENBACH
You know, Mrs. Barker; to be sure that what was happening was happening.
POLLY TURNBUCKLE
And we heard sounds. Oh yes, sounds that would shock you.
VICTOR FALSTAFF
All right, that’s enough.
JENNY BARKER
What if Mr. Lysander Enderfall finds out?
POLLY TURNBUCKLE
He’ll take the shotgun to Mr. Goodman.
LUCY OFFENBACH
You couldn’t blame him for being angry.
POLLY TURNBUCKLE
After all, there’s that Mr. Goodman mucking about with Mr. Lysander’s daughter, right in his own house.
VICTOR FALSTAFF
That’s enough of that sort of talk. Whatever Mr. Goodman and Mistress Evangeline was doing is their business. Got it?
JENNY BARKER
Their business, you two little busy-bodies.
LUCY OFFENBACH
Yes’m.
POLLY TURNBUCKLE
Their business.
JENNY BARKER
You can’t blame them. I was young and in love once myself. And after all, if old Mrs. Enderfall and her son are right, the end of the world is upon us anyway.
LUCY OFFENBACH
Do you really think so, Mrs. Barker?
JENNY BARKER
They’re educated, ain’t they? If they say the world’s going to end, who am I to say they’re wrong?
VICTOR FALSTAFF
Still and all, it’s bad luck for those two to be cavorting about like that right under the noses of old Mrs. Enderfall and Mr. Lysander Enderfall.
JENNY BARKER
Soon, we’ll all be up in that balloon, and who knows what will happen? We need all the good luck we can get.
LUCY OFFENBACH
Is Mr. Goodman going in the airship too?
VICTOR FALSTAFF
Yes he is, at the invitation of old Mrs. Enderfall.
LUCY OFFENBACH
That doesn’t make me feel one bit better about going up in that balloon. Ooh, it makes my tummy hurt just to think of it.
POLLY TURNBUCKLE
I’m afraid, too. What if the balloon bursts?
VICTOR FALSTAFF
You’re as bad as Mrs. Barker here.
JENNY BARKER
I don’t like that balloon, but I’ve got to go up if I don’t want to be roasted.
LUCY OFFENBACH
What an awful world we live in. First that war, then the influenza, and now a terrible fire and a ride in a balloon.
POLLY TURNBUCKLE
What’s it matter? My own family doesn’t want me back.
LUCY OFFENBACH
And I don’t want ever to go back to that nasty little log shack my mean old folks call home.
POLLY TURNBUCKLE
This mansion has been a blessing. And now it’s going to burn up like a bit of dried grass in a cookstove.
VICTOR FALSTAFF
Now, now. You’re young, and we’ll be needing you in the arctic.
LUCY OFFENBACH
What for?
JENNY BARKER
To do what women are made for, you silly things.
POLLY TURNBUCKLE
To do…you mean babies?
JENNY BARKER
Of course I mean babies. How else are we going to rebuild the human race?
VICTOR FALSTAFF
You two will have to do your duty.
LUCY OFFENBACH
With who?
JENNY BARKER
With whoever Mr. Lysander Enderfall picks for you.
POLLY TURNBUCKLE
I’m not going to let anyone make me have babies.
VICTOR FALSTAFF
Listen, you ninnies, the world’s going to end! Don’t you understand?
JENNY BARKER
Those of us what survives the fires of hell has got to do things we never dreamed of, don’t we?
LUCY OFFENBACH
Things we never dreamed of.
VICTOR FALSTAFF
So get used to it. Or would you rather be roasted like a duck on a spit?
POLLY TURNBUCKLE
It all sounds awful, no matter what I do.
VICTOR FALSTAFF
Just do what you’re told. Come along, Mrs. Barker. We’ve got to plan tomorrow’s menu.
JENNY BARKER
Right you are, Mr. Falstaff. Just three more days of planning menus, and then we’re off in that balloon.
(She and VICTOR FALSTAFF exit)
LUCY OFFENBACH
We might as well just be dead, Polly.
POLLY TURNBUCKLE
Don’t say that, Lucy. Where there’s life, there’s hope.
LUCY OFFENBACH
I’m frightened, Polly. More scared than a mouse in a room full of cats.
POLLY TURNBUCKLE
Me too. I’ll tell you a secret, Lucy, if you promise to keep it secret.
LUCY OFFENBACH
I promise.
POLLY TURNBUCKLE
I’ve already had a baby.
LUCY OFFENBACH
Did you? Where is it?
POLLY TURNBUCKLE
Adopted. I wasn’t married, you see.
LUCY OFFENBACH
Does your family know?
POLLY TURNBUCKLE
They know. They wouldn’t let me keep her and they don’t want me back, so it doesn’t really matter what happens now.
LUCY OFFENBACH
We may as well get on that balloon, even though we’re scared.
POLLY TURNBUCKLE
If the earth burns, my baby will die, Lucy.
LUCY OFFENBACH
They’re going to make you have lots more.
POLLY TURNBUCKLE
If they do, I swear I’ll kill anyone who tries to take them away from me.
(They exit.)
End of Scene.
Adam and Evangeline by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Act One, Scene 6:
(EVE and ADAM enter.)
EVE ENDERFALL
The maids probably saw you come into my bedroom, Adam.
ADAM GOODMAN
We just talked.
EVE ENDERFALL
That’s not what they’ll think.
ADAM GOODMAN
No, I suppose not.
EVE ENDERFALL
The family thinks I’m a reckless girl, but I’m really very careful.
ADAM GOODMAN
Yes. You’re a quick thinker, but you think things out.
EVE ENDERFALL
Adam, tell me the truth. Is this mansion an asylum for lunatics?
ADAM GOODMAN
Perhaps. There are signs of lunacy everywhere in the world, even here.
EVE ENDERFALL
How did my family become so entangled in madness?
ADAM GOODMAN
How does anyone?
EVE ENDERFALL
Everyone here may be mad, but the airship is real.
ADAM GOODMAN
Sometimes wondrous things spring from of the maddest of minds.
EVE ENDERFALL
Is the world ending?
ADAM GOODMAN
Yes, Eve, the world is ending.
EVE ENDERFALL
My world?
ADAM GOODMAN
Yes. Your world.
(They exit.)
End of Scene.
Adam and Evangeline by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Act Two, Scene 1:
(SETTING: The same. Midsummer Day, 1919.)
LENORA and LYSANDER ENDERFALL enter.
LENORA ENDERFALL
Midsummer day, Lysander. In a few hours, we shall board the airship.
LYSANDER ENDERFALL
Everything’s ready.
LENORA ENDERFALL
I’m so relieved Evangeline came home.
