Dracula of Transylvania: The Epic Play in Three Acts
Page 8
RENFIELD
Squiggle and squirm, like carnivorous worm,
Breeding disease as good as you please?
Or
Like black widows in pockets,
Crawl out of eye sockets?
SEWARD
Well, it’s been quite the encounter, Mr. Renfield. We’ll see you tomorrow.
SIMMONS
Not if I can help it.
SEWARD
Now, now, Simmons. Let’s be charitable. We’ll replace your canary, forthwith.
SIMMONS
Come along, ye foul eater of fowl.
(Simmons leads Renfield by the chain attached to his collar. Foreboding music eases in and Renfield slowly turns his head to look in the direction of the Westenra cottage. He halts suddenly.)
RENFIELD
I shall be patient, Master! It is coming! It is coming!
Simmons begins to push him back into the cell. Lights fade on the asylum. Music play on into the next scene.)
[END OF SCENE]
Scene 3
“When the Wolfsbane Blooms”
[Lucy’s Boudoir]
(A growing storm with clouds gathering outside. The distant rumbling of thunder followed by lightning. The thunder grows louder and the flashes of lightning outside the gothic windows come more quickly and more often. The light in the bedroom chamber is blue. The blue is broken up at points by the amber glow of flame flickering from candles and lanterns about. Throughout the following scene, thunder crashes more loudly and loudly and lightning flashes more brightly at each explosion of thunder. Lucy sleeps. Her mother enters and is hit by the powerful stench of garlic. This time, she cannot tolerate the smell.)
MRS. WESTENRA
It wreaks in this room! It smells of an Italian brothel.
(Mrs. Westenra removes the necklace from Lucy’s neck and then begins ripping down the garlic cloves roped about the windows and doors.)
LUCY
Mother, what are you doing? The professor strictly forbids us all from disturbing the garlic.
MRS. WESTENRA
You’re having trouble breathing as it is, Love. You certainly don’t need this wrapped about your neck. And all this hanging about? Out with it! Let me crack some windows. It’s awfully close in here. I was uneasy about you, darling, and came in to see that you were all right.
LUCY
Close the windows, Mother. Remember your condition. You’ll catch your death of cold, Come, take a comforter.
(Mrs. Westenra suddenly catches sight of something outside the French door windows. Forboding music eases in.)
MRS. WESTENRA
Oh Dear Lord.
LUCY
What is it?
(Lucy sits upright in bed.)
MRS. WESTENRA
Out the window on the front lawn. It’s a grey wolf! The Gazette spoke of an escaped wolf from the zoo. Do you suppose…?
LUCY
Even if it is the same one, we’re all right.
(Mrs. Westenra begins to talk strangely as she has gone into some sort of trance.)
MRS. WESTENRA
No, we’re not all right, Lucy.
LUCY
Why do you say that?
MRS. WESTENRA
He’s standing upright. On his hind legs. Like a man. It’s a werewolf and he has seen me.
LUCY
Mother, please. No more jesting. You’re scaring me?
MRS. WESTENRA
It’s him. The one who hungers.
LUCY
Mother, what is happening to you?
MRS. WESTENRA
He’s speaking to me. Through his eyes.
LUCY
We’re at least twenty meters above lawn. We’re safe here, Mother.
MRS. WESTENRA
There is no safety, my love. He’s floating at the window now.
LUCY
I see nothing, Mother.
MRS. WESTENRA
He’s right in front of me, Lucille! He’s coming for me! I’m here, Great One!
(Music rises to crescendo. Panes of glass from the French window doors smash inward. Mrs. Westenra, as if by the volition of the supernatural, bolts to the French window doors, opens them and leaps out. Lightning, thunder, and music intensifies with the sounds of a wolf attacking and Mrs. Westenra screaming. Fountains of crimson blood begin spewing forth from the French door windows. The grue hits Lucy on face and body until she looks as though she has just bathed in blood. There is a lighting and music change. Lucy lies back onto her propped pillows. All this is done to convey the passage of time. Enter Seward, Van Helsing and a couple of nurses. The doctors stand at the foot of Lucy’s bed as though listening to the last of Lucy’s account. Seward’s nurses clean Lucy’s face.)
LUCY
…I tried to pacify her, to no avail. I could hear her poor dear heart still beating terribly. After a while there was the low howl again and shortly after there was a crash at the window, and a lot of broken glass was hurled to the floor; scattered shards crystallized the hardwood. The window blinds blew back with the wind that rushed in, and outside the broken panes there was the head of a great, gaunt, grey werewolf! Suddenly, mother lept out of the window and into the lycan’s mouth. She cried out in a fright as the sounds of gnashing teeth devoured her.
(Lucy slowly drops her head to her pillow. She appears to have fainted. Van Helsing addresses the nursing staff.)
VAN HELSING
Cool her down with compress. Let her rest but keep her conscious. Close and lock all the windows again. And for God’s sake put back the garlic. Over the doors, and the necklace about her throat. Do it! Now!
