55 Days E-Book

Howard Brenton

• Herausgeber: Nick Hern Books
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Serie: NHB Modern Plays
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 98

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012

Beschreibung

A gripping historical play that dramatises a crucial moment of English history. December 1648. The Army has occupied London. Parliament votes not to put the imprisoned king on trial, so the Army moves against Westminster in the first and only military coup in English history. What follows over the next fifty-five days, as Cromwell seeks to compromise with a king who will do no such thing, is nothing less than the forging of a new nation, an entirely new world. Howard Brenton's play depicts the dangerous and dramatic days when, in a country exhausted by Civil War, a few great men attempt to think the unthinkable: to create a country without a king. 55 Days was first performed at Hampstead Theatre, London, in October 2012, in a production directed by Howard Davies.

Leseprobe

Contents

Title Page

Original Production

Characters

Act One

Act Two

About the Author

Copyright and Performing Rights Information

55 Days was first performed at Hampstead Theatre, London, on 18 October 2012, with the following cast:

LADY FAIRFAX

Abigail Cruttenden

GENERAL IRETON

Daniel Flynn

THOMAS HARRISON

Matthew Flynn

KING CHARLES I

Mark Gatiss

ROBERT HAMMOND

Richard Henders

OLIVER CROMWELL

Douglas Henshall

LORD FAIRFAX

Simon Kunz

JOHN LILBURNE

Gerald Kyd

WILLIAM LENTHALL

John MacKay

TROOPER / AXTELL

Jordan Mifsud

TROOPER / COLONEL PRIDE / PRIEST

Gerard Monaco

MARY COOKE

Laura Rogers

JOHN COOKE / LORD GREY / PRYNNE

Tom Vaughan-Lawlor

CHILLENDEN / EXECUTIONER / TROOPER

Jem Wall

DUKE OF RICHMOND / JOHN BRADSHAW

James Wallace

Director

Howard Davies

Designer

Ashley Martin Davis

Lighting Designer

Rick Fisher

Composer

Dominic Muldowney

Sound Designer

Paul Groothuis

Casting

Gemma Hancock and Sam Stevenson

Characters

OLIVER CROMWELL, Lieutenant General, MP and second-in-command of the Parliamentary Army

KING CHARLES I

LORD THOMAS FAIRFAX, Commander-in-Chief of the Parliamentary Army

LADYANNE FAIRFAX, his wife, a Presbyterian

HENRY IRETON, General in the Parliamentary Army

JOHN LILBURNE, leader of the Levellers, once close to Cromwell

THOMAS HARRISON, Major in the Parliamentary Army, a Republican

ROBERT HAMMOND, gaoler of the King, once a Royalist

DUKE OF RICHMOND, cousin of the King and a Privy Counsellor

WILLIAM LENTHALL, Speaker of the House of Commons

THOMAS PRIDE, Colonel in the Parliamentary Army

JOHN COOKE, lawyer, lead prosecutor at the King’s trial

MARY COOKE, his wife, a Baptist

JOHN BRADSHAW, Judge, President of the High Court at the King’s trial

WILLIAM PRYNNE MP, leader of the Presbyterians

EDMUND CHILLENDEN, ex-soldier, a Leveller

THREE ARMY TROOPERS

DANIEL AXTELL, Captain of the Parliamentary Guard, a Baptist

RICHARD BRANDON, an executioner

A PRIEST

And a MESSENGER, SOLDIERS, SPECTATORS

This text went to press before the end of rehearsals and so may differ slightly from the play as performed.

ACT ONE

Scene One

Hyde Park. Night. It is very cold. The Parliamentary Army is encamped. Three TROOPERS – pikemen from the fens, pikes stacked – huddle before a fire. The FIRST TROOPER is in his teens, the other two are veterans.

FIRST TROOPER. That fire needs a perk-up.

SECOND TROOPER. Best save the wood we have.

FIRST TROOPER. Huh.

They pull their clothing tighter about them then stare at the fire for a while.

There’s that fence. Other side of Park Lane.

SECOND TROOPER. No foraging.

FIRST TROOPER. Half of it’s gone anyway.

SECOND TROOPER. No foraging.

THIRD TROOPER. What’d be the harm?

SECOND TROOPER. You know the ordinance.

THIRD TROOPER. Ah well, an Army ordinance, well, that’s that, there we be. (A pause.) Well. (A pause.) There.

They stare at the fire for a while.

FIRST TROOPER. Rest of that fence’ll be gone by dawn.

THIRD TROOPER. Boy, understand. You cannot steal wood because you are a saint.

FIRST TROOPER. Am I?

THIRD TROOPER. You are! We are all modern saints because we are God’s army, fighting for a new Jerusalem.

SECOND TROOPER. New Jerusalem.