LYSANDER ENDERFALL
She’ll not die like the others. I’m thankful for that.
LENORA ENDERFALL
Would you really have allowed her to stay in Toronto?
LYSANDER ENDERFALL
I never lost hope that she would return. And she did.
LENORA ENDERFALL
But not alone.
LYSANDER ENDERFALL
That young man is an unexpected element in the scheme.
LENORA ENDERFALL
Has his presence made you change the plan?
LYSANDER ENDERFALL
No, my darling. He will fit into our world, not vice-versa.
LENORA ENDERFALL
Do you love me, Lysander?
LYSANDER ENDERFALL
Yes, my darling Lenora, though I know you doubt my sanity.
LENORA ENDERFALL
My doubts are a product of my fear. I will go wherever you go, as will our four daughters.
LYSANDER ENDERFALL
My mother is largely responsible for all that has happened.
LENORA ENDERFALL
She is merely the agent of your dead father, carrying out his wishes.
LYSANDER ENDERFALL
No, she’s more than that. She’s a force I cannot resist. Whatever she wants, I do.
LENORA ENDERFALL
If you had to pick between your mother and me, who would you choose?
LYSANDER ENDERFALL
I would choose death.
LENORA ENDERFALL
Is the world really going to burn tonight, Lysander?
LYSANDER ENDERFALL
Yes, Lenora, it will burn.
LENORA ENDERFALL
Why are we the only ones to know?
LYSANDER ENDERFALL
Mother says the earth must be cleansed. We are to be the only survivors.
LENORA ENDERFALL
I’m not sure I’ll want to live another day knowing that everything familiar is destroyed.
LYSANDER ENDERFALL
I’m familiar, and I’ll still be with you.
LENORA ENDERFALL
Yes. But what will you look like to me, up there in the airship, or on the melted ground of our new arctic home?
LYSANDER ENDERFALL
My eyes will be the same colour, and my voice will have the same tone. Nothing will have changed except the background.
(PERSEPHONE ENDERFALL enters.)
PERSEPHONE ENDERFALL
Lysander, is everything ready?
LYSANDER ENDERFALL
Yes, Mother. The airship is fully operational and stocked with all the provisions we shall need to start our colony.
PERSEPHONE ENDERFALL
I’m very old. I will not live much longer. But I must see my family established in the new colony before I die.
LENORA ENDERFALL
And you shall, Mother. You may even see your great-grandchildren, for there must be babies.
PERSEPHONE ENDERFALL
Adam and Evangeline will produce many children, I’m certain of it.
LYSANDER ENDERFALL
All our daughters will bring forth children, Mother.
LENORA ENDERFALL
What a strange life they will live.
PERSEPHONE ENDERFALL
But it will be a life, unlike the charred remnants of dead humanity we will be leaving behind.
(ELECTRA CHARON enters)
PERSEPHONE ENDERFALL
Electra, my sister, are you ready for the great journey?
ELECTRA CHARON
As old as I am, I wonder if it’s worth taking me along?
PERSEPHONE ENDERFALL
My husband’s will states that you are to be on board, so that’s that.
ELECTRA CHARON
Your faith in your dead husband is formidable, my sister.
PERSEPHONE ENDERFALL
Not faith, Electra. Love. I’ve done what I’ve done out of love.
LENORA ENDERFALL
As have we all. We’ve followed Lysander’s father’s wishes to the letter, and our fortune is gone.
LYSANDER ENDERFALL
Even the airship is burdened with debt, but there’ll be no need to pay tomorrow.
ELECTRA CHARON
All debt will be meaningless, lost in the fire.
(MARTHA POCKLINGTON enters.)
LENORA ENDERFALL
Mother, are you ready?
MARTHA POCKLINGTON
For what, my dear daughter?
LENORA ENDERFALL
For the trip on the airship tonight.
MARTHA POCKLINGTON
Oh, that. I’d almost forgotten.
PERSEPHONE ENDERFALL
Don’t pretend to be feeble-minded, Martha Pocklington.
ELECTRA CHARON
You are as clever as any one of us.
MARTHA POCKLINGTON
I’m not pretending. I’ve always had a feeble mind.
LENORA ENDERFALL
Mother, that’s not true. You’ve always been gentle, but not feeble.
MARTHA POCKLINGTON
Do you think so my dear? It’s awfully kind of you to say so, even if it’s not true.
LYSANDER ENDERFALL
I promise you’ll enjoy our flight on the airship, Mother Pocklington.
MARTHA POCKLINGTON
You know, I dreamed I was flying last night, only I was a doll in a box full of dolls. The only living person was Persephone, who had turned into four people driving four fiery horses that pulled us across the sky.
PERSEPHONE ENDERFALL
But I am not the four horsemen of the apocalypse; I’m just an old woman carrying out the wishes of my dead husband.
ELECTRA CHARON
Your dead husband who wanted us to sail off to the vast and distant arctic.
MARTHA POCKLINGTON
How will I ever live in the arctic? Will I have an igloo of my own?
LENORA ENDERFALL
It will be warm there, Mother, because of the fire that will cleanse the earth.
PERSEPHONE ENDERFALL
This earth needs cleansing. We’ve made a mess of it.
MARTHA POCKLINGTON
If it’s warm, perhaps there’ll be palm trees. I’ve always wanted to see one.
LYSANDER ENDERFALL
We have seedlings on the airship, Mother Pocklington, and among them there’s at least one palm tree, I’m sure.
MARTHA POCKLINGTON
And animals? Will polar bears and seals be our pets?
PERSEPHONE ENDERFALL
We will bring some of our domestic animals.
ELECTRA CHARON
Their fearsome stink will fill the airship.
LENORA ENDERFALL
And we’ll bring Jimmy and Flash, our two loyal dogs.
LYSANDER ENDERFALL
And those accursed cats Briar and Thorn, whose claws have savaged me on many a dark night.
MARTHA POCKLINGTON
Am I wrong or are we waxing poetic today?
PERSEPHONE ENDERFALL
From now on, we shall be depending on poetry to shape our fevered thoughts into words.
ELECTRA CHARON
And our words will shape our thoughts into poetry.
MARTHA POCKLINGTON
Where is my sister Invicta?
PERSEPHONE ENDERFALL
Very likely with my sister Electra. The two are inseparable.
ELECTRA CHARON
But I am right here, Persephone.
PERSEPHONE ENDERFALL
Bless my soul, so you are.
MARTHA POCKLINGTON
Electra and Invicta have never needed husbands. I had a husband once, but he fell into the sea and was drowned.
LENORA ENDERFALL
Yes, Mother. Father was a sailor, and was lost at sea.
