Parchment Scratchings

"The one who is destroyed will be rebuilt" From Cage To Cage by AC Part Two

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 00:47:12 GMT

After some consideration I am posting the Love scene and the rest of Act One Today as well. Why the hell not. Seems that I have imitated Shakespeare even more here, with the interplay between the two attracted parties being played out in Rhyme as the first meetings between most of the Shakespeare lovers did. I'm not saying mine are as good, but I'm not embarrassed by this bit at all.

Act One Scene Three

(The Sickbed)

(Robert is in bed. Enter Attendants and Doctor Adam. The doctor is tied to his chair, next to the bed, exit attendants with the mirror)

Robert: And yet…

Doctor: Poor soul, how distressed he is. Hear how he ignores my every word. He is, I feel, searching for the words to release him from his madness and into our world again. Alas! That the world I am charged to return him to would be more to his liking. I fear instead that his wife would have him disappear into this room forever, rather than let him leave a content man. She is a cursed woman. All that meet her tremble and whisper that she hath sent him mad with guilt, fear and shame, brought on by her fits of jealousy and self-destructive conceit. He talks, in his madness, to one Ross: the name of his pet dog though his form, rising from the body of a disturbed, bed-ridden gentleman like Robert seemed that of a god, or a vengeful angel. Which form will this vengeance take? I cannot tell. I merely know that in this I spoke false: I heard their speech and know that this revenge is coming, and the one who is destroyed will be rebuilt. With this fear comes this hope; he shall be saved by none but the strength within his own form. And that shall be enough to ensure his cure. The indignity I suffer with these bonds does not my work make harder, but rather it makes the cure easier. I am done with fighting the invisible, and must help the real. A doctor cures the ill to health once more, when a man can’t keep his self from death’s door.

Act One Scene Four

(Robert’s house)

(Enter Ross from mirror)

Ross: The good doctor has been kind to my friend and I, causing my escape by his fear and shock at my appearance. Named after a dog, am I? Well, dogs have teeth and this one will bite to save its master. Ha! I am a dog and all shall know sent by my master’s voice I will go.

(Enter Rosaline)

Rosaline: How now sir. From where have you now appeared? My sister has not invited you here. I beg you leave this place and dine elsewhere.

Ross: Thy sister I hear is easy to bear.

Rosaline: I know not where thou hast heard that my friend.

Ross: I am here now for a purpose and end.

My brother is mad, or so I do hear.

Rosaline: Your hearing is true, marry it doth appear,

that he is mad, but pray tell me you this;

if you are brother, you are none of his.

His brothers are dead, they died long ago.

Ross: But I am a brother he does not know.

(Enter Sophia)

Sophia: Who art thou? Leave this place villain, now go!

Rosaline: This is my brothers, brother. By what chance I cannot tell but he is here to see thy husband. Perchance the Doctor was right.

Sophia: Right he may have been, but deserved my spite. My husband is mine to attend, his brother must away. Get thee gone, fool. I will send for you if I feel it is worthwhile.

Ross: I go now, but will return soon. I must seek some house in which to stay. Have you room to spare?

Rosaline: The room next to mine.

Sophia: Stay out of this house or perish in time.

(She chases him off stage. Rosaline exits, clearly upset)

Sophia: Aha! My sister hopes to thwart me by falling in love. But our father chose me to choose her husband, knowing I was clearer of heart than he and herself, and so it is my bidding that will make her happiness or leave her lonely. This will I do, for it is not fair for me to suffer alone while others love and are loved. Let me destroy all love, so that my husbands will not seem lesser that the rest.

Pray that god grant him some wisdom to see, my need far stronger than his love for me.

That shall keep him here.

(Enter Servant)

Servant: Mistress, my master has woken, and speechless untied the doctor from his place. I wonder much that you would treat the master’s guests this way. I am no servant of yours. I serve him and thus I must protest your treatment of a great friend.

Sophia: A friend that oft kept him from my bed feasting in the night? This doctor is to blame for poisoning my husband against me. He deserves more shame than I could bestow.

Servant: Come mistress quickly pray, let us now go!
(Exeunt)

Act one scene five

(enter Ross)

Ross: And so we meet the wife of my friend and brother. Her pain is easy to see, though her reasoning is as clear as trying to see a pin through a brick wall. Her anger consumes her heart and denies her peace in mind. I wonder that she is not herself taken for mad. Onwards. To the library to seek answers of science to my friends cure. Towards science now do I make my way, to seek what the books of knowledge may say.

