of writing a play.
The title...
Two Weddings, A Funeral
and lots of Births.
Scene 1
The Highlands of Scotland
The camera pans in from the sea,
across the barren land.
Where on a peat bank we see
a woman laid exhausted by her labours.
Getting her breath back from the toil of
peat digging, she thinks of the difference
in the two women's lives.
One a young girl just married sailing off
on her honeymoon.
And her, in the prime of life, scratching
a living out of the soil.
Envy, she acknowledges is
the feeling bubbling up inside.
The following year a baby is born.
The woman has taken a rasp to her rough hands
in order to spin silk.
From the finely spun thread a baby cardigan
is made and sent.
A boy! Two boys in fact.
A boy! Two boys in fact.
Scene 2
A farm in Yorkshire
5 years later
Work on the farm stops to watch
the wedding on the television.
She is five years older.
Envy has no place here,
just gratitude at an excuse to escape
the unending toil.
Sitting watching, little does she realise,
fast forward seven years and she will
know all of these people and they will know her.
Scene 3
Kent
That Sunday as she is
due to go in to work,
the news breaks that there has been
a terrible accident.
All through that strange time in history,
she is in the thick of the family.
She thinks back to the time on the hilltop.
Feeling this time, nothing but sadness.
Scene 4
Now
The boy she used to call William
is now a man
and has just had a son
of his own.
A happy ending.
5 years later
Work on the farm stops to watch
the wedding on the television.
She is five years older.
Envy has no place here,
just gratitude at an excuse to escape
the unending toil.
Sitting watching, little does she realise,
fast forward seven years and she will
know all of these people and they will know her.
Scene 3
Kent
That Sunday as she is
due to go in to work,
the news breaks that there has been
a terrible accident.
All through that strange time in history,
she is in the thick of the family.
She thinks back to the time on the hilltop.
Feeling this time, nothing but sadness.
Scene 4
Now
The boy she used to call William
is now a man
and has just had a son
of his own.
A happy ending.
When I read this I thought of Fiddler on the Roof and the song:
ReplyDeletesunrise, sunset quickly flow the days
one season following another
laden with happiness and tears
Your play would leave memories in others minds. Hope you make this dream a reality.
This is reality in Doris' life David. It's only now it seems a dream!
ReplyDeleteLLX
You've painted it up pretty. Nicely done!
DeleteYou really were there when history happened LL! (Have you told the grandchildren?)
ReplyDeleteYes Nilly, I was there, I can hardly believe it now. The grandchildren aren't in the slightest bit interested. It will probably be their grandchildren that are. I always feel when I see old photographs of my family, I need to know the minutia of their lives. That in part, is why I'm blogging; whether my thoughts and feelings will be of any interest who knows? I won't be here to ask; my old bones will be helping the Royal oaks to grow.
DeleteLLX
The cycle of life is a rusty Penny-Farthing and a puncture-repair outfit in a tin. Sometimes the view is fanastic, but mostly you're just struggling to stay in the saddle. Shout obscenities as you go - it clears people out of the way and increases your chances of finding a spot to dismount with some dignity rather than just keeling over sideways as you ride past the Odeon.
ReplyDeleteDoris says to tell you OW Esquire, that she is already in talks for the screenplay rights to be snaffled by Aardman Animations. She is negotiating hard for it to be more Wallace and Gromitt than Mills and Boon.
DeleteShe will naturally let you know when it is on general release.
Be sure to park your bicycle carefully outside the Odeon, in order to avail yourself of the OAP special concession afternoon on Wednesday, where free thick cocoa is served.
LLX