MARTHA POCKLINGTON
What will happen to the sea when the earth burns, Lysander?
LYSANDER ENDERFALL
Much of it will boil, like a giant witch’s cauldron.
MARTHA POCKLINGTON
But in our arctic sanctuary?
LYSANDER ENDERFALL
There, it will be like warm tea, full of living organisms heralding the new age.
MARTHA POCKLINGTON
Suddenly, I’m excited to be on the airship. Why, I even feel like I might cut a caper or two!
(She does a bit of a dance.)
To be one who will be part of the renewal even though I am ancient; it’s more than splendid!
LYSANDER ENDERFALL
Now we must all go about our business and meet here again no later than five.
LENORA ENDERFALL
No later than five. Spread the word to all and sundry! No later than five!
(LENORA and LYSANDER exit.)
PERSEPHONE ENDERFALL
That son of mine talks to me as if he is in command.
MARTHA POCKLINGTON
The world belongs to him now.
PERSEPHONE ENDERFALL
I suppose you’re right. My time is almost over.
ELECTRA CHARON
Did your dead husband say nothing about your role in the new colony?
PERSEPHONE ENDERFALL
Only that I am to let nature take its course.
MARTHA POCKLINGTON
Nature. The young will have many babies, and you and I and Electra and Invicta will die, and no one will notice.
PERSEPHONE ENDERFALL
Yes. We will pass away and the sturdy lads and lasses of the future will run across our graves on the strong young feet of hope.
(INVICTA LEETHY enters.)
INVICTA LEETHY
So there you are, Electra, hobnobbing with your sister and my sister.
ELECTRA CHARON
You and I will spend time enough together on that airship, Invicta.
INVICTA LEETHY
Then I am to be included among the passengers?
MARTHA POCKLINGTON
Don’t be silly, Invicta. You’ve always been on the list.
INVICTA LEETHY
I thought you might all be plotting against me.
PERSEPHONE ENDERFALL
Why would we do that, Invicta?
INVICTA LEETHY
I am the most useless one of all, with my bad leg and my dull mind.
MARTHA POCKLINGTON
But you are my little sister, and I love you.
INVICTA LEETHY
What if I’m sick on the airship?
PERSEPHONE ENDERFALL
We will see to it that you have a bucket.
INVICTA LEETHY
A bucket?
ELECTRA CHARON
The airship is not designed for comfort, my dear Invicta, only for efficiency.
INVICTA LEETHY
A bucket is not efficient.
MARTHA POCKLINGTON
You will vomit in the bucket, Invicta, and I will chuck the stuff out of a window into the burning fires far below.
INVICTA LEETHY
Very well, I will use the bucket.
PERSEPHONE ENDERFALL
When we arrive in our new arctic home, we old ladies will be a laughable sight.
ELECTRA CHARON
Tottering about on our shaky legs, giving thanks for our survival.
PERSEPHONE ENDERFALL
But I have almost finished what I set out to do, and soon I can rest. Martha, I need your help deciding which of my shawls to take. I may only take one, you know.
MARTHA POCKLINGTON
Suddenly, you are just old, Persephone, and not at all as imperious and frightening as you once were.
PERSEPHONE ENDERFALL
The journey nears its end, Martha, the journey nears its end.
(She and MARTHA exit.)
End of Scene.
Adam and Evangeline by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Act Two, Scene 2:
(INVICTA and ELECTRA continue to discuss the flight on the airship.)
INVICTA LEETHY
I will smuggle two shawls aboard the airship.
ELECTRA CHARON
Don’t. That balloon is already overweight with baggage of all sorts.
INVICTA LEETHY
I still cannot shake the idea that someone will throw me from the airship into the burning fires below.
ELECTRA CHARON
You have been saying that ever since Adam Goodman arrived with Evangeline.
INVICTA LEETHY
That young man upset the balance of things. Nothing good will come from his being here.
ELECTRA CHARON
Don’t be daft, Invicta. Evangeline picked him, and she’s no fool.
INVICTA LEETHY
He goes in her bedroom, Electra, and they are not married.
ELECTRA CHARON
Invicta, do you think our young men and women are going to observe the etiquette of marriage when they are in the arctic colony?
INVICTA LEETHY
They ought to.
ELECTRA CHARON
Well, they won’t. They’ll mate like rabbits.
INVICTA LEETHY
Electra!
ELECTRA CHARON
And that’s as it should be. The world will need to be repopulated.
INVICTA LEETHY
It’s immoral.
ELECTRA CHARON
Who are we to talk about what’s moral and what’s not? You and I never married. We never took a man to our beds. We are just dried old husks. The young woman can do as they please, and I will not judge them.
INVICTA LEETHY
If the right man would have appeared, I would have taken him to my bed, but he didn’t appear. So, I dried up without the ballooning belly our young women will soon display.
ELECTRA CHARON
I never wanted to have children, and many thought I was less of a woman for thinking that way.
INVICTA LEETHY
Yes. Though we praise chastity, we really despise it, because it goes against life.
ELECTRA CHARON
I expect we will not live for long in the arctic.
INVICTA LEETHY
Our days are almost over. And what did we bring to this world?
ELECTRA CHARON
No children. No husbands. We’re a pair of old maids who, for some reason, will be part of the age of renewal.
INVICTA LEETHY
Perhaps I won’t be thrown from the airship, but in some sort of way I was thrown aside long ago anyway.
ELECTRA CHARON
We threw ourselves aside, preferring the deep dark ditch to the windblown highway that others bravely trod.
(CALPURNIA ENDERFALL enters)
CALPURNIA ENDERFALL
Great Aunt Electra, my sisters have lied to Adam Goodman!
ELECTRA CHARON
Lied? About what, Calpurnia?
CALPURNIA ENDERFALL
They told him Evangeline had a baby and drowned it in the river.
INVICTA LEETHY
But that’s absurd.
CALPURNIA ENDERFALL
They don’t want Adam on the airship. They thought the story would make him go away.
ELECTRA CHARON
Did it?
CALPURNIA ENDERFALL
No, because I told Adam it wasn’t true, and now Jezebel and Lucretia are after me!
INVICTA LEETHY
After you? What are they going to do to you?
CALPURNIA ENDERFALL
They say they’re going to tie me to a tree in the forest so I’ll miss my chance to get on the airship!
(JEZEBEL and LUCRETIA enter and stop dead in their tracks when they see ELECTRA and INVICTA.)
ELECTRA CHARON
Jezebel, Lucretia, what sort of evil nonsense have you been up to?
JEZEBEL ENDERFALL
Calpurnia’s endangering our escape on the airship, Great Aunt Electra.
