The Book of Dust – La Belle Sauvage (NHB Modern Plays) E-Book

Philip Pullman

• Herausgeber: Nick Hern Books
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Seitenzahl: 126

Beschreibung

Two young people and their dæmons, with everything at stake, find themselves at the centre of a terrifying manhunt. In their care is a tiny child called Lyra Belacqua, and in that child lies the fate of the future. As the waters rise around them, powerful adversaries conspire for mastery of Dust: salvation to some, the source of infinite corruption to others. Philip Pullman's The Book of Dust – La Belle Sauvage is set twelve years before the epic His Dark Materials trilogy. Bryony Lavery's stage adaptation was first performed at the Bridge Theatre, London, in December 2021, directed by Nicholas Hytner, whose groundbreaking production of His Dark Materials was a critical and commercial success at the National Theatre. 'Once in a lifetime a children's author emerges who is so extraordinary that the imagination of generations is altered' New Statesman on Philip Pullman

Leseprobe

Philip Pullman

THE BOOK OF DUST

La Belle Sauvage

adapted for the stage by

Bryony Lavery

NICK HERN BOOKS

London

www.nickhernbooks.co.uk

Contents

Original Production Details

Dedication

Characters

The Book of Dust – La Belle Sauvage

About the Authors

Copyright and Performing Rights Information

The Book of Dust – La Belle Sauvage was first performed at the Bridge Theatre, London, on 7 December 2021 (previews from 30 November). The cast was as follows:

HYENA/STELMARIA (ASRIEL’S DÆMON)/SISTER PAULINA

Julie Atherton

MRS POLSTEAD/SISTER MARIA THERESE/WITCH

Holly Atkins

MOTHER SUPERIOR/PROFESSOR CLUNY

Wendy Mae Brown

GERARD BONNEVILLE

Pip Carter

MALCOLM POLSTEAD

Samuel Creasey

ALICE PARSLOW

Ella Dac

MARISA COULTER

Ayesha Dharker

ASTA (MALCOLM’S DÆMON)