(Lights fade from Lucy’s bed. The nurses do all that is instructed of them to restore what Mrs. Westenra had removed. Van Helsing and Seward turn downstage.)
VAN HELSING
That foolish woman! Right before she died, Mrs. Westenra removed all the garlic and cracked open the windows. It was her. I’m certain of it!
SEWARD
I know, and you know, that Mrs. Westenra had disease of the heart. And we can certify that she died of it. Poor Lucy’s account is the result of dementia brought on by fever.
VAN HELSING
Is it?
SEWARD
You don’t mean to tell me you believe that story about a werewolf.
VAN HELSING
If this was nothing more than heart failure, then why was she found on the lawn outside the French door windows?
SEWARD
You do think this was some sort of werewolf!
VAN HELSING
I don’t know. We’ll have to examine the body. Come along.
SEWARD
We can’t do that now. Scotland Yard has just arrived. You saw them as we got to the gate. It’s a full inquest. We cannot investigate until the police turn her over to the undertaker.
VAN HELSING
Well then, we wait. Come, let us observe.
(Exeunt)
[END OF SCENE]
Scene 4
“A Seeming Deathbed”
[Lucy’s Boudoir]
(Music in. Lighting rises on Lucy’s bedchamber. Holmwood sleeps on a couch nearby. Morris is dozing off in a seated position on a chair. Smollet Snelling, one of the nurses, is placing cool compresses on Lucy’s forehead. Van Helsing enters followed by Seward. They go straight to the bed to examine their patient.)
VAN HELSING
Dr. Seward, look at her mouth.
SEWARD
It must be some trick of the light. Her canine teeth look longer and sharper than all the rest.
(Suddenly, ther is a loud and strange sound just outside the French door windows.)
VAN HELSING
Vat on earth is that
?
SEWARD
It sounds like some slapping or buffeting at the window… I’ll investigate.
(He goes toward the window.)
SNELLING
Don’t go over there, Doctor.
SEWARD
Never you worry, Smollet. Good Lord!
VAN HELSING
What is it? What do you see, Jack?
SEWARD
In the full moonlight I can see… Oh dear! It is a great bat! Wheeling round and round. Doubtless attracted by the light from within Lucy’s bedchamber. It’s striking the window panes with its wings as though trying to force its way in!
VAN HELSING
Away from the window, Dr. Seward! Go over there and wake that poor man. (Gentle music in, underscoring the rest of the scene.) Let him come and see the last. He trusts us and we have promised him.
(Seward wakes Holmwood. Morris stirs as well. The three men join Van Helsing at Lucy’s side.
VAN HELSING
Come, come good Arthur. Take her hand in yours. But do not kiss her.
(Holmwood does so.)
HOLMWOOD
She is cold. Cold as a stone.
SEWARD
(Checking vitals)
It’s all over now. It is done. She is dead.
(Quincy and Holmwood and any nurses nearby all kneel down at Lucy’s side and pray for her soul. Van Helsing pulls Seward away for a moment.)
SEWARD
Poor girl. There is peace for her at last. It is the end.
VAN HELSING
Not so, alas, not so. Would it were true. Jack, my friend, this is only the beginning.
(They join the others at Lucy’s bedside. If necessary in the production, she can be lifted by all and carried off carefully and somberly off the stage. Everyone would then exit with her.)
[END OF SCENE]
Scene 5
“Post Mortem”
[The Undertaker’s Parlor]
(In funereal music, Mr. Swales, Smollet Snelling, Patti Hennesey, Waites Simmons, and Mildred Creaply, the undertaker’s wife, prepare a funeral parlor for viewing. Two open caskets are wheeled in; One holds Lucy’s body, the other Mrs. Westenra. Tributes, wreathes, and flowers are placed in various areas. Last minute powdering is applied to the corpses’ faces by Mrs. Creaply. All five staff members simultaneously tend to the ghastly preparations as the audience observes the subtle scene change. This should all be quick, yet done with reverence and care. Dr. Seward enters. Swales, Snelling, Hennesey, and Simmons exit. Mrs. Creaply approaches Seward.)
CREAPLY
She makes quite a beautiful corpse, don’t she, guvna? Just lovely. I mean, the girl. Not her mum. It’s been my privilege to attend upon young Lucille. Its not too much to say that she will set quite an example of superior craftsmanship by our establishment.
SEWARD
Indeed, Mrs. Creaply. She looks almost human. You are a credit to your profession.
CREAPLY
Thank you, Sir.
SEWARD
And the obsequies?
CREAPLY
The funeral is arranged for tomorrow, Doctor. So that the poor girl and her mum might be buried together… That is to say, at the same time. Not in the same receptacle, of course.
SEWARD
Yes, that I was able to intuit. Now, as for the bodies, how do they stand?
CREAPLY
Oh there’s no standin’, Sir. They’ve both gone quite beyond that. Them bein’ deceased and all. However, I do know a photographer who props up his clients for tin-types, post-rigor, for family mementos. Did you want us to insert rods and such into their…
SEWARD
I MEANT,… (more calmly)… When I asked how the bodies “stood”, I was referring to your preparations for burial!
