Blue Stockings E-Book

Jessica Swale

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

Seitenzahl: 119

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

'Love or knowledge: which would you choose?' A moving, comical and eye-opening story of four young women fighting for education and self-determination against the larger backdrop of women's suffrage. 1896. Girton College, Cambridge, the first college in Britain to admit women. The Girton girls study ferociously and match their male peers grade for grade. Yet, when the men graduate, the women leave with nothing but the stigma of being a 'blue stocking' - an unnatural, educated woman. They are denied degrees and go home unqualified and unmarriageable. In Jessica Swale's debut play, Blue Stockings, Tess Moffat and her fellow first years are determined to win the right to graduate. But little do they anticipate the hurdles in their way: the distractions of love, the cruelty of the class divide or the strength of the opposition, who will do anything to stop them. The play follows them over one tumultuous academic year, in their fight to change the future of education. Blue Stockings received its professional premiere at Shakespeare's Globe, London, in August 2013, directed by John Dove.

Leseprobe

Jessica Swale

BLUE STOCKINGS

NICK HERN BOOKS

London

www.nickhernbooks.co.uk

Contents

Title Page

Original Production

Note to the Players

Acknowledgements

Dedication

Characters and Note on Text

Act One

Act Two

About the Author

Copyright and Performing Rights Information

Blue Stockings received its professional premiere at Shakespeare’s Globe, London, on 24 August 2013, with the following cast:

LIBRARIAN/RADLEIGH/WAITERHuss GarbiyaCAROLYNTala GouveiaLLOYD/BILLYTom LawrenceCOLLINS/MR PECKChristopher LoganMAEVEMolly LoganMISSWELSHGabrielle LloydMISS BLAKESarah MacRaeMR BANKSFergal McElherronMAUDSLEY/ANDERSONEdward PeelTESSEllie PiercyMINNIE/WOMAN AT TABLEStephanie RacineCELIAOlivia RossRALPHJoshua SilverHOLMESPerri SnowdonEDWARDSMatthew TennysonWILLLuke Thompson

MISS BOTT/MRS LINDLEY

Hilary Tones

SUPERNUMERARIESRobert HeardKevin LeslieMUSICIANTom Lees

MUSICIAN

Richard Thomas

DirectorJohn DoveDesignerMichael TaylorComposerWilliam LyonsMusical DirectorPhil HopkinsChoreographerSianWilliamsGlobe Associate – MovementGlynn MacDonaldVoice & DialectMartin McKellanFight DirectorTerry King

Blue Stockings was performed in an earlier version at the Jerwood Vanbrugh Theatre at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London, on 18 October 2012, with the following cast:

ELIZABETHWELSH

Sarah Kenny

CELIAWILLBOND

Rachel Redford

GERTIE MOFFAT

Verity Kirk

CAROLYN ADDISON

Ingrid Schiller

MAEVE SULLIVAN

Heather Long

MISS BLAKE/MINNIE

Jessie Buckley

MISS BEAUMONT/MISS BOTT LADY IN CAFÉ

Ella Prince

MR BANKS

William Alexander

CHARLIE MOFFAT/MR ANDERSON

Peter Hannah

RALPH MAYHEW/MR PECK

Tanmay Dhanaia

LLOYD/ PROF GODDARD

Frank Dillane

HOLMES/BILLY SULLIVAN/ PROF RADLEIGH

Joss Porter

EDWARDS/DR MAUDSLEY

Harry JardineDirectorJessica SwaleDesignerPhilip EnglehartComposerLaura Forrest-HayAssistant DirectorLois Jeary

Note to the Players

In the mid-1800s, girls in England were lucky if they got an education at all. Some wealthy young women had governesses, some girls went to secondary school, but the curriculum was often limited to ‘feminine subjects’: needlework, art, maybe French if you were lucky, whilst the girls’ brothers were learning algebra and translating Virgil by the age of eleven.

