Mary's Story / by John Tarrant

Cast:

MARY BENNET
MRS BENNET, Mary's mother
ELIZABETH FRANKLIN
MRS SUMMERS, the headmistress
SUSAN FLETCHER
MISS TINSDALE
SAM BENNET, Mary's younger sister
ISOBEL BENNET, Mary's other younger sister
HELEN, Mary's child
VOICE 1
VOICE 2

The play is designed for four female actors, with the following doubling:
Actor 1: Mary Bennet
Actor 2: Mrs Bennet, Elizabeth Franklin
Actor 3: Mrs Summers, Susan Fletcher, Sam Bennet and Voice 1
Actor 4: Miss Tinsdale, Isobel Bennet, Voice 2 and Helen

The play is based on a fictional injustice which takes place in a girls' school in 1955. The school is small and not particularly prestigious. Mary, a quiet 15 year old, tries to defend a friend during a classroom fight and is then caned, along with the other two girls. Her mother tries to demand an apology for the injustice.

The play deals with the issue of punishment in schools and the impact of injustice. It is a stylised play using a mixture of physical theatre techniques, naturalism and multirole playing.

Staging is of the simplest.The set is simply four chairs which are used to denote several locations. Props, apart from the cane, are mimed. Costume should be neutral with the use of additions such as school ties, a pair of spectacles, etc.

The length of the play [ approx 25 minutes] and the cast size make this a good play for GCSE examination. With the multiple roles, all actors have plenty to do.

Sample Pages from the script

Extract 1

The cast are in position when the lights come up. Miss Tinsdale, a somewhat eccentric, elderly teacher, speaks directly to the audience. The three other actors are sitting in the classroom, frozen during her speech.

MISS TINSDALE
I was out of the room for about one minute. Not a second more. It's not as if they were unsupervised. They had plenty of work to be getting on with and I had made it perfectly clear that I expected them to continue with this, in silence, until I returned. I would never have believed it. I could hear them from half-way down the corridor. And when I came in, there they were, behaving like animals. In thirty years of teaching, I have never seen anything like it.

The girls come to life.

ELIZABETH
Mary, Mary, fat and hairy, how does your acne grow?

SUSAN
Ignore her, Mary.

ELIZABETH
I wasn't speaking to you. What are you - her guardian angel?

SUSAN
Leave her alone.

ELIZABETH
Why - what are you going to do? Flap your angel wings at me?

SUSAN
I'm not scared of you, Elizabeth.

ELIZABETH moving close to her
No?

SUSAN
No.

MARY
It's all right, Susan, just leave it.

ELIZABETH
Shut your big mouth, Mary Mary.

SUSAN pushes
Elizabeth on the shoulder I said leave her alone.

ELIZABETH shouts
Don't touch me, you cow!

They freeze as Elizabeth grabs hold of Susan.

MISS TINSDALE
I've never seen anything like it... not in the thirty years I've been teaching. Like animals they were.

The girls unfreeze and fight. A mixture of slow motion, freeze frames and real speed is needed to create a real impression of violence, and to underline Mary's role in the action, which is as peacemaker. She tries to protect her friend Susan and keeps getting between the antagonists. The action must conclude with a freeze frame which has Mary in the middle of the fight, looking as if she is fully involved in it.

MISS TINSDALE
And there, right in the middle of the screeching, screaming mass was Mary Bennet. Of all the girls in the class! Quiet little Mary.

Extract 2

[Pause.] How old are you, Mary?

MARY
Fifteen, Miss.

MRS SUMMERS
Fifteen. You are almost a young lady, Mary. Tell me, how should a young lady conduct herself?

Pause.

MARY
I don't know, Miss.

MRS SUMMERS
Well, I should say that were self-evident, Mary. A young lady should conduct herself with dignity and decorum. A young lady, Mary, should not descend into the savagery of fighting. Do I make myself clear?

MARY
Yes, Miss. But...

MRS SUMMERS
Do not interrupt. Is this the first time you have been caned, Mary?

MARY
Yes, Miss.

MRS SUMMERS
I trust it will be the first and the last, Mary.

MARY
Yes, Miss.

MRS SUMMERS
Hold out your hand.

MARY quiet, timidly
Please, Miss, it wasn't me. I was trying to stop the fight.