THIRD TROOPER. So look around this camp, boy, what do you see? Half-starved soldiers slumped over tiny fires? No no! Men all but at the end of their tether? Wondering why the cause for Parliament and Commonwealth is still not yet won, and after six years of fights and wreckage up and down poor old England? No no no! You see a host of saints! Shining with God’s purpose! Unpaid, near to mutiny, but saints!

FIRST TROOPER. And bloody freezing.

SECOND TROOPER. Hey!

THIRD TROOPER. No swearing.

SECOND TROOPER. Army ordinance.

FIRST TROOPER. Why, cos we’re saints?

THIRD TROOPER. I do believe the boy is coming to a godly understanding.

The SECOND and THIRD TROOPERS laugh.

JOHN LILBURNE enters. He keeps to the shadows. He is about to approach the TROOPERS but withdraws into shadow when he sees GENERAL IRETON enter, hastening along, head down, avoiding the men.

LILBURNE. Henry.

IRETON whirls round, hand on his sword.

IRETON. John? What are you doing here?

LILBURNE. Come to be with freeborn men.

IRETON. John, go. Before the pickets see you.

LILBURNE. Why is the Army in Hyde Park?

IRETON. None of this concerns you.

LILBURNE. Parliament’s Army, moving on the capital? That concerns every freeborn man.

IRETON. If you go agitating amongst the men tonight, so help me God, despite all that’s been between us, I’ll have the pickets take you to the Fleet in irons.

LILBURNE. ‘All that’s been between us’, Henry? What’s that? Brothers in arms against the King’s Army at Marston Moor, walking side by side up to death? That the ‘that’ you mean?

IRETON. Times change.

LILBURNE. Do they?

IRETON. I appeal to you, John.

A pause.

LILBURNE. Have the Commons voted yet?

IRETON. I cannot...

LILBURNE. Just tell me, man! Have they voted for the King’s trial?

IRETON. The last dispatcher from Westminster said they are still debating.

LILBURNE. And if the vote goes against the will of the Army Council?

IRETON. We wait upon the hand of the Lord.

LILBURNE. What does Oliver say?

IRETON stares at him.

I want to see him.

IRETON. He’s not here.

LILBURNE is taken aback.

LILBURNE. Not here?

IRETON. John, so help me, if you do not leave this place, I will arrest you! Now!

LILBURNE (steps back). May God stay your hand tonight, General Ireton.

IRETON. No, may He move it.

LILBURNE backs away into the dark. IRETON exits. The TROOPERS stare at the fire for a while.

SECOND TROOPER. Saw Old Ironsides catch a man foraging. Before the fight at Marston Moor. Eggs, six eggs, that’s all, stolen from some farm. Dear Lord, what he did to that man.

FIRST TROOPER. What, he hit him?

SECOND TROOPER. Far, far worse. He used words. It were like he tore out that thief’s soul and threw it down. I swear I saw his soul die there before us, on the grass. Then Ol’ Ironsides told him to go and never return to the Army.

THIRD TROOPER. And where is he now?

SECOND TROOPER. Who knows? Some corner of Hell, eating eggs for eternity?

The FIRST TROOPER laughs.

THIRD TROOPER. I mean Old Ironsides. Where is our Lieutenant General Oliver Cromwell?

Unease.

FIRST TROOPER. I heard say he’s still in the north.

THIRD TROOPER. The fighting in the north’s all but done.

SECOND TROOPER. He’ll be here with us.

THIRD TROOPER. Tell you what I think...

SECOND TROOPER. I don’t care to know what you think!

THIRD TROOPER. I think...

WILLIAM LENTHALL crosses the stage quickly, protecting his head against the rain.

FIRST TROOPER (interrupting the THIRD TROOPER). Who’s that?

SECOND TROOPER. I know him, he was good to me once. Speaker Lenthall. Mr Speaker, God be with you!

LENTHALL. And with you, trooper! (Stops.) Is it Michael Savage?

SECOND TROOPER. Yes, Mr Speaker.

LENTHALL. Glad to see you in health, Michael.

THIRD TROOPER. Master Lenthall, have the Commons voted?

LENTHALL. They have.

THIRD TROOPER. And how?

LENTHALL. Against the motion.

The TROOPERS are lost.

SECOND TROOPER. Against?

LENTHALL. Against bringing the King to trial.

SECOND TROOPER. But how can that be?

THIRD TROOPER. By what number of votes?

LENTHALL. Eighty-three for the King to be tried. One hundred and twenty-nine against.

SECOND TROOPER. How can that be?

THIRD TROOPER. It’s the Presbyterians...

SECOND TROOPER. In the name of God and all His Saints, how can that be!?

LENTHALL. Free men in Parliament freely cast their votes.

THIRD TROOPER. The Presbyterians.

LENTHALL. A free vote in a free Parliament, is that not what we’ve fought for all these years?

SECOND TROOPER. Aye, but not in a Parliament of fanatics!

LENTHALL (turns on him). Respect the Commons, Michael!