CREAPLY
Oh dear me! So sorry, guvna’. I’m all finished. All but the posies for their sachets.
SEWARD
Well, see to it, straightaway.
CREAPLY
Very good, Sir.
(Mrs. Creaply begins to exit just as Van Helsing enters.)
VAN HELSING
No need, Mrs. Creaply. I’ve taken the liberty of providing the posies myself. Doctor Seward’s staff will continue with the preparations presently. Go somewhere, lie down, and rest yourself.
CREAPLY
Very well, Professor.
(She exits. As soon as Van Helsing is sure he and the doctor are alone, he speaks to Seward in a conspiratorial voice.)
VAN HELSING
Tomorrow before night, I want you to bring me a post-mortem bone saw.
SEWARD
Must we perform an autopsy?
VAN HELSING
Yes, and no. I want to operate, but not as you think. Let me tell you now, bug not a word to another. I need to perform a type of procedure upon Miss Lucy’s body.
SEWARD
But why? The girl is dead. Why practice upon her without purpose? To do so is monstrous!
VAN HELSING
Friend Jack. There are things that you know not, but that you shall know and bless me for knowing, though they be most unpleasant. There are strange and terrible days before us. Let us not be two, but one, so that we can work to a good end. Will you not have faith in me?
(Van Helsing extends his hand. Seward takes it and returns a firm grip of solidarity.)
SEWARD
I give you my promise. Now, what do you propose?
VAN HELSING
A private matter that must be kept secret from the would-be bride-groom. If, however, Arthur should become wise, tell him that I will execute a relatively simple procedure. Assure him it is both respectful to her corpse and quite non-invasive.
SEWARD
And that is?
VAN HELSING
I want to chop off her head and cut out her heart.
(Music. In shock, Seward exits disgustedly. Van Helsing claps his hands together twice to summon Swales, Snelling, Hennessey, and Simmons. The three enter with hat boxes filled with garlic strands, wreathes, and single cloves. Van Helsing digs into his waistcoat and pulls out several pound notes. He pays each one of them off. He exits as the three completely and quickly festoon the parlor with garlic. They exit briskly.)
[END OF SCENE]
Scene 6
“It Is The Man Himself!”
[Garden Cemetery, Whitby]
(Pleasant music as Jonathan and Mina enter to stroll through the garden cemetery)
MINA
The day is so beautiful, yet so clouded with mourning. I simply can’t stop thinking of those I love, now lost.
HARKER
I had hoped our walks throughout Whitby would do us good. You know, get our minds off things. If only for a while.
MINA
It’s a sweet thought, my love.
HARKER
Sweet thoughts, yet little difference they make, I suppose.
(They sit together on a bench.)
MINA
Its only, there’s hardly a curative for the grief-stricken. What with the deaths of so many within our circle. Only time will heal wounds of the heart.
HARKER
Mina, remember when we were young? I mean younger. Our parents must’ve thought we were absolutely mad. For hardly a fortnight passed that we didn’t sneak into the gardens of the others’ homes and climb the trellises as in “Romeo and Juliet”.
MINA
Yes! I do remember! How joyous, our youth! Oh, Jonathan. Hold me by the arm. The way you used to in days of old, before I went to school.
(He does so.)
HARKER
How’s this, Love?
MINA
Much better.
HARKER
See if this is much better.
(Jonathan steals a quick kiss from Mina’s lips.)
MINA
OH! Jonathan! How cheeky! And I, a pedant of etiquette, manners, and decorum for young ladies. I shall be banished from her majesty’s kingdom of polite and civilized society. For some don’t even hold hands in public ’till after their third child.
HARKER
I don’t think anyone saw us.
MINA
You know something? I don’t care if they did. You are my husband, I am your wife.
(Mina now initiates a kiss. Jump scare chord. Dracula appears in one area of the garden. Jonathan sees him and he bolts upright off the bench. Dracula vanishes.)
HARKER
My God!
MINA
What is it, Jonathan?
HARKER
Look! Over there! Did you not see it?!
MINA
What?
(Dracula appears again, this time at a completely different area far way from the first. This appearing and reappearing at different locations can be done through the use of a double. The impression of course should be that the vampire is quickly transporting himself supernaturally from one place to the other.)
HARKER
There he is again!
(Dracula vanishes.)
HARKER
Look now! He’s gone!
MINA
What was it that disturbed you so?
HARKER
I gazed at a tall, thin man with a beaked nose and black moustache, pointed beard. His face was not a good face. It was hard, cruel, and sensual. His large white teeth looked all the whiter because his lips were blood-red. His teeth were pointed like that of a wolf. Can’t you understand who it was?
(Dracula appears somewhere else.)
HARKER
Do you see who it is?
(Dracula vanishes.)
MINA
No, Dear, I don’t see anyone. Who is it?
HARKER
It is the man himself!
MINA
Who? Tell me, who?!
(Dracula appears again.)
HARKER
He appears! He vanishes!
(Again he’s gone.)
MINA
Where?
HARKER
I just saw him over there. And then, then he reappeared there. And then here!