LUCRETIA ENDERFALL
Adam Goodman’s not supposed to be on the airship, but Calpurnia wants him there.
INVICTA LEETHY
Who are you to decide whether or not Adam Goodman gets on the airship?
JEZEBEL ENDERFALL
We know you don’t like him, Great Aunt Invicta. Why are you defending him?
INVICTA LEETHY
Because this is not the time for silly, jealous squabbles!
LUCRETIA ENDERFALL
Jealous? We’re not jealous.
ELECTRA CHARON
Yes, you’re jealous. You dream of Adam Goodman coming to your beds at night and lying with you.
JEZEBEL ENDERFALL
Aunt Electra! How could you let such words out of your mouth?
ELECTRA CHARON
And because the only bed he goes to belongs to Evangeline, you hatch a plot to drive him away from her!
LUCRETIA ENDERFALL
Calpurnia, what have you done?
CALPURNIA ENDERFALL
You were going to tie me to a tree and leave me there to burn!
JEZEBEL ENDERFALL
She’s lying, making things up.
INVICTA LEETHY
Why would she do that?
JEZEBEL ENDERFALL
Because she’s the one who wants Adam Goodman. She can’t have him, so she’s making trouble to spite us all.
ELECTRA CHARON
We may be old maids, Jezebel, but we’re not fools. You and Lucretia have never grown up and you’ve always been cruel.
INVICTA LEETHY
Perhaps we should talk to your grandmother and see to it that neither of you get on the airship.
LUCRETIA ENDERFALL
No, please, Aunt Invicta. Jezebel’s to blame.
JEZEBEL
Lucretia!
LUCRETIA
(to JEZEBEL)
You twist things around and before I know it I take your side.
ELECTRA CHARON
Lucretia, you’ve always done what Jezebel tells you to do because you can’t think for yourself.
LUCRETIA ENDERFALL
That’s right. It’s not my fault. Jezebel put me up to it.
JEZEBEL
I most certainly did not.
LUCRETIA
(to JEZEBEL)
You made up the lie about Evangeline having a baby and throwing it in the river. I just helped you tell it.
JEZEBEL ENDERFALL
You’re being stupid, Lucretia, letting them trick you.
LUCRETIA ENDERFALL
I don’t care! You always boss us sisters, Jezebel, and I’m sick of being your accomplice in your wicked schemes!
CALPURNIA ENDERFALL
Neither of them care if I’m alive or dead!
ELECTRA CHARON
And to think they’re going to the new colony to make babies for the future.
INVICTA LEETHY
What kind of world would the children of girls like them make?
ELECTRA CHARON
We’re going to leave you with Calpurnia.
INVICTA LEETHY
Make up with her, or you won’t be allowed on the airship.
(She and ELECTRA exit)
CALPURNIA ENDERFALL
You’ll never get away with hurting me now.
JEZEBEL ENDERFALL
Maybe we should tell Evangeline how much you love Adam Goodman.
CALPURNIA ENDERFALL
Go ahead. I’m not afraid of the truth.
LUCRETIA ENDERFALL
I won’t tell him, Calpurnia. If Jezebel wants to make trouble, she’ll have to do it by herself.
JEZEBEL ENDERFALL
So you’re all against me.
CALPURNIA ENDERFALL
We’re sisters. We’re supposed to love each other. No one should be against anyone.
LUCRETIA ENDERFALL
That’s right. We’re supposed to love and help each other. Especially now, on this day of all days.
CALPURNIA ENDERFALL
So stop blustering, Jezebel, and tell the truth. Of all three of us, you’re the one most in love with Adam.
JEZEBEL ENDERFALL
I’m the oldest. I know best what it’s like to be lonely because I’ve been lonely longest. Of course I love Adam the most. It’s awful to love and have nothing come back.
CALPURNIA ENDERFALL
Do you want to go on living, Jezebel?
JEZEBEL ENDERFALL
I’ll get on the airship because it’s there and because I don’t know what else to do.
LUCRETIA ENDERFALL
The airship’s better than burning to death.
JEZEBEL ENDERFALL
Yes. It’s better than burning to death.
(Now follows a moment of awkward silence.)
JEZEBEL
You two should finish packing your valises.
CALPURNIA ENDERFALL
Come on, Lucretia.
LUCRETIA ENDERFALL
(aside to CALUPURIA)
What if she does something rash?
CALPURNIA ENDERFALL
She won’t. Can’t you see she’s too defeated to do anything but sit and think?
(LUCRETIA and CALPRUNIA exit)
JEZEBEL ENDERFALL
Sit and think.
End of Scene.
Adam and Evangeline by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Act Two, Scene 3:
(LUCY OFFENBACH and POLLY TURNBUCKLE enter. Jezebel sees them and jumps up.)
LUCY OFFENBACH
Miss Enderfall!
POLLY TURNBUCKLE
We didn’t mean to disturb you.
JEZEBEL ENDERFALL
You didn’t disturb me.
LUCY OFFENBACH
But you jumped like you saw a ghost, Miss.
POLLY TURNBUCKLE
As if you’d never seen us before.
JEZEBEL ENDERFALL
I don’t know anything about you.
LUCY OFFENBACH
Pardon, Miss?
JEZEBEL ENDERFALL
I don’t know anything about you.
POLLY TURNBUCKLE
We’re the maids, Miss Enderfall. Polly and Lucy. Remember?
JEZEBEL ENDERFALL
Yes, yes, I know your names, but I don’t know you.
LUCY OFFENBACH
Well, after all, we’re just maids,
JEZEBEL ENDERFALL
You’re going on the airship with us to start a new colony after the world ends, and I don’t know you.
POLLY TURNBUCKLE
That’s how it is with servants.
LUCY OFFENBACH
The people we work for don’t have to know much about us.
POLLY TURNBUCKLE
We just do our jobs and stay out of your way.
JEZEBEL ENDERFALL
I’m not better than you.
LUCY OFFENBACH
Pardon?
JEZEBEL ENDERFALL
I’m not better than you. I’m worse.
POLLY TURNBUCKLE
But you’re an Enderfall, Miss.
JEZEBEL ENDERFALL
That’s just a name.
LUCY OFFENBACH
An important name.
JEZEBEL ENDERFALL
When we get to the arctic colony, will you do something for me?
POLLY TURNBUCKLE
Certainly, Miss Enderfall.
LUCY OFFENBACH
What would you like us to do?
JEZEBEL ENDERFALL
Teach me how to work.
POLLY TURNBUCKLE
How to work?
JEZEBEL ENDERFALL
Yes. How to cook, how to clean, how to keep a garden.
LUCY OFFENBACH
Well, it’d be easy enough to show you.