That began to change when Emily Davies, the pioneering educationalist, led a successful campaign to incorporate serious subjects and examinations into ladies education. Then, when she’d conquered the curriculum, she turned her attention to higher education. In 1869 she set up Britain’s first residential college for women at Hitchin, Cambridgeshire. There, in a farmhouse twenty miles from Cambridge (considered to be a safe distance), the first women’s university college was born. There were five students, taught by any lecturers that were willing to risk their reputations and cycle the forty-mile round trip to do so. But it was a beginning.

By 1896, the College had moved to Girton, a mere two miles up the hill from Cambridge (a schlep which was quickly christened ‘the Girton grind’.) Yet, though the girls studied identical degrees to the men, when they’d finished their courses they were sent home empty-handed. When the men donned their caps and gowns for graduation, the women were denied their certificates. It was then that Girton’s new Mistress, Elizabeth Welsh, alongside her staff and students, decided to begin the campaign to win the girls the right to graduate. And that is where the play begins.

As for the girls themselves, we tend to associate the Victorian era with stuffiness, modesty and proper manners. The girls at Girton were rebelling against that. Whilst they followed social rules and etiquette, in their passions and ambition they were stretching out of their Victorian corsets, pulling away from their demure mothers and moving rapidly into the twentieth century. They are feisty, they are driven and they are the movers and shakers of their age.

As for the men, it would be easy to assume that those who condemn women’s education with as much vitriol as Maudsley or Lloyd are heartless misogynists. That’s simply not the case. These men speak the prevailing opinions of the time. They’re not the devils of the piece; they genuinely believed that women’s health and the future of Britain was at stake. I’d heartily recommend reading Maudsley’s short book Sex in Mind and in Education, on which some of his text, and many of the sentiments of the play, are based, as a place to start.

Jessica Swale

Acknowledgements

Thank you to the National Theatre Studio for putting a pen in my hand; Bash at the Nash; Blanche McIntyre; Oxford School of Drama and my workshop actors; Ed Kemp and all at RADA; Lois Jeary, Laura Forrest-Hay and Phil Engleheart; Matt Applewhite and all at Nick Hern Books; Helen Mumby and all at MacNaughton Lord; Jane Robinson and the staff at the Girton archives; Dominic Dromgoole for taking a punt and having faith; to all at the Globe, especially our cast and crew; to the Swales, for listening to me read all the parts badly. To Lloyd Trott, a true mentor and inspiration, and to John Dove, whose generosity and wisdom has made this all possible. And finally, to Nell, Ella, Gugu and Michael, who have been the suspenders to this Blue Stocking. Thank you.

J. S.

For Malala Yousafzai and all those who dedicate their lives to our education, from the Girton pioneers to teachers, like my mother, who inspire us all

Characters

THE GIRTON GIRLS

TESS MOFFAT, a curious girl CELIA WILLBOND, a fragile hard-worker CAROLYN ADDISON, an early bohemian MAEVE SULLIVAN, a mystery

THE BOYS

RALPH MAYHEW, a student at Trinity LLOYD, a student at Trinity HOLMES, a student at Trinity EDWARDS, a student at Trinity WILL BENNETT, a student at King’s; Tess’s friend

THE STAFF

ELIZABETH WELSH, Mistress of Girton College DR MAUDSLEY, renowned psychiatrist MR BANKS, a lecturer at Girton and Trinity MISS BLAKE, a lecturer at Girton PROFESSOR COLLINS, a lecturer at Trinity PROFESSOR ANDERSON, a lecturer at Trinity PROFESSOR RADLEIGH, a board member at Trinity MINNIE, the housemaid MR PECK, the gardener and maintenance man MISS BOTT, a chaperone

THE OTHERS

BILLY SULLIVAN, Maeve’s brother MRS LINDLEY, shopkeeper in the haberdashery

Also a LIBRARIAN, additional MALE STUDENTS, a LADY and her HUSBAND in the café

With the exception of Elizabeth Welsh and Tess, all parts can be doubled. The play can be staged with approximately twelve actors.

Note on the Text

A forward slash (/) represents an interruption from the next speaker, to indicate where that actor should cut into the line.

Setting

It is 1896 at Girton College, Cambridge, home to Britain’s first female university students.

This ebook was created before the end of rehearsals and so may differ slightly from the play as performed.

