Waltz With Me (eBook)

Diane Samuels (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2023 | 1. Auflage
160 Seiten
Renard Press (Verlag)
978-1-80447-083-1 (ISBN)

Infos

When Maggie Byrne attends the retirement dinner of her old music teacher at the convent school she attended, she discovers she has more in common with the founding nun, Cornelia Connelly, than she previously realised. As events in Maggie's world progress and relationships break down, Cornelia's remarkable life waltzes and weaves through Maggie's, bringing them together through their shared love for music. Inspired by true stories of the nineteenth-century educational pioneer and reverend mother Cornelia Connelly and an ex-student of one of the schools she founded, Waltz With Me paints a moving picture of the challenges of marriage and motherhood, the calling of vocation, the nature of personal sacrifice for a greater cause and the impact of faith, infusing live waltz, sacred and folk music through the unfolding drama.

Diane Samuels is a playwright whose career spans thirty years. Her play Kindertransport was the winner of the Verity Bargate and Meyer Whitworth awards (1993/94), and has been performed in London's West End, off-Broadway and all over the world. Her plays for BBC radio include Swine, Doctor Y, Hen Party, Psyche and the Woman's Hour serial, Tiger Wings. Her recent work includes The A-Z of Mrs P, with composer Gwyneth Herbert, and Song of Dina, with composer Maurice Chernick, a new opera giving a voice to the silenced sister of the Bible's Joseph (of multi-coloured coat fame) and a creative collaboration with an international team of environmental scientists to create Glacier Gifts, a booklet celebrating glaciers and mourning their retreat due to climate change. Diane lives in London.

Textauszug

ACT II

10
flowers

Golden light. Piano. Distant, tentative violin. The opening section of ‘Bells’, maggie’s composition, now fully formed, plays. Ten years on, maggie holds two takeaway cups and waits for somebody. Eight months after john henry’s death, cornelia stands before the graves of john henry and mary magdalen. She is pregnant. Birdsong. pierce appears, holding a posy of flowers.

pierce: Are you well, my dear?

cornelia (touching her belly): We are both well enough.

pierce: And Ady, Merty?

cornelia: A few sniffles and moods. Nothing more.

pierce: My retreat with the Jesuits has been most instructive.

(pierce gives her the posy of flowers.)

cornelia: Was my own retreat with the nuns only last Christmas? And on my return, who ran to greet me, but John Henry.

(She looks at the grave.)

cornelia: How can the passing of so few months last a lifetime?

pierce: These weeks I’ve had moment to examine my conscience most deeply.

cornelia: Let us hope this new child will be a comfort.

pierce: Haven’t I loved you as a woman is rarely loved?

cornelia: And I you.

pierce: Can you still read my mind, hear my heart, Nelie?

cornelia: What has your conscience been telling you?

pierce: That my foremost duty of love can only ever be in the direct service of God.

cornelia: Your foremost duty of love?

pierce: Nelie, I have been further reconsidering… and now intend… fully intend to become ordained as a priest.

cornelia: What do you say?

pierce: Please give your support.

cornelia: Reconsider again.

pierce: Your consent, your vow is required, alongside mine.

cornelia: My vow?

pierce: Of celibacy.

cornelia: But we are to become mother and father again.

pierce: I promise that I shall always fulfil my duties. And, as you say, this new child will be a comfort for you.

cornelia: What of a husband’s comfort?

pierce: Priesthood is a higher calling than marriage.

(Stunned silence.)

pierce: We can still live alongside one another. As brother and sister.

cornelia: Do you honestly wish to end all intimate relations between us?

pierce: For the rest of my life.

cornelia: For my life too?

pierce: Please help me to apply for dispensation. Your consent is essential, Nelie.

cornelia: And then?

pierce: I must return to Rome. With Merty.

cornelia: But Pierce, he is only eight.

pierce: Don’t you wish him to be educated in England as a young gentleman?

cornelia: How can we afford it?

pierce: Lord Shrewsbury is making arrangements. You need only take care of Adeline and the baby here.

cornelia: You and he have it all planned?

pierce: He’s glad to be of help. I think somehow it eases his own grief.

cornelia: Dearest Gwendaline. I miss… I so miss… her kindness… her warm company…

pierce: Turn to the sisters of the Sacred Heart here.

cornelia: I must continue to teach at the convent.

pierce: Where you are much valued.

cornelia: In that there is worth and hope, even joy.

pierce: Good.

cornelia: Please allow Merty to stay in my care too.

pierce: This is for his betterment.

cornelia: Promise me, whatever you do for him and the others from now on, you will always ask me first.

pierce: You are their mother.

cornelia: And your wife.

pierce: It is a holy thing, Nelie, to make ourselves eunuchs for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven.

cornelia: What am I meant to say?

pierce: Please consent.

(cornelia touches her belly.)

pierce: Do you consent?

cornelia: Yes.

(pierce leaves.)

cornelia: No.

(‘Bells’ plays on piano.)

cornelia: No.

(iris, in her early twenties, appears. She holds a bunch of flowers.)

maggie: Iris?

iris: Mum?

(maggie is overcome with emotion. She tries to contain herself.)

maggie: Hello.

iris: Hi.

maggie: I got you a coffee.

iris: Oh… thanks… but…

maggie: Don’t you drink coffee?

iris: Not really…

maggie: I shouldn’t have presumed… Sorry…

iris: Oh, I can… just this once… I mean, I don’t mind the taste…

maggie: Don’t worry…

(iris offers the flowers.)

iris: Coffee for flowers?

(iris gives the flowers. maggie gives the coffee.)

maggie: Thank you.

iris: Thank you.

(As they swap, they move closer and then they hug.)

maggie: Careful… It’ll spill.

(They continue to hug. cornelia places the flowers from pierce on the children’s graves.)

11
sacrifice

Wind blows. Ocean swells. Up on deck, pierce takes in the air and reads over a sermon he has written.

pierce: Sacrifices are required to live a holy life.

(In the distance a baby cries.)

pierce: But for those devoted and courageous enough to aspire to ascend the ladder, all difficulties are but glorious rewards.

(Baby cries.)

pierce: For they shall be foremost in the ranks.

(cornelia is rocking her newborn baby son.)

pierce: Some throw off their wealth and surrender into the lap of poverty. Many live among the humble and persecuted.

cornelia: Oh, Pierce, do you realise the trials of priesthood?

pierce: Others leave their newborn babes in their cradles.

cornelia: You can still escape all such difficulties…

(Baby cries.)

pierce: And some offer a last kiss to a dear wife.

cornelia: My arms remain open, dear love…

pierce: Then flee from her warm embrace to accompany the Lamb wherever he might go. For ever.

cornelia: Come home. Let us be a family again.

pierce: As I strap on my...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 31.5.2023
• Verlagsort: Lodnon
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Lyrik / Dramatik ► Dramatik / Theater
• Schlagworte: American • Catholic • Cornelia Connelly • feminist • Jewish • Kindertransport • music • Playscript • Religious
• ISBN-10: 1-80447-083-X / 180447083X
• ISBN-13: 978-1-80447-083-1 / 9781804470831