MRS SUMMERS turning her back on Mary and fetching her cane
I said hold out your hand, Mary. That will be six strokes for fighting and two further strokes for lying. The caning should look as brutal as possible. The other members of the cast could count the strokes, to emphasise them. With a real cane, Mrs Summers could bring it whistling down against, say, a cushion held up by another member of the cast, whilst the fourth member of the cast has her hand out giving the pained reactions to each stroke. Mary stands out front.

MARY
Where the cane struck, thin red wheals came up like lines of blood across my palm. The skin didn't break, but the pain was sharp. Sharp enough to force tears. Even this pain, however, was easier to bear than the smart of injustice. The Headmistress had not bothered to find out what really happened. The words I wanted to say to her stuck in my throat and lay heavy in my chest. Yes, I cried with the pain but I also cried at the thought of what would happen if my mother found out that I had been caned for fighting. If ever I was punished at school, I could expect a pained hurt and disappointment from my mother when I got home, which I dreaded worse. She never hit us, but she was always very strict. She had tried hard to bring us up as nice girls, girls that kept out of trouble. I was the eldest of three.

Extract 3

Mrs Bennet and Mary mime and freeze-frame to the following narration.

VOICE 1
Her mother took Mary into the kitchen and they stood in front of the large stone sink.

VOICE 2
Mary couldn't look at her mother. Fear and humiliation kept her eyes down.

VOICE 1
Her mother was calm. With one hand she took Mary's wounded hand. She placed her other hand under Mary's chin and slowly but firrmly turned her head so they looked each other straight in the eye.

MRS BENNET
Tell me what happened.

VOICE 2
Mary told her the truth. As she spoke, she didn't blink, but hot, round tears traced their way down her cheeks. Her mother studied her closely.

VOICE 1
When she had finished, Mary's mother looked at her without a change in her expression. Then she said ...

MRS BENNET
I believe you, Mary. You are not given to lying. You should not have been treated in this way. I will be going into your school tomorrow.

MARY
Please don't. Please - I don't want you to do that.

MRS BENNET taking hold of Mary's shoulder firmly and looking her straight in the face
Is what you have told me true?

MARY
Yes.

MRS BENNET
All of it?

MARY
Yes.

MRS BENNET
Have you left out anything which I should know?

MARY
No.

MRS BENNET
Mary, are you lying to me?

MARY
No!

MRS BENNET
Are you absolutely sure?

MARY
Yes, I'm sure.

MRS BENNET moving away
You have not tried to blame anyone in your account. You have stuck to facts. Nonetheless, I can see that you have been wrongfully punished and I will see that you get an apology.

MARY
You can't.

MRS BENNET suddenly extremely angry
Yes, I can. And I will. I have never struck you, or your sisters, Mary, in all the years I have brought you up - and believe me, there have been plenty of times when I wanted to. I will not stand for someone else beating my children. It is wrong, Mary. Wrong. [Calmer.] You have no idea how difficult it has been.

Freeze. The action goes into flashback. Mary, Saar and Isobel are playing. Mary is reading whilst the other two play with farm animals.

ISOBEL
The horses have escaped from the field. Whee-heee. [An attempt at a whinny.] Now they're galloping down the farmer's path.

SAM
Stop it, Isobel. You've knocked over the chickens.

SOBEL
Boring old chickens.

SAM
It's the chickens' feeding time. It's not fair. I'll have to arrange it all again now.

She starts to set things up again. Isobel moves the horses around in a wilder and wilder fashion, finally getting up and kicking over the farm animals. Sam bursts into tears.

SAM wailing
Maa-aary!

MARY emerging from her book
What is it? oh, Isobel, look what you've done.

Isobel is now galloping around the area being a horse, with much tossing of head and pawing of the ground.

ISOBEL
The wild stallion breaks down the fences and lets his friends out. They're free! Free -ee-ee!

MARY
Watch out. That's Mummy's precious vase. [As Isobel lurches to avoid the vase she lifts her hands up making it clear she is grabbing hold of something to steady herself - it is the curtains.] Isobel! [Isobel drops to the floor.] The curtains! You've pulled down one of the curtains!

Isobel sits up and slowly picks herself up, looking soberly and anxiously at the mess she has created. Sam is struck dumb. Mrs Bennet enters the scene and looks about her.

MRS BENNET
What is this? Can't you be quiet for one second? Can't you behave yourselves and think of me for a change? Mary. I'm surprised that you can't take more responsibility for your sisters. I left you in charge.