POLLY TURNBUCKLE
Anyone can do those things.
JEZEBEL ENDERFALL
Not me.
LUCY OFFENBACH
Then we’ll teach you Miss, if that’s what you want.
JEZEBEL ENDERFALL
That’s what I want.
(She exits.)
POLLY TURNBUCKLE
What’s she up to?
LUCY OFFENBACH
Don’t know.
POLLY TURNBUCKLE
She’s the meanest of the four Enderfall sisters.
LUCY OFFENBACH
Maybe going to the arctic makes her see things different.
POLLY TURNBUCKLE
Yes. Her money and her name won’t do her much good up there.
LUCY OFFENBACH
I bet she wants to make friends with us because she’s afraid of us.
POLLY TURNBUCKLE
No, I don’t think so. I think she’s just feeling lonely and useless.
LUCY OFFENBACH
Isn’t that how everyone feels?
POLLY TURNBUCKLE
Yes, Lucy. That’s how everyone feels.
LUCY OFFENBACH
Do you really think the world will end tonight, Polly?
POLLY TURNBUCKLE
Something’s going to end, but I’m not sure what it is.
LUCY OFFENBACH
Who’d have thought a couple of working girls like us would be picked to be part of the new world?
POLLY TURNBUCKLE
Are you taking anything with you?
LUCY OFFENBACH
I don’t have anything, except my clothes.
POLLY TURNBUCKLE
I have a Bible, and I put flowers between the pages, to remind me.
LUCY OFFENBACH
Of what?
POLLY TURNBUCKLE
Of springtime, of home, of everything that will burn away tonight.
(She and LUCY exit.)
End of Scene.
Adam and Evangeline by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Act Two, Scene 4:
(ERNEST POCKLINGTON enters with MARTHA POCKLINGTON.)
ERNEST POCKLINGTON
Phaedra won’t talk to me, Mother, and it’s almost time to leave.
MARTHA POCKLINGTON
What did you do to her, Ernest?
ERNEST POCKLINGTON
Nothing. She’s been angry with me ever since Adam Goodman arrived.
MARTHA POCKLINGTON
That young man has certainly stirred things up around here.
ERNEST POCKLINGTON
I think Desiree’s in love with him, and Constance thinks he’s a bad omen or something.
MARTHA POCKLINGTON
He’s an orphan, like Phaedra.
ERNEST POCKLINGTON
Yes. She said he was like a brother, and that he was losing his freedom, like she has.
MARTHA POCKLINGTON
Poor Phaedra, trapped in our strange family.
ERNEST POCKLINGTON
She’s had the best of everything, Mother.
MARTHA POCKLINGTON
But no freedom, no adventure.
ERNEST POCKLINGTON No. The only one who’s sought freedom is Evangeline, and she brought freedom back with her in the form of Adam Goodman.
MARTHA POCKLINGTON
There. Now you understand why Phaedra won’t talk to you.
(She exits.)
ERNEST POCKLINGTON
Where the devil are my children?
(PHAEDRA POCKLINGTON enters)
PHAEDRA POCKLINGTON
I’m not going on the airship.
ERNEST POCKLINGTON
Phaedra…
PHAEDRA POCKLINGTON
I’m not going.
ERNEST POCKLINGTON
Phaedra, what are you talking about?
PHAEDRA POCKLINGTON
I’d rather die here than go to that colony as a slave to your family.
ERNEST POCKLINGTON
You’re not a slave!
PHAEDRA POCKLINGTON
Yes I am. You bought me when I was little more than a child. You kept me. And now I don’t want to be kept anymore.
ERNEST POCKLINGTON
All right, I won’t keep you anymore.
PHAEDRA POCKLINGTON
Thank you.
ERNEST POCKLINGTON
But I will ask you to be my companion at the colony.
PHAEDRA POCKLINGTON
Companion?
ERNEST POCKLINGTON
My companion. Someone who’ll be beside me, not beneath me.
PHAEDRA POCKLINGTON
I’ll only go to that colony on one condition.
ERNEST POCKLINGTON
All right.
PHAEDRA POCKLINGTON
I’ll go if I can be on my own, to make my own way, as my own woman.
ERNEST POCKLINGTON
You mean to no longer be married to me?
PHAEDRA POCKLINGTON
Yes.
ERNEST POCKLINGTON
But the children…
PHAEDRA POCKLINGTON
They’re not really children any more.
ERNEST POCKLINGTON
But they’re so young.
PHAEDRA POCKLINGTON
They’re both capable of having babies, and that’s what they’ll be busy doing.
ERNEST POCKLINGTON
And you?
PHAEDRA POCKLINGTON
I’ll be busy being free, for the first time in my life.
ERNEST POCKLINGTON
All right, Phaedra, if that’s really what you want.
PHAEDRA POCKLINGTON
It’s what I want.
(CONSTANCE POCKLINGTON enters)
CONSTANCE POCKLINGTON
Father, Mother, Desiree’s gone and done something stupid.
ERNEST POCKLINGTON
What?
CONSTANCE POCKLINGTON
I saw her running across the field towards the river.
PHAEDRA POCKLINGTON
The river?
CONSTANCE POCKLINGTON
Adam Goodman was over there, sitting by the water.
ERNEST POCKLINGTON
What did she want with Adam Goodman?
CONSTANCE POCKLINGTON
I followed her and watched. She talked with him for a bit, then tried to hug him and he had to push her away.
ERNEST POCKLINGTON
She’s just a child! What is she thinking!
PHAEDRA POCKLINGTON
She thinks she’s in love with him, Ernest.
ERNEST POCKLINGTON
What did she do after he pushed her away?
CONSTANCE POCKLINGTON
She ran off into the forest.
PHAEDRA POCKLINGTON
Didn’t either of you follow her?
CONSTANCE POCKLINGTON
Adam followed her for a bit, then gave up. She’s so fast, Father, like a deer.
ERNEST POCKLINGTON
Has she come back?
CONSTANCE POCKLINGTON
No. She’s disappeared.
PHAEDRA POCKLINGTON
Then we must go and find her or she’ll miss the airship.
CONSTANCE POCKLINGTON
We wouldn’t leave her here, would we?
ERNEST POCKLINGTON
Constance, the world is going to end tonight. Whoever’s on the airship lives, whoever doesn’t dies!
PHAEDRA POCKLINGTON
Don’t worry, Constance, we’ll find her.
ERNEST POCKLINGTON
I think I know where she might be. I’ll be back within the hour.
(He exits.)
CONSTANCE POCKLINGTON
I knew Adam Goodman would bring bad luck to us all.