SECOND TROOPER. I’ll respect the House of Commons but not the men in it!

THIRD TROOPER. The Presbyterians will bring back the King’s tyranny!

LENTHALL. Trooper, we must pray for a settlement in these matters.

THIRD TROOPER. There’s only one settlement for Charles Stuart. (Gesture across his throat.)

LENTHALL. Hush now. That’s treason.

THIRD TROOPER. The treason’s all with Charles Stuart! At war with the people of England these past six years!

LENTHALL. MPs shouting at me, now it’s soldiers, it’s the night for it!

He exits.

THIRD TROOPER. Dear God above, help us, we’re going in.

SECOND TROOPER. No.

THIRD TROOPER. The Army Council moved us down into London to frighten the MPs. But they’ve not took fright. We’re going in.

SECOND TROOPER. Oliver will never let that happen.

THIRD TROOPER. But he’s not here, is he!

FIRST TROOPER. Going in where?

SECOND TROOPER. Into Parliament.

FIRST TROOPER. To do what?

THIRD TROOPER. Arrest the MPs who won’t vote for the King’s trial.

FIRST TROOPER. But we’re... we’re Parliament’s Army. Sworn to protect Parliament. How can we go and fight it?

THIRD TROOPER. It’s called politics, boy.

LORD THOMAS FAIRFAX enters. He loops across the stage. The SECOND TROOPER stands at once.

SECOND TROOPER. Look to yourselves.

TROOPERS stand, hands raised in greeting – not salutes.

TROOPERS. My Lord Commander! / My Lord! / God be with you, My Lord!

FAIRFAX. And with all of us, this night.

SECOND TROOPER. My Lord, we have heard of the vote.

FAIRFAX. The Devil gives bad news wings.

THIRD TROOPER. Are we to move against Parliament, My Lord?

All are still.

FAIRFAX. We are to look to our prayers, trooper. There lies our guidance.

TROOPERS. Amen.

FAIRFAX turns away. IRETON, entering, waylays him.

IRETON. My Lord.

FAIRFAX. General Ireton.

IRETON. We must not delay...

FAIRFAX and IRETON exit.

SECOND TROOPER. Lord Thomas Fairfax! Black Tom. A great man.

FIRST TROOPER. He don’t look so black. More... sallow.

SECOND TROOPER. What?

FIRST TROOPER. His skin. Looks sallow.

SECOND TROOPER. If you had the burden of that man, you’d have no skin left on at all. Be a walkin’ skeleton.

THIRD TROOPER. I never stomached an aristocrat-cum-landowner commanding God-fearing common men.

SECOND TROOPER. I tell you that man has the wrath of God within him. Marston Moor...

THIRD TROOPER. I remember.

FIRST TROOPER. I wish I’d been at that battle.

SECOND TROOPER. No you don’t.

FIRST TROOPER. God would have been with me. The Lord is our light.

The two veterans look at each other.

SECOND TROOPER. Aye, boy. Praise be to Him.

FIRST TROOPER. Amen.

SECOND TROOPER. Amen.

THIRD TROOPER. Amen.

JOHN LILBURNE comes quickly out of the dark and joins them.

LILBURNE. Good evening, gentlemen.

SECOND TROOPER. What are you doing here?

LILBURNE. Making trouble, trooper.

A flicker of grim humour from the TROOPERS.

I think we met at Putney. Michael Savage?

SECOND TROOPER. It is.

They shake hands.

LILBURNE (to the THIRD TROOPER). Matthew.

THIRD TROOPER. John. (Does not offer his hand.)

LILBURNE (to the FIRST TROOPER). Lad. (Hand out.) John Lilburne.

FIRST TROOPER. John... John Lil... Freeborn John?

LILBURNE. I’d call every man and woman freeborn. What’s your name, lad?

FIRST TROOPER. William Bond.

LILBURNE. Freeborn Bill, then. For the fire. (Takes wood out from under his coat.)

SECOND TROOPER. Where did you get that?

LILBURNE. Fence over by Park Lane.

The SECOND TROOPER is cross. The THIRD TROOPER laughs. The FIRST TROOPER takes the wood enthusiastically and puts it on the fire.

SECOND TROOPER. You were an officer in this Army, a field-promoted Lieutenant General! You should not urge a recruit to go against ordinances... you should not do that!

LILBURNE. I’m a citizen now, scavenging along with the rest.

SECOND TROOPER. A pretty pass, to hear Freeborn John call himself a scavenger.

LILBURNE. It is a pretty pass that we have all come to. So who gave the order to come into London?

A reluctance.

My Lord Fairfax? (A moment.) Oliver?

THIRD TROOPER. It were General Ireton.

LILBURNE. With Oliver’s agreement?

THIRD TROOPER. No, it were Ireton on his own say.

SECOND TROOPER (to the THIRD TROOPER). We shouldn’t talk of this.