31 Plays in 31 Days, #23 - "Fever Dream"

[breakinglight11]

Blargh. Didn't want to post this. From late in Mrs. Hawking VI, but out of context I hope it's not that spoilery.



Day #23 - "Fever Dream
From Mrs. Hawking VI
By Phoebe Roberts
~~~

London, England, 1888

VICTORIA HAWKING, lady's champion of London, late forties
The SPECTERS,
- ELIZABETH FROST
- CLARA HAWKING
- MARY JANE KELLY
- DISTINGUISHED MATRON in widow's weeds
- NATHANIEL/REGINALD HAWKING
~~~

(MRS. HAWKING slips into a fever dream. A specter appears, of young ELIZABETH FROST as she was in 1859.)

ELIZABETH:

Well, I won’t waste any time saying I told you so. It isn’t as if you ever listen to me anyhow. You always think you know better. But if you did… you wouldn’t have ended up here. Of course, you always did love learning the hard way.

(Specters of the DISTINGUISHED MATRON, CLARA, and MARY JANE enter.)

ELIZABETH:

Well, girl?

DISTINGUISHED MATRON:

Sit up straight.

MRS. HAWKING:

It hurts.

DISTINGUISHED MATRON:

Seen and not heard. You’re a very fortunate girl. You ought to count yourself that way.

MRS. HAWKING:

No. Never again.

ELIZABETH:

Ride the current or drown in it.

CLARA:

That’s just the way the world works.

MARY JANE:

Then blast the world!

ELIZABETH:

Oh, that’s right. You make your own way.

CLARA:

But you’re not alone anymore.

(Enter a specter not clearly NATHANIEL or REGINALD HAWKING, but some ambiguous blend of the two.)

NATHANIEL/REGINALD:

Will you ever trust me?

MRS. HAWKING:

Don’t touch me.

NATHANIEL/REGINALD:

Victoria. It’s me.

MRS. HAWKING:

Who?

NATHANIEL/REGINALD:

My God, Victoria. Don’t you know?

ELIZABETH:

As if you haven’t always been lucky.

CLARA:

Governor’s girl.

NATHANIEL/REGINALD:

Hero’s wife.

DISTINGUISHED MATRON:

Daughter of empire.

MARY JANE:

Burn it! Burn it all to ash!

DISTINGUISHED MATRON:

You would not be the first to try.

CLARA:

Beating against the bars of your cage.

DISTINGUISHED MATRON:

Better than you have tried.

ELIZABETH:

Haven't you done enough?

MRS. HAWKING:

It’s finished.

CLARA:

Didn’t quite make it to fifty. Even he made fifty-one.

MARY JANE:

Do you think I’m afraid?

MRS. HAWKING:

I finished it.

ELIZABETH:

What’s that they say?

NATHANIEL/REGINALD:

You make men afraid.

CLARA:

My funny old aunt!

DISTINGUISHED MATRON:

Remarkable.

NATHANIEL/REGINALD:

You fierce, fierce girl.

ELIZABETH:

There’s a cost to living the way you do. Who do you think you are?