Heather Forster

DR HANNAH RELF

Naomi Frederick

CCD MAN/DRUNK/GOLDEN MONKEY

Richard James-Neale

LORD ASRIEL/GEORGE BOATWRIGHT

John Lig

SISTER FENELLA/DORIS WHICHER

Dearbhla Molloy

ERIC/CCD MAN/PROFESSOR APADIMITRIOU

Tomi Ogba

ROBERT LUCKHURST/JESPE (HANNAH RELF’S DÆMON)/ CHARLIE BOATWRIGHT

Sid Sagar

LORD NUGENT/ENVOY OF THE MAGISTERIUM/HEADMASTER

Nick Sampson

BEN (ALICE’S DÆMON)/ANDREW

Sky Yan

LYRA

Adiya/Khalil/Paloma/Sarah and others

All other parts played by members of the company

Director

Co-Directors

Nicholas Hytner

Emily Burns

James Cousins

Designer

Bob Crowley

Puppet Designer & Director

Barnaby Dixon

Video Designer

Luke Halls

Lighting Designer

Jon Clark

Sound Designer

Paul Arditti

Composer

Grant Olding

Movement Director

James Cousins

Fight Director

Kate Waters

Illusions Director

Filipe J. Carvalho

Casting Director

Robert Sterne

Puppetry Producer

Glenn Holberton

Associate Designer

Jaimie Todd

Associate Video Designer

Zakk Hein

Associate Lighting Designer

Lily Dyble

Fight Captain

Richard James-Neale

Costume Supervisors

Helen Johnson

Anna Lewis

Props Supervisor

Lily Mollgaard

Production Manager

Kate West

For Nick, Emily and James,

Characters

GODSTOW, OXFORD, ULVERCOTE

MALCOLM POLSTEAD, of The Trout Inn

ASTA, his dæmon

ALICE PARSLOW

BEN, her dæmon

BRENDA POLSTEAD, Malcolm’s mum, landlady of

The Trout Inn

BRIAN, her dæmon, a badger

ROSEMARY, scholar

MURIEL, scholar

GEORGE BOATWRIGHT

SALLY, his dæmon, a staffie

LORD NUGENT, Lord Chancellor

LEMUR, his dæmon

ROBERT LUCKHURST, fellow of Magdalen College

CAT, Luckhurst’s dæmon

BENEDICTA, Mother Superior of St Rosamund’s Priory, Godstow

SISTER FENELLA

SISTER KATHERINE

SISTER CLARE

SISTER ISOBEL

SISTER ANNE

SISTER HELENA

of the Order of St Rosamund

LYRA, a baby

PANTALAIMON, her dæmon

HEADMASTER of Ulvercote Elementary School

MRS SAVERY

MISS DAVIS

MISS DUKES

teachers

ANDREW WHICHER

ERIC

ROBBIE

FLORA

RUBY

students at Ulvercote Elementary School

DR HANNAH RELF, fellow of St Sophia’s College

JESPER, her dæmon

GERARD BONNEVILLE

HYENA, his dæmon

PAPADIMITRIOU

ADNAN

YASMIN AL KHASY

CLUNY

members of the opposition at Oakley Street

LONDON

MARISA COULTER

GOLDEN MONKEY, her dæmon

LORD ASRIEL

SNOW LEOPARD, his dæmon

MICHAEL WHARTON of the Magisterium

THE FLOOD

CHARLIE, George Boatwright’s partner

DORIS WHICHER, Andrew’s aunt

CHILD PROTECTION OFFICER

TILDA VASSARA, a witch

SISTER MARIA THERESE

SISTER PAULINA

Sisters of Holy Obedience

Plus

CUSTOMERS AT THE TROUT INN

CCD MEN

NUNS

STUDENTS

SERVANTS

GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS

REFUGEES

ARMED POLICEMEN

…and, of course, their DÆMONS

A forward slash / indicates overlapping speech.

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

ACT ONE

1. The Trout Inn

MALCOLM. I’m Malcolm Polstead.

I was twelve when all this began, still living with my mum at The Trout Inn, Godstow.

MRS POLSTEAD (bustling). Look sharp, / Malcolm.

MALCOLM. Large Terrace with stunning views of The Thames.

Traditional Home-cooked Food.

We serve eighteen Traditional-brewed / Ales…

MRS POLSTEAD. Opening time… one minute, Malcolm!

MALCOLM. And of course…

my dæmon…

Asta…

Hadn’t settled yet, had you?

ASTA appears from somewhere about MALCOLM’s person… a mouse.

ASTA. Well… you hadn’t settled. You were only twelve.

MALCOLM. I know.

ASTA. Mouse one minute, lizard the next…

MALCOLM. The day this began… At this moment a… kingfisher.

You were very changeable.

ASTA. Only because you were. It was puberty.

MALCOLM. I know.

ASTA. Honestly, I was glad when that was over. So I could be just one thing.

MRS POLSTEAD. Malcolm! Working not thinking!

MALCOLM. Mum, when did your Brian settle as a badger?

MRS POLSTEAD. Was it sixteen, Brian?

BRIAN. Seventeen. When you came to work here.

MALCOLM. Why did you finally settle as a badger, Brian?

BRIAN. She’s a pub landlady. We needed a strong body.

MRS POLSTEAD. And big paws! Customers, Malcolm!

TROUT CUSTOMERS and their DÆMONS arrive.

MALCOLM. All our regular customers were great arguers… for instance they’d argue about our terrible weather.

TROUT CUSTOMERS. Stopped raining at last.

No it’s still spitting.

I remember when summer / allus meant sun.

It’s something messing with the sky…

No… It’s something stirring up the water…

MALCOLM. The scholars from Oxford downriver were great arguers.

ROSEMARY. You’re not seriously talking about the uncertainty principle…???

MURIEL. You must admit there is inherent uncertainty in the act of measuring a variable of a particle…

MALCOLM. What’s the uncertainty principle, Professor?

MURIEL. Well, that’s an interesting question, Malcolm.

ROSEMARY. No, it’s really not!