MARY
Sorry, Mummy.

MRS BENNET
Who caused this mess? [All three girls hang their heads. Mrs Bennet has moved over and is picking up the curtain, regarding it sadly - and then with anger as she notices a rip.] It's torn! Look, it's torn. We're going to need new curtains! How could you, girls? How could you? [She comes back to the present.] You'll never know how close I got to hitting you then - all three of you.

 

Sample Pages from Production Notes

INTRODUCTION: THEMES, THE PLAY’S INTENTIONS

As stated by the author at the beginning, the main intention of the play is to create a forum for a ‘discussion’ of corporal punishment and of bullying in schools, something which the playwright feels very strongly about, as witness one of his other plays: Bully For You. In order to make this a fuller discussion of the subject, and an exposure of the indignity of such practices, the play is set in 1955, when caning was still common practice. The period of the play accounts for the slightly more formal language of the characters, and the bigger generation gap, particularly noticeable between Mary’s mother and her children.

Injustice in a school environment is what is focused upon, brought up-to-date in the last little scene where Mary is herself a mother listening to a school injustice from her own daughter. Once again a teacher does not bother to get to the bottom of the story and once again the bully, who a timid member of staff is afraid of, rules the day. Though there is no caning any more, the message is that there are still injustices.

 

CHARACTERS

MISS TINSDALE - a rather eccentric ‘batty’ elderly teacher. Her repetition of phrases like ‘behaving like animals’, showing her secret glee in dwelling on the shockingness of the incident, should be emphasised and made comical. Flapping, rather vague gestures, a high, breathless way of speaking - a tendency to gasp, flutter and squeak, all would help to bring this caricature out.

ELIZABETH - 15 years old. A typical bully

SUSAN - 15 years old. Quietly strong. Able to stand up for herself. A ‘good’ character, who cannot stand bullying and protects the underdog.

MARY -15 years old. Quiet, but not a wimp. Her quietness should be seen as a deliberate bid at keeping a low profile rather than ‘wetness.’ We must have sympathy for her, so ought to see that she is a quiet sensible girl with no histrionics in her nature. When she tells a story, through her monologues, it is done matter-of-factly, with no attempt to make it sound over-dramatic. Her sincerity will thus shine through the words.

MRS SUMMERS - the headmistress. An old-school head, strict and formal. Though she is probably fair, by her own standards, she is too set in her opinions to listen or to change her mind. Shocked by the violence in her nice girls’ school, she has already made up her mind as to the punishment and does not listen to mitigating circumstances. She is unbending. Any attempts to make her change her mind she will see as attempts to erode her dignity and authority, so all such attempts bring out even more obstinate resistance in her. She should stand very straight, with sharp staccato movements and a clipped way of speaking.

MRS BENNET - Mary’s mother and also mother to Samantha and Isobel, Mary’s younger sisters. She has brought the children up alone, as a widow. She is stricter than a modern mother would be, expecting polite good manners and a quiet demeanour from all her children. As the eldest, she expects Mary to give a good example and to help her. She is not close, as many modern mums would be, to her daughter. Mary will not find it natural to confide in her - but the need to in the end brings them closer together and creates a new understanding and an affection between mother and eldest daughter. There is steel and gentleness too in her character.

SAM AND ISOBEL - Mary’s two younger sisters. Normal young girls. Plays as about 6 and 8 years old.

HELEN - Mary’s daughter, around 15 years old

 

SETTING

Should be played on a bare stage. I think I would have it played against black curtains, but with a wide swathe of coloured cloth attached by velcrose to the blacks - perhaps red, since that underlines the violence of the punishment. This then gets pulled down by Isobel towards the end of the play. Otherwise, only four chairs are needed but, since this is set in 1955 mainly, these chairs must be wooden, not school plastic ones.

 

LIGHTS

The intention of the author is that there should be no special lighting effects. All should be done under stark light covering the whole stage. Of course it is up to you. You could make it as complicated as you like, but I feel the author is right. Making a complex lighting plot, though possible [to differentiate areas and changes of scene], would break up the flow of the piece.

 

SOUND

There are no sound cues.

 

PROPS

PAGE 5 - Mrs Summers - real cane

Hard cushion for another member of the cast [the cane landing on the cushion gives the right kind of sound]