ACT ONE

Prologue

September 1896. The first day of term at Cambridge University.

Smoke. Steam. Music. Train sounds. Dozens of men’s legs in gowns hurry past on their way from the train to their Cambridge halls. Bustle, shouting. Then, through the smoke, four pairs of women’s feet, daintily glad in lace-up boots, emerge and move towards us. As they come into the light these four WOMEN, suitcases in hand, looking up, out over the audience, at Girton College. Blackout.

Then DR MAUDSLEY appears and addresses assembled male students (the audience) on his latest treatise, Sex in Mind and in Education. As he speaks, MRS WELSH, Principal of Girton, appears and takes in her female students (also the audience) on their first day of term.

DR MAUDSLEY. Gentlemen. The Higher Education of Women. There are some women who choose to overlook their natural, maternal instincts in favour of academia. Literary women. Scientists. ‘Blue stockings.’ But the fact of the matter is this. Women cannot dispense with the physiological limitations of their sex, however hard they try. We have a finite amount of energy. A man who has tolled a field all day hasn’t the capacity for mental taxation. Likewise, a woman who expends her energy exercising the brain does so at the expense of her vital organs. Women’s nerve centres are fragile, pressure may weaken them, leaving them unfit for motherhood. In short, the higher education of women may be detrimental to their physiology, to the family, to the future of our society. Gentlemen, degrees for women…

MRS WELSH. Degrees for women.

DR MAUDSLEY. It’s a dangerous idea.

MRS WELSH. What an idea.

DR MAUDSLEY. It may be a pity for women that they are born women, but in running the intellectual race, it’s unlikely they will succeed, and perilous to even try.

MRS WELSH. Ladies. Welcome to Girton.

Scene One

The Laws of Motion

Outside, on the forecourt of Girton College. TESS arrives looking self-conscious. She wears a makeshift bicycle outfit, large bloomers with stockings exposed. She looks down at her outfit.

TESS. Right. Cripes.

MAEVE appears, wary, similarly dressed, non-committal.

Oh, hello.

MAEVE. Hello.

TESS. Sleep well?

MAEVE. No.

TESS (indicating her bloomers). Any idea why we’re ‘festooned’ in these?

MAEVE. No.

TESS. No, me neither. (Pause.) I think you’re on my corridor. Are you in seven?

MAEVE. Yep.

TESS. Good. Well. We’ll be neighbours then.

MAEVE says nothing. TESS offers MAEVE a smile, which is not returned.

(Quietly.) Super.

CELIA appears, similarly dressed.

CELIA. Science?

TESS. Yes. (Indicating her outfit.) Can’t you tell?

CELIA. It’s not usual, you know. We don’t make a habit of dressing like this.

TESS. You’re not a first year?

CELIA. No. I mean I am, sort of. I was. Are you Miss Moffat, or Sullivan – or –

TESS. Moffat. How did you know?

CELIA. There’s just four of us in our study group.

TESS. So who’s the / fourth?

CAROLYN bounces over in the same outfit, interrupting.

CAROLYN. Well I’m glad I’m not the only one that looks like a complete trollop. How do you do. Carolyn Cecilia Mouchette Addison.

TESS. Mouchette?

CAROLYN. Mother’s from Paris. We lived there for a while, before we moved to Zurich.

CELIA. Actually, it’s usual to wait till we’re better acquainted before we use first names.

CAROLYN. Why? We’re all going to be holed up together, aren’t we? Might as well start as we mean to go on. Carolyn.

Pause.

TESS. I’m Tess.

CELIA. Alright. Celia.

MAEVE. Maeve. Sullivan.

CAROLYN. Charmed. Celia rescued me yesterday. Found me halfway up the stairs, wedged between my gargantuan trunk and the ceiling. Spiral staircases aren’t designed for women of the world. Achilles almost had a fit.

TESS. Who’s Achilles?

CAROLYN. My travelling companion. He’s Greek. He’s a wolfhound. He’s fine now, he’s dozing off on my bed.

CELIA. You know you’re not allowed pets! If Mrs / Welsh finds out –

CAROLYN. She won’t.