PHAEDRA POCKLINGTON
It’s not his fault, Constance. Desiree is just afraid. She doesn’t really know what she’s doing.
CONSTANCE POCKLINGTON
I’m afraid, but I don’t go around trying to make love to Adam Goodman.
PHAEDRA POCKLINGTON
No, but you talk about him as if you were a superstitious peasant from bygone ages.
CONSTANCE POCKLINGTON
You’re right. I suppose fear manifests in many strange ways.
PHAEDRA POCKLINGTON
My fear made me choose slavery over freedom.
CONSTANCE POCKLINGTON
Should we go look for Desiree?
PHAEDRA POCKLINGTON
Your father will find her.
CONSTANCE POCKLINGTON
I can’t stand this waiting, this uncertainty.
PHAEDRA POCKLINGTON
I almost decided not to go with you.
CONSTANCE POCKLINGTON
What do you mean, Mother?
PHAEDRA POCKLINGTON
I almost abandoned you and Desiree and your father.
CONSTANCE POCKLINGTON
But you’d be burned to death if you didn’t go.
PHAEDRA POCKLINGTON
I don’t really believe that the world is going to end tonight.
CONSTANCE POCKLINGTON
But we’ve been getting ready for years.
PHAEDRA POCKLINGTON
I’ve never believed it, but I’ll go on the airship anyway.
CONSTANCE POCKLINGTON
Good, because whether the world ends or not, I want you with me on the airship, Mother.
PHAEDRA POCKLINGTON
I suppose I better pack a few things, now I’ve decided to go.
CONSTANCE POCKLINGTON
I’ll help.
(They exit.)
End of Scene.
Adam and Evangeline by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Act Two, Scene 5:
(HORATIO and PROMETHEUS BRIDGEBURN enter with LYSANDER ENDERFALL.)
LYSANDER ENDERFALL
So there’s a storm brewing?
HORATIO BRIDGEBURN
I know enough about meteorology to know it’s going to be a big one.
PROMETHEUS BRIDGEBURN
It’s a sign that the world really is going to end.
LYSANDER ENDERFALL
But summer storms aren’t unusual.
HORATIO BRIDGEBURN
This one’s huge, Lysander, the biggest I’ve ever predicted.
LYSANDER ENDERFALL
And you’re sure?
HORATIO BRIDGEBURN
All the signs are there. Just look at the cloud formations.
PROMETHEUS BRIDGEBURN
So we’re doing the right thing, Uncle Lysander, going in the airship.
HORATIO BRIDGEBURN
Will the airship be able to fly through a storm that size?
LYSANDER ENDERFALL
It’s designed to handle strong updrafts. I’m not so sure about lightning, but we’re going to have to risk it.
HORATIO BRIDGEBURN
We’ll take our chances with lightning. It’s better than being stuck down here when the eruptions begin.
LYSANDER ENDERFALL
Has there been seismic activity?
PROMETHEUS BRIDGEBURN
Just very small tremors. But those often precede major earthquakes.
LYSANDER ENDERFALL
Right. I’m going to make final preparations. Thank you, Horatio.
(He exits.)
HORATIO BRIDGEBURN
Lightning worries me, Prometheus. The airship’s full of hydrogen.
PROMETHEUS BRIDGEBURN
We’ll be all right, Father. The airship’s gas bags are very strong and there’s hardly any chance of leakage.
(AMELIA and ATHENA BRIDGEBURN enter.)
AMELIA BRIDGEBURN
Did you tell Lysander about the storm?
HORATIO BRIDGEBURN
Yes, Amelia.
AMELIA BRIDGEBURN
And he still wants to fly the airship?
HORATIO BRIDGEBURN
Yes.
ATHENA BRIDGEBURN
I’m not going. Not in a storm.
AMELIA BRIDGEBURN
It’ll be ten thousand times worse down here than up there, Athena.
ATHENA BRIDGEBURN
We’re going to die tonight. All of us.
PROMETHEUS BRIDGEBURN
No we’re not. That’s why we’re going on the airship.
ATHENA BRIDGEBURN
That airship won’t save us. Nothing will. The world is going to end, and we’re going to end with it.
AMELIA BRIDGEBURN
Athena, you must pull yourself together.
ATHENA BRIDGEBURN
Why? What’s the use of pulling myself together? What’s the use of anything? I’m going mad, Mother, can’t you see that?
HORATIO BRIDGEBURN
Amelia, get some laudanum from the medical chest and give it to her.
ATHENA BRIDGEBURN
No! I won’t take it! I want to be awake when the world ends!
AMELIA BRIDGEBURN
Horatio, it’s best if she’s not given laudanum. It makes her hallucinate.
PROMETHEUS BRIDGEBURN
Athena, we’ve done everything we can to get to safety tonight. Please trust us.
ATHENA BRIDGEBURN
You’re mad. We’re all mad. This is a nightmare, a crazy dream! I just want to get away from you all!
(She exits.)
HORATIO BRIDGEBURN
Prometheus, follow her until she exhausts herself from running, then bring her back.
PROMETHEUS BRIDGEBURN
Yes, Father.
(He exits.)
AMELIA BRIDGEBURN
I’m exhausted, Horatio.
HORATIO BRIDGEBURN
We all are, and the adventure has not yet begun.
AMELIA BRIDGEBURN
Do you honestly think we’ll survive?
HORATIO BRIDGEBURN
I honestly don’t know.
AMELIA BRIDGEBURN
You know, I think Athena’s right. I think we are mad.
HORATIO BRIDGEBURN
If we’re mad, we’re too far gone to get back to sanity.
AMELIA BRIDGEBURN
I wander what lies on the other side of madness?
HORATIO BRIDGEBURN
We’ll see when we get there, won’t we?
AMELIA BRIDGEBURN
Perhaps I should go with Prometheus and help him fetch Athena back.
HORATIO BRIDGEBURN
Yes, perhaps you should.
AMELIA BRIDGEBURN
Do you regret marrying an Enderfall, Horatio?
HORATIO BRIDGEBURN
You know, I always forget you’re Lysander’s sister.
AMELIA BRIDGEBURN
But I am his sister. I brought you into the Enderfall family.
HORATIO BRIDGEBURN
No regrets, Amelia. None. You’re wonderful. Now go find our daughter.
AMELIA BRIDGEBURN
Not much time left.
(She exits.)
HORATIO BRIDGEBURN
Not much time left.
(He exits.)
End of Scene.
Adam and Evangeline by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Act Two, Scene 6:
(HELEN TOLSTOY enters with MERILEE.)
HELEN TOLSTOY
You must brace yourself, Merilee. Soon, we will mount the airship.
MERILEE TOLSTOY
I’m frightened, Mother.
