31 Plays in 31 Days, #12 - "Vivat Victoria"

[breakinglight11]

This is, to me, one of the most important scenes in Mrs. Hawking part 4. Drama has to move fast, so every moment has to pull double or triple duty if possible, advancing the plot and teaching you as much about the characters as you can pack in there. I knew I could only fit four scenes in the past, and I had to establish everything you needed to know about Reginald Hawking— who he was, what he wanted, how he came to marry Victoria, and what all was wrong with it. That's a lot to pack in, especially since I basically had to have him meet her in one scene, fall for her in a second, and BE DAMN IN LOVE WITH HER in a third. That's all I got to make you believe it.

This is the second of those scenes. It needs cleaning up, but I think I'm on to something here. A goal of mine in all their interactions is to make them simultaneously endearing and understandable AS WELL as kind of fucked up if you think too hard about it. I want you sympathizing with Reginald, even as you think the whole thing is wrong. A tricky thing. I think it's in the neighborhood.

Day #12 - "Vivat Victoria"
From Gilded Cages
By Phoebe Roberts

VICTORIA STANTON, daughter to the territorial governor
CAPTAIN REGINALD HAWKING, hero of the Sepoy Mutiny
ELIZABETH DANVERS, companion to Miss Stanton
~~~

(1859 in Bengal, in the cellar at the lieutenant governor’s house. VICTORIA watches from hiding as a maid enters, carries away a bundle, and exits. Enter REGINALD. VICTORIA bursts out of hiding and REGINALD startles.)

REGINALD:

Good God! This again!

VICTORIA:

What are you doing, hanging about down here?

REGINALD:

I could ask the same of you! Do you always hide yourself in strange places?

VICTORIA:

I’m on a stakeout, and you’re ruining it.

REGINALD:

A stakeout? For what?

VICTORIA:

Whoever’s been stealing from the kitchens. I heard the maids talking about it. I was going to catch the thief, before you blundered down to fright them away.

REGINALD:

Well, forgive me. I thought I’d find a bit of quiet. No such luck, I see. Suppose I ought to be thankful I haven’t got myself a bash this time.

VICTORIA:

It wasn’t my fault. You startled me.

REGINALD:

Seems I can’t help getting in your way. Well, I ought to introduce myself, just so you know there are no hard feelings. Captain Reginald Hawking. I may be the decorated soldier, miss, but it’s your reputation that precedes you.

VICTORIA:

You know who I am?

REGINALD:

Your father gave me your name. Vivat Victoria.

VICTORIA:

The governor is a patriot. You must not have told on me, then.

REGINALD:

I can take my lumps like a man. He didn’t tell me much else of you, though.

VICTORIA:

He doesn’t know much else to tell.

REGINALD:

So I had to ask around. I hear you like to make mischief. And do you really dance ballet? However did you learn that out here?

VICTORIA:

I had a teacher. For a while. An officer’s wife who once danced in Paris. But then they were transferred, and now I teach myself. From a book.

REGINALD:

Must be useful for balancing on rooftops. You know, in the cavalry I learned a trick where you can measure the distance between two places based on where the stars sit in the sky above them. I wonder if that might serve your turn.

VICTORIA:

How do you do it?

REGINALD:

Well, there’s some maths involved. The real trick is placing all the stars. Of course out here I’m all turned around; I can’t seem to match them to the local names.

VICTORIA:

They’re not the same figures the English use. But they’re made of the same stars.

REGINALD:

You’ll have to teach them to me. Then some night I’ll show you my trick. There’s a rooftop on the garrison that would be perfect. I’m sure you could get us up there.

VICTORIA:

Perhaps. So. Captain Reginald Hawking. You’re the hero soldier, then, are you?

REGINALD:

So they say.

VICTORIA:

Everybody’s talking about you. They say you… killed a hundred Indians, or something, and put down the whole rebellion.

REGINALD:

Is that how they’re telling it?

VICTORIA:

I don’t know. But they’re all very impressed by you. Why don’t you want to talk to them anymore?

REGINALD:

I beg your pardon?

VICTORIA:

You said you were hiding here so you’d be left alone. I thought your job was to talk to them.

REGINALD:

I suppose it is. Except, miss, that you’ll never find a greater pack of phonies than a British high command.

VICTORIA:

(Laughing) I can’t believe you said that! I thought you were a good soldier!

REGINALD:

Then I ought to know. They talk all day of how they want their rule to be temperate, how no one wants unrest. They do nothing but talk. But when a bloke actually tells them what they have to do to head it off, they bluster until they’re blue in the face and don’t hear a bloody word of it. Ah— forgive me. I don’t mean to speak ill of your father.

VICTORIA:

The governor’s a berk. Everybody knows it and nobody says.

REGINALD:

Well. I didn’t say that. But they brought me here for my opinion. That’s what I gave them.

VICTORIA:

Are you in trouble, then?

REGINALD:

The medals and rubbish protect against that. But for now they’ll only parade me about and talk over me from now until I’m bored stiff.

VICTORIA:

Don’t talk to me. At least you can leave.

REGINALD:

Don’t you like it here?

VICTORIA:

When I can’t do anything at all unless it’s behind the governor’s back?

REGINALD:

What do you want to do?

VICTORIA:

I… I don’t know yet. But I’ve seen so little of the world. I want to… find something that matters! Something that’s hard, but I work at it and I do it anyhow. Something with a purpose! Do you think that’s stupid?

REGINALD:

Of course not. Everybody wants that.

VICTORIA:

I’m not just everybody.

REGINALD:

I can see that.

(Enter ELIZABETH. REGINALD tenses a bit.)

ELIZABETH:

Victoria? Victoria, are you still down— oh. Beg pardon. I didn’t realize she’d have company.

REGINALD:

Just looking for a bit of quiet, miss.

ELIZABETH:

Are you still on your stakeout? Haven’t you caught anything?

VICTORIA:

Not with the whole damn house down here!

ELIZABETH:

All right, I’ll leave you to your trap. Are you Captain Hawking, then, sir?

REGINALD:

I am, Miss…?

ELIZABETH:

Danvers. Elizabeth Danvers, companion to Miss Stanton here. I heard the governor and his men were looking for you. If you have a moment, I’d be glad to take you.

REGINALD:

No rest for the wicked, then. Of course, miss, that would be kind.

ELIZABETH:

Is it true you were at the front of the charge that broke the line at Lucknow?

REGINALD:

I was, miss.

ELIZABETH:

My goodness. Brave, accomplished. And you would be handsome, too. What a waste.

REGINALD:

I’m… sorry, miss?

ELIZABETH:

Nothing, sir. Follow me, then.

(ELIZABETH and REGINALD exit.)