(Exit)

"The future cannot be built on a shifting past" - From Cage To Cage by AC Part One

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 00:20:36 GMT

The purpose of this branch of the blogosphere is small, purely to save me OpenID-ing all the time and to post my writing and get help decide which bits to crack on with. You get a special treat first off which is the first two scenes of a play written while I was an alcoholic. Witness the damage first hand! I think you can tell.

It was written during a tough period as you can tell, and its worth mentioning that this was before I was married (or even engaged) though I was in a long term relationship at the time. I remember vividly waking up one morning after a night of blind pissitude and the whole complete Ross and Robert Duologue that makes up Act One, Scene One was on the screen waiting for me. In retrospect the Shakespearian obsession seems a little silly now, but be gentle with that. Some of the dialogue is far better than it should be considering.

It's copyright me, but why you'd want to steal it I don't know. If I get any nice words about it I'll post a little more and may even finish it off (dialogue stalled in the middle of act three but the whole plot was outlined for the rest). While you may not think to look at it here, it does have a happy ending of sorts.

Prologue

(As the audience enter, the prologue, preferably the play’s director, sits centre stage with house lights up. He reads from a book, presumably this script. As he starts the prologue he stands. Leaving the book behind)

Prologue: Oh that these four walls could melt (house lights down). Melt and reveal other worlds, rich in delight, and deceit. Worlds, full of the brave and the meek, the powerful and the strong. And that we could watch these mighty events unfold with no more consequence to ourselves than the feeling of wonder at this freedom’s very existence. Oh that this poor play, and these poor players could even begin to unfold one tenth’s tenth of the feeling, and the failings of these great events. A man there was, a great man. This man had but one weakness, a woman so cold as to freeze his heart and leave him weak and enfeebled. And so it remained for long times until a wanderer came to save his heart and renew his grace, and in so doing receive what little peace such wanderers may. These tidings do little to encompass all the movements of heart and mind, but in their performance, may we hope to understand the unfolding world, and love it, as Robert came to.

Please be of kind heart, and be of good mirth. All tale-tellers must start upon this earth

Act One Scene Nought

(A Cave in the mountain)

(Albrecht, Norda and Jivion are onstage. They are a gestalt, that is, between them they are one person. Their speech runs into each other and they constantly interrupt and jostle for position around Albrecht, who is always in the middle of the two spirits. Sometimes there are flurries of movement, but others when they all sit still.)

Albrecht: The very thing he covets destroys the searcher for love.

Norda: Its very discovery is the end of its mystery and beauty.

Jivion: His heart is broken his life is ended and all he wants is to free himself from love forever.

Albrecht: He hates it and needs it, dreams it and is haunted by it.

Norda: Leaving the world behind he splits into two, one to suffer, one to cure.

Jivion: His doctor sits by his bedside, despairing of any cure, while wife and friends have given up all hope.

Albrecht: But it is his wife, coveting him as one holds a possession in high esteem, who chooses to place herself at the helm of the sinking ship, dictating one failed treatment after another, and all to no avail.

Norda: Yet still she controls.

Jivion: Need over love.

Albrecht: Love for power over all else.

Norda: He is a prisoner in a beautiful cage, with nowhere to go but into another such prison.

Jivion: The winner loses.

Albrecht: And yet…

(Runs straight into Ross’ speech)

Act One, Scene One

(Ross’s place)

Ross: Now we address the problem. Two people featured in a three man show. One too many spaces for the parts they have chosen. Perchance a dream woman who loves your discontented mortal manner will call thee to her, and hence away from your wife.

Robert: Who should be the third man? I see only two, myself and her, bound forever by a promise I must keep.

Ross: The third man is love, and always must needs be, when nothing else is provided. Yet, your promise was made by a boy, an idiot lad who himself knows the folly of the deed, and hath regretted it so personally ever since the sorry events unfolded.