(Glasses are empty.) Another?

MALCOLM and MRS POLSTEAD get busy serving.

GEORGE BOATWRIGHT. Brenda! Another pint of Old Traditional when you’re ready!

MRS POLSTEAD. That’s your third, George Boatwright.

GEORGE BOATWRIGHT. I’m drinking to forget these woeful election results, Brenda.

MALCOLM. There’d just been an election.

TROUT CUSTOMERS. What about this election / then?

Well… I’m very pleased!

Well, I’m / not!

You can stop that crowing!

I thought it couldn’t / get worse!

Well, it just did!

We’re in for a rough ride now!

MALCOLM. The scholars even argued about their dæmons!

ROSEMARY. We know the settled form of the dæmon reflects its person’s character /

All DÆMONS take an interest in this.

MURIEL. / Well that’s the current thinking,

but I would argue it is an external manifestation of the soul.

ROSEMARY. But we agree the dæmon chooses its settled form, ergo

humans who don’t like their settled form are conflicted…

MURIEL. Until they achieve self-acceptance.

MALCOLM. Mum’s dæmon Brian just dozes all the time while Mum bustles.

Mum, are you conflicted?

MRS POLSTEAD. No, Malcolm, I’m just run off my feet being civil to everybody!

BRIAN. So I helps out by having her true opinions and keeping them to ourselves.

Right, Brenda?

MRS POLSTEAD. Right, Brian.

GEORGE BOATWRIGHT. Unfortunately, me and hers –

(His STAFFIE DÆMON.) made the other way round.

I got all the opinions… she keeps her mouth zipped.

Put a half of Old Traditional in there, Brenda.

MRS POLSTEAD. That’ll be three and a half, George Boatwright.

GEORGE BOATWRIGHT. It’s my silent protest, Brenda!

MALCOLM. Then…

two strangers entered our pub,

and everybody’s life changed.

LORD NUGENT and ROBERT LUCKHURST, with their DÆMONS, enter the pub. Umbrellas. They’re soaking. Stand waiting.

TROUT CUSTOMERS. See who that is?

What?

There! By the / door!

Just come in!

Who! / Who?

Lord Nugent!

The Lord Chancellor / Lord Nugent?

The ‘Lord Chancellor of Bloody England’ / Lord Nugent?

Don’t look! / It is him!

A bloody lemur!

That’s his dæmon alright…

A bloody lemur!

NUGENT. I’ve been spotted.

MRS POLSTEAD.

Lord Nugent! The Trout Inn is very honoured.

Sir! Sirs! Do sit down.

Let me – (She takes their umbrellas as…)

My son Malcolm will take your orders.

Malcolm… !

MALCOLM stands ready to take orders near NUGENT and LUCKHURST, so he hears…

LUCKHURST. This is bad this is bad you’re too conspicuous.

NUGENT. We can’t leave now… it would look odd… calm down, Robert.

Nobody saw us visit the nuns.

MALCOLM (to ASTA). The nuns?

LUCKHURST. But is the Priory secure?

NUGENT. We can trust the nuns to keep our delivery safe.

LUCKHURST. This feels dangerous.

NUGENT. Everywhere feels dangerous now, Robert.

LUCKHURST. Because it is.

NUGENT. One drink.

(To MALCOLM.) Brandy. Make it a double.

MALCOLM. What sort, sir?

NUGENT. Whatever you have.

LUCKHURST. Whiskey. Any single malt. Just a single.

MALCOLM. One double brandy. Whiskey. Single single malt. Anything else, sirs?

NUGENT. No thank you.

LUCKHURST. Did that boy hear what you just said?

NUGENT. Don’t think so.

MALCOLM. I’ve got big ears, so I had heard.

NUGENT. He’s… what… twelve years old?

MALCOLM. Twelve / yes, but…

NUGENT. Who’s he going to tell?

MALCOLM. Not deaf and not stupid.

Alice!

And ALICE, who loathes MALCOLM, appears.

ALICE. Yes? Professor.

MALCOLM. The single malt.

