31 Plays in 31 Days, #13 - "Not Easily Undone"

I finished the first draft of the sixth Mrs. Hawking play yesterday, woohoo! So let's celebrate by posting the scene that I put off until last because I knew no compelling way to write it!

This leads directly into Day #6 - "The Very Best News." Ugh, I hate this scene. It's boring, full of filler to set the table, but necessary in order to do some housekeeping. This is an early moment that is intended to establish where a lot of things are at this point since we last saw everyone in part 5. There's a lot of table-setting to make clear. The kids are at the point where they're working a number of cases in parallel. Mrs. Hawking and Mary have a weird coolness in their relationship still, which Nathaniel is trying to smooth over. They've been taking apart Mrs. Frost's criminal enterprises in her absence. Mrs. Hawking really, really wants to be working on the Ripper case, but since the police are still chasing her and know to recognize her stealth suit at this point, she cna't get near it.

That's a lot. This scene I think technically has all that, but it's awkward and bloated. I'd love to smooth it out and cut it down, especially given the first complete draft of this script turned out longer than any other first Hawking draft to date. Sigh.



( Day #13 - Not Easily Undone )