31 Plays in 31 Days, #10 - "Poison"

[breakinglight11]

This scene piece immediately follows yesterday's Day #9 - "A Ruin". I feel like this part came out okay, like it gets mostly at what I want it to get at. The thing I like best is that it allows Nathaniel to reference something difficult and important Mrs. Frost told him in a manner that is fairly clear but also not explicit. It's too uncomfortable for him to say directly— and I kind of love the idea that Mrs. Hawking is like, "Wait, what the fuck did she tell him? What does he know?" —but I think the audience can get it.

I'm also chopping up these scenes a little more tightly than I usually do, to stretch them over the month. There's a lot in this piece I do not want to spoil.



Day #10 - "Poison"
From Mrs. Hawking VI
By Phoebe Roberts

London, England, 1888

VICTORIA HAWKING, lady's champion of London, late forties
NATHANIEL HAWKING, her nephew and asisstant, mid thirties
~~~

NATHANIEL:

Whatever it is, you won't find it in Elizabeth Frost.

(Pause.)

NATHANIEL:

I want you to stop going to her.

MRS. HAWKING:

Nathaniel—

NATHANIEL:

I know what she means to you. I know that isn’t easily erased.

MRS. HAWKING:

It isn’t about that—

NATHANIEL:

And I know the guilt you bear over locking her away.

(Pause.)

MRS. HAWKING:

Can you blame me?

NATHANIEL:

No. It was a terrible thing. But you had no choice. You did it to save me… and everyone else she stood to hurt. But Elizabeth Frost is poison. I know what it’s like to listen to her; I may never shake her voice from inside my head. But you will not heal if she is there to tear at your wounds.

MRS. HAWKING:

So what am I to do?

NATHANIEL:

Let us be there. Stop trying to push us away.

MRS. HAWKING:

For Christ's sake. What can you do?

NATHANIEL:

Help you carry the burden.

MRS. HAWKING:

Oh, spare me—

NATHANIEL:

No! That's what people do; that's how they survive. I must believe that, or... I'll spend the rest of my life tied to a chair again in Frost’s lair whenever I close my eyes.
NATHANIEL:

Whatever it is, you won't find it in Elizabeth Frost.

(Pause.)

NATHANIEL:

I want you to stop going to her.

MRS. HAWKING:

Nathaniel—

NATHANIEL:

I know what she means to you. I know that isn’t easily erased.

MRS. HAWKING:

It isn’t about that—

NATHANIEL:

And I know the guilt you bear over locking her away.

(Pause.)

MRS. HAWKING:

Can you blame me?

NATHANIEL:

No. It was a terrible thing. But you had no choice. You did it to save me… and everyone else she stood to hurt. But Elizabeth Frost is poison. I know what it’s like to listen to her; I may never shake her voice from inside my head. But you will not heal if she is there to tear at your wounds.

MRS. HAWKING:

So what am I to do?

NATHANIEL:

Let us be there. Stop trying to push us away.

MRS. HAWKING:

For Christ's sake. What can you do?

NATHANIEL:

Help you carry the burden.

MRS. HAWKING:

Oh, spare me—

NATHANIEL:

No! That's what people do; that's how they survive. I must believe that, or... I'll spend the rest of my life tied to a chair again in Frost’s lair whenever I close my eyes.