ALICE (to BEN). Here we go, Ben.

BEN. Pushing us about again.

MALCOLM. And the brandy.

ALICE. Right away, Professor.

MALCOLM. The good brandy…

ALICE. Oh, these for you and your girlfriend, Professor?

MALCOLM ignores her.

Who’s your girlfriend again, Malcolm?

MALCOLM’s ears go red or something.

Awwwww, Malcolm, ain’t you got a girlfriend?

Course you ain’t! Never been kissed ave you, Professor?

Who’d kiss / you, you ugly frog?

MALCOLM/ASTA. Right that’s IT!

He implodes into a ball of revenge, attacks ALICE. Fight – human against human, dæmon against dæmon, BRIAN a reluctant participant.

ASTA. I’ll kill you!

BEN. I’ll kill you!

BRIAN. Let em kill each other!

MRS POLSTEAD. Not again!

BRIAN. Give us all a bit of peace!

MRS POLSTEAD. No / fighting, / you two!

She separates them. ASTA and BEN continue snarling and spitting at each other.

MALCOLM. She bit / me!

ALICE. Thass gonna be a bruise!

MRS POLSTEAD. Serves you right, Alice Parslow.

You tease him and tease him then e erupts.

And serves you right, Malcolm cos

you should know by now not to rise to her!

(To ALICE.) You. Inside. Pots!

(To MALCOLM.) You. Outside.

Go to the Priory, ask if they’re alright for butter!

As MALCOLM storms from the pub:

You can take your boat!

2. Canoe

His canoe La Belle Sauvage is moored on the river outside the pub.

MALCOLM. This is my canoe…

(He is fathoms deep in love with his canoe.)

La Belle Sauvage.

(Gets the paddle which he uses to point out…)

She’s an eight foot seven-and-a-half-inch two-person Albion

oak-bark canoe,

self-painted,

she comes with welded paddle sup/ports…

ASTA. That’s enough de/tail… get in.

MALCOLM. Two welded paddled supports port and starboard, and an extra skeg for directional stab/ility…

ASTA. Too much inform/ation… paddle!

MALCOLM . She’s my own personal river vessel,

what I typically use

(He paddles out into the flow of the river.)

to get from The Trout on this bank

upstream to the Priory on that bank.

You can go over the bridge on the Godstow Road…

(Points where.)

If you ent got boatage it’s a bit quicker.

But this afternoon for the first time in days it weren’t raining, and I was in a canoe-ing mood.

(He canoes.)

The sisters were using this first dry spell for ages to do gardening.

The SISTERS OF ST ROSAMUND appear, neither calm nor serene,

carrying tools and dressed for bad-weather gardening,

habits, wellingtons, rubber gloves.

They push wheelbarrows filled with seed potatoes, and are led by BENEDICTA, the Mother Superior.

BENEDICTA. O gracious lord,

in these troubled times,

with these new and perplexing challenges,

show us how we must serve you /…

O gracious lord help us.

MALCOLM. Let’s ask them about Lord Nugent.

ASTA. Why the weird visit from the Lord Chancellor of England?

MALCOLM. Also I’m starving…

ASTA. And it must be nearly their dinnertime!

3. The Priory

Outside the Priory.

BENEDICTA. Gardening, sisters. Anyone watching can see we’re just…

(Looks anxiously out.)

FENELLA (blessing the tools). Lord, make these ancient tools last for one more planting season.

Make these potatoes we plant

feed every hungry nun this approaching wet winter.

MALCOLM. Reverend Mother! / Hello, everybody, hello!

BENEDICTA. Malcolm!… Oh dear… we didn’t expect / you…

SISTERS FENELLA, CLARE, ISOBEL, ANNE,

KATHERINE, HELENA (mendaciously and jittery).

Malc/olm! Are you alone?

How very lovely to / see you!

Aren’t you pleased the rain’s / stopped?

As you see we are / all –

We’re gardening!

MALCOLM. Can I help, it must be near your / dinnertime?

BENEDICTA. That would be very kind of you. Sister Katherine, supply Malcolm with a tool.