CELIA. But / honestly, if she –

MR BANKS appears.

MR BANKS. Ladies. Morning! My good wife will be thrilled that her spare pantaloons are serving the cause of scientific endeavour. Shall we begin?

CELIA. Mr Banks, may we ask why we’re wearing bloomers?

TESS. Underwear!

MR BANKS. Follow me. You can do without those books for a start.

TESS. But we need them!

MR BANKS. You want to study the world, don’t you? Not print on paper. Why do the leaves change colour? How does the hinge open the gate? Why, when I step, do I not float off into the ether?

CAROLYN. Because you’re not a fairy?

MR BANKS. No.

CELIA. Because of gravitational force.

MR BANKS. Welcome back, Willbond. So, do fairies exist?

TESS. Of course not.

MR BANKS. Are you sure?

TESS. Perfectly sure.

MR BANKS. But can you prove it? Where’s the evidence? ‘Judge a man by his questions not by his answers.’

CELIA. Rousseau?

MR BANKS. Right country, wrong man.

CAROLYN. Napoleon?

MR BANKS. No.

Throughout MAEVE remains quite detached, giving her answers with slicing precision.

MAEVE. Pierre-Marc-Gaston. Paris, 1808.

MR BANKS. Name?

MAEVE. Miss Sullivan, sir.

MR BANKS. To question is the hallmark of any worthy philosopher. ‘The fool doth think that he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.’ Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew.

TESS. Sir, it’s As You Like It. It’s Touchstone.

MAEVE. Act Five, Scene One.

MR BANKS. Slow, but correct. Now. You are about to experience a miracle of modern invention. Wait there.

He goes off.

CAROLYN. What’s he doing?

TESS. Apparently he’s an ‘eccentric’.

CAROLYN. How do you know?

TESS. My friend Will said. He’s at King’s.

CAROLYN. At King’s? A scholar? Are you and he…?

TESS. Oh no, we’re just friends.

CELIA is watching MR BANKS wrestle with something, off.

CELIA. What in God’s / name –

TESS. Oh Lord!

MR BANKS emerges on a bicycle. All four WOMEN step back in trepidation.

CAROLYN. A bicycle!

CELIA. I hope he doesn’t expect us to / sit on it.

MR BANKS. A marvel, a miracle of modern engineering. Have a look.

CELIA and MAEVE hang back. TESS is a little braver, CAROLYN more so.

Come on. Come on!

They edge closer.

Now, what is this?

CAROLYN. The wheel, of course.

MR BANKS. It’s not merely a wheel, miss.

CAROLYN. Addison. Carolyn.

MR BANKS. It’s the life source. Without wheels, it’s just a cumbersome chair. But with them, you can glide! The Mesopotamians invented the wheel to help them in battle.

CAROLYN. They didn’t ride on bicycles!

MR BANKS. No, they rode chariots. Now, you.

TESS. Miss Moffat, sir.

MR BANKS. On you get.

TESS isn’t keen.

TESS. I couldn’t possibly.

MR BANKS. I thought you wanted to be a scientist.

CAROLYN. Go on, Tess.

CELIA. Go on.

TESS. Alright. Turn around please.

MR BANKS. As you wish.

MR BANKS turns away.

TESS. How do I get on?

CAROLYN. Just sling your leg over.

TESS. Girls don’t ‘sling’!

CAROLYN. Here, we’ll help you.

CAROLYN and CELIA help TESS assemble herself on the bicycle. She starts slipping and yelps, causing MR BANKS to turn around.

TESS. Don’t look, for Christ’s sake!

MR BANKS. I’m sorry.

He turns away again. The WOMEN grab her and she reassembles herself.

TESS. Alright. You can turn round now.

He turns to the WOMEN.

MR BANKS. Now, observe her demonstration of Isaac Newton’s theory of mechanics.

TESS. But I’m not doing anything.

MR BANKS. That’s the first law of motion. That an object will continue in its state of rest, known as –

CAROLYN. Inertia.

MR BANKS. Inertia, or at its constant speed, until it’s affected by an outside force. In other words, Moffat’s not going anywhere unless she applies some energy. If you could oblige.