HELEN TOLSTOY
Nonsense. You’re just anxious, which is not the same thing at all.
MERILEE TOLSTOY
Call it what you will, I can hardly move.
HELEN TOLSTOY
We all become anxious when facing something new, Merilee. But we overcome our fears by breathing deeply, squaring our shoulders, and plunging ahead.
MERILEE TOLSTOY
So many nights of terrible dreams, Mother. So many times I’ve fallen, burning, through the terrible scorched air.
HELEN TOLSTOY
Dreams are no more real than ghosts, Merilee. You should enjoy them; they are nocturnal entertainment.
MERILEE TOLSTOY
Aren’t you even the least bit afraid, Mother?
HELEN TOLSTOY
Certainly not. I have thought everything out carefully, and the last vestiges of fear have long since fled from my psyche.
MERILEE TOLSTOY
Prometheus Bridgeburn says there’s going to be a storm tonight.
HELEN TOLSTOY
Well I should say so. Magma pouring through the earth’s crust, boiling seas. Yes, a storm indeed.
MERILEE TOLSTOY
No, a thunder storm, with lightning and rain and hail and wind.
HELEN TOLSTOY
Well, I suppose a climactic upheaval is to be expected.
MERILEE TOLSTOY
The airship will be buffeted about like a ping pong ball.
HELEN TOLSTOY
According to Mr. Lysander Enderfall, the airship is built to exacting specifications, and can withstand anything nature can throw at it.
MERILEE TOLSTOY
But who will drive it?
HELEN TOLSTOY
Mr. Lysander Enderfall himself. He’s very excited about it, like a boy with a new toy.
MERILEE TOLSTOY
But it’s not a toy.
HELEN TOLSTOY
No, indeed, but I should think he’ll do very nicely. He told me he’s simulated flying the thing for many days now, going over all the details in his mind.
MERILEE TOLSTOY
I think he’s mad, Mother. I think you’re mad too.
HELEN TOLSTOY
Stuff and nonsense, Merilee, stuff and nonsense. I’m in full command of my faculties, as is Mr. Enderfall. He’s a fine man, the sort I would choose as a husband if he were available.
MERILEE TOLSTOY
Is he like Father used to be, Mother?
HELEN TOLSTOY
No, no, your father was a weak sort of man. I took pity on him and married him, and he died soon after.
(JENNY BARKER and VICTOR FALSTAFF enter.)
JENNY BARKER
Mrs. Tolstoy! Are you and Merilee packed for the journey?
HELEN TOLSTOY
We’ve stowed our small allotment of mementos, Mrs. Barker.
MERILEE TOLSTOY
It seems silly to bring anything, for we are bound to crash.
HELEN TOLSTOY
Merilee, let’s have no more of your doomsday predictions. Dreams are not prophecies.
VICTOR FALSTAFF
I’m worried about my razor.
HELEN TOLSTOY
Your razor, Mr. Falstaff?
VICTOR FALSTAFF
Yes, my razor. What am I going to do up there in the arctic when the blade wears out?
JENNY BARKER
Sharpen it, Mr. Falstaff.
VICTOR FALSTAFF
It’s a safety razor, the only kind I care to use. The blade cannot be sharpened.
JENNY BARKER
Perhaps you can scrape off your beard with a bit of flint, or a shard of bone, Mr. Falstaff.
VICTOR FALSTAFF
I won’t shave with anything but a safety razor.
HELEN TOLSTOY
I daresay you’ll look dashing with a full beard, Mr. Falstaff.
JENNY BARKER
I like a beard on a man.
HELEN TOLSTOY
But not on a lady.
MERILEE TOLSTOY
Why are you all talking about such silly things?
JENNY BARKER
To pass the time, Merilee, to pass the time.
VICTOR FALSTAFF
Soon, we’ll be on that damned airship, and we’ll have to be very serious for a bit.
JENNY BARKER
I’ve boiled some eggs for the journey, and made some ham sandwiches and some vacuum flasks full of cocoa. There’s no cooking allowed on the airship, you know.
MERILEE TOLSTOY
Why not, Mrs. Barker?
JENNY BARKER
The hydrogen, my girl, the hydrogen. It’s flammable, you see. One spark, and whoosh!
MERILEE TOLSTOY
The airship burns in my dreams!
HELEN TOLSTOY
Don’t be daft, girl. Mr. Lysander Enderfall has assured me that hydrogen will not leak from the bag no matter what befalls us.
VICTOR FALSTAFF
The rules against cooking and smoking are just extra precautions to make a safe journey even safer.
JENNY BARKER
Well said, Mr. Falstaff, well said.
VICTOR FALSTAFF
We’ll be up to the arctic in no time, and then we can light all the fires we want and smoke whatever bits of tobacco we have left.
MERILEE TOLSTOY
But don’t you see how silly it all is? We’ll be floating above a million fires and sparks in a little ship full of hydrogen. We’re bound to explode!
JENNY BARKER
I’ve been told we’ll be far, far above all that, up, up, up in the sky, almost touching the stars.
HELEN TOLSTOY
Not so high as that, Mrs. Barker. We must be able to breathe.
VICTOR FALSTAFF
Mr. Lysander Enderfall has installed oxygen tanks in case the air gets too thin.
JENNY BARKER
Then we shall rise and rise until the fires are nothing but a dot far beneath us.
VICTOR FALSTAFF
There’s even parachutes.
MERILEE TOLSTOY
What good will those do if there’s nothing to land on but spewing magma?
JENNY BARKER
Spewing what?
MERILEE TOLSTOY
Magma! Mother said there’d be magma!
HELEN TOLSTOY
Molten rock.
VICTOR FALSTAFF
Molten rock? I don’t like the sound of that.
HELEN TOLSTOY
We’ll be far above it.
JENNY BARKER
And a good thing, too. You don’t want to get too close to molten rock.
VICTOR FALSTAFF
What do you know about it, Mrs. Barker?
JENNY BARKER
Why, anyone with half an ounce of imagination can picture what would happen if you were to do a swan dive into molten rock, Mr. Falstaff.
HELEN TOLSTOY
Your clothes would evaporate, and you would be reduced to ash in a few seconds.
MERILEE TOLSTOY
I’m so very frightened. In fact, I’m terrified!
VICTOR FALSTAFF
There, there, little kiddy, we’re all frightened. That’s why we’re talking this way.
JENNY BARKER
What I wouldn’t give to be back in the arms of my poor old mum.
HELEN TOLSTOY
Come now, none of this! We’re part of the British Empire! Show some pluck! Square the shoulders and forward march! Come along, we shall take a brisk walk around the grounds to help us strengthen our sagging spirits!