Robert: Ha! If I could find that little boy and strangle him with my bare hands…

Ross: The world would be a sorry place indeed, for it would lose your company, and as I have found, your company is not one I wish to regret the passing of. Many a man, in the throes of self indulgent sorrow, hath chosen a path that, if unhindered, would lead them to peril, and others to mourning. But now have I seen you take the first step upon that road, which in so doing, destruction needs must follow after. I say these things not only as your own dear friend, but as an oh too necessary part of yourself that leads you away from such dangers and maybe into lighter times. Do not be angry with me for these small faults of caring, tenderness and love, rather take heed of my voice and pull away from melancholy thoughts to the task in hand. Have you got what you came for?

Robert: More so. I had almost forgot myself before I visited you, my dearest and most trustworthy companion, Ross. If only I had the wisdom when I was younger…

Ross: Yet again he regrets the past. Dear sir, you had my advice and chose to ignore it, taking instead the path with my warning barring the way. Is this not sad? That you chose the existence of marriage and servitude for the rest of your time here? You must truly hate yourself to be burdened thusly by yourself, who has unknowingly placed you in harm’s way to burn or be burned, for the want of affection and love. For god’s love, I know of many women who would gladly cut their own throats for one night in your arms.

Robert (angry now): Then let them cut, and bleed to a lonely, sorry death at my feet. If one night is all they desire they shall not have it, no! Not have more passing of time than it takes for their lusty lives to drain away on the cold, immovable, unemotional granite slabs of my disdain. Nay, if fifty starved wenches [of good breeding and, indeed, sound mind] saw fit to burden me with their promises of devotion I still would not hear aught but the death rattle of a half century of tiring foolish hags, whose very life blood deserves nothing but the freezing air and lingering torment due to them in payment for their folly. (Breaks) I have need of none of these tormentors, whose lives seem hell bent on seizing all for themselves, ‘gainst all other hopes. I have seen those women whose very gaze seems to reflect fire and desire and all things that repulse so it makes me vomit at the very thought. Friend, as a very part of myself I implore you; no longer to throw such throat slitters in my direction. Merely leave me be, to rot in the barbed cage I have for myself devised in the manner of my own choosing, and in the place it is chosen for me.

Ross: I fear, brother, that you have given up.

Robert: What say you? Brother? I have brothers and you are neither, Ross. I have brothers who have often enough been the death of you as well as of myself. They are men of such aspect that we can merely tremble at their feet while they prance around in their socks with their instruments playing at their sides (wearing naught else) and the parents who delivered us all worship at their holy altars and not my small furrow. And yet, this prison, too, is of my own making. They are not what I give them credit for, merely the shadows of that which I so want them to be. Monsters in my sight, and worshipped by those I love, so that I may hate them properly.

Ross: Sometimes, I fear for your sanity. It is not right to see things as they are not, and to create hatreds to occupy one’s time and distract from the issue which should be at hand. What have you heard of the arrangement?

Robert: I hear nothing but what is decided for me.

Ross: Then what is decided? This should not be impossible to answer, as I have accounted for all other questions.

Robert: It is decided that I should be in chains forever.

Ross: That has always been true. What has changed so suddenly to draw you to these thoughts of death and of monsters?

Robert: It is myself that has changed. In as much as I can express, being I think too heavy of heart to express’t further I can only hint at the change that has come about. There are women, Ross.

Ross (aside): How his genius shines through, like the lighthouse at midday! (To Robert) That has always been, my dearest companion.

Robert: It is a strange thing, but I have never really seen them before. These are not the throat slitters, the hags nor are they the demons and monsters. These are angels of the starlight, the lights of those spheres of fire that merely serves to make them more beautiful, the air merely gives me breath to speak to them, and the ground is just a distance between us. But lately the light itself seems to be extinguished, the spheres to cease flaming, the air hangs heavy and the ground is too great within my heart. Between myself and these winged visions of loveliness is a great expanse covered only in pain, populated by all that is grotesque, and rank, and diseased. I would give anything to see them again, and yet I would choose not to if choosing were possible, lest reality shatter the dream and my oh too little heart would falter and the cage become to small to breathe in for want of space to move my chest. Nay, I think I shall leave them in the heart’s memory of that which is too beautiful to exist and yet too painful not to do so. Oh, if it were only possible to distil in the smallest bottle imaginable the tiniest part of the light they had placed in my heart, I would be the richest and happiest man alive, for I would possess that which is priceless – the essence of pure love. Farewell, sweet Ross, my countenance is overcome by these remembrances. I will not tire you further with this talk, lest you too feel the pain of loss that I have suffered by the recent absence of the visions. Farewell!