FENELLA. Malcolm dear… we’re trying Maris Pipers this time, because we were a bit disappointed in those Anyas you and I put in last year.

ANNE. We found them too waxy for mashed potatoes.

KATHERINE. And you know how we all like mashed potatoes, Malcolm!

MALCOLM. Me too! With stew! Are the chitted potatoes in the wheel/barrows?

FENELLA. Oh! Malcolm no… No! Reverend / Mother!

The NUNS watch in suspended horror as in the wheelbarrow…

MALCOLM. Oh, it’s a baby!

KATHERINE. Hand under the head, Malcolm.

ANNE. And under the bottom.

MALCOLM (he scopes her). I’ve never seen one of these close up! (He picks her up.) Asta… look at his hands!

FENELLA. Her hands, Malcolm.

MALCOLM. They’re minuscule.

ASTA. So are her baby feet!

BENEDICTA. This is unfortunate, Mal/colm…

MALCOLM. She’s smiling! (He focuses on her.)

Hello… I’m Malcolm…

She focuses on him.

She’s looking at me!

She is.

Hello, I’m Malcolm.

Who are you?

ASTA. Her dæmon is minuscule!

Hello, tiny chick!

PANTALAIMON chirrups back.

MALCOLM. He’s trying to talk!

Who are you?

PANTALAIMON tries to tell him, very chatty.

Seeing MALCOLM laughing makes LYRA laugh too.

Oh look, she’s laughing!

She gets the hiccups.

And now she’s got hiccups…

Each time she hics, her dæmon PANTALAIMON jumps… it is instant four-way love.

BENEDICTA. Oh dear…

FENELLA. We’re making too much noise.

They scan the dangerous world…

SISTERS flock round MALCOLM… CLARE takes the baby off him.

CLARE. Hand her to me, Malcolm.

MALCOLM. Everything about her is perfect, isn’t it, Sister / Fenella?

FENELLA. Except she’s woken / up!

KATHERINE. Again?

FENELLA. Oh, now she’s cry/ing… [Or ‘She’s going to cry.’]

KATHERINE. She’s hun/gry… I’d forgotten babies ate so often.

FENELLA. Sister Clare… take her and give her some milk!

SISTER CLARE takes LYRA off.

BENEDICTA. And keep watch.

FENELLA (sniffs). And change her. I’d forgotten babies – (Mouthing.) pooed so often…

MALCOLM. How do maiden ladies know how to look after babies?

FENELLA. You’d be surprised at what we know! We do go out in the world, Malcolm.

MALCOLM. How come you’re looking after this baby, Sister Fenella?

BENEDICTA. Malcolm. It is unfortunate that we let you see Lyra.

MALCOLM. Lyra? That’s the name of a constellation… on my star / map…

BENEDICTA. Malcolm, you’re such a knowledg/eable boy.

MALCOLM. What’s her dæmon called, he’s / brilliant?

BENEDICTA. He’s Pantalaimon.

MALCOLM. Wow that’s a long name / for a little –

BENEDICTA. Malcolm, be quiet and listen.

Malcolm, you’re our dear friend…

You do us so many kindnesses…

FENELLA. He’s my trusted vegetable peeler when my arthritis is bad, / aren’t you, Malcolm?

BENEDICTA. So, I think I must trust you to keep the knowledge of this baby to yourself!

Malcolm, promise on your life to tell no one.

MALCOLM. Okay.

BENEDICTA. I need your sacred promise.

MALCOLM. I promise.

(Beat.)

Why? Where did she come from?

BENEDICTA. I can’t tell you that, Malcolm.

MALCOLM. Did Lord Nugent bring her?

FENELLA. O sweet holy Jesus.

MALCOLM. It was, wasn’t it?

Is that what Lord Chancellors do? Look out for babies?

BENEDICTA. Why do you think Lord Nugent brought her?

MALCOLM. He was at the inn with another man.

BENEDICTA goes very still.

I put two and two together…

Why did they give you Lyra? Hasn’t she got any parents?

Beat. All the SISTERS