JENNY BARKER
Yes, a good walk would help right now. Nothing like a brisk stroll to make the blood flow and drive out the little demons of fear.
MERILEE TOLSTOY
This is all so dreadful.
(They exit, determined to march away their terror.)
End of Scene.
Adam and Evangeline by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Act Two, Scene 7:
(DESIREE POCKLINGTON enters with ADAM GOODMAN.)
DESIREE POCKLINGTON
Thank you for finding me and bringing me home, Mr. Goodman.
ADAM GOODMAN
Adam.
DESIREE POCKLINGTON
Adam.
ADAM GOODMAN
Your family will be worried about you.
DESIREE POCKLINGTON
I’ve made so much trouble for everyone, haven’t I.
ADAM GOODMAN
You’re just frightened.
DESIREE POCKLINGTON
We might all die tonight.
ADAM GOODMAN
That’s how I felt every day I was in the trenches in France.
DESIREE POCKLINGTON
How did you find the courage to keep going?
ADAM GOODMAN
I just made myself do one thing after another, like a machine.
DESIREE POCKLINGTON
And that gave you courage?
ADAM GOODMAN
No, but it got things done. And getting things done is very important, because it keeps us from madness.
DESIREE POCKLINGTON
It’s too late for me. I think I’m already mad.
ADAM GOODMAN
Everyone here thinks that. You’ve all adopted a culture of madness for some reason.
DESIREE POCKLINGTON
It’s because of the end of the world.
ADAM GOODMAN
Yes, the end of some sort of world, but exactly what world, I don’t know.
DESIREE POCKLINGTON
I may as well tell you that I’m in love with you.
ADAM GOODMAN
Well, that’s very flattering, but I think if you explore your feelings carefully, you’ll see that you’re not in love with me. You just need to pretend you are.
DESIREE POCKLINGTON
Why would I do that?
ADAM GOODMAN
To take your mind off your fear. We all do that sort of thing at times like this.
DESIREE POCKLINGTON
Are you making fun of me?
ADAM GOODMAN
Certainly not. I take any young lady’s declaration of love very seriously.
DESIREE POCKLINGTON
I’m only fourteen.
ADAM GOODMAN
How wonderful to be so young.
DESIREE POCKLINGTON
I don’t see why I shouldn’t make love with someone if I’m going to die anyway.
ADAM GOODMAN
Desiree, there’s right and there’s wrong, and no matter what’s about to happen to us all, it would never, ever be right for me to make love to you. Ever.
DESIREE POCKLINGTON
I see. You don’t want me.
ADAM GOODMAN
That’s not what I said, but you’re right. I don’t want you because it would be wrong. And that’s that.
(EVE ENDERFALL enters.)
EVE ENDERFALL
Desiree, are you ready to go aboard the airship?
DESIREE POCKLINGTON
Yes, cousin Evangeline, I’m ready.
EVE ENDERFALL
You look very pretty today.
DESIREE POCKLINGTON
I’m fourteen. I’m old enough to have a baby. Perhaps in a few months, I’ll have one. But your fiancé won’t be the father.
EVE ENDERFALL
No, he won’t be the father, Desiree.
DESIREE POCKLINGTON
I wonder who will.
(She exits.)
EVE ENDERFALL
It’s almost time, Adam.
ADAM GOODMAN
Yes, Eve. They’ll soon be clambering aboard the ship.
EVE ENDERFALL
They have to. All of them.
ADAM GOODMAN
Every last one of them.
EVE ENDERFALL
Nothing could make them stop.
ADAM GOODMAN
Like the tide going out, they must leave.
EVE ENDERFALL
How do you suppose it all happened?
ADAM GOODMAN
It started with an idea that became a belief, and a belief that became a way of life, and a way of life that became a journey on an airship.
EVE ENDERFALL
We must be careful with ideas, for once they become beliefs, they control our destiny.
ADAM GOODMAN
Yes. We humans have a remarkable ability to convince ourselves that ideas are reality.
EVE ENDERFALL
I brought you here to show you why I ran away from my family.
ADAM GOODMAN
You did it for the same reason they’re running away tonight.
EVE ENDERFALL
Yes. My family was burning with madness, and I had to run away or be burned myself.
ADAM GOODMAN
You brought me to your family, but you’re not really part of them any longer.
EVE ENDERFALL
No. I am separate from them, but I feel them pulling at me, urging me onto the airship.
ADAM GOODMAN
They want you to fulfill your duty, just as my commanding officers wanted me to fulfill mine.
EVE ENDERFALL
To refuse to do what others expect is the hardest thing in the world.
ADAM GOODMAN
And the second hardest is having no expectations of others.
EVE ENDERFALL
Do you wish we were going on the airship?
ADAM GOODMAN
Only if it would ease your suffering.
EVE ENDERFALL
I will suffer no matter what I do, because I am determined student of truth, which makes me sane, and sanity is a cold and beautiful sort of pain.
ADAM GOODMAN
We will be students of truth together, always.
EVE ENDERFALL
Together, always.
(The rest of the cast enters and form a group of tableaux in logical groupings.)
PERSEPHONE ENDERFALL
A storm is brewing. The time has come to leave. We must embark on the airship, and begin our journey. This is what we have chosen. This is what we must do. I am proud of all of you, and I love you.
LYSANDER ENDEFALL
My mother has given everything to make this dream of salvation come true. Do not fear. We go to a better place.
PERSEPHONE ENDERFALL
Onward, then, to the airship, which awaits us, and which will carry us skyward, away from all this, and towards the new world.
(All the cast except ADAM and EVANGELINE turn upstage and become very still in the shadows.)
EVE ENDERFALL
Do you think they noticed us slip away?
ADAM GOODMAN
If they did, they had the superb kindness and good sense not to mention it.
EVE ENDERFALL
I feel the cold, beautiful pain of sanity. Do you?
ADAM GOODMAN
Yes, we have left the human race. We are apart from them now and alone.
EVE ENDERFALL
The airship is rising up.
ADAM GOODMAN
The sky is darkening.
EVE ENDERFALL
There is lightning.
ADAM GOODMAN
So much lightning.
(The stage darkens and flashes of red occur. The stage lightens.)
EVE ENDERFALL
The ship has been struck.
ADAM GOODMAN
It bursts into light like a star.
EVE ENDERFALL
All on board have perished.
ADAM GOODMAN
You and I are the last ones alive.
EVE ENDERFALL
And truth created man and woman.
ADAM GOODMAN
And they saw that they were naked.
EVE ENDERFALL
And they were not ashamed.
ADAM and EVANGELINE
Adam and Evangeline.
END OF PLAY.