(Exit)

Ross: It appears our Robert has fallen in love. Even if only with a dream woman, as I foolishly spoke unto him – oh, Ross! (Sits) If you only knew how to help your poor companion in this, the hour of his needing. The first thing is clear. The cage must go. This is easier said than done, for it is fiercely guarded by unspeakable dangers. Yet for my brother (and for my own health, lord knows) I will try to free him from his chains, even if it take until lunchtime, maybe even longer. He must be helped and that at least I will do for him. He gave me a name and in so doing gave me life – what I do with it I must do for his good for without him I am nothing more than an idea in a book, a wisp without shape or form, a beggar for belief and a scavenger for scraps of reality. This must not be. About it, Ross, if thy feet can you take, or else all that we built up will now break.

(Exit)

Act 1 Scene 2
(Robert’s House)

(Enter Sophia, Rosaline, Fleming and attendants)

Sophia: Ah me, Rosaline, that it were not so! His mind is going as surely as the night creeps towards dawn. His dawn will be one fit of madness and he shall be dead by noon, of this I can be sure.

Rosaline: Your certainty disturbs me, sister. If Robert’s mind is going and is therefore not yet beyond retrieval then why should we be so certain of inescapable permanent madness? Certainly he is less like his old self, but you were attached young, and before you were fully formed in mind as well as in spirit. Surely it is merely the refashioning of old minds that have been imprisoned too young. Perhaps it would be best if you were to go separate ways?

Sophia: Your distractions are no match for the simple truth. The marriage is based on needs that must be satisfied or we have no future to build.

Rosaline: The future cannot be built on a shifting past.

Fleming: Here comes the Doctor. He seems petrified. Perhaps he still fails to cure your husband. His continued ineptitudes are disgraceful, my lady.

Sophia: Perhaps. All things will be considered, Fleming.

(Enter Doctor Adam)

Doctor: Madam I pray you not ask me what I just saw but allow me to leave and pursue some patients that are within my powers to heal. Your husband is too distract for me to save.

Sophia: Pray, speak on, Doctor Adam. What is this terror you cannot speak.

Doctor: If I could speak it I would already have done so madam.

Fleming: Out with it old man or I shall lock you with the madman until you beg to tell us.

Doctor: I pray you do not think of me as mad, my ladies, nor that wine has my sound mind destroyed. But as plain as I see you now, I swear I saw two husbands where once there was but one.

Fleming: It must have been a brother you saw.

Sophia: Fool, my husband has no brothers to consort with.

Doctor: Nay I say again – there were two husbands, one the improvement on the original. And they did speak, though I did not make out their words and stole away as I feared myself may turn mad.

Sophia: I say that has already occurred. There is a mirror by his bed, and our good doctor has lost his wits in the face of my husband’s continued impassiveness. Pray, servants, remove this mirror from your master’s room and place the doctor with him until his wits have returned, or departed entirely. A man who mistakes a mirror for a husband is either a drunkard, or a fool. Take the doctor food when he desires it, but do not suffer him to leave until his work is complete and thy master is well again.

(Fleming and Attendants move to take hold of Doctor Adam)

Doctor: Wilt thou condemn a man to madness and death? I pray that your husband awakes from his fit and sees who you really have become since his infirmity. His eye would teach, I think, his feet, and he would take his heels.

Sophia: Away, foolish slave.

(Exeunt Doctor to the sickbed with Fleming and attendants)

Rosaline: Patience, sister!

Sophia: Keep away sister, O keep you away. Or you will suffer for wrongs performed today.

(Exit)

Rosaline: Till my fortune improves, I will obey.

(Exit)

Redirect yourself

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 00:02:22 GMT

Hi! This is not my main blog and I'll be using this purely to post my writing for feedback. Please, if you're interested in movies, philosophy or politics, visit my main blog at <a>wall-shadows.blogspot.com</a>

Parchment Scratchings

"The one who is destroyed will be rebuilt" From Cage To Cage by AC Part Two

Act One Scene Three

Act One Scene Four

Act one scene five

"The future cannot be built on a shifting past" - From Cage To Cage by AC Part One

Act 1 Scene 2(Robert’s House)

Redirect yourself

Act 1 Scene 2
(Robert’s House)