31 Plays in 31 Days, #25 - "Do You Think I'm Afraid?"

[breakinglight11]

The second half of the scene of Hawking 6 that was begun in Day #23 - "Fever Dream." It's probably too long and must be cut down, but I really like the ideas in it.



Day #25 - "Do You Think I'm Afraid?"
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
- MARY STONE
~~~

ELIZABETH:

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

MARY JANE:

Polly Nichols. Annie Chapman. Elizabeth Stride. Catherine Eddowes. Mary Jane Kelly.

DISTINGUISHED MATRON:

Victoria Hawking.

CLARA:

Here lies Mrs. Colonel Reginald Prescott Hawking.

(Enter MARY.)

MARY:

We had to be certain they saw you.

NATHANIEL/REGINALD:

Beloved mother—

DISTINGUISHED MATRON:

No mother.

MARY:

Saw you for what you are.

MARY JANE:

It hurts, it hurts!

NATHANIEL/REGINALD:

Beloved wife—

DISTINGUISHED MATRON:

No wife.

MARY JANE:

Get it out of me! Get it out!

NATHANIEL/REGINALD:

The pulse in my veins.

MARY:

A hero.

MARY JANE:

Put up your hands! God blast you, fight back! Do you think I’m afraid?

ELIZABETH:

But is it enough?

CLARA:

Perhaps once.

DISTINGUISHED MATRON:

Not anymore.

MRS. HAWKING:

I finished it!

ELIZABETH:

But how?

CLARA:

The nighthawk.

NATHANIEL/REGINALD:

I am your creature.

MARY:

We had to be certain they saw you.

ELIZABETH:

What have you done?

MARY JANE:

Do you think I’m afraid?

MARY:

Saw you for what you are.

CLARA:

The lightning-quick shadow in the mask.

NATHANIEL/REGINALD:

I’ll do anything. If you ask it, I’ll do anything.

DISTINGUISHED MATRON:

Your ridiculous hood.

ELIZABETH:

What have you done?

MARY JANE:

Do you think I’m afraid? Not of this.

MARY:

The world offers so little recourse to women when its pressures become too great. Someone must step outside all that to do what is necessary.

(MRS. HAWKING screams. Exit NATHANIEL/REGINALD, CLARA, MARY JANE, the MATRON, and finally MARY. Enter the specter of young MALAIKA SHAH.)

ELIZABETH:

Learning the hard way, then? Fancy that.